Three Levers of Growth

Compound interest has three levers you can pull. Lever 1: Amount — invest more each month. Lever 2: Rate — earn higher returns (stocks beat bonds beat savings). Lever 3: Time — start earlier or retire later. Most people obsess over Lever 1, squeezing in a few extra dollars. But Lever 3 is the most powerful by far. An extra decade of compounding often beats doubling your monthly contributions.