It's All about the Interest, Baby

And don't forget the time. Interest and time are two of the most key elements in savvy budgeting that is hardly mentioned when the topic of budgeting is mentioned.

A small amount of money can grow into heaps under the right conditions. Here is a metaphor: picture a lone flatworm, which turns into a miniature army of flatworms, if a competent cutter makes that incision in the right spot which would allow the flatworm to split into two successfully, and those flatworms decided to have a party, conditions were right, and nothing disturbed them. Similarly to flatworms, money needs time and interest- and no disturbance- in order to grow. Money needs to be cut and placed into a vehicle, like a flatworm's Petri dish, that allows the money to grow with time and interest. If the investor has urges to touch the money, a certificate of deposit (or a swift kick as a reminder) could be a good way to go since it discourages the investor from withdrawing money by charging fees for doing that before a set date.

Anyway, money best grows on compound interest instead of simple interest. In simple interest, that small amount of money is the only thing that earns interest. In compound interest, that small amount of money PLUS the interest on that small amount of money, earns interest. Under compound interest, the more frequent an amount of money is allowed to earn interest, the quicker that small amount of money grows into heaps of money. Therefore, if ever given a choice over investing your money at simple interest or compound interest, opt for the choice with compound interest. Another way of putting this information to practical use is, if you have a credit card, look for the one that does not charge compound interest on the balance. If that is not possible, pick a card that charges a lower interest rate over the same amount of time.

One major credit card can fool someone into thinking that the interest rate that it charges for late payments is lower than the next credit card by restating the terms of interest and time. For example, having an interest charge of 2.5% for every fortnight that the balance wasn't completely paid off is the same as having an interest charge of 5% for every month.

Time is money, and that saying is very true in this case. A great financial tenet is: A dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow. Why is that? It is true because of compound interest. If you earn a dollar today, tomorrow you have that dollar PLUS interest, assuming that you didn't spend that dollar and invested it somewhere. If you earn a dollar tomorrow, you do not earn any interest until the day after tomorrow. And remember, the sooner and the more frequent you earn interest, the sooner and the larger your small amount of money grows.

Now let's say that you have a choice between a billion dollars today or a billion dollars tomorrow. Obviously you'd pick having a billion dollars today. And with a billion dollars earning compound interest today, you'd have more than a billion dollars tomorrow.

Then let's consider what happens to that miniature army of flatworms if for some reason, a couple hundred of them were needed at different points of time during the school year for a bunch of high school students to run biological experiments on them. How would taking away some flatworms at different points in time affect the number of flatworms that make up that miniature army?

Well, if the same amount of flatworms were taken away mainly during the beginning of the school year, at the end of the school year there would be less flatworms than if the same amount of flatworms were taken away mainly towards the end of the school year.

Likewise, if the same amount of money is taken out of a compound interest account towards the beginning of the financial year, at the end of the financial year there would be less money than if the same amount of money were taken away mainly towards the end of the financial year.

It's all because of time and interest. Have you stopped to think how credit cards and other fine lending institutions make their money? They take advantage of time and interest, and the fact that some people just don't appreciate how much of an impact interest and time has on an unpaid balance until it becomes a huge problem. A debt agreement or bankruptcy cuts off the time and interest factor that multiplies the debt that is owed by the debtor. Think of how much money is saved by having a debt agreement or declaring bankruptcy… In flatworm terms, that would be a big pool of flatworms….

In all honesty, there are many different scenarios that could be played out with different amounts of money, time, and interest. Knowing what happens with the variations of these key elements and applying them to your budgeting can help you make payments in time and reach goals. The next time you decide what to do with spending and budgeting, think of how a dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow, and remember that as true as timing is everything, it's all about the interest, baby!