Updated: January 31, 2023
If you want to retire rich, then you need to invest – and the earlier you start, the better.
As most financial planners would say, your “time in the market” is more important than “timing the market”; and that’s why the best time to start investing is NOW.
Fortunately, you don’t need to have a lot of money before you start investing. There’s already a good number of investments out there that only require P5,000 to start.
Thus, with the proper mindset and a good understanding of how investments work, it will be easy to build a million-peso retirement account for yourself.
To illustrate how this can be done, I’ve created two tables below, which give you a glimpse of what would happen when you start investing today.
First, this table gives you the length of time that you need to invest if you want to have one million pesos.
As you can see, if you invest P500 monthly in a low-risk investment, then you’ll have a million after 51 years and 11 months. It may take longer, but what’s important to realize here is that your total cash out to get that million would only be P311,500.
So let’s say that you want to have a million after around 10 years, you can use the table and see that you only need to invest P5,000 monthly in a moderate-risk investment to achieve this goal. Note that in this case, your total cash out would only be around P600,000.
Now, ask yourself how much can you afford to save and invest every month, and then use the table above to see how long it will take for you to have one million in your account.
This second table below, on the other hand, gives you an idea of how much money you’ll have after 20 years of consistent investing.
This table is more interesting because it shows you how much value you’ll be missing out on if you’re afraid of risk.
Consider investing P15,000 per month for 20 years – if you put the money in a low-risk investment, then you’ll have around P5.3 million. But choose a high-risk investment and you’ll have more than twice that amount at P12.9 million.
Of course, we all have our risk tolerance –Â some people can remain calm during bear markets, but others are truly not comfortable with seeing markets go down.
If you belong to the latter group, then you should accept the fact that you’ll be earning less from your investments in exchange for less anxiety and a bit more peace of mind.
Now, it’s time to again ask yourself –Â given the amount that you can invest monthly, and the type of investment that you’ll be comfortable with, is the projected growth after 20 years acceptable to you?
How To Retire Rich
Building a million-peso retirement account should not be complicated.
All you need is to properly set your goals, do the numbers, and passively invest regularly for many years.
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Hi Fitz,
I have been wanting to invest in stock market and Mutual Funds equity fund for long term basis? How do I start with a minimum capital start up? Thanks.
@Guino
Starting or investing mutual funds only requires a start up capital of Php 5,000.00 pesos. There are various companies or entities that can help with that.
Agreed with the “If you can’t take the risk, then accept the fact that you’ll likely get lower returns.” (Also, beware of “investments” that promise high returns for very low risk. Scammers usually target people who want easy millions).
Anyway, Robert Guinto, you can try most banks as they offer Mutual Funds, and some, like BPITrade, will let you buy stocks directly.
The usual minimum before you can start investing is around P5k to P10k.
Note: Since you plan to invest for the long term (instead of active trading), I suggest Stock Index Funds if you want low-maintenance “Average” returns medium risk.
You can try investing in individual stocks, but it’s VERY important that you learn the basics of choosing and investing in great companies first (even if you’re planning to go for the “safe” blue-chip ones).
Hi Fitz,
Does the examples above also apply to UITF (Equity) investments?
Thank you,
Charles
Yes, Charles. It applies to those.
Salamat Fitz. Im a newbie investor, laking tulong ng website mo. I started with UITF investments (Equities) a month ago, 10k a month. I am 33 years old. Hope its not too late. 🙂
Hi Fitz,
In the 2nd graph, can you give a formula on how you got the 12M total in 20 years with the 15,000 monthy?
Thanks a lot
hi fitz, what high risk investment can give 12M in 20 years, mutual fund?