If you’re someone juggling a million things, the idea of investing might sound overwhelming — especially if you’re starting with just $100. But guess what? That first $100 can be the start of building real wealth.
You don’t need to be an expert or have a finance degree. You just need a little guidance, a safe place to start, and a few minutes to take action.
Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you invest your first $100 the smart way.
Step 1: Find Your First $100
If you don’t have an extra $100 to invest, your first goal will be to find $100. There’s many ways to do this. First, start with your job. Can you work extra hours, take on a new client, or charge a bit more to earn those extra dollars? The key, though, with this money is to earmark any extra for investing. It can be easy to spend that money, but we have to be intentional and decisive with that money.
The second thing that you can do is to look around your house, see if there’s anything that can be sold right away so you can first get the $100 to invest. There might be something with a tag still on there. Maybe your kids have outgrown something. Maybe there’s just extra furniture that you are not using anymore. Sell those and use the proceeds to invest.
The third thing that you’re going to do is to really look at your expenses. What are you spending money on that could be eliminated or canceled? Specifically, look at your monthly subscriptions. How can you save $100 from your monthly subscriptions? Can you re-negotiate rates, downgrade to a cheaper plan, or cancel it entirely. Reviewing your subscriptions often ensure now money is wasted on services that you don’t use.
Step 2: Choose a Brokerage Firm
Now that you have your $100 to invest, your second step is to find yourself a brokerage firm or company. Think of a brokerage firm as an online store. This is where you are going to buy your investments, and your investments are going to come in a lot of different forms. You can buy it as single stocks. You might buy it as mutual funds, or you might buy index funds.
Skip the flashy apps and go with trusted platforms like:
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Fidelity
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Charles Schwab
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Vanguard
These brokerages are beginner-friendly with:
✅ No account minimums
✅ No trading fees
✅ Tools to help you invest for the long term
This is helpful as you want a brokerage that is with you for the long haul. No trading fees means more of your money is working for you. If you start paying a lot of fees to use their platform, your money will dwindle quickly, and you won’t have enough to invest.
I’m going to recommend that you shy away from trading apps. Apps like Robinhood or WeBull can make investing feel like a game. But here’s the problem: they encourage quick trades, flashy bets, and risky moves. All of those things encourage you to buy and sell often and quickly, which, based on numerous studies, shows us that it’s not good for building long-term wealth.
Step 3: Choose the Right Investment Account
There’s a whole range of investment accounts that you can choose from depending on your goals. Some accounts provide generous tax advantages.
As a beginner, you will likely choose either the Roth IRA or a Brokerage Account. The Roth IRA has different tax treatment and provides tax advantages. But it has a required earned income. For the brokerage account, there are not a lot of tax advantages to it, but you can use it as a starting point for your investment.
Figuring out the right investment account will help you in the long run to save taxes, ensure your money grows fast, and ensures you have options when it’s time to withdraw your money. And it might be that the best option for you as a beginner is to open both a Roth IRA and a Brokerage Account so that you can diversify the tax treatment of your money.
Investment Account Types
Step 4: Buy an Investment
Your next step in investing your first $100 is to buy an investment. When you finally get that $100 transferred to your investment account, don’t forget this key step: Buy an Investment.
Within your investment account, you can either buy a stock, a mutual fund, or an index fund ETF. When you are investing, you are basically buying a share of a company. As long as the perceived value of that company continues to go up, you will benefit either through dividends or an increase in stock price.
The easiest and simplest investment you can buy is an index fund ETF. This is basically a basket of companies that you can invest in.
Look for something called an index fund or ETF, which spreads your investment across hundreds of companies that you know.
Try one of these beginner-friendly funds:
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VTI – Total US Market (Vanguard)
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SCHB – Total US Market (Schwab)
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FXAIX – S&P 500 Fund (Fidelity)
The next thing you can buy with your $100 is a fractional share of a stock. Let’s say for example that you want to buy Amazon stock, but it’s currently trading at around $200. Unfortunately, we don’t have enough to buy a full stock of Amazon, so what we can do is do what’s called a fractional share, where we would submit our $100 and we get a fraction of a share of Amazon, and in this case, half of an Amazon stock.
For long-term wealth building, I’d shy away from picking stocks as it can be hard to pick the “right” stock. Go with the easy solution of buying a mutual fund or index fund ETF. They’re low-cost, diversified, and work great even if you’re investing small amounts.
Step 5: Make It A Consistent Habit
Let’s be honest — $100 alone won’t change your life and make you rich.
But here’s what that first $100 investment will do:
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Build your confidence
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Help you learn how investing works
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Help you make mistakes while the stakes are low
The real secret to investing is to do it consistently.
Make it a habit!
After your first $100, set up a recurring investment. Start with $10 a week. $25 a month. Whatever you can, but set it on autopilot. Most brokerages let you schedule recurring investments.
It’s set it and forget it — while you focus on life.
Final Thoughts
You don’t need a lot of money to start. You just need your first $100 and a plan.
Make it simple. Make it consistent. Make it automatic.
You’ve got this! And your future self (and your kids!) will thank you.
🎁 Bonus for You: Free PDF Cheat Sheet + Tracker
To make this easy, I’ve put together a cheat sheet that walks you through these steps and includes a simple investment tracker so you can see your progress.
To learn more about investing, these 3 books can help you.
Video for How to Invest Your First $100 for Beginners
Explainer video on the Three-Fund Portfolio
How to Invest Your First $100 – A Beginner’s Guide