$1.5 Million Invested for 20 Years… How Much Would It Be Worth?

If someone invested $1.5 million in 2005 and just left it alone for 20 years, what would it grow to? Mostly stocks and bonds, nothing fancy. I’ve tried those online calculators, but they always ask for monthly contributions or withdrawals, and I just want a simple answer. Would doubling every 10 years be a good guess? Like $3 million in 2015 and maybe $6 million today? That feels kind of high, though. What do you all think?

Check out this site: https://www.stoculator.com/. If you’d invested $1.5M in Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund on January 1, 2005, it would be around $10.9M now.

Ren said:
Check out this site: https://www.stoculator.com/. If you’d invested $1.5M in Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund on January 1, 2005, it would be around $10.9M now.

Just remember, past performance doesn’t guarantee future results. But the S&P typically averages 7-9% over long periods.

@Galen
Yeah, I get that. Still wild to see it go up that much.

Oli said:
@Galen
Yeah, I get that. Still wild to see it go up that much.

Compound interest. The eighth wonder of the world.

Ren said:
Check out this site: https://www.stoculator.com/. If you’d invested $1.5M in Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund on January 1, 2005, it would be around $10.9M now.

That’s insane! Imagine just leaving it alone.

Ren said:
Check out this site: https://www.stoculator.com/. If you’d invested $1.5M in Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund on January 1, 2005, it would be around $10.9M now.

Man, that’s hard to believe.

@Oli
It’s the magic of compound interest. The longer the timeline, the crazier the results.

Ren said:
Check out this site: https://www.stoculator.com/. If you’d invested $1.5M in Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund on January 1, 2005, it would be around $10.9M now.

What if the stock was manipulated over 20 years and stayed flat? Feels like the system is rigged sometimes.

@Kingsley
What are you even talking about?

@Kingsley
Your username explains a lot, lol.

It’s just simple math: 1500000 * 1.07^20. Done.

Gray said:
It’s just simple math: 1500000 * 1.07^20. Done.

I get the $1.5M and the 20, but what’s the 1.07? Is that 7% ROI?

Oli said:

Gray said:
It’s just simple math: 1500000 * 1.07^20. Done.

I get the $1.5M and the 20, but what’s the 1.07? Is that 7% ROI?

Exactly. 1 is the original amount, and .07 is 7%. Add them together to compound it year by year.

If you’re using an online calculator, just set monthly contributions to $0.

A 7-10% annual return is pretty reasonable if you don’t mess around too much.

  • At 7%, you’d double every 10 years, so about $6M in 20 years.
  • At 10%, you’d double every 7 years, which would make it $11-12M.

That 3% difference really adds up over time!

@Layne
This explains it well: Rule of 72 - Wikipedia.

Harlan said:
@Layne
This explains it well: Rule of 72 - Wikipedia.

Yep, the Rule of 72 is perfect for this.

If I didn’t need the money to live on, I’d go 100% stocks for 20 years.

For doubling, use the Rule of 72. If your return is 10%, it doubles every 7.2 years. At 7%, it takes just over 10 years. Simple and effective.