A quick distinction that trips people up:
There is a difference between an 'account minimum' and a 'buy minimum.' The brokerage might let you open the account with $0, but if the ETF you want to buy costs $50 per share, you need at least $50 to actually put that money to work.
With the rise of fractional shares, even this $50 floor is disappearing at some firms. it's the one worth understanding before you pick what to buy.
Where a minimum can still show up
Traditional mutual funds — the kind sold directly by a fund company, as opposed to the exchange-traded version — sometimes still set their own minimum initial purchase, commonly landing somewhere in the low thousands. That's a rule from the fund itself, not from the brokerage holding it.
The exchange-traded fund (ETF) version of a similar strategy doesn't work that way. An ETF trades on an exchange just like a stock, so the "minimum" is really just the price of one share — and at brokerages that offer fractional shares, even that can be sliced down to a few dollars. This is one reason broad-market ETFs come up so often in conversations about getting started: the dollar barrier to entry is about as low as it gets.
The one real regulatory floor: margin
There is one minimum that's set by regulation rather than by a brokerage or a fund company, and it only applies if you're borrowing money to invest — what's called a margin account. In the U.S., that floor is $2,000. Canada applies a broadly similar requirement. For straightforward buy-and-hold investing with your own money in a regular cash account, this simply doesn't come into play — it's mentioned here so the term doesn't feel mysterious if it comes up elsewhere.
Be Aware
While opening an account is free, some brokerages charge 'inactivity fees' if your balance is below a certain threshold (often $5,000 or $15,000) and you aren't trading. However, many will waive this if you set up a small recurring monthly contribution, like $100.
Side by side
So what's the real minimum?
In practice, the number that matters isn't set by a brokerage at all — it's whatever it costs to buy the first share of whatever you've decided to hold. For a low-cost, broad-market ETF, that can be well under $100, and with fractional shares, well under $10. The mechanical barrier that used to exist — needing a few thousand dollars just to walk through the door — has largely come down, on both sides of the border.
Worth remembering:
Time is your greatest asset. Waiting to 'save enough to invest' often results in losing years of compound growth. The 'enough' is whatever you have right now.
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None of this is a suggestion to open an account or buy anything in particular — it's simply how the numbers work today, so the cost of starting isn't mistaken for a bigger obstacle than it actually is.
How Much Do You Actually
Need to Get Started?
One of the most persistent myths in personal finance is that you need a small fortune to start investing. In reality, the barrier to entry has never been lower. Modern brokerages have systematically removed the high hurdles of the past. For most people opening a self-directed account today, the number is much smaller than they expect. Often it's zero.
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If you have enough to buy a cup of coffee, you technically have enough to start. The limiting factor is no longer the brokerage itself, but rather the specific rules surrounding the accounts and products you choose.