How do I model dollar-cost averaging vs lump sum investing side-by-side in PortfolioPilot?

Lump sum vs dollar-cost averaging (DCA) is a personal decision based on your risk tolerance and comfort with timing. PortfolioPilot doesn't prescribe one over the other, but the Retirement planner lets you model both side-by-side: a one-time life event for the lump-sum case, and a recurring custom payment in Money in & out for the DCA case.

To model lump sum investing:

Open Retirement planner - Life events tab - + Add life event.
Select Inheritance or Custom event as the event type, set Wealth impact to Increase, and enter the full amount and the year you'll deploy it. The planner treats it as a single deployment.

To model DCA:

Open Retirement planner - Money in & out tab - + Add payment - Custom payment.
Enter the monthly investment amount with the start and end dates of the DCA window (e.g. 3 years from now).

To compare timing trade-offs ("all in now vs spread over 3 years"), save each plan as a what-if scenario and switch between them on the projection chart. You can also ask the AI Assistant directly: "Should I invest my $200,000 all at once or spread it over 3 years?"

Last updated on

June 4, 2026

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1. As of May 26, 2026
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2. As of May 26, 2026
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3. $40B+ Assets on Platform as of May 26, 2025. Aggregated across all plans (including the free plan). Assets on Platform represent the total value of connected and manually inputted accounts (including assets like real estate and private equity) and does not in any way represent Asset Under Management as Global Predictions does not manage any client funds.

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5. Comparison made to an individual with $1M AUM, paying an "average wealth manager fee" of 1.04% based on publicly available McKinsey / PriceMetrix industry data. 1.04% * 1M = $10,400 per annum. PortfolioPilot Annual Gold pricing is $20/mo * 12mo = $240 per annum. 240/10,400 – 1 = ~98% lower. Actual fees paid to any individual financial advisor will depend on specific financial circumstances and arrangements.

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10. This analysis is based on data from publicly available reports, academic studies, and articles. Sources include Mullainathan et al. (2012): Study highlighting biases in financial advice and its misalignment with client interests; Morningstar (2024): Report on typical update frequencies from financial advisors; Bodnaruk and Simonov (2014): Research on the limited impact of financial expertise on investment outcomes; Financhill: Insights on hidden fees in financial advising, including expense ratios and transaction costs, as noted by Warren Buffett; Foerster et al. (2014): Study on the costs of financial advice, including average AUM fees of 2.43%.

11. $93M number calculated as 2025 YTD TLH savings study conducted across 24,115 PortfolioPilot users on November 14, 2025.

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