• ABOUT – DICK YOUNG
  • YWMF – ARCHIVES

Young's World Money Forecast

Since 1978 With a 32 Year Vacation

  • DICK YOUNG
    • FROM RICHARD C. YOUNG
    • THE FINAL INTELLIGENCE REPORT
  • INVESTING STRATEGIES
    • RETIREMENT COMPOUNDERS®
    • GOLD & SILVER
  • DIVIDENDS & COMPOUNDING
    • MIRACLE OF COMPOUNDING
    • DIVIDENDS
  • GRAHAM & RUSSELL
    • BEN GRAHAM
    • RICHARD RUSSELL
  • THE DOW AND THE LEADERS
    • DOW vs. S&P 500
    • DOW vs. DOW DIVIDEND PER SHARE
  • WELLINGTON MANAGEMENT COMPANY
  • YOUR SURVIVAL GUY
  • BANK CREDIT & MONEY
  • THE PRUDENT MAN

Miss This Investing Concept to Your Everlasting Sorrow

May 1, 2019 By Richard Young

Lack of patience, more than anything else, hamstrings investors in their pursuit of profits. I wrote in July 2004 that impatiently trading in and out of equities with no eye toward compound interest will bring investors everlasting sorrow.

Compound Interest and You

Here’s a compound interest story that should help you and your spouse. Let’s assume a hypothetical $10,000 investment with a 7% annual return for 20 years. Investor A draws the 7% ($700) each year for living expenses. At the end of 20 years, the original $10,000 in capital remains in place, and $14,000 in simple interest has been drawn for living expenses. The end value in capital and interest drawn is $24,000. Now let’s assume hypothetical Investor B invests the same $10,000 at the same 7%, but draws nothing and simply let’s the money compound for 20 years. Well, $10,000 compounded at 7% for 20 years has an end value of $38,696. You will see that $14,696 ($28,696 – $14,000) represents interest on interest. Over half of the long-term total return for Investor B reflects interest on interest. Unfortunately, compound interest is not a concept that is well understood by most investors.

To their everlasting sorrow, most investors not only lack a basic knowledge of compound interest, but also lack patience and dividend/interest religion. Many are greedy, trade way too often, and are in debt. For the record, I have no debt. I buy for cash. I have never employed margin and tend to own the investments I make for a long, long time.

Retired and soon to be retired investors should place their confidence in the unmatched power of compound interest.

Related

Filed Under: Miracle of Compounding

Compensation was paid to utilize rankings. Click here to read full disclosure.

RSS New From Young Research & Publishing

  • Your Survival Guy: Learning the Rules of Life
  • BIDEN’S AMERICA: Foreign Investment Fell to $151 Billion in 2024
  • U.S. LNG Projects and Market Shifts
  • Canada Faces Major U.S. Tariffs as Trade Disputes Intensify
  • Your Survival Guy: JAWS, Woods Hole and YOU
  • New U.S. Magnet Plant Announced in Multibillion-Dollar Defense Deal
  • Trump Slaps 50% Tariff on Brazil
  • Billionaire Mining Entrepreneur Praises Trump’s Copper Tariff
  • Your Survival Guy’s Boat-Shoes-on-the-Docks View
  • Would the Pat Buchanan Plan Work Today?

RSS New From Your Survival Guy

  • Your Survival Guy: JAWS, Woods Hole and YOU
  • Time Stands Still: Against the Current
  • Are Private Equity’s Excess Returns Disappearing?
  • Your Survival Guy: “You Wouldn’t Have Liked It”
  • ESG Doesn’t Stand Up to Scrutiny
  • WARNING: Your Survival Guy and Gal in the Fog
  • Survival Guy: An All-Weather Balanced Portfolio
  • A Bazooka Fired at Private Equity
  • NYC, Crypto, ESG, the Haves and the Have-Yachts
  • Beware the ‘Democratization’ of Investing

Search Our Site

Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd.

–Client Letter Sign Up–

Sign up to receive email alerts when our latest client letter is posted on our website.

Copyright © 2025 · About Dick Young · Terms & Conditions