Compound interest is only a magical force on long term investing with decent interest (2% is fairly low for real investing). With a somewhat realistic 7% (usual

Compound interest is only a magical force on long term investing with decent interest (2% is fairly low for real investing). With a somewhat realistic 7% (usual growth of the S&P500) yield over 40 years, this is actually visible: >>> 1.07**40 14.974457839206984 For comparison, linear interest would only be: >>> 1 + .07*40 3.8000000000000003 In the comic, the magic fails to work: >>> 1.02**10 1.2189944199947573 >>> 1 + .02*10 1.2 Finally, do note that compound interest is a step up from linear interest, which itself would already be better than "no savings".