Do you want to be rich? Or do you just want to be free from money?

The median income in the United States is about $56,000. People earning a $50,000 salary take home about $39,129 each year, which comes to $3,261 per month.
It seems like a decent amount of money, but it really isn't... When thought about as money earned.. it's a lot. But when thought about as money spent, it's not. It's a lot easier to spend it than earn it.
If we were able to invest 15% of our take home income, we would be investing $489/month or $5,869/year. That's a pretty good amount to be investing.
The steadiest returns have usually been in index funds as the S&P 500 index which has returned an average of 10.49% per year for the last 50 years.
Based on that, if a 25 year old started investing 15% of their income, or $5,869 per year with an average annual return of 10.49% until they're 65. They would build a portfolio with the staggering amount of $3,280,367.88.
Of course, circumstances for each individual are different and you can never know what the future holds, investing always carries some risk.
Compound interest truly is spectacular :)