Straight Answers

How to Start Investing With $100

$100 is not too small. It is the standard first amount — because the first $100's job is not growth, it is position: the right account, the right step of the order, and the automatic habit that turns $100 into the next $1,000. The math below is what $100 a month becomes, at printed assumptions.

The machinery, honestly

Where the $100 belongs depends on your order, not on the market: no cushion yet → it is cushion money. A match unclaimed → it goes to the plan. Expensive debt → it kills interest at a rate that is certain.
If it is investing money: it goes into an account as a contribution, then into a fund category inside that account — two moves, both explained on the empty-account pages.
$100 spread inside a broad fund is diversified on day one. 'Too small to diversify' died with fractional fund buying.

What $100 a month becomes

Invested monthly, for	At an assumed 5% yearly return	At an assumed 7% yearly return
20 years	$41,103	$52,093
30 years	$83,226	$121,997
40 years	$152,602	$262,481

Arithmetic on the two labeled assumptions — not a prediction. The contributions themselves total $2,400 per decade; the rest is the compounding the order is built to catch.

Your move tonight

Find your step: the sequencer places your $100 with your own numbers.
Open the account door that matches your step — Roth IRA, workplace plan, or cushion first.
Set the $100 to repeat monthly, on payday. Automatic beats heroic.

Run the sequencer with my numbers

Included in the $39 First Steps Pack

The Filled Plan pack, the first-account walkthrough pack, the first-30-days plan, the full catch-up tables, the decoder card deck, and the order workbook — one pack, one-time payment.

See the First Steps Pack