Why You Should Start Retirement Planning at 25, Even Though Retirement Is 35 Years Away

At age 25, "retirement" sounds like something for a stranger three decades from now. But here's the paradox of retirement planning: the moment it feels least urgent is exactly when starting has the most value. Each year you delay doesn't just cost you one year of savings — you lose the most valuable compounding years, something you can never buy back.

A truth few people tell you about old age

The retirement age in Vietnam is gradually increasing according to a roadmap. By 2026, male workers will retire at 61 years and 6 months, females at 57 years, and the roadmap will progress toward 62 (men, by 2028) and 60 (women, by 2035). But the more important number is: after retirement, you could live another 20–30 years — two to three decades requiring money to live on without income from work.

And the pension from social insurance, while valuable, typically only replaces a portion of your pre-retirement income. The gap between that amount and the lifestyle you desire is the part you must prepare for yourself.

Why is "starting early" so valuable?

The answer lies in compound interest — which we discussed thoroughly in our article about the power of compounding. Here, we just need to recall the core principle: time matters more than money.

Let's compare two people, both investing for retirement with an assumed 8% annual return:

The early starter only invests an additional 360 million in principal, but receives about 4 billion more. This entire gap comes from the first 10 years of compounding — 10 years that the delayer has lost forever.

The real cost of delaying

Many people think "I'll wait a few years until my income is higher, then save aggressively later." But the math doesn't favor them:

• Delaying 10 years doesn't mean you just need to save a little more to catch up. To reach the same goal at age 60, the late starter must contribute many times more each month — a burden often beyond their capacity.
• Mid-life living expenses (raising children, mortgage payments) are typically heavier than at age 25, so "saving more later" is often just a promise to yourself that life doesn't allow you to keep.

Starting small but early almost always beats starting big but late.

Starting doesn't require much money — it requires starting

Good news: you don't need a large sum to begin. A few hundred thousand to a few million per month, consistently, is enough to get the compounding machine running. The most important thing isn't today's amount, but starting and maintaining it.

A reasonable startup roadmap:

1. Stabilize your foundation first: have an emergency fund and pay off high-interest debt — so you don't have to withdraw retirement funds midway during emergencies.
2. Leverage the mandatory tier: if you're employed, you're already contributing to social insurance — this is your retirement foundation.
3. Add a voluntary tier: open a long-term investment channel (index fund), set up automatic monthly contributions right after payday.
4. Increase gradually with income: each time you get a raise, increase your contribution a bit before you get used to spending it.

The one thing you can never get back

You can earn more money, change jobs, cut expenses — but you can't get back time that's passed. With retirement, the most valuable year is always this year. A 25-year-old starting with a few million per month holds an advantage that a 40-year-old would pay dearly to have.

Want to know how much you'll accumulate by retirement if you start today? Try [Sirifin's compound interest calculator](/vi/calculators/compound-interest), or ask the [AI advisor](/vi/ai-advisor) to create a retirement roadmap based on your income.

Content is informational and educational in nature, not investment advice.