Friday, June 13, 2008

Invest Early or Invest Late?

These 2 tables show that the difference between starting investment early and starting investment late. Assuming that the annual return of the investment is 8%:

Mr. A invests RM1200 every year for 10 years, but Mr. B wants to enjoy life first, so he plans to invest RM1200 every year for 20 years on 11th year onwards. In the 30th year, Mr. A has around 40% more than Mr. B, although Mr. A just invests for 10 years while Mr. B invests for 20 years.

What happen if Mr. B still wants to enjoy life first, and he said that he will have higher income after 10 years and he is able to invest double of Mr. A’s investment?

We can see from the table, Mr. B invest RM2400 every year for 10 years on 11th year onwards. In 30th year, Mr. A still has slightly more than what Mr. B gains.


Time is very valuable and it cannot be bought using money. From the calculation above, we can conclude that time is a very important aspect for the investment to grow. The compounding effect is significant. Investing earlier definitely generate more money for you compared to investing later.

3 comments:

Dave Corner said...

for me..i more prefer invest early cos i don wan to have financial problem when later age..i wan to retire faster...

leekk8 said...

Yes, you're right. We should invest early and achieve financial freedom as soon as possible.

Unknown said...

Yes, definitely. So, v hav to get rid of all the debt and plan carefully to achieve financial freedom asap.