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At 25, a full Roth IRA every year is worth about $1.5 million by 65, and none of it is taxed on the way out.

Seven thousand five hundred dollars a year for forty years at 7% growth is about $1,497,263. The growth rate is an assumption. The tax treatment is the law.

You asked for the start-at-25 sheet. It is below, as the slides from the post, then the one move, then the tool the chart points at.

Slide 1 of 7: At 25, a full Roth IRA every year is worth about $1.5 million by 65, and none of it is taxed on the way out.Slide 2 of 7: Forty years of full Roth IRA contributions, grown at 7%, against what you put in.Slide 3 of 7: In a Roth IRA the tax is paid on the way in, at a young person's low rate, and never again.Slide 4 of 7: At 25, $625 a month feels impossible and retirement feels imaginary, so the start date slips.Slide 5 of 7: You need earned income to contribute, and there is an income ceiling at the top.Slide 6 of 7: Three steps to open the account.Slide 7 of 7: Save this, then send it to the youngest person you know with a paycheck.

Three steps to open the account.

  1. 01
    Open a Roth IRA at a low-fee brokerage.Ten minutes. The tools post lists the kind of account.
  2. 02
    Set an automatic monthly contribution you will not notice.Raise it at every raise.
  3. 03
    Put it in a broad index fund and do not look for a year.The fee post explains why the fund matters.

The tool this chart points at

A low-fee brokerage

For the IRA, the index fund and the rollover. Broad index funds with expense ratios under 0.1%.

Open it

This link may pay Money in One Chart a referral fee if you open an account. Your price does not change. How that works.

Sources: IRS IR-2025-111 for the limit; arithmetic for the growth.

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