Imagine going to sleep every night and waking up in the morning to find a fresh, new $100 bill on your nightstand. Multiple by 365 days in the year and will amount to $36,500. Multiply this by ten years and you have $365,000.

Few of us are positioned today to earn $100 every day using the formula I outline below, but by understanding the formula, applying it, and staying true to it, your money will grow, slowly at first, then rapidly accelerating.

A few notes: This is very basic information that we tend to forget. We are so engrossed in the random nature of the stock market, the fleeting opportunity to win quick money through the lottery, reward-type credit cards, and free checking accounts that we forget simple math. I am intentionally omitting compounding and taxes. If you need to pay more taxes because you’re making more money, that’s a good thing—you’re doing your patriotic duty!

So the secret?

Interest.

Let me explain.

Let’s say I want to wake up every morning with a penny on my nightstand. Let’s assume for this discussion that I can earn 5% interest on my money (even though money markets and savings accounts are much lower right now). To wake up with a penny each morning, I would need to earn $3.65 per year in interest. Apply the simple math (remember Mrs. Jones or Sister Ann Marie) like so:

$10 at 5% = 50 cents interest per year – too low

$100 at 5% = $5.00 interest per year – too high

$73 at 5% = $3.65 interest per year – my penny a day goal

wow! Does it take $73.00 to earn a measly penny a day? That’s a lot of work!

Actually, it’s not work. The job is to earn the $73.00 and stay away from temptations long enough (wait, my latte is ready) to put the money where it can work for you. Once you have the $73.00 in a 5% interest account, you’ll be doing the work for yourself. You won’t actually wake up to a shiny penny every morning unless you (or a loved one) put one in there, but over the course of the year you’ll earn the $3.65 in interest. Oh yeah. Compound interest (a good thing) and taxes (a bad…er…good patriotic thing) improve the formula.

Wow (said sarcastically). Again. A penny a day doesn’t motivate me. It just makes me feel worse.

So, let’s do some more math:

$730 at 5% = $36.50 interest per year – 10 cents per day

$7,300 at 5% = $365.00 interest per year – $1.00 per day

$73,000 at 5% = $3,650.00 interest per year – $10.00 per day – more and more interesting

$730,000 at 5% = $36,500.00 interest per year – $100.00 per day – our goal

Wow, I just need $729,990 more and I can earn $100 a day in interest. Depressing, right?

As simple as it sounds, if you can make your money work for you, it gradually goes from being a peanut to something you’re really excited about! Like watching an oak tree grow, it seems like an eternity until years later when you look at it and realize how fast it has grown.

So start with $73.00 in a 5% interest account (or the best you can find right now) and earn your dime a day. Every time you double the amount you’re saving, you also double the amount of interest you receive. Which in turn makes your money grow even faster.

Get motivated by starting small and celebrating that penny you earned today without lifting a finger, and increase your celebration as your balance grows and grows and grows.

And soon the day will come when you wake up to find a fresh, crisp, new $100 bill next to your bed.