Photo of Kevin Estes smiling and wearing a dark suit with a black tee shirt. Behind him is an out of focus wooden background.

Hello, I’m Kevin - a financial planner who helps tech professionals and their families live great lives.

Make yourself at home - we’ll get to the compound benefit of improvements in a moment.

But first - here are some links you may want to save for later.

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Now, let's get on to the vlog! 😀

Play Video: Could Waiting a Year Cost $140,000?

Optimizing Finances Early

Many people put of financial planning.

That’s understandable! Life gets busy.

However, optimizing finances early can be impactful.

Let’s Look at an Example

A family is making progress. They own a home, have seen steady income growth, and save consistently.

Let’s say they make a series of changes:

  • minimize lifetime taxes,
  • maximize retirement plan contributions,
  • make the most of their stock compensation,
  • contribute to Roth and spousal Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs),
  • reduce investment fees,
  • pay down high interest debt,
  • and maximize real estate and business cash flow.

Impact Depends on Time

Each of these impacts their financial trajectory.

Here’s how much impact the improvement has over 5 and 40 years:

A line graph titled Time Drives Impact, with three lines: black represents the baseline, blue has a very smally impact and is labeled 5 years, and pink has a much larger impact and is labeled 40 years. The blue and pink lines are parallel.

The longer these changes have to take effect, the bigger the impact.

Hypothetical Example: Save $500 a Month

Let's say that through a combination of maximizing income and minimizing costs, a family is able to save and invest an extra $500 a month.

With an 8% annual return (compounded monthly), $500 a month turns into about:

  • $37,000 in five years,
  • $91,000 in 10 years,
  • $295,000 in 20 years,
  • $745,000 in 30 years, and
  • $1.75 million in 40 years.

Bar chart with pink vertical bars representing dollars and the horizontal axis denoting years. The values are: $36,738 at 5 years, $91,473 at 10 years, $294,510 at 20 years, $745,180 at 30 years, and $1,745,504 at 40 years. Pink and blue background.

Impact of One Year

By the way, what’s the value of the last year?

Almost $140,000.

Waiting a year to optimize finances might cost $140,000 over the course of 40 years!

Hey, thanks for learning more about the impact of waiting a year to improve your finances.

Just a reminder, I share a lot of resources that can help you.