Recently, I’ve been thinking about something. For small investors, saving up to 1 million yuan might take several years, but reaching 100k yuan is an attainable goal with effort. The problem is: what should you do after you’ve saved 100k? Many people actually don’t realize that this 100k yuan isn’t a small amount—it can be a weapon to fight inflation.

I’ve found that many people have a misconception: they think they must wait until their principal is big enough before they can start investing. Actually, that’s not the case. Investing doesn’t require a huge amount of principal—it requires the right mindset, the right projects, and enough time. If these three elements are in place, even 100k yuan can grow into impressive results.

Let’s start with the most basic step: bookkeeping. I know it sounds a bit old-fashioned, but it’s truly crucial. You need to treat yourself like a company—figure out your monthly income and expenses, then squeeze out steady “spare money” to invest. The investing rule is simple: use spare money. That means even if this money ends up losing, it won’t affect your life. If your investment happens to drop right when you urgently need cash, then you can only cut your losses and exit, which is very bad for asset growth.

Once you have stable investment funds, the next step is to find the right projects. I think the key is to set a specific goal first. For example, if you have to pay your phone bill and utilities every month, you can consider dividend-paying funds or high-yield ETFs—this way you’ll have fixed income each month to cover those expenses. Many funds’ dividend payouts can reach 7% to 8%, so if you invest 100k yuan per year, you could receive 7,000 to 8,000 yuan in dividends—about 600 to 700 yuan per month, which just happens to cover communication costs.

But if your goal is to save money for traveling abroad or buying a new phone—something that might require 3 to 4万—then you’ll need to use 100k principal to generate 30% to 40% returns. That’s not something you can achieve just with “dividend stock holding”; you’ll need a more proactive strategy, such as swing trading.

The advantage of small capital is flexibility. These days, many platforms have very low barriers for investing in U.S. stocks, indices, precious metals, or cryptocurrencies—and you can even use leverage to amplify returns. As long as you choose the right direction and use turnover to convert into returns, you can accumulate principal quickly. At the same time, put your work income into the pot as new principal. With compounding, your assets will grow like a snowball—rolling bigger and bigger.

I divide small investors into three types based on their investment approach. The first type is employed people with stable jobs: their cash flow is steady, but their principal grows slowly. They’re best suited for dividend funds or high-yield ETFs, using time to “buy space.” Over the long term, dividends can even exceed their salary. The second type is high-income professionals like doctors and engineers, who are suitable for investing in ETFs that track major index benchmarks—for example, Taiwan’s 0050 or the U.S. SPY. These indices automatically eliminate weaker companies and keep stronger ones. As long as you have enough time, the returns can be very attractive. But remember: the stock market has risks. The internet bubble in 2000, the financial crisis in 2008, the pandemic in 2020, and inflation in 2022—all caused major drawdowns. If you need to use money in the middle of it, you may have to cut losses, so this method is more suitable for people with strong risk tolerance. The third type is proactive investors with plenty of time, who can try to capture trends and volatility, using turnover to accumulate wealth.

As for what to invest in specifically, I’ve organized four types of functional assets. Defensive assets like gold: they don’t pay dividends themselves, but they can help hedge against inflation, and they have strong “safe-haven” characteristics when the economy is unstable. Transition assets like Bitcoin: it’s no longer purely a speculative tool. It’s starting to be included in ETFs and sovereign funds, shifting its role toward a digital reserve asset. Growth assets like NVIDIA and TSMC: NVIDIA is a leader in AI computing, and TSMC is a leading semiconductor foundry and also a foundational support for the AI industry chain. There’s also NextEra Energy, one of the largest green energy companies in the U.S. In the future, electricity demand for AI will surge, making the logic behind power-energy investments quite solid. Core assets like 0056 and SPY: 0056 is a well-known high-dividend ETF in Taiwan. Over the past 10 years, dividends totaled 60% and the stock price rose 40%. If you save 100k yuan every year, then after 13 years, your annual dividends could reach 100k yuan. SPY tracks the 500 strongest companies in the U.S. Over the past 10 years, its stock price rose from 201 to 434, for a 116% return. Although its dividend yield is only 1.1%, its capital gains growth potential is very strong.

Honestly, many investment methods don’t require huge capital. With just a few thousand yuan, you can invest regularly or participate in big opportunities through contracts that track price differences. As long as you have a good investing mindset, these assets are all valuable. The key is to have enough patience to wait for compounding—or enough time to research when to enter and when to exit. With all three in place, becoming a small millionaire or small billionaire is just around the corner.