I did most of my DCA into BTC between November 2013 and early 2017.. . .and I did a bit of DCA after 2017 too.
That's quite a long initial journey with DCA that you are doing.... Maybe I will start like that at the start of this year until the next few years, I'm not sure how long it will last but my own target is 2032. Is that realistic? Of course I will try my best.
One thing that is so great about DCA is that you can figure out for yourself, and sure, if you end up getting a $500 to $1k bonus once or twice a year, then you are going to have options regarding how you choose to spend that $500 to $1k extra when it comes in, and you may well end up choosing to buy BTC with it right away rather than spreading out your BTC purchases.. It is not always an easy choice to figure out how to employ extra cash when it comes in.. especially if you feel that you don't frequently come across extra cash. but the more you go through with buying BTC regularly, at some point you might decide that you are going to divide that lump sum into three parts in order to allocate 1/3 towards each (Lump sum, DCA and buying on dips), and then there might be some other times in which you feel that you want to strategize your purchases to buy on dips, and you might divide the lump sum into 3, but instead keep it all in one category, which is to buy on dips.. so you might buy 1/3 right away, and then the 2/3 to buy after a $1.5k drop in price if it happens and the 3/3 part, you might assign to buying that amount upon a BTC price drop of 4,680.
Those are your choices, and it seems to me that the more BTC that you get, the less stressed that you are in regards to buying BTC right away with your extra cash, and you become more wiling to set your BTC buy prices and just wait for the BTC price to come to you, and hopefully you are not too greedy in the places where you set your purchase prices, because if you already have enough BTC, the you are not worried about the BTC price going up because you already have enough BTC.
Yes, now I understand the DCA method and know the benefits myself. Expenditures will now be even tighter after the DCA planning has started. Before doing this I always shopped for non-essential items so for now, unnecessary expenses will no longer be used and it's more important to be strict on DCA than anything else.
In a normal year I always get a bonus from work several times but this time I haven't received it from the office. What is clear is that I already have this plan and will put it in BTC, but I also have a choice between buying it in a lump sum or in several part like you said, on the one hand I want to separate DCA and lump sum with different wallets and also with different records in the spreadsheet, it's clear in my opinion the results will be greater in DCA planning than lump sum because the bonus money cannot be determined how big it is but that in my mind is separate.
Even now I have to be a little more adaptable, the need is increasing day by day, I have to save a little more so I can do more DCA well and strictly.