Planning For The Millionaire Club When You Are 20
BOSTON (CBS) - I thought we would spend the week helping our listeners become millionaires. Or at least half millionaires.
Planning For The Millionaire Club When You Are 20
Fidelity Investments has outlined some savings guidelines to help workers figure out whether they are on track to meet their income needs in retirement based on their current savings. According to Fidelity, most workers should aim to save at least 8 times their ending salary in order to meet basic income needs in retirement.
By doing this, the average worker can replace 85% of his pre-retirement income. In order to reach this level by age 67, Fidelity suggests workers have saved about 1 times their salary at age 35, 3 times at age 45, and 5 times at age 55.
So if you are earning $60,000, when you retire you should hopefully have $480,000 saved for retirement to maintain your current lifestyle.
If you are looking for an income of $50,000 in retirement and don't want to dip into your principal then indeed you'll need the million bucks. But most people do retire with a lot less than $1 million in savings.
And the best bet to having $1 million when you retire is to start in your 20s! A 401(k) contribution of $2,000 a year, $40 a week started at age 20 and continued for 47 years with an average 8% return you could be a millionaire at retirement.
You will have contributed $94,000 to the account over the years.
Most twenty-year-olds do not have retirement planning on their radar screen though. These are the accumulation years. They get that first job and they want stuff. Nice stuff! The flat screen TV, smart phone kind of stuff.
Staying out of debt is key to achieving financial success in your 20s. Starting to save for retirement is also a big part of that success. The key years for retirement savings are between the ages of 20 and 35.
The average twenty-something is digging themselves into a black hole of debt they may not get out of for many years. Add all of this accumulation debt to school loans which averaged over $35,000 and you have a formula for disaster.
Great website for help keeping track of your finances and budget is www.mint.com.
