The Fog Lifts
Everyone knows how compounding works—or at least they’ve heard the word. But most of us resist it. We crave immediacy. Our survival instincts push us toward fight or flight, while compounding asks us to do the opposite: sit still, delay gratification, and let time work.
That tension makes certain habits hard to adopt. Sleep compounds into energy. Nightly reading compounds into finished books. And inaction compounds negatively—like financial debt. The interest on your credit card quietly multiplies, funding someone else’s “cash back” rewards while digging your hole deeper. Your negative compounding becomes their positive compounding.
I thought about this one morning as the fog of depression that had blanketed me for years began to lift. It felt like seeing my room for the first time. Mail piled up, delivery boxes stacked in corners. A troubling thought hit me: if my physical space looked this bad, what did my financial life look like?
The truth was harsh. My ADHD time-blindness had helped stretch that fog into two years. Two years of drifting decisions. Two years of debt growing in the dark. Negative compounding had already done its damage.
The fog doesn’t clear all at once. But one morning, sunlight spilled across my kitchen and caught onto something silver. My Christofle Mood Egg. A small luxury I had bought for myself after climbing out of massive debt many years ago. In that moment, it reminded me: I had to turn compounding from my enemy back into my ally.
The Math I Ignored
Once the haze lifted, I forced myself to do the math. I opened every account, listed balances, and sorted by interest rate.
That’s when the bleeding became obvious. In one case, I had been spending $235 a week on food deliveries. Over fifteen months, that was $15,275.
If I’d invested that money in the market instead, at even a modest 7% return, I’d still have the $15k plus a few hundred in gains. Instead, that money vanished into late-night cravings and empty calories.
Meanwhile, my credit cards were charging me nearly 20% in interest. Every month, debt was compounding against me, growing faster than I could pay it down. I wasn’t just standing still—I was being dragged backward. Back to the hole I crawled out of.
Compounding doesn’t wait for you to be “ready.” It always works. The only question is: is it working for you, or against you?
∞
Why Compounding is the Magic Trick
Here’s the part most people miss: wealth rarely comes from sudden windfalls. For almost everyone, it comes from the slowest, quietest magic trick in the world—compounding.
Compounding is growth on growth. Your money earns returns. Then those returns also start earning returns. Like a snowball rolling downhill, it gathers not just more snow, but more speed.
At first, it’s unimpressive. Put $1,000 into an account earning 7% and after a year you’ll only have $1,070. But give it time. In 10 years, it’s $1,967. In 30 years, it’s $7,612. You didn’t work harder. You didn’t “grind.” The money did the work because you gave it time.
That’s the trick: exponential growth hiding inside linear effort.
Debt plays the same game—just in reverse. At 20% interest, $1,000 of debt balloons to $6,191 in ten years if you never touch it. Same math, flipped upside down.
Wealth isn’t about having a huge salary or finding the perfect investment. It’s about aligning yourself with compounding so it multiplies for you, not against you.
How To Use the Trick
For readers in their late 30s or early 40s, maybe with little net worth and plenty of debt, here’s the playbook:
Stop the bleeding first.
Pay down high-interest debt. Compounding at 20% interest is unbeatable in the worst way. You can’t invest your way out while carrying that weight.
Automate the snowball.
Don’t rely on willpower. Set up automatic transfers into your 401k, IRA, or brokerage. The less you think about it, the more consistent it becomes.
Feed it steadily.
Even $100–$500 a month matters. A consistent drip is more powerful than an occasional splash.
Protect the process.
The trick only works if you leave it alone. Don’t cash out early or panic-sell in downturns. The show happens over decades, not months.
From Fog to Focus
When the fog of depression began lifting, I realized compounding had been running all along—just in the wrong direction. My debt was multiplying while my opportunities withered.
Compounding isn’t flashy. It doesn’t feel like magic at first. But give it time, and it turns the ordinary into the extraordinary. It’s not a lottery ticket. It’s not a hack. It’s the trick that makes wealth possible for people who start small, stay steady, and let the years do what they do best.
The magic is already at work in your life. Again, the question is: are you letting it work for you—or against you?