When to start saving for retirement
The accepted wisdom is to start as soon as you’re employed. If you’re already past that point, the next best time is now — the maths behind compounding rewards both.
Time is the one resource in investing you cannot buy back. The more of it you give your retirement savings, the less you need to contribute each month to reach the same outcome — and the difference compounding makes over a full working life is larger than most people expect.
What a head start is actually worth
Consider someone who starts investing R1,000 a month at age 25 and keeps going until 65, earning an average annual return of 10%. By retirement, they would have around R5,550,000 — and remarkably, over 91% of that final amount comes from compounding, not from what they actually contributed (a total of R480,000 across the four decades).
The point is not that starting late is pointless — it is that every year of delay has a real, calculable cost. Start early if you can. If you cannot, start now rather than waiting for a more convenient moment that compounding will not wait for either way.
This article is general information and not advice. Silke Financial Services is an Authorised Financial Services Provider, FSP No. 12462.