I wish I had follow this advise

[Doberman]

I am a procrastinator cubed and want to pass on some advice I wish I had followed. Saving just $5/day at the end of 10 yrs amounts to $29,000, after 20 yrs $105k, after 40 yrs over $800,000. Simple if you have the cents to follow it. But heck, things are tough, you can always start NEXT year right (my philosophy when I was young), but when next year came and went, I repeated year after year and never save even $5 a day. How many of us seasoned geezers would feel more comfortable with and EXTRA $800,000 today for our retirement (even figuring inflation)? Heck, a starbucks fufoo
coffee could cost you $5. It all makes cents (pun intended), but how many of you will follow it. I have been a poor example for my grown children in this area of my life.

[Micro469]

Dave, I've saved $5.00 a day for my whole life. It's just that when it reaches a goodly sum..... the car needs fixen, the roof starts to leak, the wife wants new kitchen cabinets, the kids are going to college...........

[Miriam C.]

I built a teardrop with mine. $5 a day is approximately $150 a month. Wow, I could cancel the cable (I never use) and my cell phone (I don't much like) and the telephone people use to make me do things I don't want to do.

I was going to say I don't have $5 a day.

[Alphacarina]

I am a procrastinator cubed and want to pass on some advice I wish I had followed. Saving just $5/day at the end of 10 yrs amounts to $29,000, after 20 yrs $105k, after 40 yrs over $800,000.

Those numbers are based on investing your savings at a modest 5% per year - Not hard to do, but if you were in the stock market with it all the whole time (over the past 40 years, say) then your $800K would easily be 5 million or more . . . . probably LOTS more, especially if you bought Microsoft or some of the others early on

You can still do well, even if you start much later. After getting out of the Air Force at 20, I had basically no savings (but I did manage to have a paid-for house, cars and everything else - No debt is the big secret to saving money) and when I went to work in a civil service position, I stuck the minimum into the 'Thrift Savings Plan' and let it grow, first with all of it in government bonds and later with half of it in the stock market. I had saved and grown it to $19K when I retired after just 7 years and that was in 1994. Now, without adding another dime (can't when you're not working . . . . they won't let you) it's now grown to $75K

Once you pass 55, you can stick huge amounts into your 401K (if you're still working) and that builds up pretty fast. My wife makes a paltry $21K per year and she puts $14K of that into her 401K and then we are allowed to put up to $5K each into an individual IRA, so that grows pretty fast as well. We ran into a snag last year though because with my military retirement not being 'earned income' and her putting all but $7K of her salary into her 401K, we were only allowed to add $7K into our IRA's - You gotta have $10K in earned income before you can stash the same amount into your IRA's

At any rate, we've managed to get a sizeable nestegg stashed into tax free investments over the past 5 or 6 years. We've deposited about $100K and it's now worth over $150K and growing - Nice thing is, it keeps growing even when you quit adding to it

Don

[eamarquardt]

My simple rules. Don't have kids right away. Invest while young. Let your investments grow up as your kids do. Always spend less than you make.

It worked for me.

Cheers,

Gus

[Hermit]

thats good advice ill start that, who knows it might stick and i might have that much when i reach your ages. no offence.

[Alphacarina]

Always spend less than you make.

Good advice . . . . and that will put you in the minority 5% or so

Actually, most folks don't spend more than they make . . . . but they pay using credit and then pay about as much in interest in the ensuing years as they did on what they originally bought . . . . and THAT has them paying out more than they have coming in

Never charge more than you can pay off completely when the bill comes in at the end of the month - If you don't pay anything to the credit card shysters every month, you're probably doing just fine

Don

[Oregonian]

When I got divorced, I started to put away 500.00 a month from 1986 till 2002, now after buying two homes on one acre lots, a street rod, an ATV, a teardrop trailer and multi other things, I am almost broke,but I did save and have enough income to live on and go to gatherings, I am happy. If I would have done like Doberman should have, I could live a little better than I am, and not complaining about the gas prices like we all are. A person at a young age doesn't think of those things.
Bruce JSC