Investing is ultimately about navigating possibilities – some in our control and others not so. While market chatter shifts, some core investment principles endure. Chief among them is the immense power of saving consistently, investing those savings, and staying invested for the long run. It represents the hard work and the compensation for the sacrifice of consuming today. It captures what we have in our control.
Yet investing does not come naturally to all of us. It is laced with inertia and our motivation to time the entry into the markets.
A study done by Schwab, shows that the cost of waiting for the perfect moment to invest—and essentially staying out of the market—typically exceeds the benefit of even perfect timing. Here is a study inspired by their work.
A Tale of 5 Investors (2016–2025)
Imagine five distinct investors, each with an annual investment surplus of ₹1,20,000 available at the beginning of every year from January 1, 2016, through December 31, 2025. Each investor deploys their money into the Nifty 500 (representing total portfolio growth across large, mid, and small-cap Indian equities), but using completely different timing strategies:
Mr. F (The Fortune Teller): Possesses perfect foresight. Every single year, he buys on the exact day the market hits its absolute low.
Mr. N (The Unlucky One): Has notoriously bad luck. Every single year, he buys on the exact day the market hits its yearly peak.
Mr. D (The Disciplined Lump-Sum Investor): Does not wait. He invests the full ₹1,20,000 lump sum on the very first trading day of every year.
Mr. R (The Regular SIP Investor): Prefers consistency. He splits his investment into monthly SIP instalments of ₹10,000 on the 1st of every month.
Mr. I (The Inactive Investor): Paralyzed by market fears and inertia, he leaves his money sitting in a traditional savings bank account earning 2.5% per annum.
The 10-Year Scorecard
After 10 years and total capital contributions of ₹12,00,000 (₹12 Lakhs) each, here is where their wealth stands as of January 1, 2026:
| Investor | Strategy / Style | Total Invested | Final Value (1st Jan 2026) |
| Mr. F (The Fortune Teller) | Perfect timing: Bought exact market low each year | ₹12,00,000 | ₹30,03,492 |
| Mr. D (The Disciplined) | Immediate action: Invested lump sum on Jan 1st each year | ₹12,00,000 | ₹26,37,147 |
| Mr. R (The Regular SIP) | Rupee-cost averaging: Monthly ₹10,000 SIPs | ₹12,00,000 | ₹25,50,928 |
| Mr. N (The Unlucky One) | Worst timing: Bought exact market peak each year | ₹12,00,000 | ₹22,47,403 |
| Mr. I (The Inactive) | Inertia: Left money in a 2.5% p.a. savings account | ₹12,00,000 | ₹13,44,406 |
Some findings:
The first four investors are huddled together, in terms of the final corpus size. Sure enough Mr. F had the highest corpus but predicting markets every year is near impossible. Mr D, who just invested as an when he got the funds was second best. His funds were in the markets for the longest period.
But Mr R, who invested thru SIPs , did averaging of the cost and was not far from Mr. D. Rupee cost averaging as a strategy also distributes the purchase price and avoids regrets that Mr. N had to endure by timing it wrong, every year. But overall, he too was not too far.
Only Mr. I was left out in this 10 years race. He was worse off than Mr N. Mr. N may have missed the timing, but he still got enough by being just invested over these years. Time trumps timing!
In investing, cost of inertia is very high and can badly impact future financial security. It does not matter when and how you invest. What is important to invest and act.
By the way, there is another person we did not discuss. The person who saw idle cash lying in the savings account and spent it all. His corpus as per our calculation is zero!