Yes, it’s better to start young to me. (But not so young that its child labour!) The Singapore business times have ran quite an interesting series of articles on young investors in Singapore. I think it’s a good way to foster “entrepreneurship” and “self-reliant” amongst Singaporeans. Look beyond the usual trodden path of: Study hard, get good grades, get a job in MNC or Govt, get married, have children, and work for life… I started “late”. OK, I tell the truth! I am more a late developer (some call it slow. Hey! No labeling!) I started investing in stocks at 32 years young. Bought my first HDB property even younger at 35 ;) Imagine if had started my investing journey at 25 years old. I now would have 20 years of real battle scars and experience. Not book theories and opinions! I probably would have failed and lost all my investments at age 35. But so what? I can take (or continue with) a job and claw back by age 45. Now imagine peak earnings power coming together with street smarts? Alas, it’s not meant to be. Past is past. I must look forward. Just take a simple test if you are in your mid 30s or 40s. Look for your cohorts that bought their first HDB in their 20s. They probably have got 2 bites of the “HDB subsidized cherry” before you bought your first HDB. Who are sleeping on bigger “paper gains” or see it in another way – bought at a cheaper offer price? (Missed the Singapore Great Sale?) Don’t get me wrong. I am not advocating risk-taking for the sake of risk-taking. But imagine being ultra “conservative” all through life, and at age 55 or 65, when we have “big” money in our hands, we start to invest in “exotics” without full understanding of their true “risk and rewards”: 1) Bank’s structured products (Bank’s advice can’t be wrong!) 2) Synthetic swap-based ETFs (Guru say ETFs safe what?) 3) Land banking 4) Fine wine investing 5) Starting/investing in a new business (I’m on thin ice here) 6) And so on… By themselves they are no different than any other investments. But imagine doing all the above at age 55 or 65 with the experience of a “newbie”? Won’t the odds of success be greater if we have 20 to 30 years of prior investing experience (both failures and successes)? Ah! Starting young’s cost of failure is much smaller than later. Fall down from riding a bicycle at 25 or 35 is one thing (bruises and hurt ego the most!); but at 55 or 65… Hospital and Surgical plans anyone? P.S.  For all the singles out there who can’t afford private housing, I know I know… Must wait till 35, buy resale, and cannot qualify for HDB concession loan… What to do? But life is not about all about money and what’s fair or not. Life is… (This you may have to figure out yourself) About the Author: "Hi! I'm a Singaporean working in Athens, Greece. I aspire to be like the swan that's here and gone. And if need be, I'll rather be the hammer than the nail. Yes, it's from that song. 123, Away, I rather sail away.... (El Condor Pasa)" Singapore Man of Leisure (welcome to my blog; just google it!) This post was written by a guest contributor. Please see their details in the post above. If you'd like to guest post for TheFinance.sg, feel free to contact me for details about how YOU can share your tips and knowledge with our community.