One Year of Dollar-Cost Averaging into ETFs

One year ago: why I started

In January 2025, I started dollar-cost averaging 1 million KRW (~$740) per month into ETFs.

The reasons were straightforward. Savings account rates had dropped to the 3% range, I had no time to watch individual stock charts during work hours, and crypto had burned me in 2022 so I'd sworn it off.

ETFs were the remaining option.

Warren Buffett's advice -- "buying the whole market beats picking individual stocks" -- also played a role.

One year later, here are the results.

Portfolio composition

I split the 1 million KRW like this:

400,000 KRW into an S&P 500 tracker (VOO), 300,000 KRW into a Nasdaq 100 tracker (QQQ), 200,000 KRW into a Korean high-dividend ETF, and 100,000 KRW into a US bond ETF (TLT).

I knew the tech weighting was heavy. Combining VOO and QQQ puts US tech stocks at over 50% of the portfolio.

But working in the IT industry and seeing tech company growth firsthand, I had enough conviction to overweight it.

Twelve-month returns

Total invested: 12 million KRW. Value as of January 2026: approximately 13.4 million KRW. Return: about 11.7%.

Breaking it down by holding:

VOO returned 14%, QQQ returned 18%. A strong year for US markets paid off handsomely.

The Korean high-dividend ETF returned -2% (3% including dividends). It took the full brunt of KOSPI's sluggish performance.

TLT returned 6%. Rate cut expectations pushed bond prices higher.

Since this was dollar-cost averaged, straight return comparisons have limited meaning. Money invested early was in the market for twelve months, while the last contribution had only one month of exposure.

What I actually experienced

More important than the numbers was the psychological experience.

In August 2025, when US markets dropped 8% in a single week, the feeling is unforgettable. My unrealized loss exceeded 1 million KRW.

Intellectually, I kept telling myself "this is a long-term investment, it's fine" -- but my finger kept drifting toward the sell button. I didn't sell in the end, but that week, focusing on code was genuinely difficult. I kept opening my brokerage app during work.

This experience taught me something: the invested amount must be at a level where "losing it wouldn't disrupt daily life." For me, 1 million KRW per month was that threshold.

Another takeaway: the biggest advantage of dollar-cost averaging is "not having to agonize over buy timing."

I set up an auto-transfer on the 25th of each month. Whether the market is up or down, money gets invested mechanically. No reason to check charts during work. For a developer, that's an enormous benefit.

But in practice

People say "ETF dollar-cost averaging is safe," but in reality, principal loss is a genuine possibility.

If you'd dollar-cost averaged into a KOSPI 200 ETF from January 2018 through December 2025, your return would be about 12%. Over seven years, that's an annualized 1.7%. Barely better than a savings account, if at all.

The same approach with the S&P 500 would have yielded about 70%. Not all ETF investing is created equal. Which ETF you choose makes or breaks the outcome.

Had I invested only in the Korean market, I'd be disappointed. Global diversification that includes the US market is essential.

Year two plans

This year I plan to make small portfolio adjustments.

I'll reduce the Korean high-dividend ETF allocation and add a small position in India or emerging market ETFs. An attempt to reduce, however slightly, my US concentration.

I'm raising the monthly amount to 1.5 million KRW. A year of experience has given me the confidence to handle volatility.

One thing is certain: if I'd done nothing and left everything in savings accounts, inflation would have eaten it away. My approach wasn't perfect, but it was a hundred times better than not starting at all.