What if I invested $100 a month in S&P 500? (2024)

What if I invested $100 a month in S&P 500?

If you're still investing $100 per month, you'd have a total of around $518,000 after 35 years, compared to $325,000 in that time period with a 10% return. There are never any guarantees in the stock market, but with the right strategy, a little cash can go a long way.

In other words, if you invest $100 in the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY 0.58%), you'll own a tiny portion of all 500 companies in the S&P 500 Index. You get instant diversification and an investment with a long history of making money for anyone who can hold for a decade or longer. Image source: Getty Images.

Time is your most valuable resource when investing, so getting started early is often more important than investing hundreds of dollars per month. With as little as $100 per month, it's possible to build an investment portfolio worth hundreds of thousands of dollars or more while minimizing risk.

Investing $100 per month, with an average return rate of 10%, will yield $200,000 after 30 years. Due to compound interest, your investment will yield $535,000 after 40 years. These numbers can grow exponentially with an extra $100. If you make a monthly investment of $200, your 30-year yield will be close to $400,000.

S&P 500 Monthly Return (I:SP500MR)

S&P 500 Monthly Return is at 1.59%, compared to 4.42% last month and 6.18% last year. This is higher than the long term average of 0.54%. The S&P 500 Monthly Return is the investment return received each month, excluding dividends, when holding the S&P 500 index.

If the S&P 500 outperforms its historical average and generates, say, a 12% annual return, you would reach $1 million in 26 years by investing $500 a month.

If you have $25,000 in a high-yield savings account with a 5% annual percentage yield, or APY, that could amount to about $100 per month in income.

$1,000 at 0.01 percent APY will only be $1,001 at the end of 10 years. But $1,000 at 5 percent APY will be $1,629 after 10 years.

If your aim is to generate a monthly income of $3,000 from your investments, understanding your anticipated average return is essential. Let's imagine that you achieve a reasonable average annual return rate of 10%. In this scenario, an investment total of $360,000 would be required.

Too many people are paid a lot of money to tell investors that yields like that are impossible. But the truth is you can get a 9.5% yield today--and even more. But even at 9.5%, we're talking about a middle-class income of $4,000 per month on an investment of just a touch over $500K.

How to become a millionaire by saving $100 a month?

By investing $100 every month from the ages of 25 to 65 into the likes of a Roth individual retirement account (IRA), Gen Z could retire as millionaires. “With a 12% annual average rate of return—the markets can do that for you—you'd have a million dollars,” she explains.

Short-term investor.

You plan to invest $100 per month for five years and expect a 10% return. In this case, you would contribute $6,000 over your investment timeline. At the end of the term, SmartAsset's investment calculator shows that your portfolio would be worth nearly $8,000.

If you took an initial $100 investment and added $100 per month for 20 years, you would have about $77,000. Now, say you invested $100 per month for 25 years -- you would have approximately $134,000.

The S&P 500 index has been a winner in 2023. The index on Wednesday closed above 4,700 for the first time since January 2022. Year to date, the index is up about 23%. Its average annual return is more than 10%.

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF, which trades under the ticker SPY, is the oldest and biggest ETF to track the S&P 500, with about $425 billion in assets under management. It's administered by State Street Global Advisors. It pays a dividend quarterly and had a yield of about 1.3% as of November 2021.

The actual rate of return is largely dependent on the types of investments you select. The Standard & Poor's 500® (S&P 500®) for the 10 years ending December 31^st 2023, had an annual compounded rate of return of 15.2%, including reinvestment of dividends.

Once you have $1 million in assets, you can look seriously at living entirely off the returns of a portfolio. After all, the S&P 500 alone averages 10% returns per year. Setting aside taxes and down-year investment portfolio management, a $1 million index fund could provide $100,000 annually.

A 10% return is a pretty good one. For context, a $6,000 investment that enjoys a 10% annual return over 40 years will grow into almost $272,000. So if you're happy with a portfolio that performs comparably to the stock market as a whole, then sticking to S&P 500 ETFs alone isn't a bad idea.

There are two approaches you could take. The first is increasing the amount you invest monthly. Bumping up your monthly contributions to $200 would put you over the $1 million mark. The other option would be to try to exceed a 7% annual return with your investments.

How much will I have if I invest $100 a month for 10 years?

A second ultra-high-yield stock that can help you bring home $300 each month from an initial investment of $32,000 (split three ways) is business development company (BDC) PennantPark Floating Rate Capital (NYSE: PFLT). The company raised its monthly payout twice last year.

If you invest $10,000 and make an 8% annual return, you'll have $100,627 after 30 years. By also investing $500 per month over that timeframe, your ending balance would be $780,326. Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and mutual funds are both excellent investment options.

Invest in real estate

Over the years, as I've been able to save more, I've started to consider the idea of investing in real estate. R.J. Weiss, a financial planner, says that if you are willing to take on debt, investing in real estate is one way to grow $10,000 to $100,000 in 10 years.