Most veterans know they should be investing. The problem isn’t motivation — it’s knowing where to start. There are thousands of investment options, dozens of account types, and endless opinions online about what to buy.
It feels complicated. It’s not.
Investing as a veteran comes down to three decisions — where to put your money, what to buy, and how much to contribute. Once those are set, the system runs itself. You don’t need to pick stocks, watch the market, or time anything.
Here’s exactly how to go from zero to invested, even if you only have $100 to start.
Step 1: Build Your Foundation First
Before you invest a single dollar, make sure two things are in place.
An emergency fund. You need three to six months of living expenses sitting in a high-yield savings account before you put money in the market. Investing without an emergency fund means you’ll be forced to sell at the worst possible time when an unexpected expense hits.
Zero high-interest debt. If you’re carrying credit card balances at 20% or higher interest, paying those off first is the best investment you can make. No stock or fund is going to consistently return 20% per year. Eliminate the high-interest debt, then redirect that payment into investments.
If both of those are in place, you’re ready.
Step 2: Choose the Right Account
The account you invest through matters as much as what you invest in. The right account can save you hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes over your lifetime.
Roth IRA — your top priority. The Roth IRA is the most powerful investment account available to veterans. You contribute after-tax dollars, everything grows tax-free, and you withdraw tax-free in retirement. The 2026 contribution limit is $7,000 per year ($8,000 if you’re over 50).
At $7,000 per year starting at age 25 with average market returns, you could have over $2 million tax-free by age 60. That’s money the IRS will never touch.
TSP or 401(k) — your second priority. If you’re still in the military, the Thrift Savings Plan offers incredibly low fees and a match if you’re under the Blended Retirement System. If you’re in a civilian job, contribute enough to your 401(k) to get the full employer match — that’s free money.
Taxable brokerage account — after you max the above. Once you’ve maxed your Roth IRA and gotten your full employer match, a standard brokerage account gives you unlimited investing with no contribution caps. You’ll pay capital gains taxes on profits, but it’s still better than leaving money in a savings account earning 4%.
The priority order: Roth IRA first → TSP/401(k) up to employer match → taxable brokerage for everything beyond that.
Step 3: Open Your Account
You need a brokerage. Here are the three best options for veterans — all are free to open with no minimum balance requirements.
Fidelity — Clean interface, excellent research tools, fractional shares starting at $1, and 24/7 customer support. Their ZERO index funds have literally 0% expense ratios.
Charles Schwab — Full-service brokerage with great customer service, physical branches if you want in-person help, and a strong selection of low-cost index funds and ETFs.
Vanguard — The company that invented index investing. Their funds have some of the lowest expense ratios in the industry. The interface is less polished than Fidelity or Schwab, but the products are excellent.
Any of these three will serve you well. Don’t overthink this decision — pick one and open the account. You can always move money later.
Step 4: Choose Your Investments
This is where most people get paralyzed. There are thousands of stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and ETFs to choose from. Here’s how to cut through the noise.
For most veterans, the answer is index funds. An index fund holds hundreds or thousands of stocks in a single investment. When you buy one share of a total stock market index fund, you own a tiny piece of every publicly traded company in America. Instant diversification, ultra-low fees, and historically strong returns.
Here are the only funds you need to know about.
VTI (Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF) — Holds over 3,600 stocks across the entire US market. Large companies, mid-size companies, small companies — all of them. One fund, total diversification. Expense ratio: 0.03%.
VOO (Vanguard S&P 500 ETF) — Holds the 500 largest US companies. This is the benchmark that professional fund managers try to beat (and usually can’t). Expense ratio: 0.03%.
VXUS (Vanguard Total International Stock ETF) — Holds over 8,000 stocks outside the US. Adds global diversification to your portfolio. Expense ratio: 0.07%.
VT (Vanguard Total World Stock ETF) — Holds both US and international stocks in one fund. If you want maximum simplicity, this is the one-fund solution. Expense ratio: 0.07%.
A simple portfolio that works for most veterans in their 20s and 30s: 80% VTI and 20% VXUS. Or just 100% VTI if you want it as simple as possible.
Don’t try to pick individual stocks when you’re starting out. You can add individual positions later when you have a larger portfolio and more knowledge. The index fund approach has outperformed most professional stock pickers over every 20-year period in market history.
Step 5: Set Up Automatic Contributions
This is the step that separates people who invest from people who just think about investing. Automate it.
Set up an automatic transfer from your bank account to your brokerage account on the same day you get paid. Even $50 per paycheck adds up — that’s $1,300 per year, and with compound growth it becomes significant over time.
If you can do $292 per paycheck (biweekly), that’s $7,592 per year — enough to max out your Roth IRA with some left over.
Most brokerages also let you set up automatic investing — not just automatic transfers. This means the money gets deposited and invested into your chosen funds without you lifting a finger. Set it and forget it.
Step 6: Don’t Touch It
This is the hardest part, and it’s the most important.
The market will drop. Some years it will drop 20% or more. Your account balance will go down. You’ll see headlines about crashes, recessions, and financial doom. Every instinct will tell you to sell.
Don’t.
Every major market crash in history has been followed by a recovery that exceeded the previous high. Veterans who invested $10,000 in the S&P 500 at the absolute worst time — the peak before the 2008 financial crisis — had over $50,000 by 2024. The ones who panicked and sold locked in their losses permanently.
Time in the market beats timing the market. Every single time over a long enough horizon. Your job is to keep investing consistently and let compound growth do the work.
What About $100?
If you only have $100, here’s exactly what to do.
Open a Roth IRA with Fidelity. They have no minimum balance requirement and offer fractional shares — meaning you can buy a piece of an ETF even if the share price is $250.
Deposit $100. Buy $80 of VTI and $20 of VXUS. Set up automatic deposits of whatever you can afford — $25 per week, $50 per paycheck, whatever works.
That’s it. You’re an investor. Now the only thing that matters is consistency.
How Investing Connects to Your Bigger Wealth Plan
Investing is one of three engines that build serious wealth as a veteran. The other two are real estate and business ownership.
Your investment portfolio — especially a maxed-out Roth IRA — is your safety net. It grows in the background while you pursue higher-return strategies like house hacking with a VA loan or launching an SDVOSB.
Real estate and business can generate higher returns, but they require more time, capital, and risk. Index fund investing requires almost none of your time once it’s set up, and over 20 to 30 years, compound growth turns even modest contributions into serious wealth.
The veterans who build real financial freedom use all three engines together. Investing is the one you can start today with $100 and a phone.
The Bottom Line
You don’t need to be an expert to start investing. You need a Roth IRA, an index fund, and an automatic transfer. That’s it.
The best time to start was your first day in the military. The second best time is today.
For a complete walkthrough of every financial move you should make as a veteran, read The Ultimate Veteran Financial Checklist.
For a deeper dive into the Roth IRA specifically, check out Roth IRA for Veterans: The Most Powerful Tax-Free Wealth Tool.