Are you looking to build a worry-free, passive long-term portfolio that will allow you to focus on other things while growing your money? Buying and holding a handful of exchange-traded funds (or ETFs) is the answer, of course, and the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSEMKT: SPY) remains a top choice.

If you're truly looking for lifetime holdings though, you may want to consider a slightly different solution that allows you to adjust your overall allocation as time marches on. Namely, you'll want to buy a handful of different (but complementary) ETFs that can be individually scaled back or added to as your risk tolerances change.

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If you have $1,000 in cash available to invest that isn't needed for monthly bills, to pay off short-term debt, or to bolster an emergency fund, here's a combination of ETFs to consider that will likely set most investors up for a lifetime of strong performance.

Vanguard Growth ETF

If this really is going to be a "forever" portfolio, it's a reasonably safe bet that growth is a priority for most of the time frame in question. The Vanguard Growth ETF (NYSEMKT: VUG) will handle this part of the overall job nicely.

Just as the name suggests, the Vanguard Growth ETF holds a basket of growth stocks. The fund currently holds significant stakes in Apple, Microsoft, and Nvidia ... some of the market's top-performing growth names of late. Although this company weighting evolves over time as some companies' market caps outgrow others, this ETF gives you a great shot at major long-term capital gains.

Data by YCharts.

There's a very particular reason, however, you might want to own the Vanguard Growth ETF instead of seemingly similar alternatives like the Invesco QQQ Trust, which holds many of the same stocks. That's the fact that this fund is meant to mirror the CRSP U.S. Large Cap Growth Index. (CRSP stands for the Center for Research in Security Prices.)

That won't mean much to most people. This might get your attention though: The CRSP Large Cap Growth Index largely sidesteps the common problem of taking on too much exposure to the market's very biggest companies, which in turn leaves investors vulnerable to sizable setbacks once the tide finally turns against these top names.

That hardly makes it an "equal weight" index, to be clear -- it's still measurably top-heavy.

The fund is top-heavy to a degree that's tolerable and even a little desirable, however, by virtue of ensuring a little bit of overexposure to companies that are becoming much bigger due to actual top- and bottom-line growth.

Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF

Growth stocks aren't the only way for your portfolio to achieve net growth, of course. It can also be done by a slow and steady (and ever-rising) flow of fresh cash into the account, which is then used to purchase more of whatever's generating that income. For some investors, that will be bonds and other fixed-income instruments. For most people though, this income will come from dividend-paying stocks.

The irony? High-quality dividend-paying stocks often end up outgaining the broad market anyway.

Mutual fund company Hartford crunched the numbers, determining that since 1973, stocks of companies that were able and willing to consistently grow their dividend payments produced average annual net gains of more than 10% (assuming reinvestment of those dividends) while stocks that didn't dish out any dividends didn't perform half as well. Moreover, reliable dividend payers were the market's least volatile stocks during this stretch, making them easier to stick with during turbulent times.

Data by YCharts.

What gives? The best explanation is the argument that quality always eventually shines through, and a reliably growing dividend is a good sign that a company is solid and well-run. Although there's certainly the occasional exception to this norm -- think non-dividend-paying Nvidia -- identifying these exceptions isn't always easy. You should invest based on your best odds, particularly when you're thinking in terms of a lifetime.

The Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF (NYSEMKT: SCHD) is arguably the best way to plug into this dividend-driven dynamic. Based on the Dow Jones U.S. Dividend 100™ Index, this ETF doesn't simply hold what appear to be the market's most promising dividend stocks. In addition to requiring at least 10 consecutive years of annual dividend increases, inclusion in this index also considers fundamental factors like free cash flow versus debt, return on equity, and its typical dividend growth rate. Each prospective constituent is then ranked on these metrics to screen out all tickers other than the best 100 names.

While this approach seems quite mechanical, that's the reason it works so well. There's no misleading emotion, presumption, or bias built into the selection and rebalancing process.

iShares U.S. Technology ETF

Finally, add the iShares U.S. Technology ETF (NYSEMKT: IYW) to your list of ETFs to buy and hold for a lifetime if you've got $1,000 -- or any other amount of money -- you'd like to put to work for a while.

It's obviously different than either of the other two exchange-traded funds suggested here, both of which represent a unique investing school of thought. A sector-based fund is more strategically precise, calling into question whether or not it's actually capable of being a true lifetime holding. And maybe it isn't. It would be shocking, however, if the technology sector wasn't a great one to plan on holding for the long haul, even if you can't fully see its future.

Data by YCharts.

Think about it. Ever since personal computers began proliferating back in the late 1990s, the world has increasingly become digitized. Automobiles have them on board, and people would struggle to function without the mini mobile computer they now carry around in their pocket or purse. Artificial intelligence is now being used by the pharmaceutical industry to discover, design, and digitally test new drugs. Factories are made more efficient by being able to instantly share and create actionable data. At the heart of all of it is technology, and now that we've seen what it can do, we're certainly not going back to the "old way" that was less efficient and less effective. Now, one of the world's most commonly asked questions is: How can we use technology to make things even better?

There's more than one exchange-traded fund that would fit this bill, but the iShares U.S. Technology ETF is arguably the best all-around prospect thanks to how it weights its holdings.

Built to mirror the performance of the Russell 1000 Technology RIC 22.5/45 Capped Index, this fund -- like the aforementioned Vanguard Growth ETF -- at least attempts to maintain a reasonably balanced allocation even when the market itself is becoming top-heavy thanks to the ongoing growth of a small handful of massive companies. As Russell explains in a factsheet on the index, "At the quarterly index reviews, all companies that have a weight greater than 4.5% in aggregate are no more than 45% of the index, and no individual company in the index has a weight greater than 22.5% of the index."

This approach doesn't always perfectly accomplish its goal. Right now, for instance, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Apple collectively account for about 45% of the index's value. That's not particularly well balanced.

The weighting rules will help more often than not in the long run though, and will certainly help more often than they hurt.

Should you invest $1,000 in Vanguard Index Funds - Vanguard Growth ETF right now?

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*Stock Advisor returns as of May 12, 2025

James Brumley has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Vanguard Index Funds - Vanguard Growth ETF. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

The stock market remains volatile but not quite as frantic as earlier this year. Meanwhile, the major market indexes remain well below their recent highs.

Against this backdrop, now is a great time to invest in high-quality exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that track indexes. ETFs are a collection of assets that trade as a single unit and are a great place for new and experienced investors alike because they bring instant diversification with the flexibility to be traded like a single stock.

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And $500 is a great starting point -- but just that. The key to investing, particularly with ETFs, is to contribute consistently over time. It's a strategy known as dollar-cost averaging, where you regularly invest a set amount at a specific time. This could be with each paycheck or on a particular day of the month.

It is important to stick with this strategy, whether the market is up or down. Down markets are a great time to pick up stocks on the cheap and get a better cost basis.

And you should continue to do so even in bull markets, which tend to last a long time. In fact, according to a JPMorgan Chase study, since 1950, the S&P 500 hit a new all-time high on 7% of its trading days, and on a third of those days, the index never dropped lower.

Let's look at three great index ETFs you can begin to invest in right now.

The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF

One of the most popular ETFs in the world is the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: VOO), and for good reason. As the name says, it tracks the roughly 500 largest companies that trade on a U.S. stock exchange. The index is market-cap weighted, which means that the larger a company's value, the bigger part of the portfolio it occupies.

And as with most Vanguard ETFs, it comes with a minuscule expense ratio. Even seemingly low expense ratios, such as 1%, eat into returns over time, especially as your investments grow in size. The Vanguard ETF's expense ratio is only a scant 0.03%.

With this Vanguard ETF, investors get an instant portfolio of the companies that have grown to become some of the world's largest. The index is also generally considered the benchmark for the U.S. stock market as a whole.

The ETF has a long history of solid returns. Over the past decade, it has generated an average annual return of 12.3%, as of the end of April.

The Vanguard Growth ETF

Sticking with Vanguard and its low costs, the Vanguard Growth ETF (NYSEMKT: VUG) is another great option. It mimics the CRSP US Large Cap Growth Index, which is essentially the growth side of the S&P 500. It has a similarly low expense ratio of 0.04%.

The Vanguard Growth ETF gives you an instant portfolio of many of the large-cap growth stocks that have been helping drive the market over the past several years. It is heavily weighted toward the tech sector, which makes up about 57% of its holdings. And some very tech-heavy companies, such as Amazon and Tesla, are categorized into other sectors.

If you're looking for exposure to the so-called "Magnificent Seven" stocks (Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla), this ETF is a good option. At the end of last quarter, these seven stocks accounted for over 50% of its holdings.

This fund has been a strong long-term performer, generating a 14.5% return over the past 10 years, as of the end of April.

The Invesco QQQ ETF

Beating the returns of the S&P 500 is not an easy task, but one ETF that has been able to consistently outperform it is the Invesco QQQ ETF (NASDAQ: QQQ), which tracks the performance of the Nasdaq 100. Like the other indexes mentioned above, the Nasdaq 100 is also market-cap weighted. It contains the 100 largest nonfinancial stocks on the exchange.

That index has historically attracted fast-growing companies, particularly in the technology sector. As such, it is also very heavily weighted toward tech, checking in at a similar 57% to the Vanguard Growth fund.

The Invesco ETF has been the best performer of these three over the past decade, with an average annual return of nearly 17% over the past 10 years, as of the end of April. And this has not been just from a couple of big years of outperformance. On a rolling 12-month basis, it has outperformed the S&P 500 more than 87% of the time over the past decade (for the period ended March).

It carries a 0.2% expense ratio, but its consistent outperformance over the years more than justifies its higher cost.

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Before you buy stock in Vanguard S&P 500 ETF, consider this:

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Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $617,181!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $719,371!*

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*Stock Advisor returns as of May 5, 2025

Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. JPMorgan Chase is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Geoffrey Seiler has positions in Alphabet, Invesco QQQ Trust, and Vanguard S&P 500 ETF. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, JPMorgan Chase, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, Tesla, Vanguard Index Funds - Vanguard Growth ETF, and Vanguard S&P 500 ETF. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Everyone has to start somewhere when saving for retirement. Even if you don't have any money saved up today, it's possible to build up a strong nest egg by the time you retire, potentially even $1 million. Through the power of compounding and investing, you can grow your savings at far higher levels than if you were to just accumulate money in a bank account.

What's important, however, is to have a plan and know how much you may need to invest regularly in order to achieve your goals. Below, I'll show you what amount you may want to aim to invest each month, based on your age and years until retirement, in order to end up with a portfolio of at least $1 million by the time you retire.

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Growth stocks are your go-to option for long-term investing

If you're investing for a period of 20-plus years, then you'll likely be far better off going with growth stocks than dividend stocks. The latter are more suitable when you're older, closer to retirement, and want to keep your risk relatively low. The former, however, can produce much better gains over the long run but come with much greater uncertainty and risk in any individual year. As long as you're in it for the long haul and can stomach any bad years along the way, the payoff can be well worth it.

Rather than picking growth stocks yourself, there are many exchange-traded funds (ETFs) you can invest in that will give you exposure to many of them. One popular option for growth investors is the Vanguard Growth Index Fund ETF (NYSEMKT: VUG). This has been a market-beating fund to own over the past decade, with its total returns (which include reinvested dividends) up more than 240%.

^SPX data by YCharts.

The past doesn't predict the future. But odds are, by sticking with growth stocks, you'll be putting yourself in an excellent position to achieve some terrific returns in the years ahead.

The VUG ETF holds more than 160 of the U.S.'s largest growth stocks, including big names like Nvidia and Meta Platforms. Its constituent stocks have averaged an annual earnings growth rate of more than 26% over the past five years. The fund also charges a low expense ratio of 0.04%, which means fees won't take a big chunk out of your gains.

How much do you need to invest each month to retire with $1 million?

In order to forecast how much you'll need to save and invest each month to be on track to retire with at least $1 million, you need to consider the number of years you have until retirement, as well as the average return that you'll achieve over that timeframe.

You might have some control over the retirement number (in this example, I'm assuming you retire at age 65). But predicting an average return can be challenging, and that can make a significant difference in your overall returns and how much you might need to invest.

Historically, the S&P 500 has averaged an annual return of around 10%. For the sake of being conservative, in the table below, I've shown you how much you'll need to invest monthly based on a 10% annual return, and also a 9% return, should the market slow down.

		Monthly Investment Needed to Get to $1 Million
Age	Years to Retire	Average Annual Growth at 9%	Average Annual Growth at 10%
45	20	$1,486	$1,306
40	25	$885	$747
35	30	$542	$439
30	35	$337	$261

Table and calculations by author.

These numbers can seem high, but they don't need to be discouraging. You can invest tax refunds, inheritance, investment gains, and any other potential lump sum amounts to help accelerate your portfolio's growth. The more money you have invested, the more it will compound over time, and help you end up with a higher balance in the end.

Knowing the amounts you might need can help you create a plan that aligns with your goals, and that doesn't set expectations too high or depend on a best-case scenario. Either way, trying to put aside a regular amount of money into growth-oriented investments can still help you build up a strong portfolio balance by the time you retire, even if you don't end up with $1 million.

Should you invest $1,000 in Vanguard Index Funds - Vanguard Growth ETF right now?

Before you buy stock in Vanguard Index Funds - Vanguard Growth ETF, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Vanguard Index Funds - Vanguard Growth ETF wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $594,046!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $680,390!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 872% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 160% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of April 21, 2025

Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. David Jagielski has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Meta Platforms, Nvidia, and Vanguard Index Funds-Vanguard Growth ETF. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.