Christmas money burning a hole in my pocket!!!

How

 

I can easily flip a car or two and get a higher return in less time

 

True true. The $200 to $2000 will actually occur in about 27 years, but it’s representative of bigger concept. If you invested just $500/month into your ROTH IRA for 40 years you’ll have $1,000,000. Total market returns as well as the S&P yield 7-9% conservatively over the long term. Compounding interest is magical. It’s also reliable. I’ve flipped many, many cars, but I’ve never made $1 million doing it.

Short term gains are almost always synonymous with long term shortcomings. But doing both, flipping cars and investing is just fine too.

 

Sorry I typo’d, it’s about 27 years based on the “rule of 72”. The S&P yields 8% annually on average long term, compounding interest works like this: 72/rate of yield = number of years it takes for your money to double, so 72/8%=9 years. So $200 after 9 years is $400, after another 9 years is $800, and another 9 years is $1600.