I've been told this ever since I had my high school teacher Mr. Dumitrache, and kept this saying with me since. The meaning is; we have a choice, and we can play games and relax and have constant fun while we're young and put off the things that are of utmost importance such as planning for retirement, savings, Roth IRA, emergency fund, 401k, etc. instead of paying attention to all these sorts of things (mind you the list goes on..) instead of that we intentionally put it off and take the path of least resistance. Well, unfortunately that path of least resistance is a path of complacency, it's the path we're most comfortable with.. be it the path of gaming, gambling, drinking, smoking, constant leisure, no matter what that path is.. in your case it's the path of least resistance. You may or may not understand what this path is. If you do, then it should be obvious. If not you may already have a solid plan for your future, and you stay on track with that constantly. The point here is; to pay now.. pay in your younger years; pay in advance so that you don't have to when you're older, so that you can hopefully retire early and you'll set yourself up for retirement long before you ever have to concern yourself with it. That's what it means to pay now; to make arrangements now so that everything is taken care of in your future. The problem with most people's retirement days is that they don't live their younger part of their life planning for their future, then when their future comes around it's too late to plan for it because their future becomes their present. By then it's too late to plan for it, and instead you're placing your burden on other family members or relatives. Is that really even necessary? Therefore you do your Paying now, in the younger days and free up time so that you can play in your later days and you don't have to rely on others to take care of you.
