If you invest in this ETF now, you can become a retired millionaire | Personal Finance

There are a number of ETFs that can help you generate serious wealth for your portfolio. But if you want to retire as a millionaire, it pays to go to the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (NYSEMKT: VTI). This ETF tracks the entire stock market, meaning you get a mix of large-cap, mid-cap, and small-cap companies that make for a nice, diverse portfolio.

Since its inception in 2001, the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF has achieved an average annual return of 8.80%. This is not to say that the fund has had a strong year each year. That’s just the way the stock market works – some years are better than others. But the fund has performed very well over the past 20 years.

In addition, the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF has an expense ratio of 0.03%. That’s a very low fee to pay. If you bought an actively managed mutual fund – a fund managed by a fund manager who chooses several stocks for it – you could easily pay 10 times as much.

So how can the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF make you a millionaire? Let’s say you can invest $500 a month in that fund for 40 years. If the fund continues to deliver an average annual return of 8.8% during that time, you’ll end up with over $1.9 million.

What if you can’t squeeze out $500 a month? Even if you can only invest $300 per month during that period, you still end up with more than $1.1 million.