Part 3/8:
A Costly Mistake: The Importance of Investing Early
Reflecting on his initial encounter with investing, the young man shares a painful lesson learned—the “$200,000 mistake.” At 18, he opened a Roth IRA and deposited $2,000 but left it dormant for nine years, earning a mere $28.91 in interest. The key takeaway here is not just to deposit money into an account, but to actively invest it in the stock market to capitalize on compounding interest.
Had he invested that money in 2011 instead of letting it sit, he would have gained significant returns by 2020, illustrating how each year can dramatically alter the potential growth of investments.