What can 100,000 dollars do? This wealth doubling guide for small investors tells you the answer.

The end of the year is approaching, and the feeling of skyrocketing prices is probably something everyone has experienced deeply. Egg prices doubled, dining out costs surged by 30%, and mortgage rates soared from 1.31% during the pandemic to 2.2%. Behind these seemingly small numbers hide astonishing financial pressures—just the interest difference on a ten-million-dollar mortgage increases by NT$89,000 annually. In such an environment, passive waiting for salary growth can no longer keep up with the rising cost of living. Actively investing to combat inflation is no longer an option but a necessity.

Many people celebrate when they save their first NT$1 million, but for recent graduates, this goal feels as distant as a dream. But don’t be discouraged. Today, we focus on a more practical question: If you already have NT$100,000, how can you make this money work for you through investment, gradually achieving financial freedom?

The Three Pillars of Investment: Mindset, Projects, and Time

To go far on the investment path, you need three things—these three are just as important as doing business. First is the correct mindset—understanding your risk tolerance, clarifying your investment goals, and avoiding blind following. Next is finding the right project—different life stages, income levels, and time commitments require completely different targets. Finally, is ample time—letting compound interest work its magic, making time your best friend.

All three are indispensable, and your task is to find the most suitable formula based on your situation.

Essential Course Before Starting: Clarify Your Cash Flow

Before investing NT$100,000, you must first do one thing—keep a budget. This isn’t to find investment targets but to protect yourself.

Investing is about “spare money,” meaning this money won’t cause hardship if you don’t invest it. If you use essential living funds for investment, market downturns could force you to sell at the worst time, causing far greater damage than you imagine.

The purpose of budgeting is to understand your income and expenses structure, identify how much stable surplus you have each month, which expenses are fixed, and which are optional. Only when you truly have “spare money” that can be invested monthly can your investments truly unleash their power.

Find Income for Expenses: Reverse Thinking on Investment Goals

Many people invest just to see their bank balance grow, but such motivation often can’t last three months. The smarter approach is “to find a corresponding income source for each expense.”

For example, if you need to pay NT$500 monthly for mobile service, you should look for an investment target that pays NT$600–700 per month in dividends to cover this expense. Many funds in the market can yield 7-8% annually, so investing NT$100,000 can generate NT$7,000–8,000 per year, NT$600–700 per month—perfectly matching your need.

Similarly, if you plan to travel abroad or buy a new phone every year with a budget of NT$30,000–40,000, you need to generate an annual return of 30–40% on NT$100,000. This clearly requires a more aggressive strategy and more time investment.

The benefit of this reverse thinking is that you can clearly calculate how much capital each life goal requires and decide whether it’s worth investing based on the difficulty of achieving it.

Three Investment Routes for Small Investors

Depending on your life stage, income stability, and available time, here are three completely different approaches:

Route 1: Stable income but slow growth (Office workers)

If you are a 9-to-5 office worker with limited but very stable monthly investment capacity, the best choice is dividend-focused funds or high-yield ETFs.

Why? Because these targets can generate stable cash flow just like your job. Salary increases are slow, but continuous dividends can bring a sense of achievement and motivate you to keep investing.

Take 0056 (Taiwan High Dividend ETF) as an example. Over the past 10 years, dividends plus stock price appreciation have yielded about 100%, with an average annual return of around 4.4%. If you invest NT$100,000 annually and reinvest all dividends, after 13 years, your annual dividend income can reach NT$100,000—like having a part-time job. After 25 years, annual dividends exceed NT$220,000, enough to comfortably support retirement.

The key is that this method requires almost no monitoring, doesn’t take up work time, and risk is relatively controllable.

Route 2: High salary, stable, with long-term planning (Doctors, engineers, etc.)

If your salary is already substantial and you don’t need to withdraw cash from investments in the short term, index ETFs are a better choice.

For example, SPY tracks the top 500 US companies. Over the past 10 years, it returned 116% (from 201 to 434). Although the dividend yield is only 1.6% (about 1.1% after tax), the main gains come from capital appreciation.

This is the magic of compound interest: investing NT$100,000 for 30 years (with annual investments not exceeding NT$100,000), you can eventually accumulate NT$12 million. This low-risk, hands-off, automatic elimination of weaker companies approach is most suitable for those with high income backing.

As long as the US dollar remains the global settlement currency, the US will not go bankrupt, and assets will steadily increase.

Route 3: Ample time and willingness to learn (Students, salespeople)

If your advantage is time—having plenty of time to research the market, gather information, and analyze trends—short-term speculation is also worth trying.

This isn’t gambling but using current events to predict capital flows. For example, the US interest rate cycle is nearing its peak, and future rate cuts or QE are inevitable. This means dollar supply will increase, and the dollar is likely to depreciate. At the same time, a weaker dollar often stimulates Bitcoin to rise.

Similarly, Taiwan government policies opening up and tourism-related stocks will have wave-like gains, and AI concept stocks have also experienced this. Following the main capital flow through news sensitivity to profit from short-term hype—this is the advantage of those with plenty of time.

The downside is that it requires daily monitoring and continuous learning, which may affect your main job. So make sure you have extra time and that your main work won’t suffer.

Five Major Investment Types: Practical Reports

After understanding these three strategies, what should you specifically invest in? Here are five market-recognized quality targets and their characteristic analyses:

Gold: Inflation hedge insurance

Gold itself doesn’t pay dividends; all returns come from price differences. Over the past 10 years, gold prices increased by 53%, with an annualized return of 4.4%. Major surges occurred during 2019-2020 (COVID-19) and 2023-2024 (geopolitical risks).

Gold’s value lies in risk aversion: during economic instability, gold outperforms other assets. The downside is that long-term returns are generally moderate, making it suitable mainly as a defensive asset in asset allocation.

Bitcoin: High volatility, high opportunity

Over the past 10 years, Bitcoin surged over 1700 times, but with extreme volatility. Different periods have seen various bullish and bearish factors—once crashing due to exchange failures, soaring due to cross-border remittance demand, recently driven by halving events, ETF listings, and political stimuli.

As of late 2025, Bitcoin is around $87.3K, with short-term bullish support, but long-term replicating the past 170x surge is unlikely.

Bitcoin is suitable as a “speculative tool” rather than a “long-term investment,” and should never exceed 10% of your total assets due to its wild swings. It’s recommended to buy at lows, reduce at highs, grasp short-term opportunities, but not obsess over long-term holding.

0056: Monthly dividend for stable cash flow

Taiwan’s most well-known high-yield ETF, mainly investing in high-dividend Taiwanese stocks. Over the past 10 years, it paid out 60%, with a 40% stock price increase. Since its strategy focuses on dividends, the price difference space is limited, and profits come from stable dividend income.

Core advantages: local focus, stable dividends, low holding threshold. The downside is limited growth potential, suitable for conservative investors seeking stability.

SPY: The global investor’s faith

Tracks the top 500 US listed companies, a textbook target for compound interest investing. Over the past 10 years, it gained 116%, with an average annual return of about 8% (dividends 1.1% + capital appreciation 7%).

The most amazing feature is the automatic elimination mechanism: stronger companies stay, weaker ones are淘汰. Given enough time, you can steadily earn the dividends of US economic growth.

The downside is almost no cash flow along the way, requiring continuous reinvestment from your main income. But if you persist for 30 years, NT$1 million can grow to NT$12 million.

Berkshire Hathaway: The masterpiece of compound interest masters

Led by Warren Buffett, the investment empire’s profit model is highly replicable—using insurance cash flows for arbitrage. For example, issuing low-interest bonds in Japan at 0.5% annual yield and using that money to buy Japanese stocks (dividends usually over 5%)—the interest spread alone can generate stable profits.

Core advantage: the model doesn’t depend on Buffett himself; even after he’s gone, this system will continue to operate. This makes BRK a holy grail in the hearts of “compound interest believers.”

About Leverage, Turnover Rate, and Risks

Many people worry whether an annualized 20% return is impressive. In fact, Buffett once said: “If I only have NT$1 million principal, I can earn NT$500,000 per year.”

The advantage of small capital is flexibility and high turnover. You can act like a nomad, entering the market immediately when you sense an opportunity, with little impact from market fluctuations. Plus, current trading platforms require very low capital, making leverage routine.

But leverage is a double-edged sword. Only when your win rate is high and your judgment of direction is accurate should you increase turnover and leverage multiples; otherwise, you accelerate losses. The ideal is to use leverage to go long during rapid upward phases and stay cautious during price fluctuations.

Final Words

Choice is more important than effort, but only if you truly understand the costs and benefits of each option.

Someone earning NT$100,000 monthly in three months is usually more suitable for short-term trading than someone earning NT$1.2 million annually. Because the former has ample time to research, while the latter has no time to monitor the market. Similarly, someone investing NT$1,000 monthly for 30 years will ultimately accumulate far more wealth than someone investing NT$10,000 monthly for three years and giving up.

No matter which path you choose, remember these three words: Mindset, Projects, and Time. Mindset prevents blind pitfalls, projects determine the returns you understand, and time allows compound interest to truly unleash its power.

NT$100,000 may seem small, but it’s enough to be a starting point for changing your life. The key isn’t the amount but whether you’re willing to let this money work for you—over one year, five years, or even thirty years. As long as you persist, small investors can become small millionaires—it’s really just a matter of time.