If I Started Investing in 2026, This Is What I Would Do (Full Beginner’s Guide)

So where are you actually supposed to start investing, especially if you only have a dollar in the first place? Well, actually, what you need is $1 to access the biggest money making vehicle in the history of the world. I started investing at the age of 14. Now I'm a financial freak. I'm a weirdo. But that's why I'm recording this YouTube video and you're watching, learning how to invest your first dollar. You don't need to pick stocks. You don't need some secret strategy that only somebody selling it while writing on a whiteboard has. No big lump sums of money necessary. You don't even need any secret freaking tips. You can actually start investing right now. No nonsense, no crazy fees, and you can put that money to work. It's not that complicated. And it is actually the way that serious wealth is built. And I will show you how to scale scale that system in the future when you start earning even more. Let's get into it, starting with investing your first dollar. Now, here's a thought experiment that's going to shock you. Let's just say you're 25, okay? Just play with me for a second. No money in the bank. How much do you think you'd have to set aside today, age 25, to have six figures in your portfolio in 30 years? Do you think you'd need $500 a month invested? A thousand dollars a month invested? No. The answer is actually $5 a day. You don't need to already be rich before you can start investing. In fact, the way you become rich is by investing. So the biggest barrier is often not money alone. It is getting your money to start working in the first place. A lot of people think that I just need to save money. Guys, saving is not going to build real wealth. Saving loses money every single month because of inflation. The way to build wealth is investing. Now, as an example, if somebody walks into the gym for the first time, they're not going over the bench press and pressing 225. You're starting with just the bar or maybe even an assisted pushup. And you know what happens? That pushup builds the habit. And then you show up the next day, and the next, you do more pushups. Then the strength happens. But the habit comes first. And investing is exactly the same. You actually don't need a lot of money to start, but you do have to start. If you can invest $1, then as you earn more, you can invest $50, $100, then $1,000. But until you finally get over that mental hurdle, knowing that you too can be an investor. Your money's just sitting there in your checking account and it's actually losing money in investing. Going from $0 to investing your first hundred dollars is often harder than going from 10,000 to 100,000. The reason you are watching this video and what I'm going to show you is how to get started investing even with a small amount of money. When your money sits in your checking account, inflation is slowly eating away at it. Like if you have $1,000 today, that same amount will be worth roughly $740 in 10 years. So think of inflation like gravity. It is slowly pushing down on the value of the dollar. And the only way to fight against that gravity is to invest. Investing over time beats inflation. So let's now flip it around. What if you had invested the same amount? For example, if you invested that thousand dollars that otherwise stayed in your savings account and got eaten away due to inflation, in 10 years, that thousand dollars would actually be worth almost $2,000. You can see that investing is stronger than inflation. And that is why it is so important that you start to invest right now. Since we are talking about how far a single dollar can take you, there's another place where $1 matters and that is protecting the people you love. Investing is about building your future, but term life insurance is about protecting the people who rely on you right now. Like what if something bad happened to you? Would your partner or your kids be okay? Would they have time to grieve? Or would they be scrambling to cover living expenses? That's where today's sponsor can help. Fabric by Gerber Life is term life insurance that you can get done today. Made for busy parents like you. It's all online. It's on your schedule, right from your couch. You could be covered in under 10 minutes with no health exam required. And the best part, Fabric has flexible, high quality policies that fit your family and and your numbers. Like a million dollars in coverage for less than a dollar a day. Even if you have life insurance through your employer, it may not offer enough protection for your family and it can disappear the moment you leave your job. Fabric follows you wherever you go. There's also a 30 day money back guarantee and you can cancel at any time. So you can make the decision confidently. If you've got kids, and especially if you are young and healthy, locking in low rates now is one of the smartest moves you can make your future. Join the thousands of parents who trust fabric to help protect their family. Apply today in just minutes@meatfabric.com Ramit Sati that's meatfabric.com Ramit sati All right, let's get back to the system that we're building. Step one, Opening your first account. An investment account gives you access to the biggest money making vehicle in the history of the world, the US Stock market. Oh my God, it's so awesome. Look, what did I tell you? Each of us has a purpose on this planet. My purpose is not to pet your smelly little dog. My purpose is to show you how to invest so you can buy all the dog food you want. Now, whatever money you have today, you can start investing. If you have only $20 a month to invest, you can start today. That's why our first step is getting an account. So here are three options I like for opening your first account. First option is Fidelity. I have a Fidelity account. I think they're great. There's no minimum amount you need to open an account. So this option is great. If you just want to get started with a dollar, it's really simple. But I'm going to mention two other accounts just in case you want more details. Option two is Vanguard. I also have an account there. I think they're great, especially because they focus on low cost, which can save you a ton of money over the long term. Vanguard has a minimum, but they will waive it if you agree to automatically invest, which I think is a totally fair trade. Finally, Charles Schwab is option three. They also have a minimum of thousand dollars, but they will waive it if you set up $100 automatic monthly contribution. They're great as well. By the way, I don't make a cent from recommending any of these. I just want you to know what the good low cost brokerages are. And I happen to have accounts in each of these companies. Now, if you have the ability to pick, which should you choose? Honestly, does it really matter? Not really. Pick one and get on with your life. You really do not need to spend three weeks comparing every single feature. Now, once you have a brokerage account, you're going to want to choose what type of accounts you want within that account. Now, in general, without knowing your specific details, I really like one called a Roth ira. Let me explain why. When you put money in a Roth ira, which is a type of retirement account, it grows tax free. So let's say you get paid $10,000. And just to make the math really easy, let's say you pay taxes on 50% of it. You have $5,000 post tax. You can put that money in a Roth IRA and let it grow. And it'll grow to 10,000, 20,000, 70,000, 90,000, 200,000, and on and on. Because when you are ready to withdraw those funds in retirement, you're going to pay zero taxes on those earnings. Whoa. Now, some of you don't understand a single word I just said. All you need to know is you could make a lot of money using your Roth ira. But please don't open up investment accounts just because you think I'm making a funny joke on YouTube. Get my book. I will teach you to be rich. Learn this. It's important. Open up your account. Now. Roth IRAs are great for new investors. They have a contribution limit. But you can be earning really good money before you run into that. And if that ever happens, you can open up a standard taxable brokerage account. No income limits, no contribution limits. You can invest as much as you want. Okay, listen. Here's your action steps. Pick an account from Vanguard, Schwab, or Fidelity's website. Open up the account. Open up a Roth ira. This takes less than an hour. If you're not sure how, call them. You can do the entire process online. Now, if you're watching this thinking, okay, I get it. But I'm still a little nervous. What if I do it wrong? That's where most people stop. They want to start investing. They've been thinking about it for the last 2, 3, 10 years, but they get stuck between 10 tabs and they don't understand what one of these words means, and they second guess everything. And then a year later, they still haven't opened their account. Does that sound like you? Because if that's you, I built something for you to help you get started. Right now, it's called My Money Coaching Program. And inside the program, I will personally walk you through setting up your entire financial system, step by step, in just 48 hours. Are you sick and tired of just watching a bunch of videos and not actually putting your money to work? Then get into the Money Coaching Program because we're going to open up your accounts. We're going to automate your savings and investments and even plan where your money goes every month so you can stop this guessing and feel confident and comfortable. In Money Coaching, you'll get live calls with me done for you, templates and personalized support so you will never be stuck. And you need a system that works. I will finally help you get it set up. Scan this QR code or click the link below and join Money Coaching today. All right, now that you have an account, you're going to need to buy an actual investment inside that account. Let's do that next. Now, when people usually think about investing, they think about sitting in a dark room with five monitors picking stocks. Somehow, that's not the way investing works, you freaks. That's what people think investing is. Those people all lose their money and they end up divorced. I'm going to tell you how to actually invest, and it's going to be surprisingly boring. In fact, what if I told you that the best investors are not picking individual stocks at all? Let me tell you a startling statistic. 75% plus of professional investors fail to beat the market. You can buy the market. So that means that 75% plus of professional investors actually get worse investing results than you can get. You actually don't need to pay someone extra money to lose money in the market. I'm actually going to show you how to match the market for essentially no cost. Now, one way is index funds. Index funds are just a basket of different stocks, and they automatically choose the biggest companies in America, basically, the major stocks. Now, this is great because you don't actually have to pick the stocks. You just pick one index. And I know it sounds crazy, but this is actually how sophisticated investors make a lot of money. Don't just take my word for it. Warren Buffett says that 99% of people who invest should buy index funds with very low costs. So the next question people have is like, hey, Ramit, what about me? I can pick individual stocks. What if I can pick a winner? Well, what if I could be a professional model who also does politics, Pilates, and plays in the NFL? It sounds tempting to be able to pick individual stocks because in so many parts of life, we are used to picking what we want. Especially Americans love this idea of I want it the way I want it. We go to a restaurant, we pick the steak, we go substitute this, substitute that. But investing is different. You're. Look at my lips. You're not good. You're not. I'm trying to be nice and not say you. So once you accept that, then you can just buy the index and make countless amounts of money by essentially doing nothing. Because individual stocks, for most people, it's essentially gambling. So instead, I personally would go with index funds. In fact, I have. That's what I have built the bulk of my net worth in. They're boring. They're not sexy. But I like boring if it builds me a rich life. And there's one other reason that I love index funds and I think you're going to be surprised by this. Index funds are extremely inexpensive. Now, you might think, what does it matter? I'm willing to pay a little bit more if I get a better return the way I'm willing to pay a little bit more for sushi if it's fresher, if it tastes better. But that's actually not how investing works. Small differences in investing fees add up in a way that the human mind does not fully understand. Pull out your phone right now and text your parents. Just say, hey, you know that financial advisor you use? How much do you pay them? And write in the comments below what their response is. I can tell you right now, the majority of your parents have no idea how much they pay their financial advisor. In what other part of life would you be paying somebody for decades and not even know how much you're paying? You know, how much you pay to get your oil change. You know how much you pay to have someone come and clean your house or apartment, you know, but not the financial advisor. And finally, if you actually show them math like I cover in chapter six of I Will Teach youh to Be Rich, you know what they're gonna say, well, it's okay. I really like him. He's a nice guy. Now, listen, I don't know about you, I certainly don't know about your parents, but I would rather keep that money. So I'm gonna give you three index funds that I really like. These are not specific suggestions for what you should do, but I want to tell you the funds that I look at and I go, oh, yeah, these are good funds for Fidelity, Fidelity Zero Total Market index fund, or FZROX, at 0%, no minimum. You can start with a dollar for Schwab. Schwab has a Total Stock Market index fund, or SWTSX, at 0.03%. That is very inexpensive. Again, no minimums for Vanguard. There's a crowd favorite, the Vanguard Total Stock Market index fund, or VTSAX, at 0.04%. You need a $3,000 minimum to start in this fund, which they will waive if you agree to set up automatic investments. This is a large percentage of my portfolio. Each of these funds has incredibly low fees. So if you pick one, your money will be able to compound much faster. Here's your action step. If you want to start investing, you can log into your brokerage account, whether it's with Fidelity, Vanguard, or Schwab or whatever. You can transfer $100 straight from your checking account, and you can purchase one of these funds or another fund. The point is, I want you to start getting used to being being an investor. Even better, set it up to automatically invest every single month. Let me show you how to do that. Next, one of the most profitable decisions you will ever make will be setting up automatic investing. Let me show you how powerful these numbers can be. If you invest $50 a month, you'll have $8,000 in 10 years. That doesn't sound like that much, but let's keep going. That turns into $25,000 in 20 years, and in 30 years, that is 50, $55,000. That's just a small amount invested. Most people actually increase the amount that they invest as they get raises, as they get married, and on and on and on. Now, I want to point something out to you. Not only is that a lot of money, but it's really easy to make it happen. Let me show you how to do it. First, you can start with a dollar a week. I think you could do more, but I'm just giving you an example of how small you can start off. The amount itself doesn't matter as much as building the habit. Second, make that dollar an automatic transfer. How? Log into your brokerage account, link it to your checking account, and you set up a recurring transfer. I recommend doing it every single month. Now, most brokerages make this really easy. When you log into the brokerage account, just look for something that says transfers or automatic investment and follow the prompt. It takes like 10 minutes. Now, let me give you a bonus suggestion for how to really increase the amount of wealth you're building. Every December, increase your contributions by 1%. That's it. Now let me show you the staggering math. Let's assume two different people each make the same amount of money, $80,000 a year, and they start investing at age 30, and they retire at 65. The first person makes a flat contribution. They invest 5% or $4,000 per year. They get a 7% average return after inflation. So over 35 years, they have $553,000. That's pretty good. Person number two increases their contributions every year. So they start at 5%, and every December, they increase that number 1% until they get to 15% and they just keep it there. So at that point, they are investing 5, 15% of their income. They get the same 7% return. You know how much they end up with? Almost $1.4 million. That single decision in December is worth about $845,000. That's more than all the coffee, all the disgusting Arby's all the substandard chilies that you're going to eat for your entire life combined. All of it from one decision. Why am I getting so mad right now? I'm getting mad because I see more potential in you than sometimes you can even see in yourself. And just to be able to do this one tiny thing produces massive outcomes for you. And remember, this is without factoring in any salary increases or bonuses. Literally, you just need to click a button once a year. So if you are currently contributing 5% to your investment accounts, set up a calendar reminder. Make it 6% next December, then 7% the year after. By the way, we have automatic reminders for all of this in my money coaching program, so you don't even have to remember this. We will show you exactly what to do at the end of every year, at the beginning of every next year, so that you will be taking advantage of every opportunity you have. If you are watching this right now and realizing you have a lot of things that you can do with your money, go ahead and hit the subscribe button and turn on notifications. I'm going to be sharing more videos to help you grow your money this year. So you want to click both of those below so you can get notified as soon as I release the videos. You want to know how to grow your investments even faster? How to take them from a few hundred thousand to millions? Let me show you how to do it. Now. You might be starting out with a little bit of money, but over time your income will likely go up. At some point you are going to get a raise. If you're single right now, you might get married. Maybe you get a tax refund. When that happens, you need to know what to do with the extra money. Now, have you ever thought about this? Because most of us never have. In this section, I'm going to show you exactly how to use that extra money to grow your net worth bigger and faster. And if you learn how to make the right choice, it can mean hundreds of thousands of dollars of additional money over your lifetime. Let's use my ladder of Personal Finance. If you scale it one rung at a time, you're going to build wealth more efficiently. Now, the first rung is getting your employer's 401k match. If your employer offers a 401k match, I recommend you contribute enough to get 100% of that match. As an example, let's say you make 60k a year and your employer offers to match 5% of your salary. If you contribute $3,000, your employer puts in another $3,000. That's amazing. That's an instant 100% return. And over your lifetime, a 5% match can double your returns from age 25 to retirement. That's the difference between 800k and 1.6 million. It's kind of like being handed 20k per year or an extra 1500 every month for 30 years. This is free money, so if your employer offers it, make sure you take advantage of it. Next is rung 2. Pay off your credit card debt. High interest debt is a financial fire, and it's burning your money every single month. I'll show you the math. Let's say you have a thousand dollars of credit card debt at 26.99% interest rate. But instead of paying that off, you Decide to invest $1,000 instead, and you make the $25 minimum payment on your credit card debt after five years. With typical returns, your index fund would gain about 400 bucks, meaning you'd have 1400 bucks investments. In the same time period, you'll have paid fifteen hundred dollars in minimum payments towards your credit card debt, and it still won't even be paid off. You'll have $700 left to pay because most of the money you paid was just going towards interest, which kept adding on to your balance every single month. Guys, if you just paid the debt off upfront, especially high interest debt, you would have three times the money. Instead, you lost $800. So what's the lesson? Don't let credit card debt destroy your returns. Pay them off first. Wrong. 3. Max out your Roth IRA. As of 2026, you can contribute up to $7,500 per year to a Roth IRA, or 625 bucks a month. You can search Roth IRA contribution limits and this year to see how much you can currently contribute. At first, you might be investing less than that. So let's turn that number up over time. Like, if you're investing $100 a month, that's about 171k in 35 years. But if you turn that number up to $625 a month, now you have over a million bucks. And because it's in your Roth ira, you will not pay any additional taxes when you withdraw that money in retirement. So even if you can't fully max out your account, add as much extra as you can if you're at this rung of the ladder. Now, what if you're doing really well? What if you fully max out your IRA? Well, that's when you get to rung four and beyond. After you max out your IRA, go back to your 401k and contribute as much as possible. In 2026, the limit is $24,500 per year. You can search 401k contribution limit and the year to see how much you can currently contribute. You probably can't max it out right away, so start where you can. If you're already contributing enough to get your match, bump it up 1%. Then next year, 1% more. If you've done all of the above and you still have money left over, you can open up a regular taxable investment account and invest as much as you want. There's no limit to how much you can invest every single month. Now remember, the goal here is not to climb the entire ladder overnight. Most people don't even need to get to the highest level of the ladder to live a very rich life. The goal is to know that there is a logical sequence and to make sure that you are going methodically, rung by rung. Your action step is to look at the ladder, figure out which rung you're on right now, then figure out what you need to do to get to the next level. If you follow the advice in this video, your money will grow way faster than you ever thought possible. One day you'll discover that you're now generating more money in a single day than than you used to be able to invest in an entire month. That's because the biggest lever for growing your money is not your brokerage account or even the amount you invest. It is how much time your money spends compounding. Now, we all know that Warren Buffett is one of the wealthiest people on earth. But here's something you may not know. He made nearly 98% of his net worth after the age of 60. Look at his net worth by age. This is staggering. His wealth was completely, completely backloaded. Now, what does that mean for you? It means that by starting today, you are planting seeds that will grow and grow. And at a certain point, your wealth will grow so quickly you actually can't stop it. And if that's true, a couple things come up for people. First, people will go, I don't want to wait until I'm 60 or 70 to have all this money. Okay? I don't want you to do that either. I want you to live a rich life today and a richer life tomorrow. You also might think, hey, I don't want to have to restrict my entire life. Agreed. What is the point of investing if we never get to enjoy it? So instead, I want you to think about investing differently. Every dollar you invest should be funding something specific in your rich life. Go beyond the vague future. Think deeper than just retirement. Really start to craft out and design what does the rest of my rich life actually look like? When you have a crisp, crystal clear vision, you're actually going to want to invest more. So here's what you can do right now. Before you invest another dollar, get crystal clear on why you are investing. Write down your five year rich life vision. Where do you want to be living? How do you want to spend your time? What experiences do you want to have? What do you want to eat? Be specific. Don't just say I want to travel more. Say I want to take a three week trip to Italy. I want to stay in this hotel and that hotel. I want to eat at this hotel, this amazing restaurant and I don't want to have to worry if we can order a couple of drinks. Notice that I'm not saying phrases like I just want financial security. That's boring. That's boring. Get specific. Say I want six months of expenses saved so I never stress about an unexpected car repair. Write it down. Make it vivid. Draw it. Here's why this approach changes everything. When you connect your investing to what you actually want, then every dollar becomes meaningful. And that way, when you invest $100 this month, or a thousand or five thousand, it's not just going into this vague savings or investment. It's not going into a junk drawer that nobody knows what's in there. It is something extremely specific. This is how you make a direct connection between you and the rich life you are living today and the one you want to live tomorrow. Now that you've set up your first investment, you are ready to watch this video. Next, my step by step playbook on how to set your finances up so you can spend more on what you love guilt free.