It Starts With the First $25
āI donāt have enough money to invest.ā I hear versions of this even here on Blossom. Weāre already investors, but I often hear people say they just donāt have enough money to make their portfolio really grow.
But what if it isnāt always about how much money we have? What if itās about how we VIEW the money we have and what we could eventually turn it into?
I didnāt start seriously investing until I was 50. Looking back, could I have found $25 a month when I was 18?
Absolutely.
And I think thatās something I completely missed when I was younger. I thought investing required having enough money for it to actually matter.
But look at what even small amounts can potentially become.
Starting at 18 and investing every month until 60, at a hypothetical 7% return:
$25/month ā ~$80,000
$50/month ā ~$160,000
$100/month ā ~$320,000
$250/month ā ~$800,000
Now compare that with what happened to me.
I didnāt start at 50 with nothing. Laurie and I had accumulated about $220,000, and to give credit where itās due, the vast majority of those savings came from her.
Thatās a HUGE head start.
But hereās what waiting cost me.
If I took that $220,000 at 50 and wanted to turn it into $1 million by 60, even assuming a 7% return, Iād still need to invest roughly:
$3,223 EVERY MONTH for 10 years.
Almost $39,000 a year.
Thatās the difference time makes.
Iām obviously not suggesting every 18-year-old can invest $250 a month. The point is to find the first $25.
Because youāre probably not going to have the same earning power at 18 that youāll have at 25, 35 or 45.
Start with what you can afford. Then as your earning power grows, maybe $25 becomes $50. Maybe $50 becomes $100. And eventually maybe you find $250.
I had to do almost the opposite.
Because I didnāt take investing seriously when I had decades of compounding available to me, Iām now using my higher earning years to put MUCH larger amounts into the market.
And thatās changed the way I look at money.
Laurie and I still travel. We still buy things. We still enjoy our money. But Iāve learned to find ways to put more of it to work without feeling like weāre sacrificing the life we want to live.
Maybe thatās earning more. Maybe itās a side hustle. Maybe itās finding expenses you realize arenāt actually that important to you.
Whatever it is, you start looking for the next $25.
Everyone talks about how difficult it is to build the first $100,000.
But nobody starts by finding $100,000.
You start by finding the first $25.
