This simple formula tells you how long it will take for your money to double while you sit back and relax (2024)

FAQs

This simple formula tells you how long it will take for your money to double while you sit back and relax? ›

Even for investors who aren't particularly fond of math, it's hard to beat the Rule of 72 for its sheer simplicity. Here's the formula: Years to double your money = 72 ÷ assumed rate of return.

The Rule of 72 is a calculation that estimates the number of years it takes to double your money at a specified rate of return. If, for example, your account earns 4 percent, divide 72 by 4 to get the number of years it will take for your money to double. In this case, 18 years.

Do you know the Rule of 72? It's an easy way to calculate just how long it's going to take for your money to double. Just take the number 72 and divide it by the interest rate you hope to earn. That number gives you the approximate number of years it will take for your investment to double.

How Do You Calculate the Rule of 72? Here's how the Rule of 72 works. You take the number 72 and divide it by the investment's projected annual return. The result is the number of years, approximately, it'll take for your money to double.

It's called the Rule of 72. The principle is simple. Divide 72 by the annual rate of return to figure how long it will take to double your money. For example, if you earn an 8 percent annual return, it will take about 9 years to double.

The Classic Way

When it comes to the most traditional way of doubling your money, that commercial is not too far from the truth. The time-tested way to double your money over a reasonable amount of time is to invest in a solid, balanced portfolio that's diversified between blue-chip stocks and investment-grade bonds.

What Is the Rule of 72? The rule of 72 is a shortcut investors can use to determine how long it will take their investment to double based on a fixed annual rate of return. All you do is divide 72 by the fixed rate of return to get the number of years it will take for your initial investment to double.

So, if the interest rate is 6%, you would divide 72 by 6 to get 12. This means that the investment will take about 12 years to double with a 6% fixed annual interest rate. This calculator flips the 72 rule and shows what interest rate you would need to double your investment in a set number of years.

Time = 8 years. In how much time, will a sum of money double itself at 12.5% per annum rate of interest.

So, the time required is 20 years.

What is the formula for the future value of money in Excel? ›

FV = PV (1 + i)^t

PV is the Present Value or the principal amount. t is the time in years, r is the rate of interest per annum. As the name suggests, it calculates the Future Value of an investment based on periodic, constant payments and a constant interest rate.

The present value formula is PV=FV/(1+i)ⁿ, where you divide the future value FV by a factor of 1 + i for each period between present and future dates. Input these numbers in the present value calculator for the PV calculation: The future value sum FV. Number of time periods (years) t, which is n in the formula.

The Rule of 72 is a simple way to determine how long an investment will take to double given a fixed annual rate of interest. Dividing 72 by the annual rate of return gives investors a rough estimate of how many years it will take for the initial investment to duplicate itself.

1 At 10%, you could double your initial investment every seven years (72 divided by 10). In a less-risky investment such as bonds, which have averaged a return of about 5% to 6% over the same period, you could expect to double your money in about 12 years (72 divided by 6).

Your investments

With an annual 4% return, it would take 18 years (72/4) to approximately double. With a 6% return, it would take 12 years (72/6), while with an 8% return it would take 9 years (72/8).

Daily compounding is close enough to continuous compounding for most purposes, so 69.3 or 70 should be used. The value 72 is also a convenient choice since it has so many small divisors: 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, and 12.

Hence it takes 8.74 years to double the money.

The rule of 8-4-3 when it comes to compounding indicates a style of investment that accelerates growth with time. Initially, a corpus doubles within 8 years through an average annual return of 12% subsequently another doubling happens for the same period after another 4 years following its initial setting up.

Using the Rule of 72, you can easily determine how long it will take to double your money. To figure out what interest rate to look for, use the same basic formula, but run it backward: divide 72 by the number of years.

The Rule of 72 states that by dividing 72 by the annual interest rate, you can estimate the number of years required for an investment to double. The Rule of 69.3 is a more accurate formula for higher interest rates and is calculated by dividing 69.3 by the interest rate.