system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: “Money today is worth more than money tomorrow”

I get that the value of money depreciates over time hence why they tell you that the best time to invest is now. But i don’t get how exactly investing now helps you in the future if the cost of living increases with time too anyway. So like let’s say you invested $1000 today and then in the future that’s equivalent to $4250, but then the price of things have also increased so how much richer are you really if you have to spend a lot more in the future anyway?
gpt
So there are two sides to this.

The investment/value side which has already been discussed. The tl:Dr is that investing money is almost always going to give you a better return than whatever delayed payment would give you.

The other, more important, side is that money today gives you more *options*. If you get the money today you can use it today. If you have to wait for the money you can't use it today. The option to use the money whenever you want is extremely powerful.

Another example is that money later is not guaranteed. The person/organization providing the money could go bankrupt or die or all kinds of things. On top of that, you might not need or be able to use the money later. $10,000 today is much more valuable than $1,000,000,000 in 100 years. Regardless of inflation, if you're not alive to spend it it doesn't do you any good. Same with something less dramatic like other life events.