When (WIN?) to buy
The questions repeated often in this thread is "win should I buy"? We're talking about people that want to try to pay .50 or 1.00 per share lower than current prices. OR maybe wait for that big 10% drop in the overall market. When you add in the fact that the purchase might be for 50 or 100 shares or less… and you do the math… we're not talking about a huge savings IF they get lucky waiting for the right time to get in. If during their wait, they miss a dividend payment - of .35 a share… we're talking about even less of a "score" by waiting for the best price.
Let's take this week… the market was dripping it's way down… so if a guy was waiting to buy he watches that and thinks -- ah ha! I'm brilliant! Then BOOM Friday we go up 200 points! Now they're all in a panic having "missed" the chance. Don't be that guy.
Steady wins this race… and it's not about the dollar or even two dollars per share price you're going to "make" buying low. That difference pales in comparison to the compounding over time. You're not going to be able to retire next week because you scammed the market for a buck a share this week. Put your money to work whenever you have the amount saved that you want to invest. Over TIME this will average your cost. 20 years from now you'll look back and what you'll see is a brilliant investor that just booked his trip to Hawaii… and paid for it with this months dividend checks. You'll never see the buck you saved by waiting to get in the market.
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