What’s the difference if I invest now or if I wait a year? The difference can be quite substantial. If you still have a long time until you retire, or if you are retiring in the near future, investing now will benefit more than if you waited 1, 2, 3, or more years to start.

Time is money; it’s the simple truth. We spend our time working and are paid for it. It takes time for a writer to write a book that they eventually collect royalties on. A teenager spends a few hours of her time watching kids and is paid for it. You have to give up some time to make money.

Investments are the same way. You can’t buy a stock and expect it to go up 50% in the next 10 minutes. It takes time for the return to accumulate. While you don’t have to directly work hours and be paid, you do have to put some thought into investments and wait.

The younger you are, the more money you can make. Just like investing more will likely make you more, waiting longer will make you more as well. If you want to know the true power of investing right now, just look at this example.

Let’s say you are 25 years old. You plan on retiring at the age of 65 in 40 years. You decide to invest $500 every year for those 40 years and expect an average return of 9%. Over the 40 years, you will have invested a total of $20,000. In 40 years, you will have approximately $182,000.

What would happen if you started investing later in life, let’s say at age 40? Even if you instead invested $2,000 a year for 25 years, you would have invested $50,000. That is more, so you should have a lot more in the long run, right? In this case, you would end up with $183,000.

That is the power of time plus compounding. Compounding means you continue to earn money on the money you already earned on top of the principle. The more time you have, the more time your money has to earn. Now, if you had to choose between a retirement investment account or a Starbucks coffee everyday, which would you choose?

Invest whatever amount you think will work with your budget. There is no rule as to how much you should invest except that it should be as much as you can. What you put away towards retirement should be top priority in your financial budget. Start investing a certain amount now and add to it every year. Soon you may even realize that you might be able to retire early!