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Short · Money

How much can compound interest really grow?

At an illustrative constant 7%, $1,000 grows to $57,946 in 60 years. Starting ten years later removes nearly half the ending value.

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Opens Compound Growth. Change the same thing yourself.

Narrated · 36 seconds · captions includedDownload the film

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Transcript

Leave one thousand dollars growing at seven percent a year, and in sixty years it's about fifty-eight thousand. Almost half of that arrives in the last ten years. Each year's growth earns growth of its own, so the money doubles about every ten years. Ten years: two thousand. Twenty: four. Thirty: eight. Each doubling is bigger than all the growth before it. Now start ten years later. You lose only the last doubling, and end with about half. Try it yourself at Explainer Tools dot com.