In my 20’s and early 30’s I was often a delay the hard things as long as I could type of guy.

• Difficult problem to solve at work? Leave it until the end of the day if I could

• Didn’t understand money? No attempt to learn unless I had to

• Start eating better? No thanks

• Floss? Not unless there’s a problem

• Stretch? Why stretch when I can spend the time building muscle instead.

• Make lunch at home? No thanks, much better tasting buying in the CBD.

• Even parking into a spot I would always go in bonnet first.
  

In my mid 30’s a funny thing happened though. Through my injury I was forced to be better with money. I could no longer put it in the too hard basket. I was forced to learn. I was forced to take the hard road. Now 6 years later and the up-front effort to change my financial life is paying dividends and will make my later years much more comfortable.

Through the same injury I was forced to focus more on stretching. My tightness was causing all kinds of body issues! I have put in the work and am now more flexible than I have ever been. Still a long way to go though.

Again, through the injury I was forced to eat healthy. I was on my back for the best part of a year and knew I had to rein in my eating. With no physical activity, I had to be a better eater. Now I am eating a wider range of healthier foods than ever.

Seeing the positive results of these changes has been very satisfying. Knowing that I am a better version of myself has me wanting more.

• Now I have made other hard choices in my life that had nothing to do with my injury.

• I am now flossing regularly.

• At work, I now do the hardest jobs first. This has lead to far greater productivity and better results. Leaving the hardest work to last often weighs on your mind affecting your whole day. Getting it out the door first, really does free up your mind and focus for the rest of the day.

• I make my work lunches for the week on Sunday, as well as getting my clothes ready for the week.

• I even reverse in to parks now! I now find it nice returning to my car and not having to reverse out of a full car park.
  

All this relates back to personal finance in that you can do a lot of hard work up front and coast later on, instead of vice versa. Let time be your friend. One example is we started a Kiwisaver for our daughter. We are just contributing $100 a month until she is 18. When she is 18 she should have approximately $35,000. If she never added another cent, at age 67 she would have approximately $400,000. Only $35,000 of that $400,000 is from us. The rest is from compounded returns.

If we didn’t invest a cent, she would need to invest $150 a month for 49 years. $50 a month more than us and for almost three times as long! Powerful stuff.

My financial goal is not to be frugal forever. I just want to front load as quickly as possible so I don’t have to take such a heavy load later. Just by being frugal for less than 10 years, I will be able to be less frugal later and not have to worry about money. There are a few early choices you can make that can have a huge impact later in life.

More often than not, in life, the most important tasks are also the hardest to do. By moving these things to the start, instead of the end, we will have a much easier time of avoiding distractions, excuses, staying focused, and achieving great results.

The information contained on this site is the opinion of the individual author(s) based on their personal opinions, observation, research, and years of experience. The information offered by this website is general education only and is not meant to be taken as individualised financial advice, legal advice, tax advice, or any other kind of advice. You can read more of my disclaimer here