The Perfect Time to Invest Is Never. (And Also Everytime.)

The Perfect Time to Invest Is Never. (And Also Everytime.)

A simple way to stop guessing and start building wealth.

Invest With Mira

Mar 27, 2026

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Right. You found a great company. Ran it through the checklist from The Hiring Decision. The business makes sense. The financials are solid. The company passed with flying colours.

It’s time to click ‘Buy’.

But then your thumb hovers over the button. The chart is pointing up. It looks expensive. You think: let me wait for a dip.

So you wait. It goes higher. Now you really don’t want to buy because you missed the low. Three months later, the stock is up 20% and you still own nothing.

Welcome to the Perfect Time Trap. 😬

Nobody Can Time the Market. ⏱️

Trying to "time the market" is like sitting in your car in Ikeja, refusing to start the engine until every single traffic light between there and Lekki turns green at the exact same time.

You will never leave Ikeja.

Nobody can consistently predict the absolute top or absolute bottom of the market. Not Warren Buffett. Not even the analysts with PhD in mathematics or the fund managers charging 2% per year.

There is a popular saying in finance: Time in the market beats timing the market. You don’t need to be early. You don’t even need to be right all the time. You just need to get in the car, and start driving.

The Lazy Cheat Code: Dollar-Cost Averaging. 🛌

If you cannot predict the market, how do you invest safely?

You use a strategy called Dollar-Cost Averaging (DCA).

It is the simplest, most practical, and most effective investment strategy ever created.

The idea is to invest a fixed amount of money at regular intervals, regardless of the price.

Same amount. Same time. Every month (or week, or quarter). Rain or Shine.

Here is how it works: You choose a fixed amount of money, say ₦10,000 to commit to investing that exact amount into a chosen stock or ETF on the first Saturday of every month. And then you do it.

You do not look at the news. You do not check if the NGX is at an all-time high. You do not care if the US market is crashing. Whether the chart is red or green, you buy your ₦10,000 worth of shares. Every month.

Why This Is Actual Magic (The Math). 🪄🧮

As simple as DCA sounds, the math behind it is actually brilliant. Because you are investing a fixed cash amount, the market automatically does the heavy lifting for you.

Imagine you commit to investing ₦10,000 every month into a stock or ETF.

Month 1: The market is normal.

Price: ₦1,000 per share.

Your ₦10,000 buys you 10 shares.

Month 2: The market crashes.

Panic everywhere. Price drops to ₦500 per share. If you were trying to time the market, you would be all tears. But you are using DCA. You blindly invest your ₦10,000.

Because the price is cheaper, your ₦10,000 automatically buys you 20 shares. You just “bought the dip” without even trying.

Month 3: The market booms.

Price skyrockets to ₦2,000 per share. Everyone is celebrating. You invest your usual ₦10,000.

Because the price is expensive, your money only buys 5 shares.

Here is what just happened:

Without you stressing, overthinking, or checking the news, the math forced you to buy more shares when they were cheap, and fewer shares when they were expensive.

DCA completely removes human emotion from the equation. Your average cost per share balances out perfectly over time

With ₦10,000 DCA for 3 months,

In Month 1, with share price at ₦1,000, we bought 10 shares

In Month 2, with share price at ₦500, we bagged 20 shares.

In Month 3, share price ₦2,000, we had just 5 shares.

At the end of 3 months, out total number of shares becomes 35.

Average cost per share? About ₦857. Lower than the average price over those three months (₦1,167). You win without doing anything.

What DCA Actually Works For. 🔍📋

As advantageous as it is, we can’t use DCA for everything.

STOCKS? YES!

You can absolutely buy ₦5,000 of MTN, Apple or any other properly vetted stock.

ETFs and Mutual Funds? YES!

This is where DCA shines the brightest. Buying a fixed amount of an S&P 500 ETF or a Nigerian Index fund every month is how passive wealth is quietly built. You’re buying a whole basket of companies on autopilot.

Direct Bonds and Treasury Bills? NAHHH.

Direct fixed-income investments do not work this way. They have specific auction dates, maturity periods, and high minimum buy-ins. You buy those when you have a lump sum of cash. You do not DCA into them.

One Exception: The Lump Sum. 💰

DCA is the perfect strategy for people investing regularly from their monthly income or allowance.

But if you have a lump sum sitting in your account (a work bonus, sold a gadget, or received a huge gift), buying all at once is completely fine.

How Long Should You Keep Buying the Same Stock? 🤔

Let’s answer the question that’s probably in your head right now.

“Okay, Mira. I get DCA. But do I just keep buying MTN every month for ten years? What if it becomes rubbish? When do I stop?”

Good question. The answer is simple: DCA is a tool, not a marriage.

You don’t have to stay loyal to one stock forever. You can stop buying a particular company whenever the story changes. You can switch to another stock. You can pause and just hold cash for a bit. It’s your money.

Here are the times you should stop buying a stock and redirect your monthly amount elsewhere.

1. The company’s story changes.

Remember the “How to Research Stocks” trilogy? The Interview, the CV Check and the Hiring Decision? Those aren’t just for your first purchase. You use them again and again to make sure the company still deserves your money.

If you run a stock through the framework and it fails (maybe revenue is shrinking, maybe management is in trouble, maybe the moat is gone), you stop buying. You don’t keep pouring money into a sinking ship just because you started DCA six months ago.

You don’t have to sell what you already own (that’s a separate decision). But you definitely stop adding new money.

2. The price gets ridiculous.

Remember the valuation check from The CV Check? The P/E Ratio thingy. That’s our price check.

Imagine you’ve been buying a stock at ₦100 every month, steadily. One year later, it’s trading at ₦500. Your ₦10,000 now buys only 20 shares instead of 100.

Meanwhile, nothing about the business changed, it’s just the same company making the same profit. But now paying 5X what you used to for each share, the P/E ratio is no longer fair.

At that point, you don’t have to keep buying. You can pause. Let your existing shares sit. Switch your monthly ₦10,000 to another stock that’s still reasonably priced. The market will always have another opportunity.

3. You find a better opportunity.

You started with MTN. Good company. But later you discover another business with even stronger growth, a wider moat, or a better P/E ratio. You don’t have to be faithful to MTN forever. You can redirect your DCA to the new stock and let what you already own in MTN just sit there and do its thing.

4. You’ve hit your target.

Let’s say you want MTN to be 20% of your portfolio. You track it (with a simple note or spreadsheet), and check once a year. When it hits 20%, stop buying more. Redirect your monthly money elsewhere. That’s how you avoid putting too much risk in one basket.

What About ETFs? 🧺

For a broad ETF like VOO or Vetiva Griffin 30, you can keep DCA-ing forever.

Why?

Because an ETF holds hundreds of companies. If one fails, the others keep going. The basket keeps growing over the long term. That’s why many people DCA into index funds for decades without ever stopping.

Don’t trust yourself. AUTOMATE IT! 🤖

On the internet, men say “Don’t trust women” and women say “Don’t trust men” but the one person you really shouldn’t trust when it comes to investing, is yourself. 🫣

Willpower is a myth. If you tell yourself, “I will log into my app and invest ₦X manually every 25th of the month”, you are lying to yourself.

By 26th, that money would have turned into shawarma, data subscription, or urgent 2k for someone.

The secret to making DCA work is AUTOMATION. You have to make sure the money leaves your account before you even have the chance to spend it.

Almost every good investment platform in Nigeria has an "Auto-Invest" or "Recurring Investment" feature.

Cowrywise has automated mutual funds.

Bamboo lets you set up recurring buys for US stocks and ETFs.

Trove allows you to automate your Nigerian and foreign stock purchases.

Risevest automates your dollar investments in real estate, stocks, and fixed income.

Piggyvest uses “Autosave” to fund your savings and investment targets.

Your setup flow is simple:

Pick how much you can invest monthly. Be realistic. Pick a number you won’t miss and can sustain for at least a year.

Choose a day of the month like the 1st, or the day after your allowance or salary drops.

Pick your investment. A stock you believe in. Or an ETF like Vetiva Griffin 30 or VOO if you want instant diversification.

Automate it. Set it and forget it.

Delete the app widget from your home screen. Go outside. Touch grass.

Review once a year (or every quarter). Not once a week.

More importantly: Don’t stop when the market drops.

This is the hardest part. When the market falls, every instinct will tell you to pause. Do not. A falling market means your fixed amount is buying more shares than usual. That is a good thing

In Conclusion. 📌

The perfect time to invest was ten years ago. The second best time is today.

The question is never "Is now a good time to invest?" The question is "Am I buying a good company at a fair price?"

You just need to know and understand what you’re buying. That’s what the Trilogy is for. Run the company through the framework. If it passes, you can trust it.

Then you buy. Every month. Automatically. And once a year, you check in. Is the story still the same? Is the price still fair?

If yes, keep going. If something’s changed, you adjust.

So, stop holding your money while waiting for the perfect crash. Stop refreshing your app to see if the price dropped by two naira.

Pick your stock or ETF. Pick your monthly amount. Automate the purchase. Let time, and your research, do the rest.

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Building with you,

Mira. 🫠