Just Keep Buying: Proven ways to save money and build your wealth
July 24, 2024
4 min read
📚 arvy's Book Club
arvy's Teaser: The title is the entire strategy. Just keep buying. Nick Maggiulli proves with data what most investors refuse to believe: buying consistently — regardless of whether the market is high, low, or crashing — beats trying to time the market in virtually every historical scenario. No tricks. No timing. No genius required. Here's why the simplest investing book is also the most important.
The Book in 60 Seconds
Just Keep Buying (2022) by Nick Maggiulli is a data-driven guide to building wealth through consistent investing. Maggiulli — Chief Operating Officer at Ritholtz Wealth Management — uses decades of market data to prove that regular investing (dollar-cost averaging) beats market timing in the vast majority of scenarios. The book covers saving, investing, and spending in clear, evidence-based language with zero jargon.
Nick Maggiulli · 2022 · Personal Finance & Evidence-Based Investing
Idea 1: Time in the Market Beats Timing the Market — The Data Is Overwhelming
Maggiulli's core finding: buying consistently outperforms waiting for the "right" moment in almost every historical period. He ran simulations across decades of data. Even someone who invested at the absolute worst time each year (right before every crash) still beat the person who sat in cash waiting for the "perfect" entry point. The reason: markets go up more often than they go down. Every day you wait costs you exposure to that upward drift.
The best time to invest was yesterday. The second best time is today.
The Investor Lesson
Stop waiting. Set up a savings plan and start today. The data proves that consistent buying — every month, regardless of headlines — beats trying to time the dip. CHF 500/month, automated, rain or shine. That's the entire strategy. (→ Savings Plan)
Idea 2: Early On, Saving Matters More Than Returns
Maggiulli makes a crucial distinction: when you're starting out, your savings rate matters more than your investment returns. If you have CHF 5,000 invested, a 10% return gives you CHF 500. But saving an extra CHF 500/month gives you CHF 6,000 in a year — 12x more impact. Only when your portfolio grows large does investment performance start to dominate.
The Investor Lesson
If you're in the first 5-10 years of investing, focus on earning more and saving more — not on optimising your portfolio. The biggest lever is the amount you invest, not the return you get. Later, returns take over. But first, build the base. (→ Pillar 3a)
Idea 3: You Should Also Spend — Wealth Is a Means, Not an End
Maggiulli's most surprising chapter: you should spend money on things that make you happy. Not recklessly, but deliberately. Experiences, relationships, health, comfort — these have real returns that compound just like money does. The person who saves 100% and enjoys 0% is optimising the wrong variable.
The Investor Lesson
The goal isn't to die with the biggest portfolio. It's to live well while building one. Automate your investing (savings plan, 3a) so it runs without effort — then use your mental energy to enjoy the life your wealth is supposed to enable. Balance. (→ 5 Types of Wealth)
What This Means for Swiss Investors
| Maggiulli Principle | Swiss Application |
|---|---|
| Just keep buying | CHF 500/month, automated. Don't wait for dips. The data proves consistency beats timing. (→ Savings Plan) |
| Saving rate > returns early on | Max your 3a (CHF 7,258/year). In the first decade, the amount you invest matters more than the return. |
| Spend deliberately too | Automate investing. Then use the mental space to enjoy life. The CHF 200 dinner with friends compounds in ways no portfolio can measure. |
arvy's Take
What holds up: The most data-driven personal finance book available. Maggiulli's evidence that consistent buying beats timing is irrefutable — and it's the intellectual foundation of every savings plan. If you read one investing book, this should be it.
What's missing: The book is US-focused (401k, Roth IRA) — Swiss readers need to mentally translate to 3a, Säule 3a, and Swiss tax advantages. And it doesn't cover quality investing specifically — it assumes index funds.
What we'd add: Maggiulli proves the system works (just keep buying). arvy adds the what (quality companies, not just indices) and the where (Swiss tax advantages, FINMA supervision, CHF-denominated). The combination: just keep buying quality.
3 Sentences to Remember
1. Just keep buying. Consistent investing beats timing the market in virtually every historical scenario.
2. Early on, save more. In the first decade, the amount you invest matters more than the return you get.
3. Wealth is a means, not an end. Automate investing, then use the freed-up energy to live well.
Buy the book
English (Amazon) · Deutsch (Amazon)
Also in Book Club: Psychology of Money → · Richest Man in Babylon →
Just keep buying. The data proves it.
Consistent investing into quality companies. No timing. No tricks. Tax-free compounding. From CHF 1/month.
This article was written by Patrick Rissi, CFA, Co-Founder of arvy, and reviewed by Thierry Borgeat and Florian Jauch, CFA.
Disclaimer: This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute personal investment advice. Amazon links are affiliate links. arvy is a FINMA-supervised asset manager.
