The Benefits of Investing Early

Compare the ending results of two strategies:

Investing $2,000 a year beginning at age 20 through age 29. If can earn a 12% interest rate during all years, how much will you have saved by the time you are 60 years old?
Investing $2,000 a year beginning at age 30 through age 60. If can earn a 12% interest rate during all years, how much will you have saved by the time you are 60 years old?

	Interest Rate	12%
		Strategy 1		Strategy 2
n	Age	Deposit (END)	FV	Deposit (END)	FV
40	20	2000	$186,101.94	0	$0.00
39	21	2000	$166,162.45	0	$0.00
38	22	2000	$148,359.33	0	$0.00
37	23	2000	$132,463.69	0	$0.00
36	24	2000	$118,271.15	0	$0.00
35	25	2000	$105,599.24	0	$0.00
34	26	2000	$94,285.03	0	$0.00
33	27	2000	$84,183.07	0	$0.00
32	28	2000	$75,163.45	0	$0.00
31	29	2000	$67,110.23	0	$0.00
30	30			2000	$59,919.84
29	31			2000	$53,499.86
28	32			2000	$47,767.73
27	33			2000	$42,649.76
26	34			2000	$38,080.14
25	35			2000	$34,000.13
24	36			2000	$30,357.26
23	37			2000	$27,104.69
22	38			2000	$24,200.62
21	39			2000	$21,607.70
20	40			2000	$19,292.59
19	41			2000	$17,225.52
18	42			2000	$15,379.93
17	43			2000	$13,732.08
16	44			2000	$12,260.79
15	45			2000	$10,947.13
14	46			2000	$9,774.22
13	47			2000	$8,726.99
12	48			2000	$7,791.95
11	49			2000	$6,957.10
10	50			2000	$6,211.70
9	51			2000	$5,546.16
8	52			2000	$4,951.93
7	53			2000	$4,421.36
6	54			2000	$3,947.65
5	55			2000	$3,524.68
4	56			2000	$3,147.04
3	57			2000	$2,809.86
2	58			2000	$2,508.80
1	59			2000	$2,240.00
0	60			2000	$2,000.00
			$1,177,699.57		$542,585.21