One of the simplest ways to get rich is to invest a regular sum every month. It doesn’t have to be a huge amount, so long as you stick with it.

Say you invested £100 a month with interest of 8 per cent. After ten years, you’d have £18,417. After 30 years you would have an impressive £150,030, of which just £36,000 would be thanks to your contributions.

If you invest using a stocks and shares Isa, all returns are completely free of tax. You can open one on an investment platform – all of which allow you to set up automatic monthly payments in.

That only leaves the question of where to invest. There’s nothing wrong with keeping it simple. You can even start with just one fund that contains shares and bonds in companies across the globe.

For example, Vanguard offers a LifeStrategy group of funds that cost just 0.2 per cent a year and contains a range of shares and bonds in different proportions depending on how much risk you take on. BlackRock has a similar range called MyMap, which costs 0.17 per cent.

If you invest using a stocks and shares Isa , all returns are completely free of tax

A global index fund, which clones the performance of the world’s stock markets, is another good option to start with, such as the Fidelity Index World Fund, which costs just 0.12 per cent.

If you want to build a portfolio, you can use one of these as a foundation and then bolt on more specialist funds. This approach is called ‘core and satellite’. As you add satellite holdings, you can ask to split your £100 payment every month so the majority goes into your core holding and a few pounds go into each satellite.

Here, our panel of experts share their ideas for satellite holdings at different stages of life.

Young starter

If you start investing in your 20s you will thank yourself later, says Juliet Schooling Latter, research director at FundCalibre. That’s because you have longer for your investments to benefit from the effect of compound interest.

‘The younger you are, the more risk you can afford, so I’d look to corners of the market that are volatile short-term but offer the greatest growth over decades,’ she adds.

She tips emerging and frontier markets funds such as Artemis SmartGARP Global Emerging Markets Equity and T. Rowe Price Frontier Markets Equity.

Emerging market funds invest in countries such as China, India and Brazil, while frontier market funds invest in the likes of Nigeria, Peru and Bangladesh.

Rob Morgan, at Charles Stanley Direct, mentions BlackRock Global Unconstrained Equity, which focuses on finding good-quality growth businesses. It has returned 48.9 per cent over three years and has top holdings that include ASML, which makes equipment used to manufacture computer chips, as well as Amazon and Google parent company Alphabet.

Middle aged

Morgan says an easy route into investing in middle age is a global tracker fund which gets you immediate diversification – and which in reality is largely focused on US and technology firms.

That’s because these sectors feature many of the world’s biggest companies. If you want to keep your exposure to them in check, Morgan says: ‘For a steadier option less reliant on the US and the tech sector – which are a big part of global trackers – JOHCM Global Opportunities Fund offers a balanced portfolio focused on durable businesses with strong balance sheets and consistent cash generation.’ Top holdings include US energy network firm Sempra and German stock exchange company Deutsche Boerse. It has returned 38.1 per cent over three years.

Schooling Latter suggests BNY Mellon Multi-Asset Balanced, which is up 40.1 per cent over three years and holds stocks including US mining firm Applied Minerals, Alphabet and Taiwan Semiconductor.

Eyeing retirement

Many older investors gradually move from focusing on growing investments to prioritising preserving their value. This requires a more cautious approach.

Morgan says: ‘Troy Trojan fund takes a flexible approach to preserving the real value of wealth against the ravages of inflation.’

This fund has returned 22.8 per cent over three years and has holdings that include Invesco Gold ETC – which tracks the price of gold – Visa and Alphabet.

Ian Aylward, at AJ Bell, says if you’re close to or in the early years of retirement, a bond fund might be more suitable. ‘The M&G Global Corporate Bond fund may be worth considering,’ he adds.