Most investors focus on trying to find the market’s next big winners. It may be the more exciting way to approach your investing strategy, but in most cases it’s not the most successful. The better way to build wealth over time is usually building your portfolio brick by brick.
By steadily and consistently putting money away in the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: VOO), investors have a clear path to building a $1 million portfolio if they can stick with it.
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The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF has an expense ratio of just 0.03%, making it one of the cheapest ways to own the largest U.S. companies.
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Over the past 10 years, VOO has an average annual return of 14%. The longer-term return for U.S. stocks is closer to 10% per year.
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Investing $500 per month at an average annual return of 10% can grow to $1 million in just over 30 years.
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Dollar-cost averaging and avoiding the temptation to trade short-term have historically rewarded patient investors who ride out volatility.
When you’re building up the core of your portfolio, you want to look for investments that are durable, proven, and have the balance sheet strength to ride out different economic cycles. The companies of the S&P 500 are just that.
Plus, they represent all areas of the U.S. economy, including tech, healthcare, energy, and financial services. That type of diversification not only helps to generate more consistent revenue and earnings growth overall, it helps to reduce some of the volatility that comes from any one segment of the market underperforming.
To be fair, diversification hadn’t been in vogue lately, although that changed in 2026. Tech and growth stocks were about the only areas of the market outperforming. A lot of people went chasing after these stocks and are now overweight them in their portfolio.
But 2026 provides us a good reminder that the stock market almost always rotates eventually. Sectors and themes go in and out of favor. Instead of trying to pick winners and losers or trying to time the market with active trading, it’s often better to just own the whole basket and let the long-term power of compounding do the work for you.
Here’s a practical look at how different levels of monthly investment and rates of return affect how long it takes to reach $1 million.
