Nitin Kaushik, a Chartered Accountant, emphasizes the critical importance of timely financial planning in a recent post on X. He illustrates how starting to invest ₹20,000 monthly at the age of 25 can lead to a retirement corpus exceeding ₹12 crore by age 60. In stark contrast, if one begins investing at 45, they may only accumulate around ₹1 crore by retirement. This significant gap highlights the harsh realities of compounding, where time plays a vital role in wealth creation. To make up for lost time, a late starter would need to invest over ₹2.5 lakh monthly during the last 15 years of their working life to achieve a similar outcome. Kaushik warns against the common mindset trap of viewing the 30s as a buffer period, as each five-year delay can drastically increase the cost of achieving financial independence, impacting not just savings but also personal freedom and flexibility.