By Tara Siegel Bernard, The New York Times
When you’re in your 20s, retirement seems so abstract, it might as well be thousands of years away.
Maybe it feels like that to you right now. Why save for something so many decades in the future, when every last dollar is accounted for in the here and now? Saving for anything at all, in fact, may feel impossible.
But what if you just laid the groundwork so that it became easier to save a little something? That’s what we’re going to work on now. Getting started early for retirement is smart for the same reasons you may want to put it off: Time is on your side. If you set aside what you can now, the magic of compounding numbers — when you begin to earn interest on interest — can do more of the heavy lifting over time.
In other words, saving early may result in having to save less over the long haul, which will take some pressure off as you’re juggling other demands that inevitably arise. Maybe those demands will be children and all the money they manage to siphon up, or perhaps you’ll need some time off to care for an aging parent. And (mostly) nobody wants to work forever — the earlier you start saving, the sooner you can stop working.
The easiest way to save — for everything, really — is automating. When you have money automatically and regularly shuttled to its destination, you don’t have to remember to do anything. That goes for purely pleasurable financial goals as well, like saving for a big trip.
It’s empowering, and will bring you closer to the things that make you both happier and more financially secure. It will take some time and patience — but your future self will thank you.
Before you get started, you need to figure out how much you have to work with.
- Deal with debt: Before you begin saving, make sure you have a plan to knock out any high-cost debt, like debt on credit cards, where interest rates (around 22%) far exceed the money you might earn when investing your savings in the stock market over time (7% to 8%).
- Get organized: Get a copy of your pay stub or check your direct deposit to get a sense of your take-home pay. Then write down all of your expenses — rent, all insurance not already deducted from your paycheck, utilities, groceries, transportation costs, car payments, mobile phone, student loans, and any other debts. How much is left over? Something? Congratulations! You have some room to save. Cutting it close? Is there anything you can pare back a bit to make space for some savings?
- Build a buffer: Creating a financial cushion — in the form of an emergency savings fund — can help you avoid turning to credit cards if you suddenly lose your job or hit a financial pothole, like covering a $1,000 car repair. Financial planners suggest keeping three to six months of your expenses in emergency savings (stowed in a high-yield online savings account, which offer the best rates). That may seem like a lofty goal when you’re living on a starting salary that barely covers your bills. So start small, even if it’s saving $50 a month — $83 a month will get you to $1,000 in a year — and add more if and when you can afford it. Set up an automated plan that sweeps that amount from your checking account to your savings account. Then, don’t touch that money.
Saving for retirement
Many people with student loan debt often wonder if they should focus on paying down those loans before saving for retirement. The short answer: Probably not. (If you’re really struggling to pay your federal student loans, check out those income-driven repayment plans.)
But there’s a strong case to be made to both invest and pay down your loans simultaneously, if you can.
If you have access to a 401(k) or a similar workplace retirement savings plan, you’re in luck — only 69% of private-sector workers do.
You may have already heard that some plans come with a nice little perk: free money. Employers may provide matching contributions when you save; for example, they might match every dollar you contribute up to 4% of your salary.
That means you’re effectively contributing 8% of your income, which is pretty close to the 10% that experts recommend (they often recommend saving more, up to 20%, but 10% is a great start — consider ratcheting it up 1 percentage point each year as you get raises).
More immediate spending goals
Besides retirement, you surely have other savings goals. Maybe you’re saving for a car, a wedding party or a special trip. Since these goals have a shorter time horizon than retirement, or something you’ll need to access within three years or less, you’ll want to take less risk with this money. The easiest strategy is to automatically transfer money into a high-yield online savings account, say, monthly. With short-term goals, the amount you save is far more important than your return.
But if you need the money in three to 10 years — call that a medium-term goal — you may have more options, depending on how flexible you can be with your timing.
It may be tempting to invest your savings in the stock market, for example, in hopes of generating a higher investment return. But that comes with more risk. As one financial planner wisely put it: You have to consider how it might feel to lose half your stock investment in any given year, which can take some time, even years, to recover. Do you have the time (or the stomach) for that?
You can take a hybrid approach and invest in a mutual fund that has a mix of 60% bonds and 40% stocks, for example, or there may be bond investments to explore that provide more stability (though they carry risks of their own). But tread carefully.
Even if you don’t have large amounts to save now, setting up the infrastructure to save is the hardest part — and as your earnings increase, it will be much easier to save and invest more.
c.2024 The New York Times Company
