1 Penny That Doubles Every Day for 30 Days OR $1,000,000 CASH?

How Compounding Works… FOR You.

Trinity Wurm
2 min readAug 14, 2023

This common question was circulating around for quite a while and recently I heard it again:

If you were offered a single penny that doubled every single day for the next 30 days, OR $1,000,000 in CASH right here, right now, which one would you take?

Let’s stop and ask ourselves for a moment; which one would you take? The penny or the cash? Well, the cash seems like the obvious answer, right?

Wrong!

Check out what happens when you invest a small amount ($0.01) and let it grow and in this case DOUBLE for the next 16 days:

Photo of Author’s Microsoft Excel spreadsheet outlining the topic

As you can see, in the first 16 days, not much is happening. You probably have your neighbour, who accepted the $1,000,000 in cash living it up and buying expensive cars and/or houses.

Photo of Author’s Microsoft Excel spreadsheet outlining the topic

Just look at that compounding though!!!! By day 27 you’ve already passed your neighbours paltry $1,000,000! By day 30, you’ve got over 10x the cash option!!

So What’s The Point Of This Article?

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Trinity Wurm
Trinity Wurm

Written by Trinity Wurm

Single, exhausted, yet grateful toddler (x2) mom creating generational wealth and passive income NOW, so that I can spend more time with my babies.