Time is such an important factor in financial matters because the longer that you have to invest the more money you can make in interest on your investment. Also if your investment goes down in value you need to have the time to be able to wait until the market recovers so you can make back your losses. The frequency of interest compounding has a big effect on how high your return is on an investment. The more often interests is compounded that the higher your return will be on the investment. You can use the principles of the time value of money to your financial benefit by always investing for the long term and taking full advantage of compounding interest.