Why You Should Invest At A Young Age

You’ve probably heard the general advice that you should “save for your future.” Maybe you’re a parent who wants to convince your teenagers to start saving, or you’re a teen yourself who wants to save but doesn’t know where to start or why you should even save in the first place.

Whilst youngsters and teens do learn the basics of saving when they’re young, I want to dive deep into why you should save when you’re young (I mean in your teenage years or younger), not just for a car, phone, video game console or a specific item.

But why should you save for your future?

and how saving for your future will yield massive financial benefits not just when you’re 65 but even when you turn 18 or when you’re in your late 20s.

After talking with so many adults who’ve started investing, their biggest regret is that they got started earlier.

And I don’t want that to be you, where you deeply regret saving and investing in your younger years when you’re in your mid-40s or 50s.

I want you to achieve financial abundance, be way ahead of the curve and have the freedom to do what you want in life without depending on a wage-slaving full-time job.

In this article, I’m going to get into the 5 reasons why you should start saving as a teenager (and even younger perhaps).

And these 5 reasons are going to completely change your perspective on how you look at money not just a tool to splurge or spend on sh*t that you don’t need, but a tool to leverage your time and dictate what you want out of your life.

1. Full-time jobs can be very demanding on your time, body and mental health, and you never know what you’ll want to pursue in life

This is how most people go through life:

• Primary school
• High school
• Graduate from high school
• Attend Uni
• Graduate Uni
• Try to find a job
• Work at a full-time job until you’re 65

Now, the major problem with the school system is that they don’t teach you basic fundamentals of personal finance.

What if 5 years into your career, you don’t enjoy your career path and want to take a 1-year break? Or what if you decide to be a stay-at-home parent.

Or maybe you want to pursue a passion full-time even if it doesn’t make you money like being a musician, painting pictures, hosting free workshops, etc.

The point is that building up a financial nest egg from a young age enables you to have so much flexibility that other people don’t have simply because they need the job to pay their bills.

2. Financial independence allows you to enjoy the lifelong benefit of ultimate flexibility and freedom

If you were, let’s say, 30 years old and wanted to take a 1-year break to travel full-time, then you’d obviously need money to do what, right?

Well, if you had only $10k in the bank and tonnes of bills to pay, then there’s no way you can just quit your job, as you’ll be dependent on the income to pay the bills.

Whereas if you had investments generating passive income that pays for your living expenses, then you’ll be more than comfortable taking 1-year off to travel full-time and never have to stress about paying the bills.

That’s exactly the benefit of financial independence!

And I know it might be hard to grasp being responsible for your own bills and becoming an adult.

3. Spend more time with your family and value the things most important in life

This ties back to freedom and flexibility. To simply put it, money is just a tool to buy back our time and freedom.

It’s so common for people to work their tails off their entire lives, only to regret later on in their deathbed that they didn’t spend enough time with their loved ones as their work got in the way of that.

And what’s even more depressing is that working our tails off that a 9-5 job that we hate is considered the norm, and people get stuck in their jobs because they need to pay the bills.

4. Build up a nest egg when you’re young so you can enjoy freedom sooner

Saving & investing don’t mean you have to wait until 65 years old to reap the benefits. As a matter of fact, if you get started when you’re young (or maybe when you’re born), then I promise that you’ll reap the benefits even as early as your mid-20s, as you’ll have built up a sizable nest egg.

How much is the nest egg, you may ask?

Well, if you start investing at 16 years old and put $1k a month into a diversified ETF returning 8% per year, then you’ll end up with $180k at 26 years old (after 10 years).

Or if you upped your monthly investment amount to $2k per month, you’ll have $360k!

I know $2k sounds like a lot, but if you’re living with your parents and you’re smart with your money, unlike your friends, then it will be easier than you think to save $2k per month.

But even if you save and invest $1k per month on autopilot, you’ll end up with $180k at 26 years old, which is way more than what most people have at that age.

When you build up that nest egg, it gives you the flexibility to work fewer hours at your job or gives you peace of mind that you’ll have more than enough once you retire for real.

Don’t spend a fortune on sh*t that you don’t need. I want you to thrive financially and live the best quality of life.

I know so many people who slave at their jobs for nothing in return, and it’s so sad to see a world where people are dependent on their jobs to cover their basic living expenses.

But when you start at a young age, you have such a competitive edge that most grown-ups would die for. Not only do you have time for compounding investing, but you’ll be living with your parents, giving you more opportunities to save a larger chunk of your income.

And once you approach your late 20s or mid-30s, you’ll have built up a decent amount of wealth that you won’t have to work (or I should say working at that point will be optional, and you won’t be dependent on your job).

Think about your parents and how hard they work. Do you want to wake up every day stuck at a 9-5 office job that you don’t like, wake up at 6am, dress for work, commute 1 hour, be at the office for 8 hours, commute another 1 hour and by the time you come home, it’s already like 5-6pm (depending on what time you finish).

And when you come back home from work, you’re absolutely exhausted and can’t move a muscle.

And the same process repeats itself again the next day.

Like, think about what you really want to do in your life. Do you want to slave for a job that you don’t like or work on something fulfilling that gives you so much joy every day?

5. Discipline = freedom. Imagine having all the time & freedom in the world in your mid-20s, not even having to worry about your finances

I truly believe that living a disciplined life = freedom.

For example, if you’re disciplined with your diet and eat mostly clean foods, then you’ll look healthier, be healthier and live healthier. But if you eat takeaways, junk foods and KFCs on the regular, then it’s highly likely that you’ll become overweight and out of shape.

Which also leads to more regular doctor’s visits, spending a crap load of money on supplements, wasting money on “diet plans” that fail you time and time again, etc.

It’s the exact same thing with your wealth & finances.

If you’re disciplined at a young age with your money, you’ll build wealth that’ll last you for the rest of your life and even generations.

You won’t have to stress about unexpected expenses, losing your job, paying off your mortgage and showing up to a job that you absolutely hate.

Feeling uninspired at your job? Well, you have all the leverage to quit and retire if you want to.

Think about it this way?

Is saving & investing rigorously for 10+ years to enjoy a lifelong life of financial freedom worth it? In my opinion, I say heck yes!

Or do you want to be like most people in their 40s of are currently:

• Working 50 hours per week at a job they hate with annoying colleagues
• Always behind on mortgage or rent payments, being on the verge of being kicked out of your house, and potentially ending up homeless
• Paying off your $50k credit card debt that never seems to disappear
• Always worrying that you’ll lose your job
• Arguing with your wife about money problems that drives you insane and even leads to an ugly divorce (sadly, most couples divorce due to money problems)