See How Your Small Investment Could Have Grown to Millions
A 'time machine' tool allows users to see how much $100 in select stocks could have grown to. If invested in Apple in 1980, that money would have grown to about $2.6 million today.
The Get the Facts Data Team has built this tool, which lets users adjust both the year and amount invested. Investing in the S&P 500, an index of the 500 largest publicly traded companies in the U.S., yields a historical average annual return of about 10%, according to Fidelity.
Experts say you don't have to have a lot of money to begin your stock market journey. 'It may be scary to start today, but there's no better time,' said Scott Laing, clinical assistant professor of finance at the University at Buffalo. 'What matters is you're in the market, and usually over time, a rising tide lifts all ships.'