The secret to successful investing is simple. That's what makes it all the more tragic that so many people miss out on their best chance to become truly wealthy.
In the arsenal of the average investor, the best weapon you have is time. If you have plenty of time before you'll need the money you're investing, then you can afford to sit tight through tough markets – even sustained down markets, like we saw in 2007-8. You can confidently wait for the market's long-term upward trend to reassert itself, and even take advantage of bargain share prices to reap some serious gains.
Time is on your side
The sad thing, though, is that so many workers don't take advantage of the period of their life where they have the longest time horizon. The time to start investing is in your 20s, not long after you first start working.
There are plenty of reasons why people choose not to start saving for retirement early in their lives. Yet each of those excuses is fundamentally flawed. Let's take a look at some of the most common reasons that people wait too long to start investing for retirement.
1. I'm too young to worry about retiring.
When you're just getting started, you have plenty of more immediate concerns than worrying about retirement.
You might have student loans or other debt to pay off. You might be thinking about buying your first home or starting a family. Or you might just want to enjoy some of the money you're earning.
Still, there are a couple reasons why starting early makes sense. First, giving your money an extra 10 or 20 years to grow makes a huge difference to what you'll end up with in retirement.
But perhaps more importantly, though, starting to save for long-term goals now begins a good habit that will serve you well for the rest of your life. If you learn to trade a little money now for a lot more in the future, then anything becomes possible.
2. Now's a terrible time to invest.
You might feel like right now is a terrible time to invest. For whatever reason, 'now' never seems quite right. There's always a reason to wait…
If the market has had a good run, "I'll just wait until it falls by 10% before jumping in."
Or…
If the market is going through one of its periodic corrections, "I'll just wait until it levels out before jumping in."
Or…
The market always seems to fall in September. "I'll wait until a little later in the year before jumping in. Maybe after Christmas, or after Easter."
If you're always convinced that shares are either too dangerous or too expensive, then you'll never invest — and you'll miss out on plenty of profitable opportunities.
3. I don't have enough money to make it worth it.
It's hard to come up with money to invest, especially during a down economy. You might easily feel that the $50 or $100 per month that you might be able to scrape together won't do a bit of good in the long run.
But nothing could be further from the truth. Over the course of 40 years, you might reasonably expect to see your money multiply between 20 and 50 times, if you can earn between 8% and 10% on your money.
That will turn each of those $50 monthly deposits into $1,000 or $2,500. A year's worth of saving could put $30,000 extra in your retirement nest-egg — not bad for a modest investment.
Don't delay
As tempting as it may be just to procrastinate your retirement saving another year, the better choice is to move forward with your savings now. It's not the easiest thing to do, but it may be the best move you could make with your money.
