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The aim of being prepared to allocate funds for Bitcoin investment is so that every investor can be comfortable enough in investing and not be like someone who is pressed for time because they have to keep thinking about their lack of capital. Apart from that, any ideas that each investor will use are also aimed at gaining profits that previously might not have been possible with just a small amount of capital. So this really needs to be understood very well for smooth investment and also for smooth accumulation of more Bitcoin when the price decline starts to occur.
Each investor has different budget sources, some only have a small amount, others have a large budget. It doesn't matter where the budget comes from, investment strategy must certainly be their priority. DCA allows you to have a budget to buy when prices correct, it will increase your investment portfolio instead of a lump sum.
The budget will of course affect how much return you will get when prices rise high, while the strategy will allow you to get a better return even if you have a low budget. Besides, not everyone has a stable budget, so there's no need to force yourself to be consistent as long as you can buy at another time.
But if you are not consistent in you DCA method you not making good use of the strategy and you won't see much impact in your holding. One thing that makes the DCA method interesting is your ability to consistently do it within the specified period you have set for yourself. When you are not consistent in buying either weekly or monthly it like it's not DCA method you are following. It has now turned to lump sum or other methods and when you are not effectively following the DCA method, you don't expect to get the benefits that comes with the method. No matter how small the budget is DCA method, consistency is what matters, before you know it you have accumulated enough.
just so we don't sound like robots and mere perfect people, The DCA method is obviously good and being consistent with your strategy will get you to your goal within the fastest possible time but let's not forget the reality that as human, there might be weeks or month issues can come up and maybe you might miss out on your accumulation routine for the month. As long as it's an unavoidable situation, you've got to be realistic enough and fix your issues and continue with your accumulation routine. The DCA strategy is not to enslave you to your investment and close you out of life reality. You've got to strike a balance between your investment and your real life issues.
Also, the assumption that the DCA methord is the best isn't all that correct. The decision to buy using the DCA methord or to do lump sum starch is totally based on your financial strength. as long as the methord you're using is working well for you and will help you meet your goal within the shortest possible time, that's the best strategy for you but that's not to suggest that it's better than buying in lump or that its more profitable than bulk buying. Buying in bulk during the bearish season could put you in a better profit and would normally save you from whatever issue that might spring up with time by using the DCA methord.
Just stick to what works best for you based on your financial prowess.
I agree with everything you said Winterfrost, and so it can be difficult to suggest that someone is doing it wrong because he employs some slightly different method of accumulating BTC, and so within the three methods of DCA, lump sum investing and buying on dips, they each have their place, yet they are also coupled by various uncertainties. A person who has no savings and no other investments would not be in a position to lump sum invest.. so that guy would ONLY be able to DCA and/or buy on dips. There is also nothing wrong with attempting to strategies your buys, which might also include waiting, but waiting does not make as much sense for someone who does not already have some BTC, so then we get into situations in which the amount of BTC that a guy has already accumulated and at what prices could also affect if he is in a position to wait or if he should just be buying regularly.
I am not opposed to your idea of a guy skipping DCA because he has to roll with his life circumstances, yet if someone plans ahead and he gets his shit in order, then he would also be in a position to prioritize his DCA so that his life circumstances would not cause him to stop his DCA.. now that is assuming that DCA is a good thing for him to do based on his own stack size and his building of his stack size. Some of the better ways to make sure that you don't miss DCA (if that is a priority for you) is to make sure that your emergency fund and your reserves are in a good position, and you also have good systems in place in terms of managing your cash float... and yeah, sure life circumstances could get so unexpectedly bad that a DCA would have to be stopped, but it would not necessarily be the first thing that is stopped, so there might need to be a exhaustion of other funds prior to discontinuing the DCA (depending on if the DCA is a priority for that particular person).. ..
Again, with all of this that I am outlining, just like you seem to suggest Winterfrost, each person is in charge of his own circumstances, priorities and figuring out how many funds that he has available and whether he is in a position to employ certain strategies that he authorizes himself to do and can discontinue or change those circumstances at any time, including that he can tell himself that no matter what, every week he is going to buy $10 of BTC and he could structure the other parts of his life around that so that no matter what he buys $10 of BTC, even if he might be having other negative financial issues that he is having to deal with.
By the way, don't get me wrong, even though I suggest DCA as the best default system to get started in BTC investing, I also consider that it is not the best for anyone who is able to put together some combination of other systems that also might include DCA as a supplement or as a kind of hybrid DCA, so in that regard, I appreciate any front load lump summing and even front load DCAing, that also includes attempts to buy on dips during the weekly DCA, especially in the earliest stages of building a BTC portfolio, but surely if someone is brand new to investing and/or BTC, they likely are not even able to do any of those other fancy strategies, so they are likely going to be in a way better position to strictly DCA an amount of money that is reasonably doable for them, and it likely would not even be beneficial to for them to be spending time on various other strategies if they might barely be able to just get some kind of system set up to buy BTC regularly and then they have a lot of other things going on in their lives, since maybe the brand new investor might need to try to figure out ways to increase his disposable income so that he is able to invest more into BTC, and yeah if someone is in college (or some low income earning situation) they might not even have much income, so they might have difficulties increasing their disposable income until they finish their college and/or vocational training... DCA might still work for a person like that, if they don't have much income, they just would be setting a small portion aside while they are doing their studies.
Everything that you said is correct @JJG. If an investor has decided that no matter the ugly situation that plays out during his early stage of accumulation, that he will steadily carry out his DCA purchase weekly, it is possible that he will not skip any week. It all depends on how the investor takes that plan serious and his determination to make it work out. I could remember when I just started my bitcoin journey from here, I said I will always make sure my weekly DCA is not skipped for any reason. I have an account where my emergency funds is, and I don't have much idea on reserve funds, but I can always get funds from one or two places, should incase I want to entertain myself or just go on a vacation without touching my emergency funds.
Unlucky for me one day my emergency funds account got hacked, and all my funds was stolen. Although it was all my fault due to a mistake that I made which made my that account vulnerable to the hackers. I was not happy, but I continued DCAing weekly as usual, and I was building an emergency funds all over again praying for an emergency not to occur that will affect me financially. A neighbor of mine died, and he does not have a family that any of us know about, and he needs to be buried. Nobody was able to come up with a reasonable amount of money, and this person was somehow social with people. So I had to take care of major responsibility after when I saw that, nobody is serious on how to raise funds. I don't also have any funds on me, and I had to seek for funds from a good friend of mine in my working place, and I was able to take care of the deceased bills and he was buried. All these didn't make me skip my DCA because I had to use the front load strategy for one month before I got paid
The point is that when you have determined to use DCA to grow your bitcoin investment portfolio persistently and constantly, you will always what to think of how to have different ways to raise funds, so that no matter what circumstances that play out along the line, you will be able to handle it without skipping any week, because you know that skipping a week means you have extended the time that you would use to reach your bitcoin target. One annoying thing about when you miss a week is that bitcoin price might be cheap at that time that you missed.
However, if a beginner was unable to handle the situation on ground due to his low financial strength at that moment, he can skip a week, and when he is buoyant enough later, he can buy back that week that he skipped. What I mean is that if for instance the investor had a challenge that made him skip week 6, and on week 10, he had extra money that he can use to buy twice his weekly size, he should buy to replace the midst week. This is because our income sometimes varies from month to month.
