<prompt> Human: EDIT: thank you guys for your patience, I understand it now! :DIve been reading about how it works and I cant say it makes much sense to me. With Vanguards hypothetical growth of 10k usually the decent risk investments double over 10 years. So you invest 10k and it takes 10 years to get that 10k back, only then you start earning? And even then, counting in inflation you probably still havent gotten back the value you put in.I obviously got something really wrong here despite all my research. Could someone please explain?  <response>: In ten years you have 20k if it doubled, not 10k. 