So you’ve graduated college joined the workforce. Adult life is becoming more real with you first real grown up job. You’re probably a 20-something who still lives a life of adventure, and retirement might be the last thing on your mind. But the truth is, retirement is closer than you think! If you’re a 20-something and start saving today, you’re going to be well taken care of by the time of retirement.
Why You Should Save For Retirement
1. Social Security is Not a Sure Deal
You’re probably familiar with Social Security. It gets taken out of your paycheck and goes to help support the older community. This system has been in place for a long time, but is NOT something that you should rely on for your future retirement. This monthly income is going to cover a fraction of what you will need in retirement-and the truth is, when milennials are at retirement age, Social Security might not exist. Don’t put your trust in the thought that the government will take care of you when you’re retired. It’s no one’s responsibility to take care of you except your own. It would be so unfortunate to get to retirement age only to find that you don’t have enough to support yourself and Social Security is no longer an option.
2. Do What You Enjoy In Retirement
If/when you think about retirement, you probably think of all the awesome things you’ll get to do. Live in a golf community and go golfing every day? Travel the world? Start an awesome hobby? Whatever you want to do in retirement, it’s going to cost money!! Saving now will enable you to do those things when it comes time for retirement. If you want to be able to enjoy retirement, then you have to start saving now, people! 🙂
3. Saving Early Helps Immensely
Start saving today!! The best thing you can do for retirement is starting early, which is the huge advantage that millennials have today. When someone invests in a mutual fund in the stock market, he will reap the benefit of compound interest, which is interest gaining on the interest of the interest. Basically, just growing and multiplying what was put in! That’s pretty awesome, right? The earlier you start, the longer your money has to gain interest and benefit you later.
4. The Benefit of a 401K Match Program
Some employers will do a 401K match as a benefit of working there. For example, your employer might say that they will match up to 3% of your income in retirement. So if you put 3% of your income into your 401K, your company will do the same. Yes, this is basically FREE money! I, personally, will not pass up the benefit of my company contributing to my retirement. The company Jacob and I work for does a program like this, so even though we still have student debt, we will contribute the percentage up to what our employer will match, and plan to contribute more once we are debt free. Maybe this is something you’ll want to look into with your employer as well.
Resources
Now, I am not a financial advisor or anything like that. I just wanted to share basic friend to friend retirement information and the importance of this subject. If you’d like to learn more about retirement-what to invest in, how much you’ll need for your retirement, and anything else-find a financial advisor to speak with. Get ahead and start saving today!
Marissa