Invest Now! What are you waiting for?

Many people wait until they are in their thirties, fourties, and fifties to start saving money.

The trouble is, by the time they realize they ought to be investing, they've lost valuable years when stocks could have been working in their favour.

One of the best way to avoid this fate is to begin saving money as early as possible, while you're living at home.  When else are your expenses going to be this low?  You have no children to feed - your parents are probably feeding you.

Money is a great friend, once you send it off to work.  It puts extra cash in your pocket without your having to lift a finger.

If you invest $500 a year in stocks instead of putting it in the bank, the money gets a chance to do you an even bigger favour, while you're off someplace living your life.  On average, you will double your money every 7 or 8 years if you leave it in stocks. 

A lot of smart investors have learned to take advantage of this.  They realise that capital (money) is as important to their future as their own jobs (labour).

Warren Buffett, America's second richest man, got there by saving money and later putting it into stocks.  To him, a $400 TV set he saw in the store wasn't really a $400 purchase.  He always thought about how much that $400 would be worth twenty years later, if he invested it instead of spending it.  This sort of thinking kept him from wasting his money on items he didn't need.

If you start saving and investing early enough, you'll get to the point where your money is supporting you.  This is what most people hope for, a chance to have financial independence where they're free to go places and do what they want, while their money stays home and goes to work.  But it will never happen unless you get in the habit of saving and investing and putting aside a certain amount every month, at a young age.

In the past people felt great pride when they worked hard and made certain sacrifices in order to pay for something all at once.  It made them nervous to owe money to the banks, and when they paid off their home mortgages, they had parties and invited all the neighbours to help them celebrate.

It wasn't until the 1960s that Americans got into the habit of using credit cards, and it wasn't until the 1980s that average families were hocked to the limit on mortgages, car loans, home equity loans, and the unpaid balances on their cards.

It is OK to pay interest on a house or an apartment, which will increase in value, but not on cars, appliances, clothes, or TV sets, which are worth less and less as you use them.

Debt is saving  in reverse.  The more it builds up, the worse off you are.  We see this in households across America, people struggling to make the payments, and in the government itself, which at the moment is hopelessly in debt.

America was once a nation of savers.

People of all income levels put aside as much money as they could, mostly in savings accounts at the local bank.  They made money on this money as it grew with interest, so eventually they could use it for a down payment on a house, or  to buy things, or to draw on in family emergencies.  In the meantime, the bank could take people's savings and lend them out to home buyers, or home builders, or businesses of all kinds.

Save as much as you can!  YOU'll be helping yourself and helping the country.