How do you determine and invest new contributions?

Investing / Portfolios
1

Inspired by another thread I wonder:
How do you plan your investments of continuous savings contributions? How do you determine how much and when to invest (Automation? manually on specific days? Market timing?)? Maybe state what you invest in.

I’ll answer :wink:

My approach has evolved over the years into this. I’m a passive investor.

How much?
I do an estimation of expected savings at the end of each year, then determine how much to invest each month by dividing overall expected savings by 12. I then implement this in automatic investments.
At the end of the year, I look at my asset allocation and rebalance if necessary.

When?
Automated investments on fixed dates 1x per month. I never play around with them so no market timing.

2

Get the salary, pay the bills, leave the predefined amount of cash in the checking account, invest the rest. If the amount is too small to bother, just keep it there.

4 Likes
3

the classic time in the market beats timing the market always applies.

As soon as you get the money and dont need it elsewhere → invest

I have set my automatic deposit to ibkr one day after my salary (one day as safety margin for various reasons)

The amount is definied with doing my budget and deducting any expenses etc.

After a few months, if some extra cash accumulates (for example if I didnt spend all my “free time money”), that also gets invested then.

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4

I transfer CHF 2400 to a savings account so I can pay taxes, 3a and yearly health insurance bills the moment I get them, and the rest gets invested.

I’m quite new to this, so I haven’t found a rhythm yet. When the zero transaction fee deal from neon runs out I’ll probably transfer my ETFs to Swissquote invest quarterly to save on transaction costs.

5

I buy VT 4 times a year. End of March, June, September and December, after the dividends and salary.

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6

Same as @Tony1337

No automatic investment like @Moustachienne but logging into my account typically few days after the automatic transfer and pick the one ETF that’s lowest vs. my regional allocation based on a simple spreadsheet.

Same for one-time transfer.

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7

Four simple steps:

  1. Max out pillar 3a on VIAC at the beginning of the year.
  2. Check on a monthly basis if ETF portfolio < 45% of total net worth.
  3. If step 2 = YES, transfer 75% of free cash flow to IBKR.
  4. Invest accumulated cash and dividends once at the beginning of each quarter (like @fittim).
8

I just invest everything as soon as the money comes in. Due to holding individual stocks, property, etc. I’m investing pretty much every week.

If there’s nothing I’m particularly wanting to buy, it goes into a T-Bill ETF.

1 Like
11

I have a multi -tiered approach:

for 3a, I pre-calculate the monthly contributions such that for all my 5 accounts, a perfectly simple recurring payment (Dauerauftrag) covers this all year round. “fire & forget”

for non-3a: at the same day every month, I transfer everything from my checkings account that is above the cash cushion plus an average monthly expense. buy shares as soon as i get the deposit notifications from the broker (in case no miniscule amounts)

pros:

  • lets me invest the perfect amount each month
  • keeps my checkings perfectly balanced

cons

  • more manual effort that a simple recurring payment (Dauerauftrag)
  • does not reflect small other liquid cash such as neon, revolut, physical cash (however actually it would be simple to include this on a fairly automated way