by Tony Glisson

Created on: October 18, 2008

Let's assume I work hard and earn $120,000.00 a year, and I want to become so wealthy that I no longer have to work for a living.

I know what to do to become this wealthy; I just don't know how to do it.

Oh, I know how to start, but finishing the task is where the difficulty arises.

To become financially very wealthy (by most people's standards) all I have to do is start with a very small amount of money and double it, or increase it by 100% thirty times. (for our purposes, I shall disregard tax consequences, which would be enormous)

OK, you might ask, how small are we talking about? To keep it simple let's begin with one cent. Yes, that's what I said, one cent, one little red penny, one 100th part of a dollar. Then let's double the amount every day for the next month, for thirty days.

One could argue that a single penny is such a pittance; and so it is. And I'm willing to forgive anyone who is sincere in his or her belief that it is impossible to transform one penny into any sort of fortune simply by doubling it. But bear with me a few minutes.

I begin by depositing one cent in my own non-interest bearing account on day one. On the second day I add another penny to the penny I started with, and I have two cents. I add two more pennies to those two on day three and I have four cents, and eight cents on day four. Day five shows sixteen cents in my account, then thirty two, then sixty four, and on the eighth day I have a grand total of $1.28, hardly great wealth yet, but I easily add another $1.28 turning it into $2.56 on day nine. (Write these figures down as you read, if you wish to)

The above does not seem like a lot. But on the tenth day I have accumulated $5.12, and the next day I double that to $10.24. Days twelve, thirteen, and fourteen show the amount in my account to be $20.48, $40.96 and $81.92 consecutively.

On day fifteen I should be able to find another $81.92 to bring my total up to $163.84, and maybe even another equal amount to bring it up to $327.68 on day sixteen and $655.36 on day seventeen. Remember, each day I add the same amount I had the day before, thus doubling that amount.

I'm over halfway there, but I begin to think: this is starting to get a little hairy. I am at day eighteen and with my $120,000.00 annual salary it is really going to cut into my standard of living if I start handing $600.00+ to my account every day. I decide to start over and double my money every month instead of every day. So I lay my first month's penny down and continue

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