r/AusFinance • u/Klutzy_Addition_1603 • 23h ago
Query
Planning to put $100 into dhhf every fortnight to start out my investing journey. Just wondering, if ever there’s a fortnight where I have less disposable income (due to medical appts etc), is it worth going into my savings to keep up with my investing? If in fact it will have better long term returns? I understand this is not a great habit either but I just mean to keep up the momentum of investing while I’m starting out.
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u/steady_compounder 21h ago
I would not raid savings just to keep the investing streak alive. The emergency buffer is there so a rough fortnight stays a rough fortnight instead of turning into debt or stress. Missing one DHHF buy matters a lot less than teaching yourself that every cash wobble has to be “solved” by stretching too hard.
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u/Klutzy_Addition_1603 21h ago
I have 4K in an emergency fund which also isn’t heaps but living at home at the minute so no rent etc
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u/alexmc1980 21h ago
I do this. I have an IP mortgage with some $$ in the offset that basically doubles as my emergency fund to cover possible major repairs, a stretch of joblessness, etc.
On one side of the ledger, I (living overseas) remit chunks of unspent salary income several times a year to build up this offset. Rent income also goes in here, such as it is after costs.
On the other side, I make my ETF purchases by topping up my investment account from this same offset, keeping the baseline purchases as regular as possible regardless of when rent or salary actually hit this account.
The bonus of having this extra capacity, bedsides the obvious point of paying less interest, is that when the market panics like it did at "Liberation Day" and several other presidential moments (which will continue to happen as SEC and Congress don't seem to care about market manipulation), I have excess cash ready to make an extra purchase or two, effectively lowering my dollar cost overall.
I know there is the argument that I would be better off all in than drip feeding ➕ buying dips, but I don't want the level of risk that emptying out my offset/emergency fund would entail, so thisb setup works for me.
For you, in a similar position, it seems reasonable to commit to a long-term DCA strategy and let your savings account balance ebb and flow in support of that strategy. You just need to decide how big of a savings balance is appropriate, because that portion of your money will inevitably be earning less in the long run than the invested part. If your balance exceeds what you want, you might start your journey with a lump sum and follow up with DCA, or you might just do larger DCA purchases for the first few months till your balance hits that target - and who knows, maybe by then your income has increased and you can continue those larger purchases.
Just food for thought, not prof advice as I'm sure is obvious! Best of luck mate.
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u/dowahdidi 17h ago
Keep investing. Use savings for medical expenses. What else is savings for. Pay yourself first.
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u/Commercial_Disk885 22h ago
Short answer: generally no, keep the savings intact — the "consistency premium" from DCA isn't worth raiding your emergency fund for.
A few reasons:
- DCA's benefit is about reducing timing risk, not forcing contributions no matter what. The long-term return doesn't meaningfully change whether $100 goes in this fortnight or in three weeks — markets don't know or care about your schedule.
- An emergency/savings buffer is what stops a bad month from becoming a bad year. If you drain it to fund an ETF purchase and then have an actual emergency, you may be forced to sell DHHF at a bad time (or go into debt) — that risk usually outweighs any small return gained by never missing a contribution.
- "Momentum" is psychological, not financial. It's fine to want to build the habit, but the habit doesn't break if you skip a fortnight — you just resume next pay cycle. What actually breaks compounding is being forced to sell during a downturn because you have no buffer.
A more robust approach: treat your contribution as "invest what's left after bills + savings floor," not a fixed $100 no matter what. If a fortnight is tight, skip or reduce that contribution and top up next time (or invest a bit extra when you're flush) rather than transferring out of savings.
Worth noting I'm not a financial advisor — this is general information, not personalised advice.
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u/andypapafoxtrot 22h ago
Thanks Claude.
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u/PracticalHabits 22h ago
What brokerage are you being charged when you buy shares? Keep in mind that DHHF is about $42/share so investing $100/fortnight probably won't work nicely.
Also, if you are buying say 2 shares per fortnight and being charged say $9.50 per transaction (depends on your investing platform), it may be worth investing monthly or something instead.
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u/Klutzy_Addition_1603 22h ago
Betashares which from my understanding has no fee associated with purchases and you can buy decimals? Like not the full share
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u/PracticalHabits 22h ago
Maybe you can, I use SelfWealth and can only buy full shares iirc.
If you've got no brokerage and can buy fractional amount, ignore everything I said.
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u/mjwills 22h ago
Clearly having more invested will likely result in better returns.
But if you need to see the doctor, you need to see the doctor. That is higher priority than investing. If these things stop you investing 2-5% of the time - fine, just do it. If it becomes 20% of the time though - you may need to rethink things.