{"url":"https://etfiq.com/academy/money-basics/starting-small/","section":"academy","title":"Starting small: how $100 a month grows | ETFIQ","description":"See how a small monthly amount grows through compounding, and what starting 10 years later costs, worked on a real ETF's dated long-run return.","as_of":"Nov 10, 2026","structured_data":[{"@type":"LearningResource","@id":"https://etfiq.com/academy/money-basics/starting-small/#lesson","name":"Starting small: how $100 a month grows","description":"At SPY's 10.7% a year pace to Nov 10, 2026, $100 a month would hypothetically grow to about $236,400 over 30 years.","url":"https://etfiq.com/academy/money-basics/starting-small/","learningResourceType":"Lesson","teaches":"How a small monthly amount compounds over decades, and why time matters more than the size of the deposit","educationalLevel":"Beginner","timeRequired":"PT6M","inLanguage":"en","isAccessibleForFree":true,"isPartOf":{"@type":"Course","@id":"https://etfiq.com/academy/money-basics/#course","name":"Money Basics","url":"https://etfiq.com/academy/money-basics/"},"position":6,"dateModified":"2026-11-10","author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"ETFIQ Research","url":"https://etfiq.com"},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"ETFIQ Research","url":"https://etfiq.com"}},{"@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://etfiq.com/academy/money-basics/starting-small/#check","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"What is compounding?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Earning returns on your earlier returns, not only on what you put in. growth earns its own growth, so the pile speeds up."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"In the table, after 30 years of $100 a month, about how much of the $236,400 is growth?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"About $200,400. $236,400 \u2212 $36,000 deposited = about $200,400."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Jo saves $100 a month for 30 years. Lee saves $150 a month, but only for the last 20 of those years. At the same 10.7% a year, who ends with more?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Jo, because Jo's early deposits get 10 extra years to grow. Lee's $150 for 20 years is 1.5 \u00d7 $78,000, about $117,000, against Jo's $236,400."}}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"ETFIQ","item":"https://etfiq.com/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Academy","item":"https://etfiq.com/academy/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Money Basics","item":"https://etfiq.com/academy/money-basics/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"Starting small: how $100 a month grows","item":"https://etfiq.com/academy/money-basics/starting-small/"}]},{"@type":"WebPage","name":"Starting small: how $100 a month grows","description":"See how a small monthly amount grows through compounding, and what starting 10 years later costs, worked on a real ETF's dated long-run return.","url":"https://etfiq.com/academy/money-basics/starting-small/","dateModified":"2026-11-10","isPartOf":{"@type":"WebSite","name":"ETFIQ","url":"https://etfiq.com"},"speakable":{"@type":"SpeakableSpecification","cssSelector":[".lede"]},"publisher":{"@id":"https://etfiq.com/#org"}}],"characters":5299,"truncated":false,"content":"ETFIQ / Academy / Money Basics / Starting small: how $100 a month grows \n \n Starting small: how $100 a month grows\n Data as of Nov 10, 2026. Rebuilt every trading night.\n At SPY's 10.7% a year pace to Nov 10, 2026 , $100 a month would hypothetically grow to about $236,400 over 30 years.\n Money Basics \u00b7 Lesson 6 of 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 \n Set a monthly amount and the years. See what you put in against what it grows to. Amount a month $100 Years 30 $100 a month for 30 years: $36,000 put in grows to $236,356. Hypothetical: a steady 10.7% a year, SPY's pace to Nov 10, 2026. Not a forecast. \n The question\n \"I can only put away $100 a month. Is that even worth it?\"\n The idea\n Money you invest earns a return. Next year, that return earns a return too. This is compounding : growth on top of growth ( lesson 4 ). It starts slow and speeds up, because each year it works on a bigger pile.\n So time does most of the work . A small amount started early can end up larger than a bigger amount started late. The most powerful number here isn't the $100. It's the number of years.\n Worked example\n We'll use the same real long-run return as lesson 4 : SPY, a fund holding the S&P 500's large US companies, grew 10.7% a year on average from Jan 29, 1993 to Nov 10, 2026 , with dividends put back in. Real years jumped around: in the month to Nov 10, 2026 alone, SPY fell 3.7% . So everything below is hypothetical : what a steady 10.7% would do, not a forecast.\n Step 1. Turn the yearly rate into a monthly one: about 0.85% a month , because 1.0085 multiplied by itself 12 times is about 1.107 .\n Step 2. Put in $100 at the end of each month:\n Month 1: $100\n Month 2: $100 \u00d7 1.0085 + $100 = $200.85 \n Month 3: $200.85 \u00d7 1.0085 + $100 = $302.56 \n The growth is pennies. After a year you've put in $1,200 and the pile is about $1,258 . Only $58 is growth.\n Step 3. Keep going. Same $100 a month, same rate:\n Years You put in Pile at the end Growth \n 10 $12,000 about $20,700 $8,700 \n 20 $24,000 about $78,000 $54,000 \n 30 $36,000 about $236,400 $200,400 \n Step 4. In the last 10 years (years 20 to 30) you put in only $12,000 more, yet the pile grew by about $158,300 . Most of the ending money is growth, and most of that growth arrives late.\n Step 5. Flip it around. Someone who starts 10 years later and saves for 20 years ends with about $78,000 : a third of the 30-year result, from two-thirds of the deposits.\n The common mistake\n \"It's too small to matter, so I'll start when I earn more.\" The table shows why waiting is expensive: the decade you skip is the one whose deposits get the most years to grow. The second mistake is treating 10.7% as a promise. It was one fund's average over almost 34 years , crashes included. Yours could be lower.\n Check your understanding\n Pick an answer to see why. Two of three right passes the lesson.\n 1. What is compounding? A Adding the same amount each month B Earning returns on your earlier returns, not only on what you put in C A fee charged on growth D A guaranteed yearly return Answer: B. Earning returns on your earlier returns, not only on what you put in. growth earns its own growth, so the pile speeds up. Not A: deposits feed the pile; compounding is the growth on top of them. 2. In the table, after 30 years of $100 a month, about how much of the $236,400 is growth? A $36,000 B About $200,400 C About $78,000 D None of it Answer: B. About $200,400 . $236,400 \u2212 $36,000 deposited = about $200,400 . Not A: $36,000 is what you put in. 3. Jo saves $100 a month for 30 years. Lee saves $150 a month, but only for the last 20 of those years. At the same 10.7% a year, who ends with more? A Lee, because Lee saves more each month B Jo, because Jo's early deposits get 10 extra years to grow C They end the same D It can't be worked out Answer: B. Jo, because Jo's early deposits get 10 extra years to grow. Lee's $150 for 20 years is 1.5 \u00d7 $78,000 , about $117,000 , against Jo's $236,400 . Not A: the bigger monthly amount doesn't make up for the lost decade. \n Takeaways\n Time is the biggest factor. Starting early beats starting big. \n Most of a long-term pile is growth that arrives late, so the early years matter most. \n Any return you use is the past, dated. Check a fund's since-launch pace on ETFIQ as a guide, not a promise. \n Do it on ETFIQ\n Find your fund's yearly pace since launch Your fund \n Where to next\n Next lesson: Your first fund check: read a fund page in 5 minutes Previous lesson: Taxes in plain words: dividends, interest and gains Money Basics: all lessons The explainer behind this lesson ETFIQ Academy How ETFIQ computes these numbers \n Cite this page. ETFIQ, Starting small: how $100 a month grows, data as of Nov 10, 2026. https://etfiq.com/academy/money-basics/starting-small/ Free to use with attribution for data ETFIQ computes; issuer data stays under its owner's terms. The underlying files are at Open data .\n Other forms Plain ETFIQ, Starting small: how $100 a month grows, data as of Nov 10, 2026. https://etfiq.com/academy/money-basics/starting-small/ APA ETFIQ. (Nov 10, 2026). Starting small: how $100 a month grows. Retrieved from https://etfiq.com/academy/money-basics/starting-small/ Markdown [Starting small: how $100 a month grows (ETFIQ, Nov 10, 2026)](https://etfiq.com/academy/money-basics/starting-small/)","source":"ETFIQ, independent ETF data. Recomputed nightly from public filings and prices.","publisher":{"@id":"https://etfiq.com/#org","name":"ETFIQ","url":"https://etfiq.com"},"license":"https://etfiq.com/license/","license_text":"Data ETFIQ computes is free to use with attribution: ETFIQ (etfiq.com). Issuer data stays under its owner's terms.","citation":"ETFIQ, Starting small: how $100 a month grows, data as of Nov 10, 2026. https://etfiq.com/academy/money-basics/starting-small/"}