Just Do It (Some Of It) Now

The Nike slogan is “Just Do It” and everybody aged 18 and up, the sooner the better, should take that to heart. Or at least do some of it. There’s a chapter in the Money Tools book entitled: Do You Have a Half Hour?

In life there are tons of things we just never get around to – for all of us at all ages. We’re too busy, maybe next week, it’s not a priority, or whatever the reason or excuse. If you don’t take the first step you’ll never take the second step – and that chapter has about a dozen things that take less than half an hour.

If you look at your bank account and have an extra $200 you might want to save it. But it’s likely you won’t – or at least if you’re in your 20s because you don’t have an investment or TFSA (tax free savings) account, or an RRSP set up. That’s just one no-brainer example. If you take less than half an hour to set up an investment account with just a $20 deposit you’ll have it if and when you have some extra money, a bonus, or maybe some cash for your birthday. But if you don’t even have an investment account, you’ll never detour the money to it. If you’ve done the half hour basics, it’s two clicks and you’ve added to your investments.

Just taking this one example at age 18 to 25 has a staggering impact down the road. Here is a chart of what just $1,000 savings gets you in compounded interest down the road if you set it and forget it (from taxtips.ca):

$1,000 in just GICs over 50 years turns to $16,000. If you’re already 25 or so, over 39 years it’ll be $7,700.

But you’re 18 to 25 so that’d be a total waste of investments. If you put it into a basket of the top 500 companies in the world (that’s called the S&P 500) the $1,000 turns into $135,000 over 50 years. If you’re already mid-20’s it’ll be $77,000.

That’s a lousy $1,000 saved – never mind if you read the teenage millionaire chapter and do it quicker for a return of $1.1 million. Or you can hope you’ll get your $900 Canada Pension – good luck with that.

So the half hour today pays off huge – but you need someone to print you off this returns chart for you to believe it. And then you have to get off your butt and make the half hour. If that’s not worth your time – I can’t help you!

George Boelcke – Money Tools & Rules book – yourmoneybook.com