While traveling by road you must have seen the boards on highways with the message “START EARLY, DRIVE SLOWLY, REACH SAFELY”. The benefits of starting early when you are traveling by road are
1. You don’t have to drive at high speed so the risk of accident is minimized; hence the risk of loss will not be there.
2. If you are driving at a constant speed of 60km/hr you will get better mileage thereby your travel will be economical also.
3. The time taken to reach your destination will also be reasonable & you will have enough time to make good the time lost due to break down of the vehicle.
4. You will have enough time to take break for refreshment etc.
5. You will definitely reach your destination safely.

Similarly in financial planning the benefits of STARTING EARLY are

1. When you start financial planning in early years of your life you will not have pressure of investing huge amounts. Generally people realize in older age that they have made mistake by not starting early. When you will come to know at the age of 45-50 that you do not have enough money/savings then you will start curtailing your expenses & try to save. But still you will not be able to achieve your goals easily.
2. As your age increases the cost of insurance goes up which makes your risk cover uneconomical. For eg. If your age is 25 years you will get Term Insurance policy of 35 years with cover of Rs.25,00,000/- on payment of Rs.8,000 as premium per year & if you decide to buy the same cover for same period at the age of 30 then you will have to pay premium of Rs.10,625 per year.
3 You will be able to take a break from your routine life & enjoy your holidays, recreation, leisure etc.
4 Even if you have financial emergencies in between like sudden financial loss or medical expenses etc. you will have enough time to take care of your finances as you have started early.
5 You will be able to achieve all your financial goals in time (with no or minimum debt) & will never have to compromise with your desires.
6 Since you have enough time you will be able to build substantial wealth. Let us see an example

There are two friends, say Anil & Sunil, who are of the same age. Anil starts investing Rs. 5,000/- per month at the age of 25 & invests for 10 years & Sunil starts investing Rs. 5,000/- per month at the age of 35 & invests for 25 years. Both of them get 15% returns on their investment compounded annually. Who will be richer at the age of 60? Can you guess?
Anil has invested Rs.5,000 per month for 10 years i.e. total amount invested by Anil is Rs.6 lakh whereas Sunil has invested Rs.5,000 per month for 25 years i.e. total amount invested by Sunil is Rs.15 lakh. Both have got similar returns, but at the age of 60 Anil will have accumulated wealth of Rs.4.6 crores and Sunil will have Rs.1.5 crores. Anil will have three times the wealth that of Sunil.

The following chart will explain the same thing in detail

If you invest Rs.10,000/- per year i.e. Rs.833/- per month at 15% Rate of Interest compounded annually from the age of

Starting Age 25 to 60 27 to 60 30 to 60
Total no. of years 35 33 30
Total savings Rs.3,50,000 Rs.3,30,000 Rs.3,00,000
Total accumulated wealth Rs.1,01,33,456 Rs.76,43,653 Rs.49,99,569

Can you afford to loose time? Certainly not, hence what ever is your age, don’t just think, act fast!