Jorgi

“It’s Just Not Logical Compound interest also gives results that don’t look at all logical. Think about two young people who want to start investment programs. One starts at 18 years of age and faithfully invests just $1000 a year. At age 30 she stops this particular program so she can buy a house and start paying it off. She leaves the original investment to run along on its own with the earnings compounding. The other investor dithers around until age 30 and then starts to invest too. However, to make up for lost time, he puts away $2000 a year till age 65. Who do you think would end up with the most money if they both averaged 10% per annum? Is it the woman who invested $1000 a year for 13 years and then let the balance compound for 35 years, or the man who invested $2000 a year for 35 years? Amazing as it may seem, the woman would have $690,000 for a total investment of $13,000; the man would have $542,000 for a total investment of $70,000. Can you see why it happens? Because after 13 years her $1000 a year has grown to $24,500 and the compound growth on that in the 14th year alone is $2450 a year. That is almost 25% more than the man was contributing. Accordingly he can never catch her, only because she started first.”
― Noel Whittaker, Making Money Made Simple