If You are late to Invest - Do This Instead
A lot of people have a lot of responsibility and they cannot able to invest anything. And by the time they are free from this responsibility, they are over 35 years of age. Now once they are over this age, they start to think they are late for the investment. Yes that's true, the compounding works great when you start early. But even if you are late, it's not a problem.
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The only problem is you have to start investing from today onwards. For example, if you are done with the responsibility and thus you can allocate some amount every month to save. Yes it will be low at the start, but it's always good to start with something rather than not starting at all. Now next year when you get a raise, try to allocate to saving as much as possible. I know you can't save everything but still its better to try to save something rather than doing nothing.
If you continue to invest 40% + increasing the investment by 5% everyyear. You will be able to reach close to 80% of what you could have saved when you started early. So it's not bad at all. You can able to reach there even if you start late. So now don't have to worry if you have some responsibility and not able to save. You can always start when you can. Yes it's better to start early but even though you are late you are able to reach to a point where most of the people not able to reach.
I also started investing very late and also was not investing much. I seriously started investing when I am 32 years of age. And then started investing as much as I could and hopefully I will be able to reach to atleast 75 to 80% of the amount then also I am grateful.
This is such an important and encouraging message. The psychological barrier of feeling 'too late' is one of the biggest obstacles to building wealth, and you've addressed it perfectly.
You're absolutely right—the best time to start was yesterday, but the second-best time is today. The key isn't the amount you start with, but the discipline of starting and the commitment to consistently increase it over time. The '40% + 5% yearly increase' strategy you mentioned is a powerful, concrete plan that can lead to remarkable results, even from a late start.
This is a crucial reminder that financial freedom is a marathon, not a sprint, and everyone is running their own race. Thanks for sharing this motivational insight.