Automate Your Investments
Set recurring investment contributions to make long-term investing consistent and systematic.
What Automate Your Investments gets you.
By the end of this upgrade you will have recurring automatic contributions running into your investment accounts without manual action.
- Funded and verified brokerage or retirement account
- Target allocation already chosen
- Pay schedule and monthly cash flow numbers
- Bank account linked for transfers
Run the upgrade.
- 01
Determine the contribution amount
Set a fixed dollar amount or percentage of income you can sustain even in a lean month, based on your budget after essential expenses and debt payments.
- 02
Match contribution timing to pay schedule
Schedule transfers for one or two days after each paycheck lands so funds are available and the habit stays linked to income timing.
- 03
Set up automatic transfer and investment
Configure the recurring bank-to-brokerage transfer, then set automatic investment instructions so cash doesn't sit uninvested for long periods.
- 04
Enable auto-rebalancing or reinvestment where available
Turn on dividend reinvestment and, if the platform offers it, automatic periodic rebalancing to your target allocation.
- 05
Set an annual escalation reminder
Create a recurring calendar reminder to increase the contribution amount each year, such as after a raise, so investing scales with income.
- Recurring transfer is scheduled and has run at least once successfully
- Automatic investment instructions are active (not sitting in cash)
- Contribution amount is documented along with the escalation plan
- Annual increase reminder is set
Annually
- Increase contribution amount when income rises
- Confirm transfers are still executing after any bank or card changes
- Check that funds are being invested, not accumulating as idle cash