Sunday 7 July 2013

Numbers on a page

I’m generally wary of writing about data.

Numbers are a different language from words, the former developed primarily for quantifying, measuring and, in my case, stultifying.

Words on the other hand, being the general-purpose tool evolved over lifetimes of use and abuse, have the unenviable task of deal with the amorphous category of the immeasurable.

So while I can throw data on to a blank page, it generally looks much prettier when vomited onto a chart.

That's quite a lot of money.
The chart shows the growth of 60k, with an annual 12k investment, compounded at 8% per annum, will grow to roughly 2.2m in 30 years. The key question in this case is to find an investment that can reasonably be expected to compound reliably at 8% yearly for 30 years.


I’ve been told early-stage Ponzi schemes make excellent investments, but they seem to be in short supply.

2 comments:

  1. the growth rate is a bit too aggresive. i usually use a 6% just to be conservative

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  2. That's a fair observation indeed. Should probably pull up some long term averages to get a better idea of what to expect.

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