Time-tested investing advice may sound boring. The results are anything but.

Consider using stock index funds and compounding to support portfolio growth.

Investing for your future doesn't have to be complicated. In fact, with just a few simple strategies, you can get a great start on your long-term investing goals. It may not be new or exciting, but it works:

Start early and stay invested.

The sooner you start investing, the faster your investment dollars can grow through the power of compounding.

Buy and hold on to U.S. stocks.

Historically, long-term ownership of stock shares in large U.S. companies has delivered reliable investor results.

Index funds make investing easy.

Index funds are a simple, affordable, and low-risk way to build a diversified portfolio of stocks for long-term growth.

Focus on time in the market over timing the market.

Timing the market is virtually impossible. So instead of waiting for the "right" time to invest, consider getting started now.

The earlier you begin, the better.

Investing early gives your portfolio more time to grow through compounding. 

In this example, Maria and Ana each invested $3,000 every year on January 1 for 10 years—regardless of whether the market was up or down. But Maria started 20 years ago, whereas Ana started only 10 years ago. So, although they each invested a total of $30,000, by 2025, Maria had about $120,000 more because she was in the market longer.

Source: Schwab Center for Financial Research with data from Morningstar. Invested in a hypothetical portfolio that tracks the S&P 500® index from January 1, 2005 to December 31, 2024 for Maria, and from January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2024 for Ana. The end amount includes capital appreciation and dividends. Dividends are assumed to be reinvested when received. Fees and expenses would lower returns. Ana's average annual rate of return is 13.10%; Maria's is 10.35%. The actual rate of return will fluctuate with market conditions. The example is hypothetical and provided for illustrative purposes only. It is not intended to represent a specific investment product. Indexes are unmanaged, do not incur management fees, costs, and expenses, and cannot be invested in directly. Past performance is no indication of future results.

Staying invested typically beats timing the market.

Markets go up and down daily, and it can be tempting to buy and sell your investments based on what the markets are doing. But over the long-term, markets generally trend upwards, and you'll likely get better returns by following a buy-and-hold strategy.

If you had invested $100,000 in the S&P 500® Index at the beginning of 2024 and stayed the course through the market's ups and downs, your investment would have grown to $125,019 by the end of the year. But if you had bought and sold during market volatility, you could have missed out on strong rebounds, lowering your returns.

Source: Schwab Center for Financial Research with data from Morningstar. The year begins on the first trading day in January and ends on the last trading day of December, and daily total returns were used. Returns assume reinvestment of dividends. Fees and expenses would lower returns. When out of the market, cash is not invested. Market returns are represented by the S&P 500 index, an index of widely traded stocks. Top days are defined as the best performing days of the S&P 500 during 2024. The example is hypothetical and provided for illustrative purposes only. It is not intended to represent a specific investment product. Indexes are unmanaged, do not incur management fees, costs, and expenses, and cannot be invested in directly. Past performance is no indication of future results. 

Large U.S. companies can be a solid foundation for growth.

The U.S. economy has driven innovation and investor returns for generations. Owning shares of top-performing companies can be a powerful way to build your wealth.

Companies are managed for growth.

When you invest in public companies, you're investing in entities that are dedicated to delivering growth and returns to shareholders. Simply put, company management is working to create wealth for you. 

Graphic made up of multiple company logos: Meta, Uber, Apple, Netflix, Lululemon, Costco, DoorDash, Amazon, NVIDIA, Ford, ebay, and Berkshire Hathaway. These represent a sample of large, publicly traded companies.

The companies identified do not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any securities.

A history of proven returns.

For investors with long-term time horizons, U.S. stocks have historically provided attractive returns. For example, if you had invested $10,000 in the Schwab 1000 Index®—which tracks the 1,000 largest U.S. companies by market capitalization—when it launched 34 years ago, your investment would by now have grown to $340,000. That's a cumulative growth rate of 3,400%!

Explore the Schwab 1000 Index® Fund SNXFX

Source: Morningstar, as of 8/31/25. Representing the hypothetical growth of a $10,000 investment. The example is hypothetical and provided for illustrative purposes only. It is not intended to represent a specific investment product. Indexes are unmanaged, do not incur management fees, costs, and expenses, and cannot be invested in directly. Past performance is no indication of future results.

Index funds make it easy to invest in high-performing companies.

Index funds make it easy to invest in a large set of companies without having to do the hard work of researching the best ones to buy or sell at any given time.

This chart demonstrates how the chance of losing money in a single year typically decreases as the number of stocks in the portfolio increases. For example, a portfolio with just 5 stocks has a 30% chance of losing money in a single year, while a portfolio with 40 stocks only has a 17.5% chance of losing money.

Reduce your risk through diversification.

Index funds hold many individual securities, which can help lower your risk by spreading out the impact of any single stock's up and downs.

Pay less in fees. Keep more of what you earn.

Almost every investment has fees, which can add up over time. Index funds typically have lower fees, which leaves more of your money invested for growth. 

For example, an average actively managed mutual fund charges 0.55% in annual fees, while the average index mutual fund charges 0.06%.¹

Source: Schwab Center for Financial Research. This example shows the mathematical probability of losing money in a single year when the market return is 6% if the investor selects stocks at random (i.e., has no stock selection skill). Calculations include standard deviation assumptions of 11%, 8%, and 6.5% for the 5-, 20-, and 40-stock portfolios, respectively, and assume a normal distribution of returns. Analysis assumes that a randomly selected stock returns 6% annually, has a standard deviation of 20%, and is 10% correlated with every other stock in the market. The example is hypothetical and provided for illustrative purposes only. It is not intended to represent a specific investment product.

Put the power of index investing to work for you.

In 1991, Schwab launched the Schwab 1000 Index®, which offers a simple, effective way to invest in the largest American companies and captures the full potential of U.S. innovation, growth, and resilience. 

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