Compound Climb: free investing game about compound interest

What is Compound Climb?

Mia, Leo and Sam are 25. Pick when each starts investing and how much a month, then fast-forward to 65 through example market years, crashes and an inflation monster that makes everything pricier. In a crash, hold or panic-sell. Score what they have at 65, in today's money.

Compound Climb is a free investing game about time. Three friends are 25: Mia, Leo and Sam. For each one you pick when they start investing and how much a month. Starting later lets them put in more, because pay rises with age, but every year of waiting is a year of growth lost.

Then you fast-forward to 65 through example market years, with three crashes along the way. In each crash you choose to hold or panic-sell. Meanwhile an inflation monster makes everything pricier, so the score counts wealth in today's money, not the big numbers on paper.

At a glance

Category

Adventure

Difficulty

Medium

Play time

5–8 min

Price

Free, in your browser, sign-up optional

How to play

Make three plans

For each friend, pick a start age and a monthly amount. Starting later lets them put in more each month.

Fast-forward

Decade by decade through example market years. Most go up, some go down.

Hold or panic-sell

When markets crash, choose for each friend. Selling keeps the money in cash for two years before it goes back in.

Score

Everyone's wealth at 65 in today's money, after inflation: one point per $100.

Scoring

Your score is the three friends' total wealth at 65 in today's money (after inflation): one point per $100.

Money left in the bank or sold in a panic grows less. Returns and inflation are random examples, so every run is different.

What it trains

Compound growth

Feeling how early years of investing snowball over decades.

Calm under pressure

Holding through crashes instead of selling at the bottom.

Inflation sense

Reading money in today's prices, not the big numbers on paper.

Strategy and tips

Start early

Small amounts started early often beat bigger amounts started ten years later.

Invest what you can

Money left in the bank at a low rate loses value to inflation year after year.

Hold through crashes

Selling after a drop locks in the loss and often misses the recovery.

Think in today's money

A million in 40 years buys far less than a million today. Look at real values.

Stay boring

Regular monthly amounts, held for decades, do most of the work.

Why play Compound Climb?

Compound growth is hard to feel: the first years look flat and the last ones explode. Watching forty years pass in a few minutes makes the cost of waiting, and of panic-selling, easy to see.

Frequently asked questions