Economist Chris Butler: Saving For Retirement Comes Down To Readjusting Your Priorities
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Chief Economist Chris Butler of Butler, Lanz and Wagler spoke with Talk Radio 1210 WPHT morning host Chris Stigall about saving for retirement and when the right time it is start thinking about it.
"Really the time to talk to people is probably when they're in high school, because the first major decision that a young person will make is whether to spend $100,000 on an education at college, and that does put them behind the eight ball day one. If you went into deep levels of debt to get a degree, I think I would counsel people first—depending on what your skill set is, depending on what your interests are going to be in the future as best as you can see them today -- you need to design an education that is going to not be hurting you day one when you step into the real world, and that does mean probably, for some people anyway, it means going to a junior college at least first. "
While Butler feels that you should start thinking about retirement in high school, it may not be too late for you if you waited much longer.
"What it really takes, more than anything else, is understanding what the options are right now, and if you are making $75,000 a year, depending on what your family situation is, it is possible to start saving and it is possible to rearrange your affairs so that you can save more, but what it does take is understanding what the options are, understanding where your current set of priorities are going to take you, maybe it requires rearranging of priorities so that saving for retirement goes up a couple of notches."
With many relatively high income households living paycheck to paycheck, Butler stressed that it is important to have a plan with regards to retirement, regardless of how tight the budget may be.