Investing as a young adult is one of the most important things you can do to prepare for your future. Most people think you need a lot of money to save for retirement, but I’m going to let you in on a little secret. If you start to save early in your career, you don’t need to save a ton of money. You just need time. Time in the market is really what’s important, because the earlier you start saving and the longer you invest, the more time your money has to grow. Let’s say you start saving $100 a month at age 25 and you continue doing so until you are age 65. If you earn a 6% annual rate of return, you could have roughly $190,768 dollars at retirement. Now if you waited just 10 years and started saving the same $100 a month at age 35, your balance would only be $97,451. That’s almost $100,000 less! If you waited until you were age 45 to begin saving, you’d only have $45,344 saved by the time you reached age 65. The longer you put off starting to save could cost you some serious income in your retirement. Again, the secret isn’t always about how much you are saving, it’s about how long you are saving and investing in the market. Visit modeferredcomp.org to start saving or increase your contributions today. Remember, even the smallest of contributions saved over a longer period of time can help you reach your retirement savings goals!
