As we all know, compounding, over long time periods, is one of the main keys to financial success. Another is taking as much risk as you can comfortably tolerate.

To illustrate, in 1998, I converted a $70,800 Traditional IRA to a ROTH IRA.

I would need $128,600 today to have kept pace with inflation (same purchasing power). I would currently have $345,800 if I had invested in an S&P 500 index and reinvested all dividends.

FTR, I did neither. I also didn’t put/leave it in a mason jar.