💸 The One-Year Delay That Cost Me ₹42 Lakhs: A Personal Lesson in Investing Early
By: A guy who wished he had listened sooner
In the mid-1990s, fresh out of college, my best friend Murugan
and I landed our first jobs. We had done everything together—college,
celebrations, job hunting—and now we were both earning just under ₹20,000 a
month. Life was good. Or so I thought.
📢 The Advice I Ignored
One day, Murugan told me his father, a retired bank manager, had given him a
piece of golden advice:
“Start investing now. Even a small, regular amount will grow more
than you can imagine.”
Inspired by that, Murugan immediately started a Systematic
Investment Plan (SIP) in equity mutual funds. ₹5,000 a month. That was
nearly 25% of his salary! He didn’t stop there—he increased
the SIP by 10% every year, no matter what.
When he shared his plan with me, I chuckled and said:
“We’re just 22, da! Why rush into all this investment stuff?
We’ve got 30-35 years ahead of us.”
Murugan just smiled and replied:
“Every year counts. That’s what Appa says.”
I wasn’t convinced. “One year won’t make a difference,”
I said. “I’ll start next year, after my increment.”
🚨 Spoiler: That One Year Made All the
Difference
True to my word, I began my SIPs a year later. Same ₹5,000 amount, same 10%
annual increase, same discipline. I never paused them. I thought I was doing
everything right.
But I was wrong.
👬 Reunion Revelation: 30 Years Later
Fast forward three decades. At our college reunion, Murugan and I caught up
over coffee. We talked about jobs, families, kids, responsibilities. Then I
asked:
“So, how’s your retirement planning going?”
Murugan smiled and replied:
“Honestly, I’m all set. I’ve crossed most of my financial goals,
and my corpus is now just short of ₹4 crore.
I might retire next year—at 53.”
Wait, what?
“₹4 crore?! But we did everything the same!” I
exclaimed. “Same SIP, same increments, same
consistency. How?”
He pulled out his phone and did a quick calculation.
The difference in our final corpus?
₹42.3 lakh.
I stared at the screen in disbelief. “But I only invested
₹9.5 lakh less than you overall. How can your corpus be almost ₹40 lakh more?”
🧠The Power of Compounding
Murugan explained:
“That’s the power of compounding. The money I invested in the
first year has been growing for 30 years. Yours only had 29. That one extra
year cascaded through time. That’s all it took.”
That moment hit me like a brick.
“I remember saying one year wouldn’t matter,” I
muttered.
Murugan smiled. “Well, it did. That one-year head start
changed everything.”
🎯 Key Takeaways
·
✅ Start investing as
early as possible, even with small amounts.
·
✅ Stay consistent. SIPs
work best with time.
·
✅ Don’t wait for the “right” time
or salary hike—time in the market beats timing the market.
·
✅ Compounding isn’t magic. It’s
math. And it rewards time like nothing else.
💬 Final Thought
I share this not with regret, but as a wake-up call. If you’re in your 20s
or 30s and putting off investing until “later,” let my mistake be your lesson.
Start today. Even one year makes a difference.
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