Because of the compounding of our returns, your money can potentially be more valuable over a long period of time. A simple example might be a person who starts to invest at age 18 at five dollars per week. If his overall investments earn 8% per year, he might have $134,000 in his portfolio by the time he reaches the age of 65. If he were to delay for just one year, and begin at age 19, the portfolio will be valued at $10,000 less than if he started at age 18. And if he waits until he is 40 years old to start investing, he would have to put away approximately $32 per week just to have the same amount by the time he reaches age 65. So time does matter when it comes to investing.