Mr. Start Early vs Mr. Start Later: A Tale of Two Investors

Let me tell you a story about two friends. Same income. Same investment returns. Same retirement age. But vastly different outcomes. The only difference? When they started.

Meet the Two Investors

Mr. Start Early begins investing at age 25. He puts away $200 per month for just 10 years, then stops completely at age 35. He never invests another dime.

Mr. Start Later waits until age 35 to begin. He invests the same $200 per month, but he keeps going for 30 years straight—all the way until retirement at 65.

Both earn an average 8% annual return. Let's see what happens.

The Numbers Don't Lie

Mr. Start Early:

• Invested for: 10 years (age 25-35)
• Total invested: $24,000
• Value at 65: $427,000+

Mr. Start Later:

• Invested for: 30 years (age 35-65)
• Total invested: $72,000
• Value at 65: $298,000+

Read that again. Mr. Start Early invested three times less money but ended up with $129,000 more.

How Is This Possible?

The answer is compound growth—and more specifically, time.

Mr. Start Early's money had 40 years to compound (even though he only contributed for 10). Those early dollars had decades to multiply, double, and double again.

Mr. Start Later's money, despite being three times more in contributions, only had 30 years to grow. He was playing catch-up from day one—and he never caught up.

The Real Cost of Waiting

Every year you delay costs you more than you think. Here's what waiting really means:

Wait 1 year: You don't just lose that year's contributions. You lose what those contributions would have become over your entire investing lifetime.

Wait 5 years: You might need to double your monthly contributions to end up in the same place.

Wait 10 years: You may never catch up, no matter how much you invest.

Time isn't just money. Time is the money.

"But I Can't Afford to Invest Right Now"

Here's the hard truth: you can't afford not to.

Mr. Start Early didn't have more money than Mr. Start Later. He didn't have a better job or fewer expenses. He simply made a different choice—he chose to pay his future self first.

Even small amounts matter enormously when time is on your side:

• $50/month starting at 25 beats $150/month starting at 35
• $100/month starting at 25 beats $300/month starting at 35

The earlier you start, the less you need to invest. The longer you wait, the harder it gets.

What If You're Already "Mr. Start Later"?

First, don't beat yourself up. The second-best time to start is today.

But understand what it means: you'll need to be more aggressive. Higher contributions. Potentially more growth-oriented investments. Every dollar and every month matters even more.

The lesson isn't that it's too late. The lesson is don't wait another day.

The Real Moral of the Story

This isn't really about Mr. Start Early versus Mr. Start Later. It's about you, right now, in this moment.

You can't go back and start at 25. But you can start today. And today is earlier than tomorrow, next month, or next year.

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second-best time is now.