Saving Early & Letting Time Work for You

When you’re young, retirement may feel far away—but that distance is your greatest advantage. Time isn’t just a calendar—it’s a financial engine. And if you begin saving early, time becomes one of the most powerful tools you’ll ever use to build future wealth.

The Quiet Force Behind Your Growth: Compounding

Compounding is the process of earning interest on your contributions and on the growth those contributions have already earned. Over time, the effect multiplies.

Let’s take a simple example using a hypothetical 5% return.

Start with $100

After 1 year: $105
After 2 years: $110.25
After 3 years: $115.76

That extra growth wasn’t from adding more money, it was growth on growth.

Now imagine doing this with meaningful contributions.

A More Realistic Example

Suppose you:

Start with $1,000
Add $1,000 each year
Earn a hypothetical 5% annual return

After five years, your total contributions would be $6,000 but your balance would be approximately $7,078.20.¹

That’s over $1,000 earned simply by letting your money stay invested.

And the longer you go, the more dramatic that compounding becomes.

Why Starting Early Matters

Let’s compare two people saving for retirement:

Saver A

Saves $5,000 each year
Starts at age 25
Stops at age 35
Leaves the account untouched

Saver B

Saves the same amount
But waits until age 35 to start
Continues through age 65

Even though Saver B invests three times as long, Saver A often ends up with similar, or even greater, balances because their early dollars had more time to compound.

The lesson?

Time is more valuable than contribution size.

Starting earlier, even with smaller amounts, can have an outsized impact later.

Your Role Is Simpler Than You Think

To harness long-term compounding:

Start as soon as possible
Contribute consistently
Stay invested through market cycles
Avoid reacting emotionally during downturns

Just by keeping money invested, time and growth do much of the work for you.

Even if you stop contributing temporarily, early investing still pays dividends in the future.

Your Future Self Will Thank You

If you’ve been waiting for the “right time” to start investing, you may already be losing one of your most valuable resources—time. Whether you’re just beginning or want to catch up, strategy matters.

Schedule a Retirement Savings Strategy Session today and let’s build a plan that:

Your retirement doesn’t get built someday. It gets built today, with the decisions you make now.