How to go from zero to a $5M Retirement Portfolio

A couple of years ago, I asked my friends about their retirement plans. Generally, they either didn’t have a plan or joked that they would be working late into their 70s since they love to work. Some of their perspective were so wild that they didn’t sit well with me. Imagine doing this for thirty to forty years. Yikes!

Nearly a decade later, I can say that I can’t relate.

Nowadays, you can’t go a day without seeing a financial crashout online. At the same time, the U.S. Census Bureau reports a 2.6 percent increase in median household income. It’s the best of times and the worst of times. Some are complaining about a 7 percent mortgage rate while having no savings. Others are lining up for hours for the next Apple iPhone 18 Pro-Max. Boomers with money are the Glass super-villains being wheeled around through Congress, while Black and Brown Boomers are becoming dependent on their kids. Gen X is taking the brunt of the sandwich expenses for the parents and their kids. Millennials are going through their mid-life crisis. Gen Z is not too far behind with their economic nihilism. It’s a bit much and a bit ridiculous.

My wife and I (millennials) aren’t taking any chances with our financial future. Working an extra 15 to 17 years isn’t in the cards for us. The future is more expensive, and we didn’t want to leave it to chance. Instead, we started planning early and took action.

Do we have everything we want? Maybe or maybe not at times. But do we have what we need to move us toward financial freedom? Hopefully. In the end, nothing is guaranteed; however, since we started with zero investments in January 2014, we’ve made a lot of inroads to get our portfolio up to north of $1.8 million as of August 2026. That’s a lot of growth in a short amount of time. Short being relative.

All we need is the extra $3 million by December 2034.

Americans are about to fall over the Financial Edge

You literally aren’t the only one: Money is tight for many Americans.

This has been a major election contention point since 1992. So much so, the phrase “It’s the economy, stup*d” defined the 1992 election cycle. Driven by a persistent recession, approximately 43 percent of voters named the economy or jobs as their top priority, propelling Bill Clinton to the presidency over incumbent George H.W. Bush.

It’s not even a domestic issue. This problem is global.

Spain is facing a severe national housing crisis. You can delete “Spain” and replace it with any other country or major city. While you can get ahead of the curve with Geoarbitration, prices will catch up even in more remote corners of the world.

It’s unaffordable

Approximately 50 percent of countries globally identify the cost of living and affordability as their absolute top national crisis in 2026. Nearly half of all households worldwide now spend more than 35 percent of their total income on rent.

With inflation increasing and prices stubbornly high, most U.S. households are saving less and spending more on credit. All of this is a great recipe for long-term debt and the coveted domestic destination trip to your kids’ basement. This is why my household has been pushing against being average and retiring at our desks. “Average attempts” are leading to dire outcomes.

Admittedly, it isn’t easy. Turning our starting investment portfolio* of $0 (January 2014) into $5 million (December 2034) seems a tall glass. Welp, if it were easy, it would be average. So, we are pushing ahead into uncharted financial territory.

*Since people ask what our holdings are, click here for TNFG’s real-time quarterly investment tracker on Google Sheets. It’s updated periodically. While I won’t pretend to be an expert with all the secrets and an expensive mastermind course, I am just a 9-5 worker who just likes to play with numbers. Our portfolio is 65 percent Equities and 30 percent ETFs. Additionally, it’s heavily tilted toward technology and way more aggressive than it needs to be.

Taking Advantage of Time

Time is the most valuable commodity on earth. Since we can’t live forever, no matter how you started if there are opportunities, my household believes in trying vs. giving up.

My wife has Type 1 diabetes (T1D). Search for T1D on Instagram to see how people are managing, it is exhausting. For an individual in the United States, managing T1D costs an average total of $18,817 to $25,652 per year in healthcare expenditures. Without health insurance, these out-of-pocket expenses can skyrocket to over $10,000 to $12,000 annually, depending entirely on the treatment regimen.

We have to try something. You are likely asking yourself why $5 million. We technically could pass with $3 million so this is just greed on my part. Not bad greed, i.e., partying with celebrities on yacht parties; more accurately, I like to exceed expectations. Sometimes you have to go beyond!

So what’s the plan to make this happen?

The easiest way to reach $5 million in savings is to not just save, but invest. No matter if it’s a “cocaine bear” or a fentanyl bull, the stock market remains a wealth-building powerhouse that can help your money grow exponentially.

Historically, the S&P 500 has earned an average rate of return of around 8%-10% per year. In other words, all the annual returns have averaged out to roughly 9 percent per year. Comparatively, bonds and other “safer” investments may only earn average returns of around 3 percent to 4 percent per year. Local bank savings rates hover around 0.01 percent.

While that may not seem like a major difference, it will have an enormous impact on your savings. Simply put, investing beats saving.

For example, say you have $10,000 invested in the stock market. If you let your money sit without making any additional contributions, it would take around 60 years to grow into $2 million if you earn an 8 percent average annual return. With a 4 percent average annual return on Treasury Bonds, it would take 117 years. But if you left it all in a savings account at your local bank, netting 0.01 percent, it would take you 46,054 years. No, kidding, that number is in years!

Savings aren’t cutting it, especially with escalating inflation. Here is what we do:

1. BUY while stocks in great companies are LOW
2. Use the power of Dollar Cost Averaging (DCA) and compounding to grow wealth exponentially
3. Max out on our respective 401(k)s, Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs), and Health Savings Accounts (HSAs)
   • Tax savings and investing north of $5,000 per month.

Start investing early and let your money work for you

Time is your most valuable resource when it comes to investing for retirement.

Years to Invest	Monthly Investments	Total Contributions	Total Interest Earned
35	$170	$71,507	$2,328,493
30	$689	$248,141	$2,151,859
25	$1,548	$464,512	$1,935,488
20	$3,036	$728,642	$1,671,358
15	$5,825	$1,048,540	$1,351,460
10	$11,930	$1,431,549	$968,451
5	$31,394	$1,883,619	$516,381

Thanks to compound earnings, the more time your investments have to grow, the more you’ll earn. Say, for instance, you have $100,000 to start, and assuming a 9 percent average annual return, here’s how much you’d need to invest each month to reach the goal of $2.5 million (see table #1).

Every year you wait is costly. Inversely, every early investment is powerful.

With 20 years until retirement, your contributions are kicking out nearly 8x the interest earned. Versus less than 1x if you waited until you had ten years.

Putting off investing for even a few years can make the journey unattainable. If you wait until there are five years left to retire, you are looking at throwing the kitchen sink just to catch up.

Even if you can’t afford to invest a lot today, it’s better to get started. Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the wealthy. As a bonus, when you start early, your money ends up working harder than you. Nothing better than seeing your investment portfolio bringing in more money than your gross salary.

If you want to learn how we invested up to $5,000, check out the net/max financial plan on the resource page.

Invest the Right Way. More money and fewer mistakes to reach your retirement goals

Turns out, all investments are not created equal.

In 2020-2022, we witnessed a proliferation of cryptocurrency and NFTS. A majority of Americans lost a lot of money on those Wall Street bets. Money was too loose and too easy. Putting your faith, time, effort, and money in the wrong places can set you back for decades. Post-housing crash, some folks were able to use that momentum to buy distressed properties and garner rentals. Others were able to double their tech stocks post-2022. All this to say, opportunities can look different from moment to moment.

It’s always better to invest in the long term. Wealth calcifies over time. You need your efforts to be sustainable before they go exponential.

Short-term risks and “opportunities” always promise to make you rich overnight without any consequences, but they rarely pay off.

Understand your risk profile and risk capacity as you age. Learn how to calculate your investment risk profile with SmartAsset.com.

If you don’t know everything, most of us don’t start investing in an index ETF pegged to the S&P 500. It’s smart, diversified, and easier to understand than guessing a winning stock day to day.

Learn to earn for the long term and stick with it toward your retirement goals. For the TNFG household, we double down on what works, like the retirement account, and then we add an after-tax portfolio. The latter is part of our early retirement passive dividend income strategy.

Being risk-averse and debt-free will not cut it. You have to get comfortable with investing the right way.

Avoid withdrawing your money early; the penalties are tax-heavy!

Most people make one catastrophic error when it comes to savings and investing. They take out money on any given Sunday. While it’s understandable that emergencies come up. It’s better to let your money simmer separately from your day-to-day spending.

This is why you need an emergency financial savings plan so you don’t have to tap money from your long-term goals. If you’re investing through an employer-sponsored plan 401(k), 403b, 457b, or even a traditional IRA, you will be hit with a penalty and income taxes if you withdraw your savings before age 59 1/2.

Avoid Dummy Mistakes

Withdrawing your money will make it harder to build a $1 million nest egg. For instance, say you have $5,000, but you withdraw $2,500 to cover an emergency.

Assuming you’re earning an 8 percent average annual return and investing $250 per month, here’s how that withdrawal will affect your total savings over time (see table #2).

Years	Total Savings W/out Withdrawal	Total Savings W/Withdrawal	Diff
0 (Today)	$5,000	$2,500	$2,500
5	$25,583	$21,909	$3,674
10	$55,826	$50,428	$5,398
20	$165,555	$153,902	$11,653
30	$402,451	$377,294	$25,157
40	$913,892	$859,581	$54,311

In other words, that $2,500 withdrawal could ultimately cost you over $200,000 in lost potential earnings over 20 years.

Even more so, as time goes on. That $2,500 emergency is worth more than $500,000.

Most people do repeated withdrawals for home repairs, new cars, and other medical emergencies. Until their savings are dried up by age 60.

It happens fairly quickly, like rolling down a steep hill. Just a casual warning: draft a solid financial plan that doesn’t force you to pull out with expensive fees, taxes, and penalties. Additionally, don’t commit to massive expenses at the start of retirement, i.e., new homes, cars, or repairs. They do way more damage to your savings and livelihood.

Check out my acid emergency plan for details.

The Multiplying Effect of Good Financial Habits

Saving $1 million for retirement wasn’t easy. It’s going to be nerve-racking to get to $5 million, especially if you didn’t come from wealth. However, it’s not impossible to do. My wife and I found a great investment strategy and stick with it. Most of our good will came from buying a two-bedroom home. With a mortgage and HOA of $1,000 per month, we are able to pull money to pay down debts, travel, and invest. Our peers in the Washington, DC metro are paying anywhere from $2,500 to $4,000.

Secondly, you have to make investing a priority. By investing early and consistently, we gave our retirement investments plenty of runway to soar above the average. Even though, I started in my thirties, we are clearing ground.

Here’s how it’s been going so far:

Year	Beginning Portfolio Value	Year End Portfolio Value	Cash Value Difference	Percentage Growth or Decrease	Notes:
2014	$500.00	$8,213	+$7,714	+93.91%	In the beginning? We didn’t know what to do. We kicked it off with our 401ks.
2015	$8,213	$38,881	+$30,667	+373.37%	Added in Traditional IRAs
2016	$38,881	$32,993	-$5,889	-15.15%	Started traveling, And Purchased our home
2017	$32,993	$46,142	+$13,149	+39.86%	Purchased the headache aka Rental Property #1 (Presumably)
2018	$46,142	$122,713	+$76,571	+165.95%	Steady working
2019	$122,713	$204,969	$82,256	+40.13%	Traveled a lot and started learning Investing from scratch
2020	$204,969	$356,167	+$151,198	+73.77%	Pandemic and more opportunity to see the market perform.
2021	$356,167	$526,541	+$170,373	+47.84%	Learning and earning in the market
2022	$526,541	$472,863	-$53,678	-10.19%	First through downturn
2023	$472,863	$689,784	+$216,921	+45.87%	The benefits of holding for the long term vs. short-term ideology
2024	$689,784	$1,019,000	+$329,216	+47.73%	Balancing our approach.
2025	$1,019,000	$1,358,008	+$339,008	+33.27%	Finding our Beta with Tech
2026	$1,358,008	$1,892,876	+$534,868	+39.39%	Learning to adjust as necessary.

Here’s where we think it’s headed:

Year	Beginning Portfolio Value	Anticipated End Portfolio Value	Cash Value Difference	Percentage Growth or Decrease	Notes
2027	$1,892,876	$2,526,928	+$634,053	+33.50%	Great setup year
2028	$2,526,928	$2,666,316	+$139,387	+5.52%	Down Election Cycle
2029	$2,666,316	$3,333,159	+$666,844	+25.01%	America’s Reset
2030	$3,333,159	$3,922,040	+$588,881	+17.67%	Opportunity for all
2031	$3,922,040	$4,484,336	+$562,296	+14.34%	Good but not Great
2032	$4,484,336	$5,179,377	+$695,040	+15.50%	Up Year, Final Tech Rush!
2033	$5,179,377	$5,545,521	+$366,144	+7.07%	Down Year and Recession Fears
2034	$5,545,521	$5,889,162	+$343,642	+6.20%	Recession likely

Even with the 5% withdrawal, we will be looking at $250,000 per year for the rest of our lives to spend. By the way, that’s without touching the principal, which would still grow at 8-9 percent. Do the math: you are still up 3 percent, or +$150,000 on average annually, to add to your $5 million.

With all that cash, we can definitely cover our expenses with room for charitable work.

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