What’s Wrong With Growing Rich Slowly?

Accumulating retirement assets is a marathon journey during which emotions are your enemy and time is your ally. The wealth created by long term compound growth is available to anyone with the patience, discipline and long-term optimism that it requires. The most successful investors I know have maintained a long-term view and let compounding work its magic.

Wall Street’s product pushers know that patience, discipline and long-term optimism aren’t easy to sell. So rather than advising you to get rich slowly, Wall Street offers you leveraged funds that promise quick riches by doubling or tripling the market’s return. Unfortunately, the hype surrounding these funds has exceeded reality, leading the SEC and Finra to publish a warning that these funds are unsuitable for long-term investors.

I doubt that very many 20-somethings browse the RetireMentors pages of MarketWatch. But perhaps these two examples of the power of compound growth will motivate parents to encourage their 20-somethings to begin investing as early as possible — even if initial contributions are small.

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