A penny doubled for 30 days will grow into over $5.3 million, or $5,368,709.12. Doubling your penny for 36 days makes you the richest person on earth with $343 billion.
How much could you make if you kept doubling your money for 60 or 90 days? The possibilities are endless. You might be surprised at how quickly the numbers can grow.
This article will show you how doubling a penny each day for 30 days turns into over $5 million! We’ll also share some investing tips on how to make your money work harder for you and outline a simple way for you to make $1 million in the stock market in 27 years.
So if you’re ready to learn how to turn a few cents into an investing strategy, read on!
What happens when you double a penny for 30 days?
If you double a penny for thirty days, you may be surprised at the outcome! Starting from just one cent and investing it two-fold the next day, by the end of thirty days, it would grow exponentially – to a massive $5,368,709.
This mathematical phenomenon is called exponential growth. Although the double-a-penny example may seem too incredible to be true, understanding this concept can be invaluable in making smart financial decisions, such as choosing an investment account that pays compound interest. In addition, doubling a penny for thirty days is a fun and practical way to introduce ourselves and our children to simple mathematics, and we could all use more knowledge about how our money works!
How does doubling a cent for 30 days increase so quickly?
Have you ever wondered how it’s possible to double a penny thirty times and end up with over five million dollars? It’s all thanks to the power of exponential growth! With each doubling, the value increases drastically- for example, the second day would result in 2 cents, then 4 cents, 8 cents, and so on. What might look insignificant at first quickly adds up. By day 20, you would have only $5,243, but by day 28, you would have over 1 million dollars. Two days later, you have surpassed 5 million dollars!
This phenomenon illustrates how quickly small investments or savings can snowball into a large yield.
How Doubling a Penny for 30 Days Works
Doubling a penny per day seems inconsequential at first, 1, 2, 4, 8 cents, and by day 10, you only have $5.12. But by day 21, you have over $20,000. As you can imagine, all the magic happens in the final 7 days, where the investment goes from $83 thousand to $5.3 million.
The table below shows how quickly exponential growth happens.
Day | $ Amount |
1 | 0.01 |
2 | 0.02 |
3 | 0.04 |
4 | 0.08 |
5 | 0.16 |
6 | 0.32 |
7 | 0.64 |
8 | 1.28 |
9 | 2.56 |
10 | 5.12 |
11 | 10.24 |
12 | 20.48 |
13 | 40.96 |
14 | 81.92 |
15 | 163.84 |
16 | 327.68 |
17 | 655.36 |
18 | 1,310.72 |
19 | 2,621.44 |
20 | 5,242.88 |
21 | 10,485.76 |
22 | 20,971.52 |
23 | 41,943.04 |
24 | 83,886.08 |
25 | 167,772.16 |
26 | 335,544.32 |
27 | 671,088.64 |
28 | 1,342,177.28 |
29 | 2,684,354.56 |
30 | 5,368,709.12 |
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The Formula for Doubling a Penny for 30 Days
The formula for calculating a penny doubling in a spreadsheet is easy. Simply multiply the previous number by 2 in the following table row. e.g. =SUM(B2*2)
Cell | A | B | C |
1 | Day | $ Amount | Formula |
2 | 1 | 0.01 | 0.01 |
3 | 2 | 0.02 | =SUM(B2*2) |
4 | 3 | 0.04 | =SUM(B3*2) |
5 | 4 | 0.08 | =SUM(B4*2) |
How to calculate penny doubling in excel.
How much if a penny per day doubled for 1 year?
A penny doubled daily for one year would mean you have $375,766. Googols. That is more pennies than there are elementary particles in the visible universe.
A Googol is a 1 with 100 zeroes after it, or 1 to the power 100 (1100).
So a penny doubled daily for 1 year is an unbelievable amount equal to $375,766,813,243,813,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
A Year In The Life of a Penny Doubled
Math becomes fun when contemplating the sheer speed of exponential growth. Within a year, you will have more pennies than elements in the universe.
The Fascinating Facts Behind Doubling A Penny For A Year
- If you double a penny for 36 days, you will be twice as rich as the richest person in the world with $343 billion.
- After 43 days of doubling your penny, you will be a trillionaire.
- After 39 days, you will own all the money in circulation in the USA.
- After doubling your penny for 58 days, you will own all the money and assets on earth.
- Finally, after 1 year, you will have more pennies than base elements in the universe.
Day | $ Amount | Fact |
1 | $0.01 | |
30 | $5,368,709 | You are a multi-millionaire |
36 | $343,597,384 | You are the richest person in the world. |
38 | $1,374,389,535 | You are a trillionaire. |
39 | $2,748,779,069 | You own all the money in circulation in the USA. |
43 | $43,980,465,111 | You are worth more than the US stock market. |
58 | $1,441,151,880,758,560 | You have all the money in the world (Quadrillion). |
68 | $1,475,739,525,896,760,000 | Quintillion. |
78 | $1,511,157,274,518,290,000,000 | Sextillion. |
98 | $1.584627 | Octillion. |
340 | $1.1199100 | Googol 10 to the power of 100. |
365 | $3.7577107 | More pennies than elements in the universe. |
Is it possible to double a penny every day for 30 days?
Theoretically, yes, but in reality, no! No investment will double every day; there are not even any investments that will double every year. A good property investment might make a profit of 15% per year, or a great stock market year might yield a 30% profit. But the average long-term investment typically averages 7% to 10% per year.
Crypto and Bitcoin investing yielded more than 100% per year in the early years, but that was an overhyped asset bubble/scam that has come crashing down to earth.
There are not enough pennies in circulation to double in 30 days
Doubling a penny every day for 30 days might sound like a great way to make a quick buck, but it’s impossible. While doubling in value each day is theoretically doable, on the 30th day, you’d have more pennies than exists! Considering that there are only about 180 billion pennies in circulation, you would need 510 billion pennies.
A penny doubled applied to investing.
When investing in stocks, we can apply the concept of a penny doubling to capital growth over time. Through writing multiple books on investing, I believe I can recommend a practical and simple way to accrue $1 million in the stock market.
A simple way to compound $10,000 to $1 million.
- Start with $10,000
- Invest it in a broad market ETF like the S&P500 (Ticker: SPY) or the Nasdaq 100 (Ticker: QQQ)
- Add $500 per month to your investment.
- You should earn 10% per year or 0.83% per month (the 20-year average return of the S&P 500)
Month | Amount |
1 | $ 10,000.00 |
2 | $ 10,587.50 |
3 | $ 11,179.90 |
4 | $ 11,777.23 |
5 | $ 12,379.54 |
6 | $ 12,986.87 |
7 | $ 13,599.26 |
8 | $ 14,216.75 |
9 | $ 14,839.39 |
10 | $ 15,467.22 |
11 | $ 16,100.28 |
Year 1 | $ 16,738.62 |
Year 2 | $ 24,826.51 |
Year 27 | $1,003,000.63 |
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How to create your millionaire investing plan.
Here are the formulas you can use in a spreadsheet to calculate how much you can invest and how long it will take to get to your investing goals. Simply open a spreadsheet and copy and paste the contents below. Copy the formulas (in red) into the correct cells, and you are ready. Simply adjust the green cells to your available investment.
Cell | A | B | C |
1 | Month | Amount | Monthly Addition |
2 | 1 | $10,000 | $500.00 |
3 | 2 | $10,587 – Formula =SUM(B2+$C$2)*($C$4+1) | Monthly Profit |
4 | 3 | $11,179 – Formula =SUM(B4+$C$2)*($C$4+1) | 0.83% – Formula =10%/12 |
5 | 4 | $11,777 – Formula =SUM(B5+$C$2)*($C$4+1) |
Why is doubling a penny for 30 days an important math lesson?
Understanding the power of saving is an important lesson, and mathematics can play an important role in illustrating this point. Doubling a penny for 30 days is one concept that can help students understand how the money will grow over time if it is invested properly. Starting this experiment with just a single cent can show the amazing potential of using compounding interest to increase one’s funds. For example, many people are surprised to learn that by day 30, it would now be $5,368,709 – five million dollars!
This simple math exercise helps students realize that even though amounts may seem small or insignificant initially, investing wisely early on can make all the difference in the long term. Spanning generations, this lesson could prove to be an invaluable tool in helping younger generations save and reach their financial goals.
Summary
In this article, we explored what happens when you double a penny for 30 days straight and how much money you would have at the end of the experiment. We also looked at what happens when you double a penny for one year straight and how much money you would have at the end of the experiment. Finally, we discussed why this simple math experiment is important and its implications for your finances.
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