And now for the net worth update!
I would like to say that my husband and I are smart enough to beat dollar cost averaging, but I've learned that I'm actually very lucky when it comes to investing, so I don't need to rely on my brain that much. In each of the last three years we've sold a significant portion of after tax investments to make real estate purchases. It turns out that we timed those sales perfectly (right before a dip in an otherwise robust market). Since luck beats smarts every time, I'm not going to start relying on my brain anytime in the near future.
Our current investment strategy centers around mutual funds (heavy on the S&P 500, with few dividend and international funds thrown in for good measure), and throwing all we can into those accounts every month. In the future, we will definitely lean more on real estate because I like investments that I can touch more than I like the stock market. In the meantime, I'm hoping that the impending market dip will hold off for a solid 4 years, so that we can again get lucky and liquidate all our after tax funds to buy another rental property prior to the stock market tanking.