Nicole Lapin

Ask for that raise.

Optimize your side gig.

That way, it's going to be much easier to bump up your investment allocation.

If you can invest $1,000 a month, you'll invest $12,000 in year two.

But we can't forget year one, which has been growing in the stock market.

Add year one and year two, and you'll have $23,000 invested.

That is nearly 25% of the way toward $100K.

Year three is our growth year.

Now that you're comfortable with investing, it's time to invest $1,250 a month.

That's $15,000 for the year.

$15,000 that is working just as hard for you as you are working for yourself.

Meanwhile, your existing investments have been growing at 10%.

And I'll do the math for you.

You'll end year three with $40,500.

Psychologically, this is where all of this starts feeling real.

You can see that snowball forming.

Year four, it's all about pushing even harder on those two levers, earning more and investing more.

Bump up your investing to $1,850 a month.

That's a little over $22K for the year.

By the end of year four, your $40,000 from last year has hit $44,000.