You'll Only Read This if You Want to Retire a Millionaire
Albert Einstein is credited with calling compound interest the "eighth wonder of the world." And when you understand how powerful it can be, you begin to understand why. With debt, compound interest works against you from manageable to "Oops, I might be in trouble." But with investing, compound returns (the positive counterpart of compound interest) can do a lot of the heavy lifting for you to create wealth and get on a path to millionaire status.
For compounding to work its magic, it needs time. Imagine a scenario where four different people make a single $10,000 investment averaging 10% annual returns until they turn 65 years old. Here's how much that $10,000 would be worth based on the age they first invested:
Data source: Author calculations.
Source Fool.com