If you’re just beginning to invest at 40, don’t get discouraged. The math is less dramatic than starting at 25, but it works. And with roughly 25 years until traditional retirement age, you still have enough time to build meaningful wealth through consistent, low-cost index investing.
A 40-year-old investing $500 per month in a broad index fund earning an average 7 percent annual return would accumulate roughly $405,000 by age 65. At $1,000 per month, that number climbs to roughly $810,000.
