The question, why is compounding important to retirement is one that everyone should understand the answer to. Take advantage of compound interest, compound dividends, and income. Your retirement savings are going to be significantly higher. Your quality of life is going to be much better in retirement. This is where you let your savings work for you and help you. Many people would say that interest rates are so low right now that it does not really matter. You are not going to earn much anyway. Yes, interest rates are low, but even 3% income is better than no income and over 30 years it can still add up to a significant amount. A few examples will help to illustrate.

Why is Compounding Important to Retirement

If you start saving $100 per month at age 25 for retirement and continue until you are 55 assuming that you do not generate any kind of interest or dividend income, your savings will be 30 years times 12 months times $100 = $36,000. Not very much and not enough to live on in retirement.

If you averaged 3% over those same 30 years,  your savings would jump to over $58,000. In fact, your compound income is almost equal to what you contributed. Interest rates and dividend rates are low at this time, however, over 30 years they probably will average close to 6% making your $100 investment over 30 years grow to over $100,000!

Consumers who can save more for retirement or who work longer will find that their money grows even further. Many people will work until they are 65 or 40 years in our example. Their money would grow to almost $200,000 at 6% or almost double over that extra 10 years.

If you can save more early on, your compound interest income is going to grow even faster. Focus on high-quality dividend-paying stocks that have a history of increasing dividends every year and you will do very well indeed over your working career.