This One Move Almost Ensures My Brokerage Account Balance Will Grow in 2024

I want my brokerage account balance to be a lot bigger at the end of 2024 than it was at the end of 2023.

I'm hoping that the sound investments I've made will help my money grow effortlessly throughout the year so I end up with a bigger balance. Of course, I can't count on that happening, as there's no guarantee even good investments will perform well in the short term.

There is one move I'm making this year, however, that will significantly increase my chances of ending up with more money invested by the end of 2024. Here's what it is.

One great move to grow my investment account balance

While the stock market has good and bad years, there's one way I know I can likely end up with a bigger brokerage account balance: I can grow the value of my account by transferring more money into it.

Obviously, the more I contribute to the account, the more money I will have in it by the end of the year. If I up my contributions by $100 a month, then I would have invested an extra $1,200 by the end of 2024.

Of course, by investing more, I'll also have more cash available to invest in different assets. This diversification increases the chances that at least some of my investments will perform well. So, not only will my account likely grow because of my additional contributions, but it's also more likely that I'll earn a positive return on investments so my balance increases even more.

Investing more money into my account also helps me use dollar-cost averaging to my advantage. Dollar-cost averaging involves buying a particular investment -- such as an ETF -- regularly on a set schedule. With dollar-cost averaging, sometimes I'll buy when the price of shares is down and sometimes I'll buy when the price is high.

Since my money will stretch further when the price is low, I'll end up buying more shares at a reduced cost. Even if my investments don't perform the way I'd like in 2023, I'll set myself up for more success in the future by buying more of those assets when they were on sale during a downturn.

Of course, if the stock market crashes and all of my investments plummet, dropping their value by a huge amount like 30% or 40%, then it's possible I'll still end the year with less money in my account than I started with -- despite the fact I'm contributing a lot more cash to the account. But if this disaster doesn't happen, even if the market doesn't have a great year, the fact I'm adding money, increasing my diversification, and dollar-cost averaging into assets means that it is very likely my account balance will grow in 2024.

Automatic contributions can be the key to building wealth

The reality is, if you want to make sure you're building wealth in your brokerage account, you need to make regular contributions to it. That way, even if some of your investments perform poorly over the year, then like me, you'll likely still grow your balance by adding more money, increasing your diversification, and buying assets while they're priced low.

To make sure I'm putting enough money into my account to give it the best chance to grow (barring a stock market crash), I've set up automatic transfers from my bank account to my brokerage account. And, since my goal is to make sure my brokerage account balance grows, I've increased those automatic contributions for the 2024 year.

Once I've automated the process of contributing to my account, there's no question the money will go where it needs to. I don't have to make sure there's money left over at the end of the month to contribute. The funds are put into my brokerage account, and I can buy assets regularly using my dollar-cost averaging technique.

If you also want to grow your investment account balance this year, consider starting automatic contributions to your broker or increasing the amount you have invested. Even putting just a few extra dollars a month in your account can make a difference over time, especially if you invest for the long haul.