Investing Smart for Young Professionals

When I was handed my first paycheck at my first job my eyes opened wide and got huge! Wow! Look at all the money I had made in just two weeks! It was certainly more than I ever saw at a measly part time job in college. For the first few months of my career I spent my money away on all sorts of frivolous, impulse-buy items. I was having the time of my life thinking I was rolling in the dough.
Then, my boss offered to pay for a financial education class at a local community college. I decided to take him up on his offer, it was going to be free afterall.
I was surprised to find out that I was the youngest person in this "Finances 101" class and I was even more surprised at what I learned. Not only was I educated on how to read and invest in the stock market, taught the correct process for retirement planning and even estate planning but I was also taught the power of compounding interest. Compounding interest is an amazing thing, most especially during a little exercise that I find myself in the middle of while window shopping.
While standing outside of a store window drooling over a $100 sweater that I like I realize that capitalism can work for me or against me. For example, if I took my $100 and put it in a Roth IRA ,instead of into the cash register, and waited 30 years until I retire my interest on that $100 would compound. Say my investment saw an 8% return rate each year. If inflation is 3% then my money is still growing 5% a year in true terms.What does this mean in plain language?
100 x 1.05^30 = $432.
So, I remind myself: Spend $100 now and I am really spending $432 of my own "future" money. Most days this is enough to keep me outside of that store.