{"id":27403,"date":"2012-02-15T09:00:32","date_gmt":"2012-02-15T14:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/countingpips.com\/fx\/2012\/02\/15\/the-secret-to-long-term-investing\/"},"modified":"2012-02-15T09:00:32","modified_gmt":"2012-02-15T14:00:32","slug":"the-secret-to-long-term-investing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/2012\/02\/15\/the-secret-to-long-term-investing\/","title":{"rendered":"The Secret to Long-Term Investing"},"content":{"rendered":"<div align=\"left\"><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\ntweetmeme_style = 'compact';\n<\/script><br \/>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"http:\/\/tweetmeme.com\/i\/scripts\/button.js\"><\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-27442\" title=\"The secret to long-term investing is exponential growth.\" src=\"http:\/\/www.investmentu.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/long-term-investing.jpg\" alt=\"Long-Term Investing\" width=\"600\" height=\"198\" \/><\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re investing in the hopes to get rich quick, it\u2019s time to reconsider.<\/p>\n<p>The truth is, 9.9 times out of 10, real wealth \u2013 the kind that allows generations of families to live like kings and queens \u2013 is built slowly over time.<\/p>\n<p>One chart can easily show how it pays to invest for the long term. It\u2019s called an exponential growth chart, or \u201chockey stick\u201d chart:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.investmentu.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/exponential-growth-over-time.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-27440\" title=\"You don't need money to make money, but it certainly helps.  This &quot;hockey stick&quot; chart shows how investments grow with the help of the world's most powerful force, exponents.\" src=\"http:\/\/www.investmentu.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/exponential-growth-over-time.png\" alt=\"Exponential growth of investments over time\" width=\"541\" height=\"352\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>And understanding this chart should completely change the way you think about investing for the future.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Investing for the Long Haul<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>According to Dr. Chris Martenson, a former Fortune 300 executive, \u201cAnything that steadily increases in size as a proportion of its current size\u201d will give you \u201ca chart that looks like&#8230; a hockey stick.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In other words, as long as you can average more growth than not in your investment portfolio, you will experience exponential growth over time.<\/p>\n<p>For investors, it\u2019s easy to see why this kind of growth is a great thing.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Turning $10,000 into $1 Million<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Let\u2019s say you\u2019re 25 years old and you only have $10,000 to invest with. You average just around 7% growth annually in your <a title=\"Your Investment Portfolio \u2013 Why You Don\u2019t Need A Financial Planner\" href=\"http:\/\/www.investmentu.com\/2008\/February\/investment-portfolio.html\">investment portfolio<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks to compounding growth, at 7% growth, you\u2019d <a title=\"What should you do when your stocks double? Find out here.\" href=\"http:\/\/www.investmentu.com\/2010\/December\/when-stocks-double.html\">double your portfolio<\/a> every 10 years.<\/p>\n<p>That means, after 10 years, your portfolio would total $20,000. After 30 years, it would be $40,000. After 40 years, it would be $80,000. And so on.<\/p>\n<p>Over the course of your investment career, here\u2019s what your portfolio would look like simply averaging 7% growth per year:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-27441\" title=\"This chart shows the secret to long-term investing in action. Look how that $10,000 deposit doubled, then triples, and so on.\" src=\"http:\/\/www.investmentu.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/growth-over-70-years.jpg\" alt=\"The long-term investor's secret weapon\" width=\"547\" height=\"357\" \/><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s important to realize what happens after 40 years of growing $10,000 at 7% per year. Although it takes 40 years to grow <a title=\"Discover how to get the most out of your portfolio and reduce risk.\" href=\"http:\/\/www.investmentu.com\/2009\/October\/your-investment-portfolio.html\">your portfolio<\/a> to just $180,000, it takes just little more than 25 years to earn the remaining $820,000.<\/p>\n<p>This <a title=\"Learn how to increase your return on savings by harnessing the power of compounding.\" href=\"http:\/\/www.investmentu.com\/2009\/March\/compounding-interest.html\">compounding effect<\/a> is why it\u2019s so important to invest for the long haul. And it should help you make better investment decisions for the rest of your life.<\/p>\n<p>Good Investing,<\/p>\n<p>Mike Kapsch<\/p>\n<div>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/InvestmentU?a=CAHWmh6Zazs:kQIqZIEPsqU:yIl2AUoC8zA\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/InvestmentU?d=yIl2AUoC8zA\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/InvestmentU?a=CAHWmh6Zazs:kQIqZIEPsqU:V_sGLiPBpWU\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/InvestmentU?i=CAHWmh6Zazs:kQIqZIEPsqU:V_sGLiPBpWU\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/InvestmentU?a=CAHWmh6Zazs:kQIqZIEPsqU:qj6IDK7rITs\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/InvestmentU?d=qj6IDK7rITs\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/InvestmentU?a=CAHWmh6Zazs:kQIqZIEPsqU:gIN9vFwOqvQ\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/InvestmentU?i=CAHWmh6Zazs:kQIqZIEPsqU:gIN9vFwOqvQ\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/InvestmentU?a=CAHWmh6Zazs:kQIqZIEPsqU:F7zBnMyn0Lo\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/InvestmentU?i=CAHWmh6Zazs:kQIqZIEPsqU:F7zBnMyn0Lo\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~r\/InvestmentU\/~4\/CAHWmh6Zazs\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Article by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.investmentu.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Investment U<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you\u2019re investing in the hopes to get rich quick, it\u2019s time to reconsider. The truth is, 9.9 times out of 10, real wealth \u2013 the kind that allows generations of families to live like kings and queens \u2013 is built slowly over time. One chart can easily show how it pays to invest for &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/2012\/02\/15\/the-secret-to-long-term-investing\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;The Secret to Long-Term Investing&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27403\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/fx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}