If the ideal holding period for holding an equity investment is forever, then we are very late getting started. Of all the things in life that can prevent a person from becoming wealthy, procrastination has to be the saddest. If you have learned one thing about me thus far in this book, it is probably that I’m very impressed with the idea of compounding. The tragic thing about compounding is that it is a young person’s game. If you are in your early twenties, you can be wealthy, no matter what definition you choose to use.
If you are in your thirties, you may have missed the starting gun by a little, but you can catch up with a little luck, and you run a good race. Once you are in our late forties, the game changes, and it becomes more about sacrifice and hedging against the Alpo brunch every Sunday. Only the magic of compounding can turn 15% to 100% that you can live on during retirement, but that sort of magic takes decades to do its work. Every day you procrastinate, regardless of your reasons, is a day that your wealth is not growing and the probability of a miserable retirement grows.