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In your 20s, funding your 401(k) might have sounded like a good goal 鈥β爁or your 30s. Now that your 30s are here, you may be nervously noticing the countless articles on the virtues of聽.

This isn鈥檛 one of those articles. Yes, you鈥檙e probably too old now to go on 鈥淭he Bachelor鈥� 鈥斅燼ctually, let鈥檚 call it 鈥渢oo wise鈥� 鈥� but you鈥檙e definitely not too old to reap the benefits of investing. Getting started now gives you plenty of reasonable paths to build a healthy $1 million by retirement.

Here are five steps to help you achieve that goal.

1. Start with your 401(k)

Your 20-something self was right about the 401(k) part: That鈥檚 the first place most people should save for retirement.

There are many reasons why, but we鈥檒l hit just the high points:

• A 401(k) has a high annual contribution limit of $18,000.
• Contributions get swept into the account directly from your paycheck 鈥� before taxes 鈥� like magic.
• Many plans, particularly those at large companies, offer access to inexpensive R share classes of mutual funds. (The 鈥淩鈥� stands for retirement, but it could also stand for 鈥渞educed price.鈥�)
• Perhaps best of all, many employers will match your contributions, at least up to a cap. That鈥檚 free money you won鈥檛 find through other offerings.

The payoff:聽Let鈥檚 pretend you make $50,000 and begin saving at age 30. Assuming 2% annual salary increases and a 6% average annual return, saving 10% each year and collecting a 3% match will net you a little over $1 million by age 67. You can do the math for your own situation with our聽.

2. Supplement with a Roth IRA

Once you鈥檙e capturing that full 401(k) match, you should take a second look at your 401(k)鈥檚 investment options. Yes, they鈥檙e often inexpensive, but not always 鈥� and some plans tack on administrative fees. If your plan is too costly, you鈥檙e better off directing any additional contributions this year to the second-best place for your retirement savings: an individual retirement account, such as a Roth IRA.

As noted above, with a 401(k), your contributions go in pretax, which means they鈥檙e taxed when you withdraw them in retirement. With a Roth IRA, your contributions go in after tax, which means no tax in retirement. Your money also grows tax-free in a Roth IRA.

That kind of tax diversification is why it鈥檚 a good idea to combine a 401(k) with a Roth IRA, if you meet the聽聽for a Roth. (Of note: Some companies are offering a Roth version of the 401(k) that 鈥� again,聽if your plan fees are low 鈥� can be the best of both worlds.)

The downside is that IRAs allow you to contribute only $5,500 in 2017. If you max that out, go back to your 401(k) until you hit its $18,000 ceiling or otherwise max out your budget for savings. For more details on Roth IRAs, see NerdWallet鈥檚 complete聽.

The payoff:聽Consistently saving $5,500 in your Roth IRA each year won鈥檛 land you $1 million if you begin at age 30 鈥� at a 6% return, you鈥檒l end up with about $740,000 at age 67.聽But remember, we called this a supplement 鈥� and that鈥檚 $740,000 you can draw on tax-free in retirement.

3. Take as much risk as you can stomach

Risk is one reason there鈥檚 such emphasis on investing when you鈥檙e young 鈥� young people have a long time horizon before retirement, which means they can worry less about short-term volatility. That allows them to accept risks that should lead to higher average returns over the long term.

But with 30 or so years before retirement, you, too, are young. And you should be taking risks, investing the vast majority of your long-term savings 鈥� 70% to 80%, at this age 鈥斅爄n stocks and stock mutual funds.

The payoff:聽Risk doesn鈥檛 guarantee higher average returns, but it makes them more likely over the life of a long-term investment. Let鈥檚 say you played it safe in your 401(k) and earned an average annual return of 4% instead of the 6% we used in the earlier example. That would trim your $1 million down to about $740,000.

4. Seek inexpensive diversification

Investing becomes less risky if your investments are diversified, which means no, you should not dump all your available cash in the Snapchat IPO.

Here are two tricks to diversification:

1. Having enough money to spread around.
2. Using index and exchange-traded funds.

Being older can help a great deal with the first item, as the years between 20- and 30-something probably netted you a few salary increases. As for the second item, funds like these track an index: A Standard & Poor鈥檚 500 fund, for example, tracks the S&P 500. That index includes 500 of the biggest companies in the U.S.; the index fund pools your money with other investors to buy shares of those stocks.

The performance of the fund, then, virtually mirrors the performance of the index 鈥斅爈ess the fees you pay for the convenience of the fund. Aim to pick funds with fees less than 0.50%. In some cases, you can get that number down to 0.10%.

The wide assortment of stocks in index funds makes you somewhat diversified. To diversify even further, you can put together several funds 鈥� for example, one that gives you exposure to international stocks, and one or two that invest in small and medium U.S. companies. Because bond prices tend to move in the opposite direction of stock prices, you can also buy bond funds to further balance the risk of those stock funds.

If all of that sounds too hard to manage, you can pay to have someone do it for you, or even some thing: A聽robo-advisor, which uses a computer algorithm to build and manage your portfolio for a small annual fee, is a good choice at this stage. See NerdWallet鈥檚 list of the聽聽for more on this option.

The payoff:聽This benefit comes in ways both monetary and not: Your overall portfolio return may or may not improve, but it should be less volatile, which means you鈥檒l get more sleep than had you bet your retirement on one individual stock. You may gain additional peace of mind from knowing a smart computer is watching over your investments.

5. Take off the retirement blinders

Retirement is the universal long-term goal, but it鈥檚 often treated as the only goal. You can save and invest for other things, and in your 30s, those other things tend to come up more: college for your kids (if you have them), vacations (perhaps away from those kids), or a down payment for a house (if you鈥檇 like to realize the dream of unclogging your own gutters one day).

The trick is to prioritize these goals. Retirement should come first, but you can divert money into these other goals by saving more when you get a raise, stashing away windfalls and taking advantage of changing expenses. Let鈥檚 say you pay off your car or student loans. Instead of kicking your restaurant spending up a couple of notches, put those payments into a savings account or a聽听颈苍蝉迟别补诲.

The payoff:聽If you invest $200 a month at a 6% return from the time your child is born until he or she turns 18, you鈥檒l end up with about $75,000 鈥� and, with any luck, a kid with a college degree. (You might want to boost that savings rate if your son or daughter aspires to the Ivy League, though.)

Arielle O鈥橲hea is a staff writer at NerdWallet, a personal finance website. Email: aoshea@nerdwallet.com. Twitter:聽.

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