If we could turn back time…
My son came up to me recently and asked, “Mom, if you could go back 20 years and do something different financially, what would you do?”
I told him I’d fund retirement as much as possible every single year, but as I think about it more now, I should also have said that I would NOT get into debt. (Although I guess by 1988 I had already bought a new car on credit.)
His response was that he would have bought Google. I explained that Google wasn’t around 20 years ago. But even if it had been been, the difference in perspectives between me and my son is interesting.
His perspective involves recognizing a good thing early on, and investing in it. (Or more accurately, knowing that something was going to be a good thing and investing in it.) Mine involved mistakes I’d made and not making them. Of course both are good ideas, but one might be easier to do from the outset than the other. Maybe.
While we can’t count on picking the next Google, we CAN commit to making wise choices and sticking to them. It’s never too late (or too early) to start.
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March 18th, 2008 at 9:14 am
I would have funded my retirement more aggressively too. But I also would have asked more questions about finance when I was just starting out. I had to learn too much from trial and error. I wish I had found someone to guide me.
March 18th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
Im so happy I started investing at 28 years old.I have no regrets.
March 19th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
You cant always pick the next google, but you can always start a IRA early. I got mine up and running when i was 20 (22 now). It functions as 2 things a away for me to fund my retirement and a nice tax write off.