Have $0 in Savings at 35? Here's How You Can Still End Up With a $1 Million Portfolio by Retirement.

If you don't have any money saved up for retirement, it can seem like a daunting task to plan for it. With each passing year, that's less time you have to save, and that may potentially mean having to delay your retirement plans.

While ideally, you would start investing in your 20s, you can still do so later in life without adversely affecting your goals. Saving earlier in life may sound great, but the income you're generating may not be as significant as when you're older, which is why investing in your 30s may not necessarily put you far behind.

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Learn More »

Even if you've reached the age of 35 and haven't put anything aside in savings and are starting at $0, you can still start investing and be on track to end up with $1 million by the time you retire. Here's how that can be possible.

Start putting money regularly into a top growth fund

In order to put yourself on track to get to $1 million, you'll need to be able to invest money into the stock market each month.

An ideal target can be around $350 per month. With that amount, you can be in a good position to grow your savings at a reasonably high rate. If you're not able to do that, you may first want to look at ways to either increase your income or reduce your expenses to ensure you can afford to save that much. Investing less than that may not be enough to generate the returns you need to get to $1 million by retirement.

Assuming you can invest at least $350 each month, then picking an exchange-traded fund (ETF) to put those funds into is the next step. There are many growth-oriented ETFs that can be ideal options for the long haul. A top choice to consider is the Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ: QQQ). The fund tracks the Nasdaq-100 index, which includes the largest non-financial stocks on the exchange.

With that ETF, you'll get exposure to top tech stocks and also big names from other sectors, including Costco Wholesale and T-Mobile. It's a good fund to invest money into, and over the past decade, it has easily outperformed the S&P 500, which has historically averaged an annual return of around 10%.

QQQ Total Return Level data by YCharts

How you can end up with $1 million

If you're investing at the age of 35, then you may have another 35 investing years to go, assuming you retire at around age 70. As people are living longer, it's possible that 70 will end up being a more typical retirement age in the future. Those extra years, between 65 and 70, can be valuable in terms of the additional gains you may be able to accumulate during that time frame.

Here's how much a $350-per-month investment in the QQQ ETF might grow over the years at varying average annual returns.

Calculations by author.

The above table shows why it's likely you would need to wait approximately 35 years to reach $1 million; if you invest for 30 years, you may fall well short of $1 million unless your investment routinely outperforms the market -- and the market's returns may slow down in the future given how hot stocks have been in recent years. But after 35 years, even with a more modest annual return of 9%, you can still end up with $1 million.

Invest safely rather than trying to chase big gains

If you're worried about investing later on in life and running out of time before retirement, you may be tempted to go after more aggressive investments. However, the danger in doing so is that you could jeopardize your savings and incur significant losses. When it comes to saving and investing for retirement, you want to balance growth with safety, and a diversified ETF such as the Invesco QQQ Trust can provide you with a good option for the long term.

Should you invest $1,000 in Invesco QQQ Trust right now?

Before you buy stock in Invesco QQQ Trust, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Invesco QQQ Trust wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $672,177!*

Stock Advisor provides investors with an easy-to-follow blueprint for success, including guidance on building a portfolio, regular updates from analysts, and two new stock picks each month. The Stock Advisor service has more than quadrupled the return of S&P 500 since 2002*. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of March 24, 2025

David Jagielski has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Costco Wholesale. The Motley Fool recommends Nasdaq and T-Mobile US. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.