CryptoWeeklies / Glossary
What is CAGR?
CAGR is the compound annual growth rate — the single steady yearly rate that would take an investment from its starting value to its ending value over a period.
The arithmetic
If something grows from $100 to $200 over four years, its CAGR is about 18.9% a year — not 25%. Compounding means each year's growth builds on the last, so the steady-rate equivalent of a large total gain is smaller than dividing by the number of years.
CAGR deliberately smooths away the path. An asset that fell 60% and then rose 400% can have the same CAGR as one that rose steadily. It describes the endpoints, not the ride.
How the retirement pages use it
The retirement model asks a simple question: if an asset compounds at some rate from today until a target year, how much of it would you need to hold now to reach a given value then? Each scenario is just a different assumed CAGR.
The scenarios are illustrations of arithmetic, not forecasts. Nobody knows the CAGR of any asset over the next fifteen years, and a few percentage points of difference compounds into an enormous gap by the end.
Treat the output as a sensitivity test
The value of the page is in seeing how much the answer moves when the assumed rate moves — which is a lot. That sensitivity is the finding. This is not financial advice and is not a retirement plan.