Richard Jenkins wrote a very basic (and somewhat old) finance article for MSN Money, titled “Turn $1 a day into $67,815“. It’s still a great reminder of how simple it is to amass wealth. Towards the end of the article Mr. Jenkins provides other tips to reduce monthly spending pointing out “if you can knock this $123 out of your monthly budget, at 10% it will grow to $278,040 in 30 years.” The only thing I disagree with is the rate of return at 10%. While historically, this is has been the return of the stock market, I think it is better to assume rates of return in the 6-8% range. It’s better to be safe than sorry.

On another note, I think lessons like this should be taught in high school, or yet maybe even earlier. Children should be able to learn the lessons of money very early, so they can take advantage of such things as compounding interest.