The Power of Time: Why Starting Early Is the Greatest Advantage in Investing

Time to read: 4.5 minutes

When it comes to building wealth, there are countless strategies, opinions, and “hot tips.” But no matter how the markets move or what new trends emerge, one principle remains constant: time is your greatest ally. Believe me, I know this first hand as I started investing before I had even graduated University and am on pace to achieve wealth milestones far ahead of any benchmark.

As part of my three core principles — Time, Sacrifice, and Discipline — this post focuses on the first: Time!
Shall we agree on one universal principle before we dive further into this? You and I cannot buy more time. We can become more efficient, work smarter, invest smarter, and choose wisely where to spend our time. But, that finite quantity of time remains finite. Agreed? Great, let's continue.

The earlier you begin, the more your money can work for you. Compounding is what makes this so powerful.

Here’s what that looks like in real life. If you start investing $500 per month at age 25 and earn an average 10% annual return, by age 45 you’d have around $343,000. That’s almost triple what you put in, all because you gave your money time to grow. But if you wait until age 35 to start, you’d have only about $130,000 by 45 — even though you contributed the same amount. That’s the cost of waiting.

Let's pause here to reflect on reminder #1: You cannot rewind the clock. I've had countless clients come to me at age 60, 63, 74, 79 asking me to help them retire. I cannot rewind that clock and neither can they so that they would have started investing earlier. 

Many people hold off on investing because they think they don’t have enough to start or want to wait until things feel “more stable.” The longer you delay, the more you’ll have to contribute later to reach the same goal. Time doesn’t just grow your investments; it takes pressure off your future self. When you start early, your money does more of the work for you.

Here's reminder #2: The financial habits you build from the age of 20 - 30 will likely be cemented for the rest of your life. So, begin conditioning your mind, your spouse's mind, and your budget that it needs to operate within reasonable means of spending and allow space for investing.

Markets will always go up and down. Trying to guess the perfect time to invest usually leads to frustration and missed opportunities. What really matters isn’t timing the market — it’s spending time in the market. Those who stay consistent and give their investments time to grow almost always end up ahead of those who wait for the “right” moment.

In my next post, I’ll talk about the other two pillars: Sacrifice and Discipline. These are what keep your plan on track once you’ve taken the first step. But if there’s two things to take away from this post, here they are: You cannot rewind the clock. Your financial habits will be cemented by the time you reach 30, so start conditioning your mind early.