You've probably heard the story about the guy who invented the game of chess.
It goes like this: An inventor brought his chess board to the emperor of China, who was so impressed he offered to grant the man one wish. The inventor had a simple wish: He requested one grain of rice for the first square on the board, two grains for the second square, four for the third, eight for the fourth, and so on. Sounding like a modest proposal, the emperor agreed. But filling the chess board's last 10 squares would have required 35 quintillion grains of rice – enough to bury the entire planet. Unamused, the emperor had the inventor beheaded.
While I doubt the story is true, its message is important to understanding the power of compound interest: When things grow exponentially, gains look tiny at first, modest in the middle, and then -- very suddenly -- they shoot utterly off the charts.
The key to making compound interest work is sticking around long enough to make it to the end of the chess board. That's where the massive gains are. It's why, of Warren Buffett's $63 billion net worth, $62.7 billion was added after his 50th birthday, and $60 billion came after his 60th.
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