There are few words more comforting than “later”.
Later is when we’ll start exercising, clear the cupboard, make the difficult phone call and finally learn what all the buttons on the air fryer do.
Later is also where many of our savings plans live. When the next increase comes. When the children are older. When the debt is paid off. When life becomes less expensive. When we understand investments better.
These reasons are real. For many South Africans, there is little breathing room after the essentials have been paid. But “later” has a habit of moving. The increase is swallowed by new expenses, the calmer month never arrives, and one demanding season of life simply gives way to the next.
While we wait to feel ready, something slips away. Not only money, but time.
We tend to treat procrastination as a character flaw, as if responsible people act and irresponsible people delay. Yet it’s often less about poor time management and more about short-term emotional relief. We avoid tasks that make us anxious or overwhelmed because postponing them makes us feel better now, even when it makes life harder later.
Money can trigger all these emotions. Have our retirement savings fallen behind? Do the budget trade-offs look unattractive? Financial advice may feel intimidating when we believe we should already have the answers. So, we hand the problem to our future self.
The trouble is that today’s bills are immediate and demanding, while the person we’ll be in 20 or 30 years is much harder to picture. A 2025 study by behavioural scientist Hal Hershfield and colleagues, involving more than 6 000 people, found that those who felt more connected to their future selves also tended to report healthier saving behaviour and greater financial wellbeing.
Perhaps saving shouldn’t be seen only as sacrificing something today. It’s also about sending something forward to the older you who will still need dignity and choices. And groceries, electricity and healthcare. Every time we delay, we leave that person with less.
Consider someone who invests R1 200 a month and increases it by 6% each year. Invested for 20 years, this produces an illustrated retirement value of R882 000 (the real value, if you were to have it today, would be R153 000). Continue the same saving pattern for 30 years, and it grows to R2 516 000 (real value of R438 000). Actual outcomes depend on returns, fees, inflation and other factors, but the difference is striking: Ten extra years can add almost three times the retirement value.
That’s why time matters so much. Early contributions have longer to grow, and that growth has time to earn further growth – the magic of compounding, of clay gathering more clay.
Looking back isn’t helpful. You can’t recover years that have passed, but you can make the years ahead count more.
The first step doesn’t have to be dramatic. Choose a feasible amount and automate it, so that you don’t need fresh motivation every month. Increase it yearly or when your income allows. Preserve your retirement savings when changing jobs. Leave your two-pot savings alone as if they are sacred. Use part of a bonus or unexpected income to make up some lost ground.
Most importantly, ask for help. A qualified financial adviser can replace the heavy, vague feeling of being “behind” with a clearer view of where you are and where you should end up. Clarity can become a clarion call.
The answer to procrastination is not more guilt, nor more willpower. It’s making the next step small enough to take and easy enough to repeat.
