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Retirement is something I haven't really talked about on my blog, but it's something that I think about a great deal. Most of my thinking revolves around the idea that I don't want to wait till I'm in my sixties to retire. This may come as a surprise to some, but I'm not a big fan of work. Or maybe I should say I'm not a big fan of working for the man. But the man matches part of my 401k contributions so I put up with him for now.
I believe most of us dream of the day when we can finally retire. When we can wake up in the morning and not have to worry about clocking in. But what does it take to retire these days? How much should you be saving now in order to live comfortably later on in life? It all depends on how many years you have to save. The younger you start saving, the better. It would be great if you started saving as a baby. I plan on teaching my son/daughter(we don't find out for another 8 weeks) the importance of saving for retirement as soon as possible. When other kids at school are talking about the new toys they picked up at Walmart, my child will be talking about how their portfolio is doing(just kidding, kind of).
For most people, the magic number to retire is one million dollars. This number will vary greatly depending on lifestyle, where you live, and various other factors. But to keep it simple that's the number we'll be working with. If you started started saving at the age of 25 like I did, you would need to invest $3,600 a year to end up with one million dollars by the age of 65. This is if you're investment is seeing an 8% return. I don't know about you, but my portfolio has been seeing negative returns for about the past 18 months, so there's no guarantees. If you wait till you're 30 to start saving you would need $5,400 a year to accomplish the one million. At 40, it would require $12,700 a year invested. And at 50 that number goes up to $34,000 per year, but if you've waited that long, why start now.
You can see pretty clearly with these numbers, why it's so important to start saving at an early age. Even if you don't think you have the extra money to spare, find a way to save. What's more important, your retirement or your satellite tv? What are you doing to make sure you have enough money to retire?
I believe most of us dream of the day when we can finally retire. When we can wake up in the morning and not have to worry about clocking in. But what does it take to retire these days? How much should you be saving now in order to live comfortably later on in life? It all depends on how many years you have to save. The younger you start saving, the better. It would be great if you started saving as a baby. I plan on teaching my son/daughter(we don't find out for another 8 weeks) the importance of saving for retirement as soon as possible. When other kids at school are talking about the new toys they picked up at Walmart, my child will be talking about how their portfolio is doing(just kidding, kind of).
For most people, the magic number to retire is one million dollars. This number will vary greatly depending on lifestyle, where you live, and various other factors. But to keep it simple that's the number we'll be working with. If you started started saving at the age of 25 like I did, you would need to invest $3,600 a year to end up with one million dollars by the age of 65. This is if you're investment is seeing an 8% return. I don't know about you, but my portfolio has been seeing negative returns for about the past 18 months, so there's no guarantees. If you wait till you're 30 to start saving you would need $5,400 a year to accomplish the one million. At 40, it would require $12,700 a year invested. And at 50 that number goes up to $34,000 per year, but if you've waited that long, why start now.
You can see pretty clearly with these numbers, why it's so important to start saving at an early age. Even if you don't think you have the extra money to spare, find a way to save. What's more important, your retirement or your satellite tv? What are you doing to make sure you have enough money to retire?
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