Ha, hey kiddo, Uncle John here. Everybody calls me that, so you’re stuck with it too. š
I’m retiring from my software job next year, so I’ve been around long enough to watch this movie play out a few times. Short answer: no, 25 isn’t too early. It’s the best time to start, and it doesn’t cost you your fun.
Nobody’s telling you to stop living. The trips and dinners are good memories, and you should keep some of them. But your friends saying “you’re only 25 once” are right about the 25 part. They just skip the part where life also sends bills. Car dies, job gets cut, someone in the family gets sick, and suddenly you’re 30 with no cushion and a lot of stress. That’s the “sad” moment I see happen to people, and it’s almost always avoidable.
So here’s what I’d do. Start small, like really small. Even $100 a month is fine. Put it in a savings account first, until you’ve got a few months of rent and bills sitting there. After that, throw a bit into a simple index fund and leave it alone. Set it to come out of your paycheck automatically, because if you have to remember, you won’t.
Here’s the part nobody says out loud: the amount matters way less than the habit. The $100 you start now will do more for you than the $1,000 you promise yourself next year. Time does the heavy lifting, and you’ve got plenty of it.
The one thing I’d tell my 25-year-old self is: pay yourself before you pay for fun. Spend whatever’s left and don’t feel guilty about it, because that’s the deal that lets you enjoy it for real.
You’re asking the right questions at the right age, so you’re already ahead of most of your friends. Go easy on yourself and just start. š