If you invested $1,000 at the start of 2008 (the relative Year End peak before the Great Recession) in an S&P 500 index Mutual Fund or ETF, and didn’t touch it… you’d have approximately $2,250 at the end of 2017. Your money would have more than doubled in 10 years… even after experiencing the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

Now had you added $50 per month during that same time frame, you’d have approximately $15,000!

“…Nobody wants to get rich slow.”

-Warren Buffett

This is the power of compounding, dollar cost averaging and time. This is the perfect combination for substantially increasing your probability of achieving investment success. If you increase any of these single elements, you substantially increase the probability of success.

These strategies can be singularly utilized in other types investments; for example, Real Estate, Art Work, Bonds, Gold, Diamonds, to name a few. Yet, the strategy of implementing all three can only be applied to Mutual Funds, ETF’s, and Stock.

If you can follow this approach with consistency, focus, and patience, you will be pleased with the end result. From 1985 to 2017, following this approach for any 10 year period has resulted in positive rates of return. I challenge you to find an investment process with stronger results.

Stop monkeying around, and get started!

Sources:

[1] https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/compounding.asp

[2] https://www.investopedia.com/university/beginner/beginner2.asp

[3] https://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/12/when-youll-become-a-millionaire-if-you-save-100-per-month.html

[4] https://www.fool.com/investing/2016/10/27/3-things-to-know-about-dollar-cost-averaging.aspx

[5] https://money.usnews.com/investing/investing-101/slideshows/dollar-cost-averaging

[6] https://www.thebalance.com/how-to-be-a-millionaire-453692