Ramit Sethi tells debt-free college students to invest aggressively now. Smart Sally invests $100 a month from 25 to 35, while Dumb Dan waits until 35 and invests for 30 years. Sally ends up with far more by 65 because compound interest does the heavy lifting early.
First of all, you want to save and invest aggressively. You're in your late teens or in college. That is a great time to start investing. People who are like, 25, 35, they look back and say, damn, if I had just invested. Because that is where the compound interest really, really grows. And you can just go online and search for compound interest examples, and you will find amazing stuff. Here's a quick example. So Smart Sally starts investing when she's 25. And all she does is invest $100 a month until she's 35. Then she stops. Okay, Dumb Dan, he comes along. Finally, like, after, at age 35, he's like, oh, I better get something going on here. I better save some money. He puts $100 a month for 30 years. Okay, Smart Sally only invested $100 a month for 10 years. Dumb Dan invests for 30 years. Who has more money at the end at age 65? Smart Sally. And she has tens of thousands of dollars more. Why? Because she started early. It makes great sense to start early. In fact, it's probably the most important thing you can.
