3. Calculate the figures The next stage in accumulating $1 million in financial wealth is to perform some calculations utilizing various scenarios. There are three things to consider here: how much you can contribute to your assets on a monthly basis, how long you have to invest, and the rate of return on your investments. Let's pretend you're 35 years old and planning to retire at 65. Thanks to a mix of hard saving and an inheritance windfall, you now have $100,000 to invest in the market. Over the next 30 years, you have an extra $100 per month to invest. With a 7% rate of return, your initial investment would increase to slightly over $930,000, according to SmartAsset's investing calculator. That's not too shabby! However, a 7% rate of return isn't guaranteed, and even that assumption puts you roughly $70,000 shy of your $1 million objective. So, how can you improve your chances of achieving your objective? You can adopt one of two approaches. The first is to increase your monthly investment amount. If you increased your monthly contributions to $200, you'd reach the $1 million level. The other alternative is to strive to outperform a 7% annual return on your investments. That's more difficult, and attempting to "beat the market" could result in losses if you're not as strong at investing as you anticipated. Finally, keep in mind that this scenario is based on the assumption that you have three decades to invest. But what if you're 45 and planning to retire in 20 years? In that case, you'd have to boost your monthly contribution to $1,200 to reach $1 million by the age of 65, assuming a 7% return.