The today does matter but just did the math on that and your teacher was whack.
The gap is so big I’m going to be imprecise and won’t matter.
A Roth allows 7k a year I believe. So 4 years of school, 28k total.
Let’s be generous and say you start with 30k at age 18. At 65 you’ll have 700k.
I started at 26, my salary has been increasing at 6k a year average. I don’t max it out, but hover around 10-15%, I get a 100% match on up to 7% of my salary. I’m 10x ahead of the 18yo on the same projection and 5x ahead 10 years earlier.
Not even going to get into the interest rates and how you’re fucking up your finances tremendously for the rest of your adult life
I'm not sure what numbers you are using / getting, you didn't show the math. But if you start with 30K at 18. You would have ~$800,000 at 65.
If you start at 30, and put in $600 a month, each month, until 65. You would have ~$1,088,000.
Yes, in the end you get more, but that is with contributing for 35 years each month, vs just contributing in the beginning. I know those aren't the exact numbers that would be relevant because it was actually making the annual contribution for 4 years, not the lump sum. But the numbers were similar, yes you have more in the end, but you could also have a reasonably similar amount without actually working and contributing for 35 years.
The gap is so big I’m going to be imprecise and won’t matter.
A Roth allows 7k a year I believe. So 4 years of school, 28k total.
Let’s be generous and say you start with 30k at age 18. At 65 you’ll have 700k.
I started at 26, my salary has been increasing at 6k a year average. I don’t max it out, but hover around 10-15%, I get a 100% match on up to 7% of my salary. I’m 10x ahead of the 18yo on the same projection and 5x ahead 10 years earlier.
Not even going to get into the interest rates and how you’re fucking up your finances tremendously for the rest of your adult life