I wish I had started earlier

I would like to share a little story with you:

There are two identical twins. One starts a job in finance, so she quickly learns the importance of investing early. The other is - being identical - equally as smart and capable, but lands a job in tech. They earn the same but develop different saving habits.

The finance twin saves £5K every year from age 20 to 40, then stops. The tech twin saves the same amount, £5K every year, but only starts at 40 and stops at 60. Both earn an identical and steady 5% return.

On their 60th birthday, after eating some cake (naturally), they compare savings. Of course, they have both saved the same nominal amount of £100K. But what they have now is nowhere near identical. The finance twin’s early start has seen her wealth grow to about £484K. The tech twin has £182K. Despite saving the same amount, the twin that saves earlier has nearly three times more savings.

In another version of this story – and I am happy to say that is the true one – the finance twin (that’s me) shares this one piece of advice with her tech twin before it’s too late. They both start early and both let compounding do its thing. They both arrive at 60 ready to enjoy the cake, keeping their finances, just like their faces, identical.

So, to my twin sister Anushka: happy 32nd birthday. You won’t be the “other” twin. At 60, we, of course, do not need to compare bank accounts, and instead just enjoy eating the cake.

And to you: you may not have a twin to nudge you into saving early. But after hearing this story, you shouldn’t need one.