The Rolling Stones are not my preferred source of wisdom, but they were right on this one. Time is on your side. It’s your friend - if you allow it to be.

Sometimes people get rich because of luck. Those kinds of stories get a lot of attention. Oil magnate J. Paul Getty once famously said his formula for success was to , “Rise Early, work hard, and strike oil.” This formula, however, has not served most people well. Many more people fail to find that one lucky key to wealth than those who do find it. Striking oil is a rarity. Building wealth, however, does not have to be entirely based on luck. There is another way: patience and time.

Time is the one consistent key to building wealth. Think about it this way - having good spending habits allows one to save money each month or year. Do that over time, and your savings might become a nest egg. Making wise investment decisions might get you a good return. Getting a good return over time creates wealth. This applies to other aspects of life beyond finances. Reading a book allows you to gain knowledge. Gain knowledge over time and you might just find wisdom. Exercising or making a good decision about what you eat will help you be healthier than you might be otherwise. Exercise and eat well over time, and you might just get in shape.

What makes time special is that it is the gateway to compounding. The two are inextricably linked, and they only happen in one order. Time first, compounding second. But once you allow time to be your friend, compounding will soon follow.

Compounding is one of those magical forces which is not all that complicated mathematically, but doesn’t come naturally to the way we think. We like to think linearly, meaning 1 leads to 2 which leads to 3, and then to 4, and so on in a line. Compounding, however, favors curvature. With compounding, 1 leads to 2, but 2 leads to 4, and 4 leads to 8. We can illustrate compounding further by considering a lily pad.

Imagine a pond. On the pond is a lily pad. This lily pad will double in size every day until it covers the entire pond. Here’s the question: at the end of the second to last day, how big is the lily pad? It’s not a trick question, and the answer will be obvious once you know it. If it’s not coming to you, don’t feel bad. Like I said, we don’t usually think in exponential terms. The answer is, on the second to last day, the lily pad will cover half the pond. Half of the total growth of this hypothetical pad is on the last day alone.

Someone once said that compounding will test your patience in the early years, and your bewilderment in later years. The key ingredient is time. Are you giving compounding enough time to work in your favor? Are you diligent with your saving and patient with your investing? This is the path to wealth, and it’s one anyone can follow. No oil rig needed.

Time is both powerful and precious. It takes seeds and makes trees of them. Again, only if you let it. Benjamin Franklin said once, “But dost thou love life, then do not squander time, for that's the stuff life is made of.” Time is there to be used for your advantage. Use it, harness it, spend it, give it, do whatever. Just don’t waste it.