How we started investing on $30 a month — and what 6 years looks like
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I am not a financial advisor. Everything on this blog is based on our personal experience and is for informational purposes only. Please consult a qualified financial professional before making any investment decisions.
I want to show you something.
In 2020, the same month we moved into our tiny apartment in Danshui with $2000 in our bank account, we made what felt like a slightly ridiculous decision. We opened an investment account and set up automated investing. The amount was small. Some months it was $30, some months a little more. At the start, investing on a small budget felt almost absurd at the time. Especially on a missionary income of $1,200 a month! But we pressed confirm and watched the money leave.
We did the same thing the next month. And the month after that. For six years.
I’m not going to tell you it always felt comfortable. There were months we wondered if we should pause it, redirect it, use it for something more immediately useful. We never did. And today, looking at what that account has grown into roughly double what we put in. I can tell you without hesitation that it was the single best financial decision we made in Taiwan.
This post is about how we did it, why we automated it from day one, and what six consistent years of investing on a small budget actually looks like in practice.
Although I cannot promise you the same results we experienced by the end of 6 years, my main point and encouragement is this, it is more than possible for you to start investing with little money now!
Why we started investing on a small budget before we felt ready
Most people wait until they feel financially stable before they start investing. If that was us, we would have waited forever.
In 2020 we were newlyweds on a single support-based missionary income with no financial safety net and no guarantee of what next month’s income would look like. By most conventional measures we were not ready to invest. But we had read enough to know that time in the market matters more than the amount you invest and that every month we waited was a month of compounding we were giving away for free.
If you want the full picture of how we managed money in Taiwan, start with our origin story. “What Missionary Life Taught Us About Money”
So we made a decision before the month began: investing was not optional. We treated it exactly the same way we treated rent. Non-negotiable. Already gone before we had a chance to spend it.
The amount was almost beside the point. What mattered was that it happened. Every single month. And even if we couldn’t meet our exact goal for the month’s allocation, we would still put something in and work to make our contributions grow.
Our strategy to investing on a small budget
What we invested in and why we kept it simple
We kept our investment strategy deliberately simple. Index funds tracking broad market performance. Nothing complicated, nothing that required us to watch stock prices or make active decisions. We chose index funds for three reasons.
First, they are low cost. Index funds typically have very low management fees compared to actively managed funds. Which means more of your money stays invested and working for you rather than paying someone else to make decisions.
Second, they are diversified by design. When you invest in a broad market index fund you are essentially buying a small piece of hundreds or thousands of companies at once. One company having a bad year doesn’t sink your portfolio.
Third, they require almost no maintenance. We set it up, automated the transfer, and got on with our lives. We weren’t checking prices daily or making emotional decisions based on market movements. We were just consistently adding to something we believed in for the long term.
For two people running a tight missionary budget in Taiwan, simple was the only strategy we could realistically stick to. And sticking to it turned out to be the whole strategy.
If you’re interested in what we used to invest for my US readers, I have linked the website here. This is not a sponsored link. In future posts I will explain more on why I chose this one over their competitors.
The automation decision that changed everything – why automated investing
The single most important thing we did was to automate the transfer from day one.
On the day our monthly support came in, a fixed amount moved automatically into our investment account before we touched anything else. We never saw it sitting in our checking account. We never had the choice to spend it. It was simply gone, working somewhere else while we got on with the month.
This sounds small. It isn’t.
Every person who has ever said “I’ll invest whatever is left at the end of the month” knows how that story ends. There is never anything left at the end of the month. Life fills the gap. The grocery bill runs a little high, an unexpected expense shows up, and the investing money quietly becomes next month’s problem. Automation removes that decision entirely. It makes investing the default rather than the afterthought.
If you take one thing from this post let it be this: automate your investment transfer for the day your income arrives. Even if the amount is $20. Especially if the amount is $20. The habit is worth more than the number.
How what started as a small amount grew over six years
We didn’t invest $30 a month for six straight years. We started there. In those early months in Danshui when the budget was tightest and the income most unpredictable and we increased gradually as our income stabilized and our confidence grew.
Some months we added a little more when support came in higher than expected. Other months we stayed at the base amount when things were tight. The key was that we never went to zero. The automatic transfer always ran. The floor was always funded, even when the ceiling couldn’t go higher. The most tested month was when our first child was born in 2022. New baby expenses hit all at once, medical costs, gear, the invisible thousand small things nobody warns you about. We talked about pausing the investment transfer that month. We didn’t.
Looking back that decision, to keep going even in the most expensive month we had faced is the one I’m most proud of. Because it proved to us that the habit was real and not just something we did when it was easy.
I want to give you a real number here because I think it matters more than a percentage.
When we started in 2020 our investment account held a couple hundred dollars. Today, six years later, after consistent monthly deposits that started at $30 and grew gradually over time, that account sits at over $23,000.
We did not earn our way to that number. We did not make a lucky stock pick or time the market perfectly. We automated a small transfer every single month for six years and let compound growth do the rest. The market went up and down along the way. We never stopped the transfer. We never sold in a panic. We just kept going.
Compound growth doesn’t feel like much in year one or year two. By year four it starts to look interesting. By year six, when you see a number like $23,000 sitting in an account that started with a couple hundred dollars on a missionary budget in Taiwan. It looks like the best decision you ever made.
How to start investing on a small budget
You don’t need a high income to start investing. You need a decision and an automated transfer.
Here’s the simplest possible starting point:
Step 1 — Open a brokerage account. For families in the US, a Roth IRA is one of the best places to start. Contributions grow tax-free and you can withdraw them in retirement without paying tax on the gains. Fidelity and Vanguard are both beginner-friendly options with no account minimums.
Step 2 — Choose a simple index fund. A total market index fund or an S&P 500 index fund is all most beginning investors need. Low fees, broad diversification, no active decision making required.
Step 3 — Set up an automatic monthly transfer. Decide on an amount. Any amount and automate it for the day your income arrives. Start with what feels slightly uncomfortable but manageable. You can always increase it later.
Step 4 — Leave it alone. This is the hardest step for most people. The market will go up and down. Some months your account value will drop. Do not stop the automatic transfer. Do not sell. Time in the market is the advantage you are building. Every month you stay invested is a month working in your favor.
The number that matters most isn’t the amount — it’s the start date
Six years ago we pressed confirm on a $30 transfer from a tiny apartment in Danshui. It felt insignificant at the time. Looking at what that account holds today. Over $23,000 built from a couple hundred dollars on a missionary budget, it is one of the clearest illustrations I know of why starting matters more than starting big.
The families who will look back in ten years and wish they had started investing are making that decision right now. Not the decision to invest someday. The decision to wait one more month until things feel more stable.
Things will never feel perfectly stable. Start anyway.
If you want to see exactly how we structured our monthly budget to make investing possible even on a tight income, including the 50/20/20/10 framework we used in Taiwan. Read our previous post here.
And if you want our Free Family Budget Template to help you find the money to start, drop your email below and I’ll send it straight to you.
Can you really start investing with only $30 a month?
Yes. The amount matters far less than starting. A $30 monthly investment started in 2020 grew to roughly $23,000 over six years — not because of the amount, but because of consistent deposits, automation, and time in the market. The hardest part is pressing confirm on that first transfer.
What should I invest in when I’m just starting out?
For beginners with a small budget, a low-cost index ETF is the most practical starting point. We used 0050 in Taiwan and later added VTI in the US — both track broad markets, have very low expense ratios, and require no active management. The goal is to start, not to optimize.
Is it worth investing when your income is unpredictable?
Yes, with one condition. Keep your emergency fund separate and non-negotiable first. We invested while on a missionary income that varied month to month, but we treated investing like rent: a fixed line item, not optional. Even months we came up short, we put in something rather than nothing.
