Investing Myth: You Need $10,000 to Start Investing. Here's Why $100 Is More Than Enough

Additionally, Some think, for example, you can only buy s in groups of 100 (this bears monitoring)

That's not true -- you can buy as little as a single or 177 s, or however many s you want (noteworthy indeed), in today's market environment. (If you're a millionaire or billionaire planning to buy 5% or more of a company's s, though, there are some regulatory hoops to jump through, in today's market environment

Furthermore, At the same time, ) Similarly, some people think that you need to have a lot of money if you want to start -- perhaps $10,000 or so (noteworthy indeed)

It's true that some mutual funds have minimum investment amounts, such as $3,000, and some funds may have higher ones, in today's financial world

You can amass a considerable sum by in the stock market -- even if you begin with, say, $100 (noteworthy indeed)

Moreover, (A meaningful sum for one person might be out of reach or ridiculously little for another person. ) It's also vital to invest effectively, such as in a low-fee, broad-market S&P 500 index fund

Meanwhile, We'll use a slightly conservative 8% average annual growth rate, because the S&P 500 has averaged annual returns close to 10% (ignoring inflation) over long periods

One column reflects monthly $100 investments ($1,200 per year), and the other weekly $100 investments ($5,200 per year)

Growing at 8% for $1,200 invested annually $5,200 invested annually 5 years $7,603 $32,947 10 years $18,775 $81,357 15 years $35,189 $152,486 20 years $59,308 $256,999 25 years $94,745 $410,563 30 years $146,815 $636,199 35 years $223,323 $967,731 40 years $335,737 $1,454,861 Source: Calculations by author