Yes, I've met this thought in a personal finance book where they showed how it will cost you a fortune in the last years of a long-time investment, if you start later. It really motivated me.
But the other side of the coin is the time depreciation.
It is like the financial idea that tomorrow dollar is less valuable then today dollar.
Tomorrow is also somewhat less valuable then today.
Simply due to the fact that tomorrow might never come. And it is valuable to do as much as possible today. Of course you can't do everything you want today. So we have to prioritize. And it might turn out that starting the long lasting project is not necessary the best thing to do today.
Yes, it will cost you more on the other end, but some things are only happening once. If your child is born spending time with him in the first years of his life may be more valuable then wealth that he can inherit from you 60 years later.
So starting early is the best for easy stuff, that do not take a lot of time from you - saving and passive investing, exercising for health, learning.
High-intensity activities will need careful thoughts.
To me "the now" is very valuable. In general I think that the more a person is at peace with himself, the more valuable "the now" becomes for such person.
At the ultimate level of happiness "the now" would be more valuable then any benefits that can come out of the other end of decades of business development.
But I'm still on my way to such level of consciousness.
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Ilya.
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