It boils down to this: fear is a major reason people fail to invest.
Fear of making the wrong choice and missing out on maximum returns. Fear of having a lack of knowledge about certain markets. Fear of the unknown.
Another key concern of potential investors is whether now is the best time to dip their toes in the economic ebb and flow of today’s financial markets.
Unfortunately — and far too often — age seems to be a deciding factor for when some people choose to invest.
Putting Off for Tomorrow What Can Be Done Today
The young tend to have the mindset that it will be easier to invest in their 40s and 50s — once they’re getting a nice, fat paycheck. Seniors mistakenly believe they’ve already missed their chance. And middle-aged folks are often just trying to stay afloat while raising a family.
However, these outlooks are flawed in a major way. According to The Simple Dollar, a website geared toward people fending off debt and bad spending habits, here’s why:
“It will take a very long time for a poor investment choice to have a significant negative impact on you, but it doesn’t take much time at all for the choice to not invest to have a negative impact on you.”
In other words, it’s more important to start investing today — and to put away as much as possible for tomorrow — than it is to find the “perfect” investment or the “right” time to jump in the game.
The right time is now.
Saving for Retirement at Any Age
There may be no such thing as the “best age” to invest, but there is a general consensus on when to start saving for retirement. And the answer? The younger, the better.
Yes, we’re talking to you, Millennials.
Time is the most valuable asset to saving and investing, and it’s something the Millennial Generation — those born between the early 1980s and the early 2000s — still have in plenty. Investing in retirement while you’re young not only means you have more time to build savings, but it also generates returns that are, um…basically miraculous.
For instance, if you take into account the average annual return after inflation for the last 150 years (6.6 percent), according to Motley Fool, every dollar you save when you are 20 will be worth $18.50 by the time you turn 65. If you start at 30, each dollar will be valued at $9.60 by age 65.
Seize the Day — It’s Never Too Late
Although investing while you’re young makes it significantly easier to save enough money for retirement, there are those for whom that ship has sailed — long, long ago. And unfortunately, the longer retirement-saving is delayed, the steeper the uphill battle to secure your financial future.
Yet hope is never lost.
Whether you’re knocking at the door of retirement or just beginning your career, there’s no better time to start investing than now. You can’t change the past, but the present (and future) are fair game.
So carpe diem!
**Investment Tip: Precious metal IRAs are a secure and effective way to start saving for retirement immediately. To learn more about IRA bullion and how it can help you reach your retirement goals, check out our IRA FAQs Page, or talk to one of our IRA specialists by contacting us today.
What Advice Would You Give Someone Waiting for the “Right” Time to Invest?
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