I Stopped Waiting for the Perfect Moment to Invest (You Should Too)

Forget Timing the Market — Consistency is How I Actually Built Wealth

Everyone's looking for the secret. When's the right time to buy? When should I sell? What if I invest today and the market crashes tomorrow?

I'm Sergio Avedian, and here's what I've learned after years in this game: there is no right time. The perfect moment you're waiting for? It doesn't exist.

The real secret to building wealth isn't about when you start — it's about never stopping.

The Timing Trap That Keeps People Broke

Most people spend years on the sidelines, convinced they need to wait for the perfect entry point. They're paralyzed, watching:

• "The market's too high right now, I'll wait for a dip."

• Market dips → "It might go lower, I should wait."

• Market recovers → "Damn, I missed it. I'll wait for the next crash."

Meanwhile, they've been "waiting" for 5 years while their money loses value to inflation.

I fell into this trap early on. I thought investing was about being clever — buying low, selling high, outsmarting everyone else. But the investors I saw actually building wealth? They weren't trying to outsmart anyone. They were just showing up. Every single month. No matter what.

That's when I discovered Dollar Cost Averaging, and it completely changed my relationship with investing.

What Dollar Cost Averaging Really Is

Dollar Cost Averaging (DCA) is the opposite of timing the market. It's investing a fixed amount at regular intervals — monthly, bi-weekly, whatever matches your paycheck — regardless of market conditions.

Here's how I do it: $500 goes into a broad index fund every month. Automatically.

• Market's up? I buy fewer shares. Fine by me.

• Market's down? I buy more shares. Even better.

• Market's sideways? I buy the same amount. Still winning.

The price doesn't matter because I'm not trying to time anything. I'm just being consistent. And that consistency compounds in ways that timing the market never could.

Why Consistency Beats Timing Every Single Time

Let me be blunt: you can't predict the market. Neither can I. Neither can the experts on CNBC. If they could, they'd be on a yacht somewhere, not giving free advice on TV.

But here's what I can control: showing up consistently.

When you invest the same amount regularly, something powerful happens:

• You automatically buy more shares when prices are low (when everyone else is scared)

• You naturally buy fewer shares when prices are high (when everyone else is greedy)

• You remove emotion from the equation entirely

The market's going to do whatever it wants. Economic cycles will boom and bust. But my investments? They just keep compounding, month after month, year after year.

The Math That Changed My Life

This is where consistency becomes real wealth. Let's say I invest $200 every single month into a diversified index fund averaging 7% annual returns:

• After 10 years: roughly $34,000

• After 20 years: about $104,000

• After 30 years: over $244,000

That's not from picking the perfect stocks or timing market crashes. That's from doing the same boring thing 360 times over 30 years. No genius required. Just discipline.

The people trying to time the market? Most of them are still arguing on Reddit about whether now is a good time to invest.

How I Built the Consistency Habit

The only way consistency works is if you make it automatic. Here's my exact system:

Automate Everything — My $500 goes out every month automatically. I don't think about it, decide on it, or second-guess it. It just happens.

Choose Simple Investments — I use broad index funds like the S&P 500. No stock picking, no trying to find "the next big thing." Just steady, diversified growth.

Never Stop During Downturns — This is the most important part. When markets crash and everyone's panicking, my automatic investment keeps going. That's when I'm buying shares on sale.

Ignore the Noise — I don't check my portfolio daily. I don't react to headlines. I review once a year, adjust if needed, then go back to living my life.

Start Small, Just Start — I didn't begin with $500/month. I started with whatever I could afford. The amount matters less than the habit.

Consistency isn't glamorous. There's no viral moment where you 10x your portfolio overnight. But in 10 years, you'll have something real while everyone else is still waiting for their perfect moment.

The Mindset Shift That Changes Everything

Once I embraced consistency over timing, investing stopped being stressful. I'm not constantly wondering if I should buy or sell. I'm not losing sleep over market volatility. I'm not checking my phone every hour.

I'm just an investor building wealth systematically, and that peace of mind is worth more than any "perfectly timed" trade.

DCA turns investing from a high-stakes guessing game into a simple habit. Like brushing your teeth. You don't debate whether today's the right day to brush your teeth — you just do it.

Here's What I Want You to Remember

Markets will crash. They'll also recover and reach new highs. Economic news will be scary one month and optimistic the next. None of that matters to your long-term wealth.

What matters is this: Are you consistently investing, month after month, regardless of what's happening around you?

That's it. That's the whole game.

Stop waiting for the perfect time to buy. Stop trying to predict when to sell. Start investing consistently, and let time do what time does best — compound your returns while everyone else is still overthinking.

There is no perfect moment. There's only consistency.

Start today. Start small if you need to. Just start — and then never stop.