Compound interest explained with real examples: the snowball of savings
Imagine two people. The first starts saving and investing early, with modest amounts, doing so consistently over many years. The second waits longer, saves twice as much each month, but only for half the period. In the end, the first person accumulates more, even though they contributed far less money in total.
That result seems counter-intuitive. How can someone who puts in less end up with more? The answer is compound interest: the mechanism that makes time, not the amount, the most valuable financial asset of all.