#beginner

$100/month feels too small to bother with. But run it through 30 years of compounding and the number lands at $122K. Plus the harder lesson: starting at 25 with $100 beats starting at 35 with $200.

DCA loses to lump sum on expected return by about 1-2% over 10 years. That gap is the price of insurance against panic-selling — and for many investors it's worth paying.

You don't need a finance degree to value a stock. Three numbers — price, EPS, and book value — unlock four valuation methods. Add growth rate and dividend, and you can run eight.

Compound interest is just earning returns on returns. The math is simple. The reason it's powerful — and the reason most people get it wrong — is that the curve barely moves for the first 10 years.