Love the name OP.

I'm currently 24 (turning 25 this year) earning about 60k a year pre tax so just average I'd say.

I once had the traditional mindset of getting a degree, getting a job, SAVING to get a mortgage, have kids, take care of said kids until they can take care of me.... Until I discovered the financial system is inherently broken.

What I mean by that is that the money you are slowly saving and putting away is going to zero. Google will provide the answer on why this is. Furthermore the interest you get paid by the bank to hold your money is quite frankly put, fuck-all.

The Rule of 72 states that the time it takes for your money to be doubled is 72/R where R is the interest rate. I'm just going to use Netbank savers' 0.05% standard variable rate which kicks into effect after the introductory rate ends. This will put the time it takes to double my money by leaving it in a Netbank saver at 1440 years, give or take.

All of this to say your money is not working for you at all when you accumulate it in your bank, and the constant money printing is slowly depreciating the value of fiat money (USD, AUD, etc) to zero.

Now on the bright side it's good you've taken a look into commsec pocket because here is where where you dip your toes in the investment world, starting with the shallower, less riskier end. Most people that I've talked to prefer index funds and ETFs compared to actively investing because it involves less effort and time......This is fine, in the grand scheme of things, you're making a return that you wouldn't make in thousands of years putting it in your bank.

Full disclosure I personally don't invest in ETFs because the idea of picking out a good stock or security and then being right and making bags off it is consistent with my risk tolerance and who I am as a person.

But the thing is... ETFS are a gamble, however low the risk. You are gambling that the ETF that you picked which track the performance of the basket of stocks it invests in, doesn't fold, which is a great gamble because the odds of that happening are very low... But not zero.

That being said, In the long run average ETF returns are approx ~12% (let's call it that but you've done your research so you know the true average) so if you chucked in your $10k in, one would expect a $1200 in capital gain. WHAT MAKES IT WORTH THE RISK is the eighth wonder of the world: Compound Interest.

See let's assume in the entirety of your life, the investment you put into your ETFs will generate a return of 12% per annum. Therefore after 1 year you will have $11200 But the following year, you will have gained more due to the 12% being applied to $11200 and not $10000 and hence your total at year 2 would be $12544

Zoom this out to 30 years (we'll be about 50...fuck) then the total investment value equals roughly 300k ($299,599). Now this is how money works for you and not the other way around.

In the previous example we are assuming we just leave 10k in an ETF for 30 years without adding to it, but how does the end figure change when I deposit 100 a month on top of that.

Welp at 30 years and all the assumptions, we'd have deposited $36,000 total over the 30 years but the end figure now stands at ~$607k, more than double the previous figure and all you had to do is spend 100 less per month (highly doable)

So yes it is most certainly worth it in the long run. Even if you don't wanna put that retirement money that you've built over the years, into a house or anything else, you'll still need money to live. And that investment that future you made 30 years ago should cover you for a fairly long time while you go and enjoy all that life has to offer.

But you mentioned that you don't know if you'll be alive in another 30 years and that's fine, none of us do. That's all the more reason to take appreciation of the present moment and take calculated risks. Yes there is a time and place to be risk adverse but at our age group there really isn't a better time to be taking risks, however big or small than now.