At a Conference Where CEOs Manage $15 Trillion, Michael Milken Did the Math Out Loud: A Single $10,800 Deposit Becomes $1 Million — But Only if You Hit 1 Number

Two numbers reach the same destination. Put away $25,000 every year for forty years and earn nothing on it, and you will have a million dollars. Or make one deposit of $10,800, earn 12 percent a year for those same forty years, and you arrive at the same place… having contributed less than half of one percent as much.

Michael Milken laid that comparison out on stage at the Milken Institute Global Conference in May 2026 while moderating a conversation between BlackRock (BLK) CEO Larry Fink and Brookfield Corporation (BN) (BAM) CEO Bruce Flatt. "So when Japan was yielding close to zero, if you wanted to save a million dollars, you had to put away $25,000 a year for 40 years for your retirement at zero," he said. "If you could get 12 percent that Bruce is throwing out here, a one-time contribution of $10,800 gets you to a million." His conclusion: "So it is the rate of return."