Financial goals can vary widely from person to person. Some people simply want financial security, while others have more lofty goals like a beachside mansion. Neither is inherently better or worse than the other.
What matters is that you set financial goals that are in line with your needs and values. That said, the $1 million mark has long been considered a huge milestone on the way to financial freedom in retirement. That amount of money may not go as far as it did decades ago, but it's still a substantial sum, and worth aiming to achieve.
And the beauty of aiming for the million-dollar mark is that it's not out of reach for many people. Time can be a great assistant. For people looking to grow $100,000 into a $1 million retirement nest egg, the following three steps can speed up your progress.
1. Invest the lump sum and let compound growth do most of the work I'll never miss a chance to get on my soapbox and talk about how powerful compound growth is in investing. It happens when the gains you've already made on your investments -- whether through rising share prices, dividend reinvestment, or both -- earn gains of their of own.
Then those gains start to accrue gains, and so on. It's a lucrative, wealth-building cycle. If you're going to invest a lump sum, I recommend a diversified exchange-traded fund (ETF) like the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF ( VOO -0.
22% ) . The S&P 500 contains most of the largest U.S.
companies from all major sectors, and many view an investment in it as si.
