New Delhi, Oct. 30 -- If you want to accumulate a large amount of money before retirement, start investing at an early age. Based on your expected rate of return and investment tenor, your corpus is likely to grow manifold. The power of compounding drives this significant growth.

Compounding is a powerful financial phenomenon. A small, consistent Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) grows disproportionately higher in the later years than in the initial ones, maximising total wealth. This happens because the returns earned early on are reinvested. They get added back to the principal, and that higher principal earns a return in the following years.

Typically, investors use SIPs to invest smaller tranches over a long period of time. This stra...