Starts are very important in Motocross and Supercross. You’re lined up next to 22-40 guys in a drag race to the first turn. Everyone has 40-65 horsepower engines between their legs and is a ball of nerves, adrenaline and aggression. Getting a good start makes winning the race much easier. You get to take the lines you want, have fresh air, avoid being pelted with rocks, dirt and sand, and minimize the risk of crashing into other riders.
Similar to finance, the sooner you start investing and saving, the better off you will be. Time is the biggest factor in personal finance. Going back to my very first post, it can mean that over your lifetime, compound interest will account for 81% of your million dollars, 4x the amount of your contributions.
The longer you wait, the less likely you are to catch up, and it will require much more sacrifice than if you started small early on. Thankfully, the market tends to go up relentlessly, despite the occasional drops. Start investing today if you haven’t already.
Help Your Kids Be Like Warren Buffett
Warren Buffett “got the holeshot” over most Americans, when he put all the money he had into stocks at the tender age of 11. He watched it drop and then come back, and ended up selling while it continued to grow. He picked up many important lessons from this experience that far too many twenty and thirty something’s have yet to experience! Most importantly, from that small sum of just over $100 invested 77 years ago, had he bought an S&P500 index fund, it would be worth over $600,000 today.
If you have young kids, get them started and help them see the power of compound interest. If you start a kid young enough, they will never know not to invest. They will see it grow over time and be excited about saving and investing, instead of scared of it like many in their twenties.
What If I Don’t Get The Holeshot
So you missed the boat, and you’re in your 30’s, 40’s or older. Don’t lose hope! I was able to attend the 2017 Salt Lake City Supercross. The series was tied between KTM’s Ryan Dungey and Eli Tomac on the Kawasaki, with only 3 rounds to go. Going into the first turn, Dungey was in the top 4 and leading within a lap, while Tomac was 3rd from last.
All hope seemed lost as he was up against a stacked field of the best riders in the world, with only 20 minutes and 1 lap to make up the time.
He plugged away and ended up passing for the lead with 7+ laps to go!
You can still come back. Start from where you are, put your head down, and make it happen. We’ll talk more about this as the series goes on.
Conclusion
Just because you got a late start doesn’t mean you should give up. Keep charging and do the best you can.
If you are still young and haven’t started investing yet, start learning. More importantly, start doing! The younger you are, the more opportunity you have to become financially independent. Time is on your side.
1 Comment
Moto Money Series - 2 - Ride Your Own Race – Frugal Stu · March 14, 2019 at 3:18 am
[…] simplest and easiest to understand, but difficult to apply. We’ve already talked about how important a good start is in part 1, but now we’ll talk about what to do once you’ve […]