Could that penny you pick up on the street today be worth $5,368,709.12?

My husband once had a client that ran a metal recycling company. My son was eager to see the car crushing part of the operation and I came along as I'm always interested in seeing how businesses run and had visions of wrought iron antique garden gates just waiting for my eagle eye to spot them in the piles of rubble.

As it turns out, for insurance purposes, I wasn't allowed to scavenge - how sad as there was a LOT of interesting looking stuff out there. When we got to the crusher, the CEO demonstrated how they also use a magnet to clear out loose change that had fallen under seats or into the trunks. He also showed us the metal detector the workers had to walk through when they punched out for the day. I questioned whether there was enough change to be worth installing a metal detector and he told us they recover over $30,000 in loose coins each year. Wow! Talk about some spare change.

In Kath Kelly's "How I Lived a Year On Just a Pound a Day," she quotes an English article about the great lost tribe of penny pieces nobody bothers to pick up.

They estimate that sofas across the nation contain 5.9 million pounds worth of pennies, drains 650,000 pounds and streets, mind-bogglingly, may hold 26 million of dropped pennies.

Let's look at what a penny doubled each day would be within 30 days.

Day 1 - $.01
Day 2 - $.02
Day 3 - $.04
Day 4 - $.08
Day 5 - $.16
Day 6 - $.32
Day 7 - $.64
Day 8 - $1.28
Day 9 - $2.56
Day 10 - $5.12
Day 11 - $10.24
Day 12 - $20.48
Day 13 - $40.96
Day 14 - $81.92
Day 15 - $163.84
Day 16 - $327.68
Day 17 - $655.36
Day 18 - $1,310.72
Day 19 - $2,621.44
Day 20 - $5,242.88
Day 21 - $10,485.76
Day 22 - $20,971.52
Day 23 - $41, 943.04
Day 24 - $83,886.08
Day 25 - $167,772.16
Day 26 - $335,544.32
Day 27 - $671,088.64
Day 28 - $1,342,177.28
Day 29 - $2,684,354.56
Day 30 - $5,368,709.12

Obviously, it is pretty tough to double your money in a day at 2.6 million. But the enormous power of getting the ball rolling in savings is right before our eyes in this example. Some refer to the power of compounding interest as the eighth wonder of the world. Money, well invested, often doubles in seven years. So be patient and don't think it's not worth your time to stop and pick up that penny on the street. Even Oprah says she does this. Who knows, that lucky penny you just found may be worth $5,368,708.12 in days to come;-).

Best wishes. Eileen