THE SENTIMENT DESK
As seen on the 24/7 Wall St. homepage on July 4, 2026.
An 18-year-old's $25k settlement sparked Reddit's personalfinance community to do the math on compound growth: $17k invested in an S&P 500 index fund today becomes $1.25 million by retirement age, assuming historical 10% returns. The consensus is unanimous: skip the temptation to spend and let time do the work.