Linear saving piles up slowly. Compound interest creates a gravity well—wealth attracts more wealth.
$500/month falls into the pile at a constant rate. After 25 years: $150K. No acceleration, no attraction—just arithmetic addition. Your pile grows, but it never pulls in more on its own.
Same $500/month, but at 7% interest, your wealth creates gravity. Each dollar attracts more dollars. After 25 years: $405K. The interest alone ($255K) exceeds what you'd save linearly in 42 years.
At 7% for 25 years, your gravity multiplier is 2.00x. Every dollar you add gets pulled in 2.0x harder than it would alone.
Scroll on either canvas to zoom. Increase the interest rate to see the gravity well deepen and pull in wealth faster. Time is the ultimate force multiplier.