Long-term investing rewards two simple behaviors: investing consistently and not interrupting the compounding. Both are easier with automation: a fixed monthly transfer to an index fund is the gold standard.

Step-up SIPs (raising your monthly contribution by 5-10% per year) can dramatically increase the final corpus without ever feeling like a sacrifice, because the increase usually matches your raises.

Always look at the inflation-adjusted FV. A $1M portfolio in 30 years sounds great, but at 3% inflation it has the purchasing power of about $412K today. Plan in real numbers.