How to get your $100,000 portfolio to $1 million dollars.

I have coached several clients who have hit the million-dollar mark in their portfolio and here are their secrets. With high inflation, a million dollars may not be enough for retirement however, it is a great goal to attain. An individual with a portfolio of $1,000,000 can withdraw $40,000 each year for 30 years without having to withdraw the principal. With the addition of social security, an individual may take home up to $5000 a month. With no mortgage and debt to worry about, $5000 a month isn't bad for an individual to spend. If you're married that's $10,000 a month of income in retirement. So here are the secrets...

1. Invest in an S&P 500 index fund This is the primary way to become a millionaire. The S&P 500 grows at a rate of 9-12% every year. Let's clean that up and make it 10% annually. According to the rule of 72, (divide 72 by your rate of growth in this case 72/10), it will take 7.2 years for your money to double. So in this example, it will take 36 years for someone starting with $100,000 to reach a million dollars without having to invest another dollar. The advantage of this strategy is that you do nothing and let compounding do most of the work. As I stated above, a million dollars may not be enough to retire.
   

2. Continue investing in the S&P 500 Once you have invested $100,000, do not stop investing. Continue contributing to the fund to reach your goal sooner. According to the chart below simply adding $100 to your portfolio monthly will decrease your time to $1,000,000 by 11 years. Investing $1,000 monthly will reach a million dollars in 18 years. Now look at the last line, investing $2500 each month in the S&P 500 will reach $1,000,000 in 13 years. Investing is a math game investing more money will help you reach your goal faster.
   

3. Adding quality single stocks will shorten the time to your doubling rate (rule of 72) by increasing your rate of return. For instance, adding a stock like Nvidia will give you an annual return of over 100%. Let's say we add Nvidia to our $100,000 portfolio as 50% of our holding. This will increase our rate of return from 10% to 55% (for illustration purposes, Nvidia's growth over the last year was 250%). Just this addition will grow our portfolio to $1.4 million in 5 years. This is so powerful and why I encourage all my clients to add quality stocks to their portfolios. There is no reason to be scared of single stocks as long as you're not taking stock picks from a coworker at the water cooler. Stocks with excellent balance sheets and continued growth are fair game to add to your portfolio for great gains.

4. Lastly, you should have a variety of asset locations to pay less taxes over your investment life. Having your money in the right buckets is key to protecting yourself in retirement come tax time. These accounts are:

1. An employer-sponsored 401K/403B or a Solo 401K/Sep IRA for entrepreneurs (Invest in an S&P 500 index fund)

2. A Roth IRA (Contribute to the max and invest in a similar portfolio)

3. A Health Savings Account (HSA, if eligible; invested in a similar portfolio)

4. A Taxable brokerage account (Investing more aggressively with the addition of quality single stocks).

5. 529/UTMA for children.