Quote:
Originally Posted by M_Six
This. I started a retirement account in my early 40's and it's grown well beyond any expectations I had. If I had the chance to back up to my mid-20's, I would have started saving then. Compound interest is a beautiful thing and when you get to the point of seriously considering retirement, you'll wonder how the years went by so quickly. Want to retire young? Start saving now and leave it alone until you retire.
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I'm pretty sure that I posted the story here before about a guy where I work and his "lost" retirement account. When he was in college, he had a part-time job that made him put $750/year (for two years) into a retirement account.
When it came time to retire at the end of his long career, he contacted his retirement fund company to set up his monthly dispersement plan. They baffled him with their first question...which account he wanted to tap? He totally forgot about the first account, and it had sat idle for 40+ years. Believe it or not, that $1500 grew into $87K!!! If that isn't enough motivation to open a retirement account when you're 20, nothing is.
With that said, I was late to the game like
M_Six, and am now facing a serious health issue that may force me into early retirement with a *severely* under-funded retirement account. No male in my family going back four generations ever lived past age 50, so saving for a retirement didn't seem important since I never planned to reach that point. Learn from my mistake.....