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Deirdre Brazil, 24

Started investing: 2003.
Focus: Index funds.
What stands out: Built a mighty nest egg by investing early and often.
Her advice: Don't reject an investment just because it's boring.

Deirdre Brazil's whimsical spirit is infectious. Her latest passion is belly dancing, and she's been known to drop everything for a trip to Scandinavia -- or even Estonia. Just a few years out of college, she's already considering a career change: leaving the insurance business for medical school.

But when it comes to investing, Brazil is plain vanilla. She already has a six-figure portfolio that is invested mainly in index funds. She also co-owns a rental home. Nope, she didn't luck into a financial windfall. In fact, Brazil -- whose family moved from Ireland to Far Rockaway, N.Y., when she was a toddler -- grew up in a household with six siblings and few luxuries.

When she graduated from the State University of New York at Binghamton in 2002, Brazil had just $1,000 in savings and 15 times that in student loans. But within almost four years' time, she's accumulated $90,000 worth of mutual funds and $20,000 in cash.

Brazil isn't pulling down huge paychecks, and she claims she's not even a savvy investor. Her secret? "I'm a saver," she says. It helps that she lives rent-free with her parents. That allows her to invest 65% of her salary. She funnels 6% of each paycheck into a 401(k) plan; then she invests $800 to $1,000 in a handful of Vanguard index funds. Says Brazil: "I pay attention to the market for new ideas, but at the end of the day I put my money into dear old indexes."

Soon after landing her first job as an actuarial trainee at Prudential Financial in Newark, N.J., Brazil decided to test her investing legs. "I didn't really understand the differences among most funds," she says. "I just wanted my money to grow safely and without too much work."

The investment had to be simple, low-risk and low-cost. She chose Vanguard 500 Index fund, which tracks Standard & Poor's 500-stock index. The fund's annual expenses add up to just $1.80 a year per $1,000 invested. Once her money began to grow, Brazil was hooked. That first year, she invested $24,000. Today, she owns six Vanguard index funds outside of her retirement accounts, including funds that track an index of small-company stocks and one that tracks a foreign-stock index.

Brazil may not have her future figured out just yet, but she knows that the advantages of investing early can't be overstated. Consider this: If she continues investing $1,000 a month and earns 10% a year, she'll be sitting on nearly $9 million when she turns 65.

--Katy Marquardt

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