Wealth Building World

Retirement - The Real Cost of Procrastination

Have you ever considered the cost of waiting to start saving? When you do it will make you sick. If you want to accumulate $1,000,000 when you are 65, how much would you have to save? It all depends on when you get started.

If you start when you are 20 you have to save $300 a month. Now that seems like a lot for a 20 year old but maybe it isnt. Avoid a trip to Starbucks each day and make your lunch and you are looking at $10 a day in savings. $300 a month easily.

In any event, $300 a month saved for 540 months at 7% gives a future value of $1,137,000. If you wait until you are 30 to start saving, that $300 is only worth $540,000 when you are 65!

Not Saving $36,000 in Your Twenties Costs You $597,000 When You Are 65! That is nearly $600,000. What could you do with $600,000?

See how changing one small habit can make a huge difference in your life. The news is this does not just apply to rich people. Poor people who systematically put money away can accumulate more than they imagined.

My Grandfather put the change from his tips into coffee cans everyday when he got home from working his second career (after retiring on a minimal pension he bagged groceries at a supermarket. In fact when he reached the maximum working age at the national chain he had to move for the next ten years to a local grocery store). He used his paycheck for living and his tips for saving. When he died, we found over $20,000 in coins stored in the attic of his barn.

Systematic saving is a powerful tool. When combined with compound interest it is a killer app for a secure financial future.

Lesson 1: It is never too early to start saving.

Lesson 2: It is never too late to start saving.

Lesson 3: Start today - saving anything is better than not starting at all.

See a professional to help you identify unnecessary wealth transfers (taxes, consumer interest, and the like) that can give you the money to save

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