Asking my kids to answer this common high school math would you rather.

I heard this would your rather question the other day. I had not heard it for a few years. I remember a math teacher asking us in the 9th grade. The question goes something like this.

Would you rather have a million dollars right now or 1 penned doubled every day for 30 days.

All of us yelled 1 million. Then we were shocked to see the results.

So I decided to ask my kids to get their response.

They had similar response to me when I heard it the first time.

Let’s take a look.

A Penny Doubling Each Day
If you're curious to see what that looks like, here are the numbers that show the math of a penny doubling each day. This is the real power of compound interest!

Day
Value
1
$0.01
2
$0.02
3
$0.04
4
$0.08
5
$0.16
6
$0.32
7
$0.64
8
$1.28
9
$2.56
10
$5.12
11
$10.24
12
$20.48
13
$40.96
14
$81.92
15
$163.84
16
$327.68
17
$655.36
18
$1,310.72
19
$2,621.44
20
$5,242.88
21
$10,485.76
22
$20,971.52
23
$41,943.04
24
$83,886.08
25
$167,772.16
26
$335,544.32
27
$671,088.64
28
$1,342,177.28
29
$2,684,354.56
30
$5,368,709.12

Compounding interest works people.

Invest wisely and let’s make some money.