I’m 34 and I’m still getting my BA, I don’t have a career yet I just work at a coffee shop right now. A friend of mine who is a few years older sometimes tells me I should start saving for retirement. How? Why? I don’t make much money so I wouldn’t be able to put much away. Is it really something I should worry about right now?
In: Economics
>How?
Most large companies will give you the option of enrolling into a retirement plan where a small cut of your paycheck (something like 10% but it’s up to you) gets deposited into the account. The money is managed for you, when you’re young it’s put into high risk, high reward investments like stocks and gradually as you get older the money is shifted towards more stable investments like government backed bonds. These accounts offered by your company usually incentivize savings by matching a certain percentage of what you put in, e.g. they’ll offer 5% matching, if you put in 10% of your paycheck they’ll add in another 5% making the total 15%. If your company doesn’t offer a retirement plan your bank or credit union usually does. They’re called IRAs or individual retirement accounts.
>Why? I don’t make much money so I wouldn’t be able to put much away. Is it really something I should worry about right now?
Because social security alone won’t be enough for you to live off of and eventually you will want to retire; you don’t want to continue working until you’re 80 because you didn’t save money when you had the chance. Most jobs these days also don’t offer a pension that pays you for the rest of your life after you retire.
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