SummaryEducation about investing for retirement does not happen soon enough, if ever for many people. The math of retirement investing is simple, so simple that if educated early enough on the subject, more Americans could live comfortably in retirement. Saving $1 million is very attainable, this article explores how. by Christian Scully When I was growing up there was never any talk of retirement. Retirement was a far off place where I knew something called Social Security existed and that employees were taxed now in order to ensure monthly payments later. Other than that, there was no discussion of retirement accounts, what purpose they served and how they worked, or what the proper steps were to ensure a comfortable lifestyle after working year were over. I knew the word millionaire, and that was a magical word. It definitely didn't feel a real possibility, but I knew millionaires existed and as I got older I could certainly take a guess at who might be a millionaire. Though I'm almost certain many of my guesses would have been accurate, I've come to learn that you never really know what the state of someone's finances are behind the curtain. When we began our personal financial freedom journey I read a frequently recommended book, "The Millionaire Next Door". The author surveyed and compiled data on millionaires in the United States and created a profile with simple, easily copied attributes that lead to their financial success. It revealed to me the lifestyle differences between appearing rich and truly being wealthy. I also highly recommend this book to everyone to define a realistic lifestyle target for growing wealth, you can find this book here. The average 55 to 74 year old in the United States has at least $408,000 in retirement savings, with the median savings of at least $134,000 (See this article for more stats). |
Money Talks +Thoughts, ideas, lessons-learned, inspiration, aspirations, how-to's and more in a pursuit to fund the life and retirement that is chosen, not accepted. |