Thursday evening, my son and I went to a local restaurant for supper.  After eating, my son asked for some chewing gum - you know, the little round gum that you get for a quarter from one of the machines at the front of the store.  He’s three, so he wanted gum for our whole family - Mommy, Daddy, Sister, and himself.  I had four quarters, so we loaded up on gum and headed home.

When we got home, I opened up a spreadsheet and began playing around with a few scenarios.  What if, instead of spending that dollar on gum, I had saved it?  And, what if I saved a dollar, every day, for a year? for a decade? for 50 years?  Also, what if I save more than a dollar, say, two dollars, or five dollars or even 10 dollars, per day?

Check out this chart I created -

Note, the following numbers represent the total amounts contributed to savings (w/ no accounting for interest earned).

1 Day 1 Month 1 Year 10 Years 50 Years





$1 $30 $360 $3,600 $18,000
$2 $60 $720 $7,200 $36,000
$3 $90 $1,080 $10,800 $54,000
$4 $120 $1,440 $14,400 $72,000
$5 $150 $1,800 $18,000 $90,000
$6 $180 $2,160 $21,600 $108,000
$7 $210 $2,520 $25,200 $126,000
$8 $240 $2,880 $28,800 $144,000
$9 $270 $3,240 $32,400 $162,000
$10 $300 $3,600 $36,000 $180,000

If I save $1 per day, for 50 years, I’ll have $18,000.

If I save $10 a day, for 50 years, I’ll have $180,000.

But, as I mentioned before, this chart represents contributions - and doesn’t calculate interest earned.

So, let’s kick it up a notch and do some calculations, assuming a 5% annual return.

Yearly 10 Years 20 Years 30 Years 40 Years 50 Years






$360 $4,754 $12,499 $25,114 $45,662 $79,134
$720 $9,509 $24,998 $50,228 $91,325 $158,267
$1,080 $14,263 $37,497 $75,342 $136,987 $237,401
$1,440 $19,018 $49,996 $100,456 $182,649 $316,534
$1,800 $23,772 $62,495 $125,569 $228,312 $395,668
$2,160 $28,527 $74,994 $150,683 $273,974 $474,801
$2,520 $33,281 $87,493 $175,797 $319,636 $553,935
$2,880 $38,036 $99,991 $200,911 $365,299 $633,068
$3,240 $42,790 $112,490 $226,025 $410,961 $712,202
$3,600 $47,544 $124,989 $251,139 $456,623 $791,335

If I contribute $1 per day ($360 per year) for 50 years, at 5%, I’ll have more than $79,000!

If I contribute $10 per day ($3600 per year) for 50 years at 5%, I’ll have more than $790,000!

(Please note, I used a very simplified formula to calculate interest, based on annual contributions.  In reality, if you made deposits throughout a calendar year, you would earn even more interest!)

Isn’t that cool?  I like to look at charts like these.  I am motivated by “what if”.

As a side note, my son will only be 4 once, so I’m still going to buy him the chewing gum!  But, I’m also going to pocket some additional savings, so that when the time comes, I can buy my grand-kids a warehouse full! :)

(If you want to get really “pumped” about saving money - checkout what happens if you max our your 401k and Roth IRA contributions.)

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