One reason why getting ahead or being proactive about your finances is so important is that it makes life less expensive.
It takes less money to save for retirement the earlier you start.
Insurance is more affordable the earlier in life you get it.
You can avoid paying interest on credit cards and lines of credit.
You can pay lots of bills annually, rather monthly, often at a pretty decent discount.
And you can fund more and more of your life with money you made with your money, rather than your time.
One reason personal finance can be so cruel is that once you fall behind, everything becomes more costly.
You end up funding everything with income, every dollar you spend is time you spent working.
You’re forced to pay bills monthly, or use other ways to delay payment even further.
You pay more money in interest to banks and credit card companies, on car loans and lines of credit.
Insurance becomes more expensive the later in life you get it because rates go up as you grow up.
And saving for retirement gets harder and harder.
Getting ahead can sound like a vague idea, or something that doesn’t lead anywhere.
And that’s right to an extent. A good financial plan is built around the actual, specific things you want in life.
But getting ahead is almost always part of the plan because it makes all of those things more affordable.
Wealth snowballs. It compounds. The farther ahead you get, the easier it becomes to afford all the things you want in life.