A lot of people in their forties and fifties tell me the same thing. They wanted to clear the mortgage, settle the kids, or “get life sorted” before they started investing properly. The intention makes sense. The outcome usually doesn’t.
Paying off debt feels safe, but delaying investing comes with a cost that only becomes visible years later. And once that time has gone, you can’t claw it back. You don’t need the perfect plan to begin. You just need to begin.
Compound growth is quiet, steady, and unforgiving to those who start late. Your money grows, that growth compounds again, and the cycle carries on whether you pay attention or not.
Two clients I recently onboarded show how powerful this is. One invested consistently from 25 to 35 and stopped. The other waited until 35 and saved for the next thirty years. The early starter ended with more. Not because they saved more, but because they let time do the hard work.
Vanguard’s research supports this. A five-year delay can cut your retirement pot by as much as thirty per cent. All from waiting.
Time isn’t neutral. Every year you delay means your money has fewer years to grow, your required contributions climb, and your future goals drift further away
A single five-thousand-pound contribution at 25 can grow to more than fifty thousand by retirement. Make the same contribution at 45 and the outcome is nowhere near that. One action, two very different endings.
This is why the idea of “I’ll do it when things settle down” rarely works. Life keeps moving. And the longer you wait, the harder the maths becomes.
This is where many people get caught. Becoming mortgage-free feels like security. But the numbers don’t always justify putting everything into the house.
If your mortgage costs four per cent and your long-term investment return sits somewhere between six and nine per cent, then every pound you divert away from investing is a pound missing out on higher potential growth.
On top of that, pension contributions come with tax relief. A basic-rate taxpayer turns eighty pounds into one hundred instantly. Higher-rate taxpayers benefit even more. Mortgage overpayments don’t offer anything similar.
Property also ties up your capital. Once it’s in the bricks, accessing it is slow, inflexible, and usually expensive. A balanced approach tends to win. Keep investing regularly and treat mortgage overpayments as the extra, not the core.
The people who start early often aren’t the biggest earners. They’re the ones who build the habit. They stay consistent during market dips, they understand how their plan behaves, and they don’t rely on guesswork. Habit creates results. Delay creates pressure.
It’s not too late. Many people reach their forties and suddenly realise retirement isn’t far away. That moment can be unsettling, but it’s also the moment things change.
The key is to act with intention. You might need to save more and be more structured, but starting now is still far better than waiting again.
Wealth isn’t built through dramatic decisions. It’s built through steady ones. That’s why waiting for a “good time” is often the most expensive choice anyone makes.
If you want clarity on how to balance investing, mortgages, and everything else already competing for your attention, that’s exactly what the first conversation is for. Your future deserves more than “I’ll get to it when life calms down.”
If you’d like to see what starting today could mean for your retirement, let’s map it out together. A short conversation now can save you years of catch-up later.
Christopher Bowler is a global financial adviser at Skybound Wealth Management in London, UK, specialising in helping British and South African expatriates manage their finances while living and working overseas.
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