The Conversation Nobody Had With Us.
Every year you go without this information is a year it’s already costing you. And the frustrating part is nobody is coming to tell you. It’s not happening in school. By the time most people figure this out on their own they’re already in their thirties wishing someone had told them at 16. That gap — between when you could have known and when you actually find out — is expensive. And completely unnecessary.
That’s why I make these videos. Because I figured this out at 14 and I want you to know it now. Not later. Not when it already quietly cost you something real.
So let’s actually have the conversation. The one nobody had with us.
Why School Never Taught You This
Think about what school teaches you. Algebra. Historical events. How to write a five-paragraph essay. And I’m not saying those things don’t matter. But not one class sits you down and says — here’s how money actually works in real life. Here’s what compound interest does to your future. Here’s what waiting five years to start investing actually costs you in real numbers.
That conversation just doesn’t happen. And I’ve thought about why. I don’t think it’s anything dramatic. I think it’s just that the people designing what we learn were also never really taught it either. So it keeps not getting passed down. Generation after generation just figuring it out too late on their own.
That gap — the space between when you could have learned it and when you actually do — is where so much money just quietly disappears. Not because anyone made a bad decision. Just because nobody knew.
The Conversation That Should Have Happened
Money has a relationship with time. And that relationship is honestly one of the most important things you will ever understand about your financial life. Not how much you make. Not how smart you are. Not even how disciplined you are. Just — how early you started.
When you invest money in something like an S&P 500 index fund — basically a basket of the 500 biggest companies in America — that money grows. Historically it’s grown around 10 to 10.5 percent per year on average. And it grows not just on what you put in but on the growth itself. That’s compounding.
That’s money you never worked for, never stressed about. Time did that. And I know that sounds made up. It’s not. That’s just real math at 10.5% over 56 years.
But here’s the flip side. Every year you wait to start that process the outcome shrinks. Not a little. A lot. Because you’re not just losing one year of contributions. You’re losing one year of compounding on every single dollar that comes after it too. The cost of waiting isn’t just the year itself. It ripples forward through your entire financial future.
What My Mom Figured Out — And What It Actually Produced
My mom figured this out about a decade ago. Not when she was my age — later than that. And when she really understood it she said it felt like someone had been playing a game with her but never told her the rules. Like she’d been making financial decisions her whole life without actually knowing how money worked over time.
So she started. She got intentional. She started investing consistently. She started paying attention to where money was going and why. And then something kind of unexpected happened on top of the financial stuff — she started traveling. Not waiting until retirement. Not waiting until everything was perfectly lined up. Just going. On school breaks. During windows that actually existed in real life right now.
I have been to over 20 countries across 5 continents and I’m 14 years old. And every single trip has changed something about how I think. Those experiences are compounding in me right now the same way money compounds in an account — shaping decisions I haven’t even made yet.
That’s why F.A.T.E. stands for Financial Awareness Travel Early. Not one or the other. Both. Because my mom learned that waiting costs you in both directions. Financially and experientially. And you can’t always get either one back once the window closes.
The Comparison That Really Got Me
My mom and I actually mapped this out together. Real math. Real numbers.
Invests $50/month at 14 → $100 at 18 → $200 at 25 → $400 at 30. Stops completely at 35 and lets it sit. By 65: ~$2.5 million. Total contributed: ~$46,000.
Invests $200/month every single month without missing one, all the way to 65. By 65: ~$860,000. Total contributed: ~$84,000.
Person B was more disciplined in some ways. Contributed more money. Never stopped. But ended up with less than a third of what Person A ended up with. The only real difference is when they started.
That’s not a trick. That’s not a gimmick. That’s just what time does when you give it a long enough runway. And that runway is what most people don’t realize they’re shortening every single year they wait.
What You Can Actually Do Right Now
If you’re under 18 you can open a custodial brokerage account with a parent or guardian. If you’re 18 or older you can open a Roth IRA on your own. Both let you invest in an S&P 500 index fund. Common ones are VOO, FXAIX, or SWTSX — you can search those in whatever platform you use.
Then set up an automatic contribution. Even $25 a month. Even $10 if that’s what you have right now. The amount matters less than you think at the beginning. What matters is that it starts. That the habit exists. That the account is open and something is going in.
The hardest part isn’t the investing. It’s starting. It’s deciding that right now — even with a small amount, even without knowing everything — is better than waiting until it feels more ready or more perfect or more like the right time. The right time is just early. That’s it. That’s the whole secret. And it’s been sitting there the whole time, waiting for someone to actually tell you.
F.A.T.E. — Financial Awareness Travel Early — is just this. See your money clearly. Move early. Experience the world while you have the energy and the time to let it shape you. And don’t wait for permission from a system that was never really designed to give it to you.
This is just what worked for us. Nearly a decade of it. You can choose to do what we did.