Auto-Invest: Stay on Track, Even When Markets Go Wild

What’s a long-term investor supposed to do when the markets go haywire?

There’s no need to consult a crystal ball. Auto-Invest is one way to hold steady during market storms.

What’s Auto-Invest all about?

Auto-Invest is a great tool, no matter your risk level.

It lets you invest consistently over time, regardless of the temporary ups and downs of the market. You won’t have to worry about picking the right time to invest.

If your risk level is Aggressive, you can consider Auto-Invest to your holdings of single stocks and/or equity ETFs.

If you’re more Moderate or Conservative (or just nervous about ongoing stock market losses and already have a lot of stocks in your portfolio), you can lower your risk by simply adding more of your risk-appropriate Mix to your portfolio, and by investing in bonds.

The power of diversification

One of the reasons investment experts recommend putting money into both stocks and bonds is that they don’t always correlate with each other. In other words, when stocks go down, bond prices can often go up (and vice-versa).

You can’t time the market

With Auto-Invest you don’t need to worry about timing the market. It allows you to invest on a schedule, letting you purchase your investments at a higher price (when markets are up), and some at a bargain (when markets are down).

That way, the average price is likely to be somewhere in the middle.

Making small deposits to your diversified portfolio on a regular basis is one of the keys to smart investing. This strategy can help you manage the highs and lows of the market to your best advantage.

History can be a lesson

A lot has happened since 2000. We’ve seen the stock market collapse twice, once during the bursting of the dot-com bubble, and more recently during the Great Recession. But staying the course—by which we mean buying and holding a diversified mix of stocks, bonds, and funds—has proven to be the way to go as markets have always recovered.

Note: From 2000 through the end of 2017, stocks returned 6.26% on average per year.

Stay calm and keep Stashing

Don’t think about the daily, weekly, or even monthly volatility.

We have a saying at Stash. It’s all about “time in the market, not trying to time the market.”  Stay strong. Stay the course. Stay diversified with bonds. Keep learning every day.

We’re in this with you.