Let Your Money Work Hard FOR YOU!

Many people, just like me, were taught all our lives that when you get any extra money that you are supposed to save that extra money at the Bank or Credit Union. Now, don't get me wrong, those people who taught us this probably had good intentions. But, think about it, when you save your money at the Bank or Credit Union, do they just leave that money alone and just wait for you to come back for it? No, of course not.
They may lend some of that money out and charge interest, and they may invest some of it in the global economy and earn interest. So basically, they make your money grow over time and traditionally pay you a small rate of return for your troubles.
What the Banks don't want you to know
Have you ever heard of the Rule of 72? Well, you're normal if you haven't; because it is also known as the Banker's Rule and they don't really have much of an incentive to teach it to us. So, let's say you worked really hard at your job and you got a $10,000 bonus. The way the Rule of 72 works is if you know the interest rate you are getting and you divide that into the magical number 72, that will approximate the number of years it will take for your money to double.
Based what we've been most likely taught all of our lives; you might just want to save that money at the Bank. And, let's say that the Banks are giving a 3% rate of return (72 ÷ 3 = 24). That means it will take 24 years for your money to double. How many 24 year doubling periods do you think most people have? Not many. So, in 24 years the money would double to $20,000 and in 24 more years it would double again to $40,000. But of course, right now you'd be luck to get around 1% (72 ÷ 1 = 72) at the Bank, which means at that rate it would take us approximately 72 years to double our money! So, do you really think it is possible for anyone to retire if we are continually taught to save our money in "safe" vehicles that have traditionally given us very low rates of return on our money?
What if we were to get the same rates as the Bank?
I'm sure it is not that hard to imagine that the Banks can get at least 12%, I mean Bank credit card averages around 17% interest. So, let's image that we can get the same rate as the Bank, or at least 12% (72 ÷12 = 6). So, if our $10,000 were doubling every 6 years over 48 years - that would grow to over $2.5 million!
So, when you think about it, when you put that $10,000 in an account at the Bank, the Bank takes and invests your money - and if they only get a 12% rate of return on your money over 48 years they would get $2.5 million and you would get $40,000. Is that really fair? So, in this case who really worked hard for that $10,000 bonus? You did! But who did that money really work hard for? The Bank!
Remember, money is almost always working hard... for somebody. I just believe that since you are the one that worked very hard for that money, that somebody should be you... not somebody else.