The big cost of waiting for the 'perfect moment' to invest and budget

Time is one of your greatest financial assets. And once it's gone, it's gone, writes Frances Cook.

If there’s one thing I’ve seen sabotage financial progress more than bad investments, bad advice, or even bad luck, it’s this; waiting for the perfect moment.

The barriers crop up in all sorts of ways. Waiting for the market to settle. For your income to be a bit higher. For interest rates to come down. For when you feel more confident. For when you’ve “done the research".

We all do it. I’ve done it. Sometimes it even sounds responsible, like you’re being smart by holding off.

The problem is, the perfect time never arrives. Or, by the time it does, the opportunity is gone.

I’m not saying throw caution to the wind. I’m saying don’t let perfection paralysis quietly stall your entire money life.

Financial decisions often involve risk, trade-offs, and long-term consequences. So it makes total sense that people want to feel sure before they act.

But perfect certainty is a myth. And chasing it tends to mean endlessly gathering information, thinking through every outcome, and waiting for something to give us a sign. That might feel productive, but it’s actually a form of procrastination dressed up as due diligence. Or a long-term goal is set, but it’s too vague, too aspirational, which leads to doing nothing at all.

Investing doesn’t need to be a big, transformative leap. Real change is often created from consistent, imperfect action.

The beauty of most money moves is that you don’t have to get it 100% right. You just have to get moving.

Can’t afford to invest hundreds right now? Start with ten bucks a week.

Don’t know everything about KiwiSaver? You can still check your fund and make one change, especially if you use the Sorted Fund Finder to help you.

Overwhelmed by budgeting? Track your spending for three days. Not forever, just three days.

Each small action chips away at the fog. You build momentum. You gather confidence. And maybe most importantly, you stop making it a big scary thing you can only tackle when your life looks totally different.

I’m not saying don’t plan. I’m saying don’t let planning become a full-time job, or worse, an excuse.

At a certain point, you’ve done enough thinking. The next thing you need is experience. Even if it’s a little messy. Even if you feel like an imposter. Even if you think “I’ll probably look back on this and cringe.” That’s still better than looking back in five years and thinking: “If I’d just started then…”

All change feels scary, even when it’s good. So add in a layer of money anxiety, and it’s almost guaranteed that making financial changes will feel scary.

That doesn't mean they're wrong. In fact, a little fear often means you're stretching in the right direction.

The trick is learning to distinguish between helpful fear (a sign you’re growing) and paralysing fear (a sign you’re stuck). If you’re at 90%, but waiting to feel 100% confident before doing something important with your money, you might be waiting forever.

We tend to focus on the risk of acting too soon. But what about the risk of waiting too long?

Time is one of your greatest financial assets. And once it's gone, it's gone. Imperfect action now beats perfect plans later.

Once again, it’s not just the numbers of it. It’s the mental toll of knowing you want to do something, but feeling paralysed from taking the first step towards it. When something is hanging over you, the longer it stays undone, the heavier it gets. That mental weight just grows, as your inaction subconsciously confirms to you that you’re not ready to do it.

It becomes a form of low-grade stress that quietly erodes your energy for other things.

There’s something magical about action. The minute you do something, no matter how small, you flip a mental switch. You go from “someone who should” to “someone who does.”

The great lie of confidence is you don’t build it first, and then act. Acting, and proving to yourself that you can do it, is often what will then give you the confidence in yourself.

Momentum builds faster than confidence.

The first move is rarely glamorous or impressive, but it sets the scene for everything else you can achieve. That ten dollars you invest today isn’t just about the ten dollars. It’s about the identity you’re stepping into.

You’re becoming someone who handles their money. Who takes action. Who learns as they go.

Ironically, often what gives you the clarity you’ve been waiting for... is starting.

That first action gives you feedback. You find out what feels hard, what’s easy, what needs adjusting. You discover which money moves you enjoy, and which feel like pulling teeth.You discover which give you a thrill of achievement, and which give you so much anxiety, you’d actually rather not do it at all.

That’s valuable insight you don’t get from thinking alone. Learning by doing beats theorising every time.

1. Set a decision deadline. Give yourself a clear timeframe to research, plan, or reflect, and then make a call. No dragging it out forever.

2. Shrink the decision. Instead of committing to a whole new financial system, commit to one 30-minute check-in. Instead of trying to “master investing,” commit to putting $20 into a fund and watching what happens.

3. Use guardrails. You don’t have to go all in. Automate a small savings amount, or put a calendar reminder to review your new plan in a month.

4. Find an accountability buddy. Tell a friend, your partner, or even a money forum what you’re doing. Saying it out loud makes it real.

5. Embrace the learning curve. Expect to feel unsure at first. That’s normal. The goal is to build financial confidence through action, not theory.

6. Track progress, not perfection. Keep a simple money journal. Celebrate small wins. Remind yourself what’s working, not just what needs fixing.

7. Celebrate early wins. Don’t wait for a massive milestone. Celebrate the first budget you actually stick to, the first $100 you save, or the first time you confidently say no to an impulse buy.

8. Reframe mistakes as data. You’re not failing, you’re collecting information. Every misstep teaches you something useful.

The perfect time is a fantasy. Progress is what’s real. And you can start building it, imperfectly, today.

This column is intended as general information and should not be read as individual financial advice.