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Comment by moonchrome | Hacker News Reader

>Thanks to compounding interest, the best time to save and invest is when you are young. A dollar earned and invested when you're 20 is many times more valuable than that dollar earned when you're 60.

And money spent on experiences in 20s can't be made up with experiences in 60s - plus the kind of experiences you have in 20s will define the person you'll be in 60s. Hell even in 30s you can't get your 20s back. There's a biological peak - saving money for your twilight years might make you safer in the far future but it's guaranteed to make you miss out on your prime.

I'm willing to bet investing in yourself early will outperform the compounding interest you make on income you have at the start of your career.

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> I'm willing to bet investing in yourself early will outperform the compounding interest you make on income you have at the start of your career.

People present this often as a choose 1, but in reality there's a big gradient of options here. There's no reason you can't spend some money for experiences in your 20s and also save a good deal for compounding interest in the future.

>There's no reason you can't spend some money for experiences in your 20s and also save a good deal for compounding interest in the future.

Well in my scenario (and that of most of my peers/siblings) income is low and cost of living is a large % - you don't have a lot of discretionary funds to manage so it usually is one or the other.

> People present this often as a choose 1, but in reality there's a big gradient of options here.

The word you're looking for is "false dichotomy".

Agreed. In my early 20s, I spent a year backpacking around the world. I was fortunate enough to have the money, which I could have instead invested in property. Now I'm in my late 30s, I struggled to buy a home, I have a big mortgage, I'm getting by alright but I have very little in terms of investments.

I don't regret my choices for a second. My year spent travelling was the best experience of my life. It defined who I am. I learnt so much. I met so many wonderful people. I discovered so many amazing places. Wouldn't have been the same, had I deferred it until later in life (and many older travellers that I met told me as much).

I'm not an expert in Seneca, but from reading the article, I think he'd argue that time is much more valuable than money.

Depends on your definition of performance

Exactly. And wonderfully, performance can be anything, by any measure. My preferred metric: time ratio for which I get to choose - or agree to - whatever I do. In my case, pretty much all my time. Because one day I decided to make my own choices, in regard to time allocations, occupations and general use of my time. Which means I'm almost never defaulting to other people's agenda, unless I agree to it. Everything is a choice, and I make it my own.

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