Dollar-Cost Averaging – The Mediterranean Diet of Investing
Picture it. Sunday afternoon. You’ve received a very healthy Instacart haul and start pulling out your containers to meal-prep 27 containers of kale and quinoa to post to your IG. Fast forward to Thursday, you’re elbows-deep (not up, deep) in nachos and prosecco beer or whatever your kryptonite is. Congratulations! You’ve experienced the exact same problem that most people have with investing: we wait for the “perfect moment” to start.
Much like dieting, that perfect moment never arrives.
This is why Dollar-Cost Averaging (DCA) is the financial version of “Just eat a little healthier every day instead of starting extreme-clean-eating-bootcamp after a food bender.”
There are two types of people when it comes to diets…and investing:
- The All-or-Nothing “I’m Detoxing Forever” Person
This is the investor who says: “I’m going to wait for the PERFECT time…and then I’ll invest EVERYTHING at once.”
This is the same person who:
- Meal-preps 27 containers of quinoa and kale on Sunday
- Posts it on Instagram
- Feels like a hero
- And by Tuesday, is eating fries in their car like it’s a hostage situation
They burn out fast, because perfection is not sustainable — in food or finance.
- The Boring, Consistent “I Take Walks and Drink Water” Person
This is Dollar-Cost Averaging. They invest automatically every month; no drama, no perfectionism.
Financial equivalent of:
- Eating balanced meals most days
- 8,000 steps
- Not finishing the family-sized bag of chips “just to get it out of the house”
Nothing extreme. Nothing glamorous. But guess who’s healthier and wealthier in five years?
Yup — the consistent one.
Dollar-Cost Averaging works better than a three-day juice cleanse because it removes the two biggest saboteurs – impulse and emotion. The dieting mindset of “I had a stressful day; I deserve cake” is the investing equivalent of: “Markets dipped. I should sell before it gets worse.” Dollar-Cost Averaging locks the kitchen and takes away your Uber Eats login – metaphorically. It ensures you invest even when you don’t feel like it, which is usually when it matters most.
Markets go up and down, like your weight during the holidays. Some months, your investments are “expensive,” so you buy fewer units. Some months, they’re “on sale,” so you get more.
Just like:
- Sometimes strawberries are $7.99 and you buy one container resentfully
- Sometimes they’re $2.99 and you buy six and pretend you’ll make smoothies
Over time, the average price evens out. Consistency beats intensity.
But what if I just wait for the market to drop?” Sure — and what if you only ate when you were “in the mood for vegetables?” We’d all be nutritional disasters.
Trying to invest only when markets drop means you’ll:
- Overthink
- Second-guess
- Probably miss the best days
- End up stress-eating pizza at 11 p.m. anyway
No one has the emotional discipline for that — including professionals. And remember: you’re not monitoring markets 24/7…and neither am I. We are not Wall Street wolves. We are humans who can’t find our phone when we are talking to our sister on the way out the door to work.
Dollar-Cost Averaging = The Mediterranean Diet of Investing. Balanced. Sustainable. Boring in a deeply effective way. No gimmicks, no panic, no “Should I sell everything and move to cash?” chaos. Just steady progress that works even if you forget it’s happening.
If dieting has taught us anything, it’s this: the small habits you stick to beat the extreme plans you abandon. Dollar-Cost Averaging turns investing into a habit — not a heroic, once-in-a-while stunt. Start with a number. Automate it. Ignore the noise. Let time do the heavy-lifting — the same way consistency shapes your body more than a one-week cleanse ever will. Your future self — fit, wealthy, hydrated, and unbothered — will thank you. To a good financial future!
