Everyday · a habit, redirected

The haul that never compounds

A regular shopper spends about $100 a month on hauls — roughly $1,200 a year. Here's that same money, working instead.

$100 a month on hauls, set aside since 2015

$12,700 spent

could have grown into

$27,393

in the S&P 500 · grew 2.16× · +116%

20152026

The clothes are cheap; the cadence isn't. A regular fast-fashion shopper runs about a hundred dollars a month on hauls — roughly twelve hundred dollars a year — on pieces that fade, shrink, or fall out of rotation within a season. There's no shame in liking new things. The question is only what that same monthly outlay could have done if it had been pointed at an index fund on the same schedule instead.

The wardrobe depreciates the moment it's worn; the asset is the part that grows — not the act of skipping the haul. To feel how small, steady buys add up, read dollar-cost averaging, or run it yourself on the S&P 500 since 2015.

The same $100/mo, across assets

Bitcoin
$232,067
gold
$31,327
S&P 500
$27,393

Only assets with data for the whole window — no unearned head starts.

Not your number? Change the spend, the asset, or the year and watch it move.

You'd have

$27,393

from $12,700 set aside up 116%.

Multiple2.16×
Per year14.0%
In today's $$19,501
shares held36.93 shares
20152026

— — — dashed line = total cash you put in

Common questions

How is the $100 a month chosen?
It's roughly what a regular fast-fashion shopper spends — about $100 a month, or ~$1,200 a year. The interactive control lets you set your own figure.
Does the growth come from buying fewer clothes?
No — it comes from the asset. Buying less just frees the money; the market is what compounds it. This is a historical what-if on past prices, not advice, and markets fall as well as rise.

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