A friend recently asked, “when is a good time to start saving for the future?” He followed with “…(he) wanted to finish paying off some bills or waiting until a bonus is paid at work before restructuring home finances and start planning for the days ahead.” His question reminded me of a story of a devoted religious leader that was being imprisoned for practicing his faith. The prison supervisor, feeling saddened for the new prisoner, responded that he would allow the religious leader one day to worship his faith per year. The imprisoned religious leader prayed upon which day he should choose between all the holy days he could best express his faith to his followers, and a voice responded to him that he should choose today, because tomorrow isn’t guaranteed. It’s unfortunate that the unexpected happens. However, more unfortunate, is the fact that people live as if they could possibly escape life’s misfortunes….. or put them off.
My answer to my friend was not exactly the same as the voice to the “imprisoned religious leader,” but similar. I explained to him his financial journey was vital enough the he should start planning now. Although paying off high interest debts is a good idea, he had placed satisfying his creditors ahead of securing his own financial future. I joked that it was a shame his empty retirement account couldn’t charge him a late fee for not contributing on time as his creditors would do if he made a late payment to them. Second thing on his list was becoming more familiar with the financial journey in which he was about to partake, by becoming more financially literate. However, he could cross off the first lesson and that was, procrastination does not pay.