The Ideal Investment Technique for Small Investors

Alexander Green|June 4, 2025

A Note From Amanda: Are we on the edge of one of the biggest “Tech Booms” in history?

If you feel concerned about where stocks are headed… the global “tariff war”… or the fear-mongering news – then please pay close attention.

Our good friend Alexander Green (the investing legend who bought Apple at $1, Netflix at $1.62, and Nvidia at $1.10) is now warning…

Starting on June 17, a rare economic event will begin to unfold – sparking what could be the biggest “Tech Boom” in decades…

We’ll see a rare market event – that each time, without fail – has helped create a NEW class of millionaires…

But the window to prepare is closing fast. Details here.

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In his excellent book Atomic Habits, author James Clear points out that most of your outcomes in life are a lagging indicator of your habits.

Your knowledge is the sum of your reading and learning habits. Your health and fitness are the sum of your eating and exercise habits. Your net worth is the sum of your saving and investing habits.

You’ve probably realized this even if you never articulated it.

But here’s where things get interesting… Clear points out that getting the results you want – financial or otherwise – is not about setting the right goals. It’s about following the right systems.

Tiny changes can lead to dramatic results in your life.

That’s why Clear calls them atomic habits. Atomic means both extremely small… and very powerful.

Let me give you an example from my own experience.

Learning From Experience

As a young man, I hired an accountant each year to prepare my federal tax form.

It’s not that my finances were complicated – far from it – but I am form-a-phobic. I hate filling out the annual 1040 and still believe the IRS makes things needlessly complicated.

When my accountant did the calculations and told me how much extra I owed each year, it irked me.

She’d ask why I didn’t save some taxes – and plan for retirement – by making an IRA contribution of $2,000. That was the maximum back in those days. (I had no employer sponsored plan.)

“Why? That’s easy,” I said. “I don’t have $2,000.”

She shrugged and said she had no other suggestions to offer.

However, I did some research and discovered that there was a fund family called 20th Century – now American Century – that would allow investors to open an IRA account with no minimum investment.

(No minimums are common now but were virtually non-existent 40 years ago.)

I did a quick calculation and found that $2,000 divided by 12 months is $166.66 a month.

So I sent 20th Century a check for that amount and signed up to have them automatically draft my bank account for another $166.66 each month.

Stick to the Plan

This is a widely known investment technique called “dollar cost averaging” or DCA and – while I’d never heard the term back then – it has several advantages.

By investing a fixed amount at regular intervals, it smooths out the effect of market fluctuations.

When prices are high, you buy fewer shares, when prices are low, you buy more. Over time, this will lower your average cost per share.

DCA eliminates market timing, which can’t be done successfully, and reduces emotional decision-making, such as overconfidence during stock market rallies and panic selling during downturns.

The habit of making regular contributions instills discipline and helps investors stick to their investment plans.

And automating your investments ensures that funds are consistently allocated toward building wealth rather than being spent elsewhere.

History shows that stocks rise over the long haul. Spreading out investments over time ensures consistent participation in the market, allowing investors to benefit from long-term growth.

Dollar cost averaging is an ideal investment technique for small investors, most of whom don’t have a lump sum to invest anyway.

Over time, I began dollar cost averaging with other funds – and with greater sums – and watched as my account values grew from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

I let the bank drafts continue in both good times and bad – including after the stock market crash of 1987 – always reminding myself when the market was down that I was buying more shares with the same amount of money.

Here’s the surprising part. I made one initial decision – to open an account and invest what amounted to little more than the monthly beer money – and then watched my net worth rise as the years went by.

A Single Decision

Please note I didn’t do anything absolutely brilliant. Nor did I do anything terribly brave.

I just made a single decision to have my bank account debited monthly and then just let it happen automatically.

James Clear would recognize why I succeeded. I let a habit become my system, one that required zero effort on my part.

As my net worth grew along with my investment sophistication, I eventually went from mutual funds (which were hitting me with big annual tax bills outside my IRA) to individual stocks.

Bottom line? I adhered to proven habits. I worked. I lived beneath my means. I saved regularly. I invested wisely. And I resisted the temptation to spend the money as it grew in value.

Dollar cost averaging isn’t rocket science.

And it’s a great way for new investors – especially your kids and grandkids – to get started.

Note: If you’re looking for a quicker way to get started, tune into my 2025 Millionaire-Maker Summit here.