Re: buying method. I don't know how other people are doing it, but I've evolved through experience to, aside from spacing out my buys to one per month, to also make each buy the 10% of Stock Value or of PC.
In other words say a stock or fund drops and AIM advice is to buy 25%, I'll still make just a 10% buy and wait another month to make further buy.
This is another safety device for dealing with dropping stocks and funds.
The drawback is if the stock make a small drop and recovers you gain less.