Late flight to retirement: dollar-cost-averaging provides a landing for Harry Moore. (Investment Strategies).(Brief Article)

With a little over 15 years left until he retires, Harry Moore is a late-blooming investor who hopes to reap the benefits of a well-constructed investment portfolio. It has been three years since he developed a formal personal investment plan consisting of an Individual Retirement Account [IRA] and a separate account where he holds individual securities, such as stocks and real estate investment trusts [REITs]. "I wish I had planned earlier than I did," he confesses.

Moore, a 46-year-old divorce from St. Louis who is an airport engineer at the Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, invests about 10% of his total $54,000-a-year salary. Using a dollar-cost-averaging …