Yeah the problem is there is no single investment that will happily grow 40% a year and reward you for doing nothing. At that rate of risk, expect any of a number of things to happen before Year 42:<p>- You get scammed/cheated<p>- Company goes bankrupt<p>- Fund goes bankrupt/fails<p>- The currency one invested in fails to keep up<p>- You need the money (life isn't perfect, and a few million
dollars at year 20 can solve a lot of problems)<p>- You stop being greedy and are happy with the cumulative returns
I recall the expected rate of return on investments (measured over decades) to be closer to 5% than 40%. Nonetheless, compounding does work - it just takes a little more capital and a little longer.