Why “I’ll Start Next Month” Is Costing Your Future More Than You Think
How present bias causes us to prioritise small rewards today—even when waiting could produce a much greater reward tomorrow.
The Promise We Keep Breaking
“I’ll start saving next month.”
You have probably said some version of this before.
Perhaps this month felt unusually expensive. There was a holiday to book, a new gadget to buy or a well-deserved meal to enjoy. You still wanted to save—you simply decided to begin after your next salary arrived.
Then next month came with another unexpected expense.
Saving was postponed again.
We do the same thing in other areas of life:
“I’ll start exercising tomorrow.”
“I’ll review my insurance when work becomes less busy.”
“I’ll invest when the market is more stable.”
“I’ll begin planning for retirement after my next pay raise.”
We rarely decide to abandon these goals completely. We merely delay them.
That is what makes postponement so dangerous: saying “later” feels far more responsible than saying “never”, even when both eventually produce the same result.
The Common Belief
Most people believe that good financial decisions mainly depend on knowledge and discipline.
Once we understand the benefits of saving, investing and financial planning, we should naturally take action.
If we have not started, we assume that the timing is simply not right. We tell ourselves that our future self will have more money, more motivation or fewer responsibilities.
There is just one problem.
When the future becomes the present, the same temptations and responsibilities are often still there.
The person who says, “I’ll start next month,” usually does not become a completely different person when next month arrives.
The Hidden Problem: Your Present Self Has an Unfair Advantage
Behavioural finance shows us that people do not always value present and future rewards consistently.
We tend to give disproportionate weight to what we can enjoy immediately, while heavily discounting benefits that feel distant.
This is known as present bias and is closely related to hyperbolic discounting.
Imagine being offered:
- S$100 today; or
- S$120 one year from now.
Many people would be tempted to take the S$100 immediately.
Now imagine being offered:
- S$100 in five years; or
- S$120 in six years.
You may find it easier to choose the larger amount, even though the difference between the two options is still exactly one year.
Why does our preference change?
The immediate reward creates an emotional pull. It feels concrete, available and satisfying. A reward several years away feels abstract.
This helps explain why spending S$500 today can feel more rewarding than investing it for retirement, even though the future value of that money may be considerably greater.
The pleasure of spending is immediate.
The benefits of investing may take decades to become visible.
Knowing Is Not the Same as Acting
Through financial planning conversations, I have observed that most people already understand the basic principles of personal finance.
They know that they should:
- Maintain emergency savings
- Invest consistently
- Protect their income
- Review their insurance coverage
- Plan for retirement early
- Avoid accumulating expensive debt
The difficulty is rarely explaining why these things matter.
The real difficulty is turning long-term intentions into present-day actions.
A retirement shortfall may be large, but it does not feel urgent when retirement is 20 or 30 years away. A new phone, holiday or dining experience feels much more immediate.
This does not mean that people are irresponsible. It means our minds are more responsive to immediate experiences than distant consequences.
The Value Steward perspective is therefore simple:
A good financial plan should account for human behaviour—not assume that we will behave perfectly.
Instead of depending entirely on willpower, we should build systems that protect our long-term priorities from our short-term impulses.
Create a Behavioural Margin of Safety
Value investors use a margin of safety to protect themselves from errors in assumptions, unexpected events and imperfect judgment.
We can apply the same idea to our financial behaviour.
A behavioural margin of safety means designing your financial life so that progress does not depend on repeatedly making the perfect decision.
Here is a three-part framework.
1. Decide Before Temptation Appears
It is easier to make a sensible decision before an immediate reward is competing for your attention.
Choose how much to save or invest before your salary arrives.
If you wait until the end of the month to invest “whatever is left”, present bias will have numerous opportunities to spend that money first.
A specific commitment is stronger than a general intention:
“I will invest S$500 on the day after every payday.”
This is far more effective than:
“I will try to invest more when I can.”
2. Automate the Desired Behaviour
Willpower requires you to make the right choice repeatedly.
Automation requires you to make it once.
Set up automatic transfers for your:
- Emergency savings
- Regular investments
- Retirement contributions
- Insurance premiums
- Debt repayments
When the money is allocated automatically, you do not have to renegotiate with yourself every month.
Your long-term goals receive their share before present-day temptations can compete for it.
3. Reduce the Friction of Starting
Present bias becomes stronger when a useful action feels difficult or inconvenient.
If starting an investment requires extensive research, multiple forms and a large initial amount, postponement becomes easy.
Lower the barrier.
Begin with an amount you can sustain. Schedule a specific time for your financial review. Prepare the required documents in advance. Break a large financial goal into one immediate action.
You do not need to complete the entire journey today.
You only need to make today’s step easier to take than to avoid.
The Cost of Waiting Five Years
Consider two 30-year-olds, Daniel and Marcus.
Both intend to invest S$500 every month until age 60.
Daniel begins immediately.
Marcus wants greater flexibility in his current lifestyle, so he decides to wait until age 35.
Assuming an effective annual return of 6% and contributions made at the end of each month:
- Daniel could accumulate approximately S$487,000 by age 60.
- Marcus could accumulate approximately S$338,000 by age 60.
By delaying for five years, Marcus could end up with approximately S$149,000 less.
He would have missed only S$30,000 of direct contributions during those five years. The much larger difference comes from the compounding growth that those early contributions could have generated.
This is why delay can be so expensive.
The cost is not limited to the money you did not invest. It also includes the future growth that money will never have the opportunity to earn.
The same principle applies beyond investing.
One missed workout makes little difference. One delayed insurance review may have no immediate consequence. One month of unnecessary spending will probably not destroy a retirement plan.
But present bias rarely influences us only once.
Repeated decisions become habits, and habits shape long-term outcomes.
Protect Your Future Self Today
Choose one financial action you have been postponing.
It could be:
- Starting a regular investment
- Increasing your savings rate
- Reviewing your insurance coverage
- Paying down high-interest debt
- Making your CPF or insurance nominations
- Writing a will
- Reviewing whether your portfolio still suits your goals
Then apply these five steps.
Make the Action Specific
Replace “I should start investing” with:
“I will set up a S$200 monthly investment before Friday.”
A vague intention creates room for delay. A specific action gives you something concrete to complete.
Give It a Deadline
“Soon” is not a deadline.
Choose a date and, where possible, a time. Place it in your calendar as you would any other important appointment.
Automate the Next Step
Once you begin, automate the behaviour so you do not need to rely on motivation every month.
Consistency matters more than repeatedly waiting for the perfect moment.
Use a Cooling-Off Rule for Unplanned Spending
Before making a non-essential purchase, ask:
“If I could not buy this today and had to wait 30 days, would I still want it?”
This does not mean you should never enjoy your money.
The purpose is to separate genuine value from temporary excitement.
Make Room for Present Enjoyment
A sustainable plan should not require you to sacrifice every present pleasure for the future.
Set aside a reasonable amount for guilt-free spending after your essential commitments and long-term goals have been funded.
The objective is balance—not deprivation.
You are less likely to abandon a financial system when it allows you to enjoy life today while still protecting tomorrow.
Your biggest financial obstacle may not be a lack of knowledge. It may be the repeated belief that your future self will be more disciplined than your present self. Do not leave your most important goals dependent on that promise. Build systems that allow you to make progress even when you are busy, distracted or tempted.
Every financial decision is a quiet negotiation between your present self and your future self.
Make sure your future self has a voice at the table.
What important financial decision have you been telling yourself you will handle “next month”—and what is one small step you could take today?
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