Millions and billions

[Normanton Lad]

On 21/01/2024 at 20:34, TigerTedd said:

Here’s one of my favourite facts. As much as I’m talking about the incomprehensibility of what a million quid actually is for us mere mortals, think about this:

1,000,000 seconds = 1.653 weeks. 

1,000,000,000 seconds = 31.71… YEARS!!

so as incomprehensible and out of reach as a millionaire is to us, that’s how millionaires must feel about billionaires. 

and oxfam reckons we’ll have our first trillionaire soon (which, if you’re interested, is 317 centuries!!!!). 

That model is only suitable for constant incremental growth like a child putting a pound in his piggy bank each week. With a 5% interest rate, a £10000 initial deposit and a £500 deposit every week you would become a millionaire in about 23 years according to the compound interest site I’ve just used. It would take much longer to become a billionaire, but they don’t get rich like that. The likes of Soros and Joe Lewis become billionaires through insider trading and other tricks. Only a few become billionaires by playing by the rules the rest of us follow and they are very clever and lucky people like Gates and Musk.