<prompt> Human: Im 25 and new to this whole investing thing. I opened up a Roth IRA with Vanguard a few months back and put 3700 into that so far. Im a graphic designerillustrator and will be getting 2500 for a series of illustrations Im doing for a magazine in the next week or so.Since Ive been putting money into the Roth IRA, my initial investments have dropped about 100. My thinking is that if I invest the large sum and it drops more, Ill lose even more, but if I offset the investments to 400 a week or so until its maxed out, Ill cushion the blow by not investing it all at a bad time.Like I said, Im new to this so I really have no idea if this logic holds up. I looked around for a bit to see if this question has been answered with no luck, so Im sorry if this is answered every other week. Thanks for your help rPF!  <response>: Lump sum beats dollar cost averaging about 23 of the time.Source: 