Saving and investing early and consistently over a long time is important to retirement success. This chart compares different retirement outcomes based on various saving and investing behaviors of four hypothetical people who save the same amount per month but at different times in their lives, for different durations and with different investment choices. The consistent saver & investor reaches age 65 with substantially more than the other savers. The early saver & investor saved only one third of the amount of the late saver & investor, but because of the power of long-term compounding on money invested early helped the early saver to accumulate more savings than the late saver. Consistent saver in green saves as much and as often as the investor at the top in blue but keeps his savings in cash rather than investing it. As a result, he accumulates about a third of the consistent saver & investor’s final amount.