{"id":8220,"date":"2014-08-20T11:05:55","date_gmt":"2014-08-20T18:05:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.marketriders.com\/investing\/?p=8220"},"modified":"2016-12-21T07:27:56","modified_gmt":"2016-12-21T15:27:56","slug":"compound-interest-grow-retirement-lily-pads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marketriders.com\/investing\/compound-interest-grow-retirement-lily-pads\/","title":{"rendered":"Compound Interest: Grow Your Retirement Lily Pads"},"content":{"rendered":"

Compound interest<\/a>\u00a0is one of the trickier concepts in retirement investing. People profess to understand it but often fail to grasp the real investing power behind the math.<\/p>\n

It’s not as simple as “time is money.” While true, the better way to think about compounding is that “more time is much more money” and “even more time is much, much more money.”<\/p>\n

Picture a lake. Lily pads grow in one corner. Assume that the number of lily pads doubles every day.<\/p>\n

\"compound<\/a><\/p>\n

By the end of the 30th day, imagine the lake is half-filled with lily pads. How much longer will it take for the lake to be completely full?\u00a0Just one more day.<\/em><\/p>\n

That’s compounding at work. If the number doubles every day, then one becomes two, two becomes four, four becomes eight. The growth accelerates dramatically, but the really big change is late in the process. The lily pads seem to be under control at first and then they explode in number toward the end.<\/p>\n

In terms of your retirement, picture a graph with a line starting on the bottom left. That line shows your account balance in dollars. As the line moves right it will hug the bottom of the graph for a long while.<\/p>\n

Then, like an airplane gaining altitude, it will begin to lift. Then, very much\u00a0unlike<\/em>\u00a0an airplane, the line eventually starts to point nearly straight up. Your retirement glider turns into a\u00a0retirement rocket<\/a>!<\/p>\n

How can you put this power to work for your retirement? By saving early and periodically, by reducing the fees you pay to invest and by using a risk-adjusted portfolio.<\/p>\n