Everyone says the first $100k is the hardest and they're right, but not for the reason that you think.

Everyone says the first $100k is the hardest and they're right, but not for the reason that you think. Here's what it actually feels like. You're putting your money into an account every single month and you scroll past people talking about compound interest and how your money makes all this money and you open up your account and you're like, well, this doesn't actually look like it's working. And it's because in the beginning, your money's not doing all the heavy lifting, you are. If you put in $500 a month and your portfolio grows at 7% per year, at year five you've only put in $30,000 and your portfolio may have grown to 34,000. That's less than $5,000 in actual growth. And the people that actually reach 100k are doing three very boring and powerful things. Number one, they pick a place to actually put the money, 401k, Roth IRA, regular investment account and they stay consistent with it. Number two, they automate everything. And number three, they become obsessed with their income and their contribution rate and increasing those as much as possible. And here's why the first 100k is such a big deal. After you cross that threshold, the math actually starts helping. If you're under 100,000 right now, that doesn't mean it's not working, that just means you are in the least rewarding part of the game that you're playing in wealth building.