Rob Perkins shows freelancers the cost of waiting to invest. Start at 25 with $200 a month and you'll hit a million by retirement. Wait until 35 and you need $500 a month to catch up, a $300 procrastination tax. Even $50 monthly grows to $10,000 in ten years at 10% returns.
Once I get more consistent work, I'll start investing. Once I pay off this debt, I'll start investing. Here's the problem. Things never stabilize in freelance. There's always another expense, always a slow season, always a reason to wait. Even $50 a month compounds over 10 years. If you invest $50 monthly at 10% average returns, that's over $10,000 in a decade. If you wait 5 years to start, you lose over half that growth. The cost of waiting is massive, not because of the money you didn't contribute, because of the compound interest you missed. Let's look at the actual cost. If you start at 25 with $200 a month, you're a millionaire at retirement. If you waited till 35, you have to contribute $500 a month just to catch up. You're literally paying $300 a month procrastination tax for the rest of your life.
