Which scenario makes more sense—starting at 18 with $1M in your pocket, or hitting 80 with $100M?

The first path? Time's your ultimate weapon. Decades to compound, learn from mistakes, ride multiple market cycles. That million could turn into something serious if you don't blow it. You'll witness bull runs, crashes, recoveries—and actually have the bandwidth to act.

The second? Late-stage wealth concentration. Sure, $100M is eye-watering, but at 80, you're racing against the clock. Limited runway to deploy capital meaningfully. Healthcare bills pile up. Opportunities that require 10-20 year horizons? Probably not happening.

Investors in crypto got this backwards for years. They'd ignore small positions early, then panic-buy at peaks when serious capital finally arrived. The ones who compounded hardest started young, stayed patient, and let exponential growth do the heavy lifting.

Time compounds money. Money alone doesn't compound time.