“It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.” — Confucius 

They say if you want to reach your goals, that you should write them down.

Well, here goes.

Dear Financial Diary,

It’s a jungle out there. Inflation is up. Wages are stagnant. Paychecks are down. And taxes are always going up.

My goal is to have $1 million in investments. Within the several years I am aiming to invest 20-30 percent of my income.

I know success is the sum of small goals that are repeated daily.

Only about 3.2% of all retirees in the United States have $1 million or more in retirement accounts. And among all households with retirement accounts, about 4.7% have $1 million or more saved.

I know this is no small feat, but my dreams will not be deferred nor ignored.

I will continue to increase my contributions by 1 -2% per year.

I am to save $2,000 to $2,500 per month.

But is this enough?

I feel as if the goalpost keeps moving. Is $2 million the new goal?

How would the new goal be achieved? How hard would it be to build up $2 million in retirement savings?

Starting at zero, if you invest $10,000 per year ($833 per month), at a 10% rate of return over 31 years would put you at $2,001,377.67.

Stay focused. Any goal can be achieved with the right plan.

I started with $5 and as a teenage waitress making $2.65 an hour. Then continued to climb the corporate ladder.

My first goal was $100,000. Then my next was $250,000.

It took over a decade of diligent saving to reach $250,000. By the time I got featured on Business Insider, I had made it to $350,000.

My original goal when I started out was $500,000.

I have now blown past that. My next goal is $750,000.

Continuing to invest over the next several years in stocks like Nvidia, Google, Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon as well as funds such as the VFIAX 500 index fund, I figure I can make it to $1 million in investable assets in about 1400 days.

It took half the amount of time to go from $250,000 to $500,000 as it did to make the first $250,000 to the next one.

I estimate that starting with $1M and getting a 10% return would take me 7 years to get to $2M.

I am willing to stay disciplined and sacrifice today for a better tomorrow.

I don’t need a BMW. I don’t need a 5,000 square foot house, that costs $1.2 million with a $9,000 mortgage. I don’t need $5,000 vacations.

Doing the math. This is what it would take to get to $2M.

If you start working at 25, to build a $2 million nest egg by the time you reach 72, then you have to sock away more than $5,677 per year.

If you don’t start to save until age 35, then you’ve got to sock away $11,658 a year, or more than $948 per month.

If that’s 10% of your pay, you would have to earn $116,580 a year.

That’s totally doable, but harder than if you start saving at age 25.

The biggest hurdle is if you start saving at 45. You’d have to save more than $25,000 a year to build a retirement balance of $2 million.

That would work out to saving $2,078 per month.

That would be incredibly hard to do for most workers. Therefore, I aim to start as soon as possible.

I just have to set the goal, aim, and shoot.

So keep your head down and investments up!

xoxo, Greenback Magnet

About the author

Miriam started Greenbacks Magnet in 2016 to keep a scorecard of her goal of $1M in investable assets. Armed with a Master in Management (MiM) and a calculator, she teaches readers how to achieve financial independence while also helping them learn how to smell the roses along the way. The palpable response she got from sharing her personal finance goal in a public speaking course at Georgetown University encouraged her to share her story and teach finance on her website. She invests in AI companies as artificial intelligence is the new iPhone of the moment as she likes to invest in companies that are disruptive.

“Everybody says, ‘I have problems overcooking steak on the grill,’ but just take it off earlier!” – Bobby Flay

That quote above sounds so simple doesn’t it. But alas, life and money are rarely that simple. Life is complex. However, I believe if you can slow down and simplify things, then you are just better off in the long run.

This post is all about beating inflation.

I previously provided a video explanation on this topic by the richest duck in the money business: Scrooge McDuck.

See my post Money Lessons I Learned from Scrooge McDuck

Before we get into our talk about inflation, let’s discuss who is Bobby Flay and why do we need to beat him?

Bobby Flay is a top rated chef in the culinary world.

Beat Bobby Flay is an American cooking competition show on the Food Network. It features various chefs competing against Bobby Flay. The show is taped in front of a live audience. Talk about being in a pressure cooker. Haha!

The goal is to be the best by competing against the best and winning.

What I like about Bobby Flay is his sheer intensity for what he does. He has a one track mind. One goal. One aim. To make the best food.

I think if more people had this type of commitment and focus when it comes to their finances, then more people would be financially secure. Financial independence is the goal. You should tailor your choices and actions on doing everything in your power to obtain that goal with steadfastness and patience.

Here are some more words of wisdom from Bobby.

“Go vegetable heavy. Reverse the psychology of your plate by making meat the side dish and vegetables the main course.” 

Basically, focus on eating healthy because health equals wealth.

Therefore, I want you to focus on investing more and spending less.

Avoid cryto scams and pyramid schemes.

Go index heavy. Reverse the psychology of your 401k by making stocks the side dish and index funds the main course.

When it comes to wealth, please just be boring. You can simply invest in index funds like the VFIAX. A return rate of 10 percent with $20,000 invested annually would make you a millionaire in 18 years. Remember that slow and steady wins the race.

However, inflation is nipping at your heels.

If there is a 3 percent inflation rate, then that would mean prices would double about every 24 years.

Since 2000, the average U.S. inflation rate has been approximately 2.55% per year, resulting in a cumulative price increase of about 87.60%. This means that a dollar in 2000 had the same purchasing power as about $1.88 in 2025. While the rate was 3.4% in 2000, it fluctuated annually, with a significant increase above 9% in 2022.

How can you beat it?

By investing of course.

The stock market has been on a tear. This is the best it has ever performed (2009-2024) in its over 200 years of existence. Investing $1,000 in stocks like Nvidia or Costco over the last 15-30 years has made many people millionaires.

Monster Beverage (MNST):
This company has demonstrated exceptional growth over 30 years, delivering a return of over 444,000%.

Nvidia (NVDA):
A tech giant, Nvidia has also seen tremendous long-term gains, with a 30-year return exceeding 372,000%.

If inflation is averaging about 2-3 percent, but stocks are averaging 10 percent or more means you are beating inflation.

Therefore, I am continuing to pour money into stocks. My goal is to have $1 million in investments. Within the next few years I am aiming to invest 20-30 percent of my income. This is well above the 10-15 percent that is recommended. What this means to me is cha-ching. It’s awesome to open up those investment statements and see more there than when you started. My interest is earning interest.

Since being featured on Business Insider last year, I have blown past $350,000 in investments. Within a little over a year, I am within mere thousands of $515,000. I won’t stop until I reach $1 million.

I may not be beating Bobby Flay any time soon, but I sure am beating inflation. Heck, I’m kicking its a$$ and taking names.

Like what you heard?

Want more?

Tweet me.

I’ll be here all week.

Miriam started Greenbacks Magnet in 2016 to keep a scorecard of her goal of $1M in investable assets. Armed with a Master in Management (MiM) and a calculator, she teaches readers how to achieve financial independence while also helping them learn how to smell the roses along the way. The palpable response she got from sharing her personal finance goal in a public speaking course at Georgetown University encouraged her to share her story and teach finance on her website. She invests in AI companies as artificial intelligence is the new iPhone of the moment as she likes to invest in companies that are disruptive.