Are you spending your time looking at expense ratios, analyzing Morningstar ratings and searching for funds with low fees and no 12b1 charges? If you are like most people, you know these things in and out. You've spent hours evaluating them, and your chosen mutual funds cost little to purchase and maintain. But they still don't perform to your hopes and expectations.
It shouldn't matter when you buy if you're never going to sell-but it does. If you buy just before the market falls, guess what: You will start with a loss that you have to recover before your investment begins making money. So what? According to statistics on mutual fund sales, most investors buy just in time to grab a loss.
I will only purchase those companies that have a historical record of raising their dividend each year. I know that a low 2% dividend paying stock is not necessarily bad. It means the company in question is a growth stock, using most of its profits to expand. A growth stock makes up for the lower dividend yield by faster stock appreciation in the marketplace (however, the company will still show a historical record of raising their dividend each year). I will diversify into 3 stocks, right from the get-go, even if it means I start off with as little as 5 shares of each company. I will not pay commission-fees. I will place emphasis on increasing the cash income paid to me from all my stock market retirement investments.