Ten Bucks & 35 Years? Seriously?

People talk about investing like it’s some grand, complicated scheme. Honestly, it’s just…putting money somewhere other than under your mattress. And the sheer volume of options? Forget about it. It’s designed to overwhelm you. Automatic investing? Fine, I guess. But the idea that you need a “strategy”? It’s just…excessive. Like you need a detailed plan for breathing. I saw an ad the other day promising “financial freedom.” Freedom from what? The burden of making slightly better decisions than leaving cash in a checking account?

Anyway, I stumbled across this whole “ten dollars a day” thing. Ten dollars. It’s…insulting, frankly. Like they think we’re all so financially destitute that ten dollars is a significant sum. But fine, let’s play along. Apparently, if you manage to scrape together ten bucks a day – and that’s a big if, let’s be honest – for…thirty-five years? You might end up with a million dollars. Thirty-five years! I’ll be dust. And for what? So some fund manager can take a cut and buy a bigger yacht?

The S&P 500: It’s…Fine, I Guess.

So, the “smart” move, apparently, is to throw your ten dollars into an S&P 500 index fund. The S&P 500. It’s just…a list. A list of 500 companies. Like they’ve solved some great mystery. And everyone’s obsessed with tracking it. Like it’s some kind of cosmic indicator. I saw a chart, and it’s just lines going up and down. What am I supposed to do with that information?

They keep mentioning this State Street SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust. SPDR. What does that even mean? And the ticker symbol, NYSEMKT:SPY. It sounds like a code. Like I need to decipher it to unlock some financial secret. And then they name-drop Nvidia, Microsoft, Apple. Oh, great. The usual suspects. The companies that already have enough money. Like they need my ten dollars. And the implication is that because these companies are “big,” it’s a safe bet. It’s circular logic. It’s infuriating.

Thirty-Five Years. Let That Sink In.

So, let’s do the math, shall we? Ten dollars a day is roughly three hundred dollars a month. And if you diligently, for thirty-five years, hand over that three hundred dollars to this SPDR thing, you might have…well, look at this table.

Year	Portfolio Balance (Assuming 10% Annual Growth)
30	$683,798
31	$759,201
32	$842,501
33	$934,523
34	$1,036,180
35	$1,148,483

A million dollars. After thirty-five years. It’s…a commitment. And for what? So I can feel slightly less anxious about retirement? The whole thing feels…engineered to keep you perpetually focused on the future, instead of enjoying the present. And the assumption of a 10% annual return? Please. That’s just…optimistic. It’s a fantasy. But sure, let’s base our entire financial future on a fantasy. It’s fine. Everything’s fine.

Look, I’m not saying it’s a bad idea. I’m just saying it’s…a lot. A lot of time. A lot of money. And a whole lot of faith in a system that’s designed to benefit everyone except you. And frankly, I’d rather just spend the three hundred dollars on…I don’t know…better coffee. It would be a more immediate, and significantly more satisfying, return on investment.

2026-02-07 08:52

The S&P 500: It’s…Fine, I Guess.

Thirty-Five Years. Let That Sink In.

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