Want $1 Million in Retirement? Invest $200,000 in These 2 Stocks in 2023 and Wait at Least a Decade

Even if your retirement is still many years in the future, the steps you take now to build your portfolio could have a significant impact on the returns you enjoy in your later years. Building a retirement portfolio worth $1 million or more doesn't happen overnight. It takes time, patience, diversification, rebalancing, and a consistent pattern of investing in great companies in both up and down markets and holding on to them for many years to accumulate those kinds of returns.

That said, if you're looking for explosive businesses to add to your portfolio right now, here are two supercharged stocks with superior growth potential that could foreseeably multiply $200,000 by five times or more in the next decade and beyond.

1. Upstart

Upstart (UPST 0.79%) is dealing with a perfect storm in terms of the confluence of challenges it is up against in the current market. Driven by artificial intelligence (AI), the platform acts as a loan marketplace. It uses its proprietary model, which factors in over 1,000 data points (and not just the traditional FICO score), to determine whether to approve various types of consumer loans. Upstart partners with lending institutions nationwide, deriving most of its revenue from fees for the loans it services. So the more loan volume Upstart processes, the more money it makes.

In the current environment, however, the typical process by which Upstart operates its business has faced interruptions. For one, fewer people are applying for loans right now, particularly with interest rates being so high. And because interest rates are so high, the cost that Upstart's institutional partners -- who, in the past, have bought the lion's share of all loans processed through the platform -- incur to fund these loans has led many to reduce or pause originations altogether. Upstart's model, which continues to learn and attune to the economic environment at hand, is also approving fewer loans.

So with loan volume depressed and Upstart being forced to carry far more loans on its balance sheet than usual, revenue has dropped, the company is currently unprofitable, and it's had to aggressively scale back costs, including in the form of layoffs.

While this is a tough moment for Upstart and its investors, I think it's far too soon to say all is lost. Case in point: Even though lending volume dropped 14% in 2022 compared to 2021, Upstart's contribution profit actually rose by almost the same amount (13%) from the prior year. Moreover, the underlying technology behind Upstart's platform -- which remains its greatest competitive advantage -- is continuing to prove its efficacy, with management noting that its model accuracy improved more in the seven months leading up to the end of 2022 than in the entire 30 months before that.

Even now, with institutions scaling back loan originations, more lending partners are continuing to jump on the Upstart bandwagon, its cohort of bank and credit union partners skyrocketing 120% in the 12-month period alone. With a growing network of lending partners and Upstart's platform rapidly learning and calibrating to the current environment, this could lay the groundwork for a robust recovery in conditions where the risk of default and interest rates are lower.

For risk-tolerant investors with cash to put to work right now, Upstart's current discounted price could present a timely opportunity to buy shares of a highly promising business in the early stages of growth while it's still beaten down.

2. Intuitive Surgical

Intuitive Surgical (ISRG -0.55%) has dominated the surgical robotics industry for over two decades now, ever since the approval of its flagship system, the da Vinci surgical suite. The system is used in a wide range of minimally invasive surgical procedures. The company also now sells another surgical system, called the Ion, used in lung biopsies.

The adoption of surgical robotic systems within the medical community continues to increase, and it's estimated that this industry will surpass a valuation of nearly $20 billion by the year 2030. Meanwhile, as of 2021, Intuitive Surgical controlled about 80% of this global industry. Although the company is not without competition, no competitor has even come close to snagging this level of market share.

Beyond the company's first-mover advantage in its industry, however, the way in which Intuitive Surgical's business is designed has enabled the company to grow revenue and profits in a wide range of business and economic environments. Beyond the initial sales of its surgical systems, the company makes recurring revenue from services such as medical provider training on how to use its products, customer support, and replacement tools and instruments that accompany its systems.

Over the past 10 years, Intuitive Surgical has witnessed its revenue and earnings grow by respective clips of 175% and 97%. During that same time, the company improved its cash from operations by 70%.

And investors who stayed with the stock that entire time have benefited from a total return of over 300%. Intuitive Surgical has dealt with a slowdown in procedure volume in recent quarters as COVID-19 resurgences in key markets resulted in surgery delays and cancellations. However, the company is still profitable, revenue is growing steadily, and its installed base of systems continues to grow.

The company had 7,544 systems installed worldwide at the end of 2022, up 35% compared to the end of 2019. The healthcare stock has plenty of room left to run as procedure volumes normalize and adoption of its products continues to grow, both factors that could induce long-term investors to consider a position in this resilient healthcare business.