Lately, I’ve been thinking about something. A lot of people always feel that investing is something you only need to consider once you have hundreds of thousands. But honestly, this idea can make you poorer and poorer. Look at today’s prices—eggs, lunch boxes, and rent are all back to where they can’t be. Mortgage rates have held steady at 2.2%, and the purchasing power of every dollar is being diluted.

Actually, investing 100,000 isn’t a small amount for small-income investors. Many people take several years to save up 1,000,000, but reaching 100,000 is a goal you can achieve with a bit of effort. I’ve always believed you must not underestimate this 100,000. It’s not just a number—it’s your weapon against inflation.

Investment doesn’t require a huge principal; what you need is a mindset like running a business. The key is three words: mindset, project, time. With these three, even small-income investors can slowly build wealth by investing 100,000.

First, get clear on your cash flow. My suggestion is to treat yourself like a company—work out your income and expenses so you can squeeze out stable “idle money” to invest. The first iron rule of investing is to use only idle money, because the market goes up and down. If, in the middle of it, you need the money and it just happens to coincide with a price drop, then you can only accept the loss.

Next, you need to find a specific goal for your investment. For office workers, regular fixed-amount investing in financial products is the most worry-free—you don’t have to keep watching price movements. If what you want is cash flow, monthly distribution funds or high-yield targets are a good fit. For example, many funds can distribute dividends of 7% to 8%. If you invest 100,000 for a year, you can receive 7,000 to 8,000, and that means you’ll have 600 to 700 per month to pay your mobile phone bill. But if you want a phone or to travel abroad and you need 30% to 40% returns, then you’ll have to use a more aggressive strategy, such as swing trading.

Small capital has an advantage: flexibility. You can invest wherever opportunities arise, like a nomadic people. These days, many trading platforms have little barrier to buying US stocks, indices, and precious metals, and you can also use leverage to amplify returns. As long as you spot the right direction and use turnover to convert it into returns, you can accumulate principal quickly. At the same time, put your work income into the mix as new principal. With compounding, your assets will grow like a snowball rolling downhill—bigger and bigger.

Different people are suited to different investment approaches. Small-income investors with stable jobs are best matched with dividend funds or high-yield ETFs—trading time for space, so that dividends eventually surpass your salary. High-income earners can consider ETFs tracking large-cap benchmark indices, like Taiwan’s 0050 or the US’s SPY. Over the long term, their returns are quite impressive. The S&P 500’s average annual return over the past 100 years has been as high as 8% to 10%. Compared with the 5% from US dollar fixed deposits, the difference over the same 10-year period can be huge.

If you have time to study the market, you can try to catch trends and volatility. For instance, the US interest rate hike cycle is approaching its peak. In the future, there will inevitably be rate cuts and possibly QE. That would increase the supply of USD, making it much easier to profit from shorting the dollar. A falling dollar would also stimulate cryptocurrencies, so going long on Bitcoin is also a good choice. The stock market also periodically has “hot themes” that get traded up—like AI-related concept stocks, which still have room to rise.

From an asset perspective, gold is a very good defensive tool. It can effectively hedge against inflation and currency depreciation. Bitcoin is no longer just a pure speculative instrument—it has started to be included in ETFs and sovereign funds, and its role is shifting toward a digital reserve asset. Growth assets like NVIDIA and TSMC—companies with strong moats—have significant future growth potential. Power stocks are also worth paying attention to, because AI-related electricity demand will surge.

If you want to accumulate steadily, high-dividend ETFs like 0056 are a good option. Over the past 10 years, distributions were 60% and the stock price increased by 40%. If you save and invest 100,000 every year, after 13 years your annual dividends will be 100,000; after 25 years, your annual dividends would be over 220,000. SPY tracks the 500 strongest US companies. Over the past 10 years, it rose from 201 to 434, for a return as high as 116%. Although its dividend payouts are lower, its capital gains are strong. As long as you believe the US economy won’t collapse, this is the most robust long-term tool.

To put it plainly, investing 100,000 boils down to nothing more than having the right mindset, choosing the right projects, and giving enough time for compounding to do its work. Many targets can be participated in with just a few thousand TWD via regular fixed-amount investing, or by using contracts for difference to join the big moves. As long as all three are in place, small millionaires and small “heiresses” are just around the corner.