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INVESTING How to Start Investing With $100: A Step-by-Step Guide 2026-02-26 · 6 min read · start investing · invest with $100 · beginner investing

How to Start Investing With $100: A Step-by-Step Guide

investing 2026-02-26 · 6 min read start investing invest with $100 beginner investing fractional shares Fidelity Robinhood

The biggest myth about investing is that you need a lot of money to get started. You don't. Thanks to fractional shares, zero-minimum accounts, and commission-free trading, you can open an investment account today with $100 — and the most important thing you'll gain isn't returns, it's the habit.

Here's exactly how to start investing with $100.

Why Starting Small Is Better Than Waiting

The most expensive investing mistake isn't choosing a bad stock. It's waiting.

If you invested $100/month starting at age 25 and earned the historical market average of about 7% annually after inflation, you'd have approximately $262,000 by age 65. If you waited until 35 to start, you'd have only $122,000 — less than half, just from starting 10 years later.

That $140,000 difference wasn't because you invested more money — it's because the early money had more time to compound. This is why starting with $100 today is infinitely better than waiting until you have $1,000, $5,000, or "enough."

Step 1: Choose What Type of Account to Open

Before you buy anything, you need an account to hold your investments. The type of account affects how you're taxed.

Roth IRA — Best starting choice for most beginners:

Traditional IRA:

401(k) — If your employer offers one:

Taxable brokerage — For money beyond retirement accounts:

For most beginners with $100, the answer is: open a Roth IRA at Fidelity.

Step 2: Choose a Platform

Fidelity (Recommended for beginners):

Vanguard:

Charles Schwab:

Betterment:

Robinhood:

Step 3: Open the Account

Opening a Fidelity Roth IRA takes about 15 minutes:

  1. Go to fidelity.com and select "Open an Account"
  2. Choose "Roth IRA"
  3. Enter your personal information (name, address, SSN, date of birth)
  4. Link your bank account (routing and account number)
  5. Fund the account — transfer your $100
  6. Wait 1-3 business days for the transfer to settle

During setup, Fidelity will ask how you want to invest. You can choose to manage it yourself (pick your own investments) or use their automated options. For beginners, managing it yourself and buying one index fund is straightforward.

Step 4: Choose What to Buy

With $100 in a new Roth IRA at Fidelity, here's what to buy:

The simplest approach: One fund

FZROX (Fidelity Zero Total Market Index Fund) — tracks the entire US stock market, costs 0.00%, no minimum investment. With $100, you're instantly invested in over 3,000 US companies.

FZILX (Fidelity Zero International Index Fund) — tracks international stocks, costs 0.00%. Adding this alongside FZROX gives you global diversification.

A common simple allocation with $100:

That's it. You're done. You own a tiny slice of thousands of companies worldwide.

Alternative at other platforms:

Step 5: Set Up Automatic Monthly Contributions

This is the most important step, even more important than what you buy.

Set up an automatic monthly transfer from your bank account to your Roth IRA. Even $50 or $100/month is transformative over decades.

In Fidelity: Go to the account, select "Transfer," then set up a recurring automatic investment. Choose the date (payday works well) and the amount. Also set up automatic investment into your chosen funds so the money doesn't sit as uninvested cash.

Automation removes willpower from the equation. You'll invest consistently without having to remember to do it manually each month.

What About Stocks?

Many beginners want to buy individual stocks — a company they use and like, a hot stock they've heard about, something exciting. This is natural but statistically counterproductive.

Research consistently shows that individual stock pickers underperform index funds over the long term. Even professional portfolio managers fail to beat the market on average. Picking individual winning stocks requires getting many things right simultaneously: the company's fundamentals, its competitive position, market timing, and luck.

Index funds sidestep all of this by owning everything. The winners and losers are both in there, but the winners historically outweigh the losers enough to produce ~7% real annual returns over long periods.

If you want to scratch the individual stock itch, a common approach is to keep 90%+ of your portfolio in index funds and allow yourself to invest 5-10% in individual stocks you believe in. This limits damage if any individual stock disappoints while still allowing the experiment.

Your $100 in Perspective

On day one, your $100 investment doesn't feel like much. Here's the context that makes it meaningful:

With $100/month and 7% annual returns:

That's $262,000 from $100/month — $48,000 of your own money and $214,000 in investment gains. The gains come from compound growth working silently over decades while you live your life.

If you increase contributions as your income grows — $100 this year, $200 next year, $300 the year after — the numbers scale dramatically higher.

Common Beginner Questions

"Should I wait for the market to drop before investing?"

Market timing doesn't work, even for professionals. The market has down years, but it's impossible to consistently predict when. Studies show that people who invest immediately (even at market peaks) consistently outperform people who wait for "the right time." Invest as soon as you have the money.

"What if the market crashes right after I invest?"

Markets do crash. The S&P 500 dropped 34% in early 2020, 38% in 2008-2009, and 49% in 2000-2002. In every case, it recovered to new highs eventually. If you continue investing during downturns (dollar-cost averaging), you buy more shares at lower prices and recover faster.

A long investment horizon (10-40+ years) means market crashes are temporary setbacks, not permanent losses — unless you panic and sell.

"How do I know when to sell?"

For long-term index fund investing, the answer is almost never — not when the market drops (that's when you buy more), not when you see news about the economy, not when you're nervous. The exception is when you actually need the money (retirement, a large planned expense) or you're rebalancing your portfolio.

The Bottom Line

Starting with $100 is perfectly valid. Open a Roth IRA at Fidelity, buy FZROX, set up a $100 automatic monthly transfer, and forget about it. Check quarterly at most.

The habit of investing consistently, started as early as possible, is what builds wealth over a lifetime. The amount doesn't matter nearly as much as the consistency and the time. Start today.