It is never too early to start

Time is your best friend or your worst enemy when it comes to investing. Albert Einstein said that Compound interest is the 8th wonder of the world, and I have to agree. The key component of this philosophy is time. The longer you let money compound, the richer you will be. The funny thing about this is, most people really don’t care about time until they don’t have much left.

Youth is Wasted on the Young

When you are young, you have a skewed sense of reality - You tend to think:

I am going to live forever
I am invincible
I know everything
Everything is going to work out on its own
I have lots of time to figure it out
I have no money

These are typical thoughts of a young person. If you are not inclined to believe these things before you are thirty then good for you, you are exceptional. For the rest of us, who are a product of misspent youths and poor decisions, please take our advice and learn to invest.

Start small. It's OK. You don’t need a lot of money to get started. The key principle is to begin. Once you have made it a habit to invest a percentage of your income every month into a long term plan, you are well on your way to riches and and an easy life. It is really hard to take these kinds of things seriously when you are young, I get it, but it is the most important time to do it. If you start investing when you are young, you are building the habits that will take care of you for a lifetime. You are using TIME as your ally, because you have lots of it. If you invest in your future, you will reap the rewards.

It has been shown that having long term perspective is the one common factor that differentiates successful people from not so successful people. If you can learn to make decisions that affect the future you in the best way you know how, you will tend to set yourself up for success. It requires self -discipline and delayed gratification, but it will pay off. If you learn how money works and start investing when you are young, you have time to make a few mistakes and take a few chances that older people might not get the chance to utilise. You are more likely to learn from your mistakes and make better decision in the future.

Young people tend to be short sighted and live in the moment. That is wonderful, as many fun experiences would be lost if we were always being practical and mature. I understand. I had a lot fun when I was young, and I don’t regret much. I do regret not investing though. I wish I had started 20 years early than I did. My brother sat me down when I was in my early twenties and tried to explain RRSPs to me. I ignored him. I couldn’t wrap my head around the idea that I would be old someday at all.

Learn from my mistakes

I didn’t know much back then and I am inclined to ruminate on the fact that I wish I had known what I know now 20 or 30 years ago. I would be a much wealthier man. Unfortunately when I was young I didn’t want to listen. I didn’t want to hear about investing or RRSPs. That was for old boring people, not young, cool guys like me. I was too busy living the dream of being a famous musician to care about saving, investing and money management.

I wish someone had taken me aside and slapped me in in my cocky, stupid face and explained to me how life works. As cool as you think you are now, unless you die an untimely death, you will get old. Then, where will you be? You are given this gift of time, and you squander it, when you could be using it as a tool to improve your life. You could be leveraging the most precious gift you have to make life better for the future you, and your future loved ones. Guess what? You will care about future you and your future lifestyle just as much as you care about present you. So why not care about “future you” now and learn to invest.

The information is out there. It is not difficult. There is basic math involved, and not a ton of sacrifice. You just need to make a plan and stick to it. You don’t have to be a genius. You just have to do it. 80% of success is beginning. Please listen to me. You have an unmatched opportunity to be special. If you are young and gainfully employed you have time - the most awesome leverage you can get. It is rare and valuable, and those who use it wisely will be the privileged few, indeed.

Invest In Yourself

You can educate yourself by reading books or taking courses. You can get a mentor or go to work for someone who is doing what you want to to. There are so many options available. The world is chock-full of information. It is yours for the taking. Investing in yourself and your financial education is something that will produce returns forever. People who have made fortunes never worry about losing all of their money because they can always make it back because they themselves are the key ingredient. What they know is the secret sauce. If you figure out how to make millions, you can always do it again. It is a compounding effect. Every new piece of knowledge and wisdom you acquire and implement will build on the last and you will become unstoppable. Don't let fear of the unknown or self doubt stop you. Everyone started out knowing nothing. All the skills you need to become rich or successful are learnable. You only need to start- and start early.

Learning about money and capitalism is one of the most useful things you can do as we live in a world that runs on money. Money makes the world go around, as they say. You can resist it or you can embrace it. I am all for new and exciting ideas about ways to fix what is broken about our capitalist world, but until these things become mainstream, you might as well become proficient in the system we currently participate in. You are playing a game whether you want to or not, you might as well learn the rules. There are basic principles of wealth creation that are learnable and readily available. You just need to actually learn them and actually DO THEM.

I would love it if you took advantage of my system to build wealth It is a great way to learn investing and wealth creation. Just read my books or you can learn the complete system with my online course. I also have recommended several books that are indispensable tools to use. Learn from people who have done it. There is so much information out there. The difference between those who succeed and those who struggle is usually just execution. Be willing to start. Be willing to learn. Be willing to make mistakes. It’s all part of the process. School tries to indoctrinate us against making mistakes. Standardised tests make it wrong to learn from failure. In truth, failure is a great teacher, and life rewards those who are willing to fail. It has been said that failing faster is the true way to success.

I am suggesting to care about your future when you care about it the least; when you are young. The future seems a million miles away and very abstract. It is hard to take it seriously, yet it is the greatest gift you have ever been given. Take the gift of time and use it wisely. You will never regret it. Start investing when you are young. Start your financial education while you are holding the ultimate trump card - lots of time! Wisdom is only useful if you use it.

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