When you are young you get a lot of advice for saving, investing, going to school, getting a good job, and on and on.
What I wish I knew was that the core of much of the advice was buying back your time. Getting yourself into a position where you had the freedom to do what you wanted. That is when real creativity comes out.
The focus of the first half of life is buying back your time
- Skills and capabilities that are in high demand
- Creating an investment engine that provides income
- Side hustles that create income
- Real estate and other assets that generate income
These are all endeavors that take time to create, but once created give you the freedom to pursue goals without having to worry about paying the bills.
The earlier you start the better.
If you invest $500 a month from the time you are 21 until you are 30 at an 8% return you will have $1,285,132.88 at 65.
If you wait until 31 to start investing you will need to put away $500 a month until you are 65 and you will end up with $1,033,900.82
Starting at 21 means you only had to invest for 10 years to end up with over a million at 65. If you waited for 10 years and started at 31 you now have to invest for 35 years to end up with over a million.
This same paradigm pertains to many different endeavors that will end up buying you time later in life.
I wish I had started sooner.