Decoder · How growth works
Growth on top of growth. Your money earns a return; next year the return itself earns too. It is why starting earlier beats starting bigger, and why the catch-up math on this site is honest instead of comforting: the gap between starting at 27 and 47 is compounding, and no trick erases it — only bigger monthly amounts narrow it.
Return, in plain wordsDividend, in plain wordsDollar-cost averaging, in plain words