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Happy New Year! Do you have $5,500 to spare?

It鈥檚 an uncomfortable question, especially if your credit card is still smoking from last month. There鈥檚 no hangover quite like a holiday financial hangover.

But I ask because that鈥檚 the amount it takes to fully fund a traditional or听Roth IRA听for a year, and there鈥檚 a lot of value 鈥� a five-digit value 鈥斕齣n front-loading your contributions.

What that means: If you do have $5,500 鈥� say from an end-of-year bonus, overstuffed emergency fund or taxable investment account 鈥� consider adding it to your IRA now, rather than waiting until the contribution deadline as most people do. (If you haven鈥檛 yet maxed out your 2016 contribution, do that first. You can contribute until the April 18 tax deadline.)

And if you don鈥檛? You probably already know听you鈥檙e far from alone. But you can still read this with an eye toward scraping the money together ASAP. January is all about stretch goals, right?

Why now is better than later

It comes down to compound interest, which is as close as you鈥檒l get to having your own money tree. As your investment earns a return, future returns are based on that now-larger balance.

That鈥檚 why a 25-year-old can听invest $10,000听today and end up with $100,000 at age 65 鈥� assuming a 6% average annual return听鈥� but a 45-year-old would have to invest more than $30,000 to end up with $100,000 by the same age.

A smaller head start makes a pretty striking case, too. You have a little more than 15 months to make an IRA contribution for each tax year, from January until the tax-filing deadline the following April. The robo-advisor听Betterment听compared average gains on 10 annual $5,500 IRA contributions 鈥� one set made on the first possible day in January and one set made the last possible day in April the next year 鈥斕齯sing 10-year periods of S&P 500 returns since 1928.

The result: The early contributions had a听$14,507 balance advantage听after 10 years, on average.

鈥淏y front-loading, you end up with almost a third more after 10 years,鈥� says Dan Egan, Betterment鈥檚 director of behavioral finance and investing. Egan found that only in individual years with serious market crises 鈥� the Great Depression, the dot-com bust 鈥斕齞id early investors fail to earn a premium.

鈥淭his is purely a time in the market effect,鈥� Egan says. 鈥淭here are periods when you can get unlucky and happen to invest right before a market downturn, and [being early] ends up not being a good thing. But at the end of the day, what鈥檚 happening here is you have 15 months that you wouldn鈥檛 have if you waited until the following April.鈥�

It also gets the money out of your hands

Your brain thinks now is better than later, too 鈥� but by that it means, 鈥淗appy hour today, worry about retirement when you鈥檙e old and gray.鈥� The pull of instant gratification, as evidenced by the听marshmallow test, is strong.

So there鈥檚 a behavioral perk to front-loading. The most successful savers treat savings as an expense. When deciding the rent, mortgage or car they can afford, they look at their balance after they鈥檝e set money aside 鈥斕齣deally 10% to 15% of income.

You wouldn鈥檛 tell the electric company you鈥檒l be paying only half your bill going forward because you bought a Lexus on a Toyota budget 鈥� not without a couple of flashlights handy. Shortchanging your savings to fund spending feels more reasonable, but it鈥檚 a good way to turn out the lights on your future self. (I say that somewhat jokingly, but that kind of financial insecurity is a听very real concern for millions of retirees.)

When you fund your IRA at the beginning of the year, you鈥檙e not just mentally setting aside that money. IRA distribution rules make it hard 鈥� but not impossible 鈥� to get back.

Getting ahead is harder than it sounds

I鈥檓 not pretending that it鈥檚 easy to front-load your IRA. Many investors don鈥檛 fund them until the last possible second because they don鈥檛 have the money until then.听NerdWallet鈥檚 end-of-year study听found that only one-fifth of Americans who are saving for retirement planned to max out their IRA for 2016.

If you contribute a bit from each paycheck instead, you鈥檒l still have a time advantage over people who wait and make their contribution at the finish line each April. This extra bump in investment growth isn鈥檛 worth 鈥渋mpoverishing yourself,鈥� as Egan puts it. It鈥檚 just a nice bonus.

But if you want to be able to make a January lump-sum contribution for the year, consider this a first push. After all, holiday spending guilt isn鈥檛 the only feeling running high now 鈥� willpower and resolve are, too. Take advantage.

Arielle O鈥橲hea is a staff writer at NerdWallet, a personal finance website. Email:听aoshea@nerdwallet.com. Twitter:听@arioshea.

This article was written by NerdWallet and was originally published by听Forbes.

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