The market goes up one day and down the next, up the next day and so on and so on. When investing, invest with a strategy that works. Systematic Investment Plans or SIPs allows you to buy a little stock for a longer period of time. Most of the SIPs allow you to invest as little as $50 per month. Also, it lets you buy during different market cycles and you will get the added benefit of dollar cost averaging.

Dollar cost averaging is spacing out your investments on a longer period of time. You can buy shares of a stock when it’s low and more when it’s higher. This would sort of “cushion” your gains and losses and allowing for a more stable investment in the longer run. This can also be done through an Automatic Investment Plan such as when a Mutual Fund would initiate programmed withdrawals from your checking or savings account monthly or systematically.

If you have trouble saving up monthly contributions, even as little as $50, if you constantly eat out at restaurants, even cutting back one meal can save you $50 at most restaurants. Try to double up on a car payment if possible so you can allow more money to flow into investing. Another tip is to only buy products that you absolutely need when going grocery shopping. Hopefully these tips will allow you to be able to put more money in your portfolio and also have a plan at the same time.