I have a friend of mine who is 24 and she already has a retirement plan. To me that's too early and I think she should at least wait till she is maybe in her 30s. I would like to hear other people's different opinions on this please.
Hi, @Rossy. That I think will vary from person to person. I myself started saving up for retirement in my early 30s. That's largely because I spent my 20s building an emergency fund, starting a family, paying for my 3-in-1 health, accident, and life insurance, and saving up for a down payment for the house I purchased. These, in my case, are the things that matter at that point. A retirement plan, for me, was not paramount at the time as I already have social security contributions that can provide me with monthly pension in case of retirement or, God forbid, in case I'm unable to work due to a disability or sickness. It may not be the case for other people as some may want to retire in their 40s or 50s in which case starting a retirement plan earlier can be the smart thing to do.
I wish I would have started in my 20's or even from day one of working, but I didn't have the insight to do that. I commend your friend on having foresight at her age to start. Nowadays, most employers have those options of being able to contribute to a retirement plan. I say if it is available why not take advantage of it especially if the company you work for contributes to it as well. With rising costs of everything, one is going to need a sizable amount of money to be able to retire.
If only I can start all over again then I would probably save as soon as I can. I mean, I had a lot of cash coming in when I was still in grade school which I only used buying stuff like toys. If I started saving money back then I might not have a ton of cash now but at least I do have some kind of savings which I can use to start up a small business. Once the business is up and running, I would start saving my retirement fund.
I think starting early to save retirement funds is real good for a stress-free old age and when one has retired. I cannot say that it is right at the age this or that to begin saving for the future, but starting early helps. My uncle that just retired from the civil service in the country started saving his retirement funds early and immediately he retired, he had saved so much that helped him expand his already running personal business. When I start working fully, I am planning to begin saving for the future as soon as I can. this is because a secured future is one we all look forward to.
Throughout our lives we want several things and we end up getting away from the bigger and more important goals, but... I think there is not a right age for this, but the sooner getting started is better.
I am now 62 and still enjoying life to the fullest because I can still eat what I want and do what I want to do. My point is this - don't focus much on retirement because you don't really know how long you would live. Why spend your youth in preparing for old age? It's not bad to save. In fact, it is good to save money but not to the excesses. Be frugal and make a note that you have to save on matter how little. The rest of the money, you can spend to make you happy.
If you can start as soon as you can, for you'll be retiring age soon enough. and you'd like to have all the comforts especially when you're older. Get a good medical plan too that will be with you forever too. You can never have enough money, so save up for it as soon as you can afford it. Keep abreast of benefits.gov too see what the govt. has for you too. Be covered fully for everything, even long term heaven forbid that you might need, so you'll be prepared for everything. It would be good to get rich and stay rich, so you'll never have a need or want ever, and, good to plan for it.
I would say that any age would be best to start saving up for retirement. I would say the best times to start saving would be sometime in your 20's or in your early 30's. I myself need to start considering saving up for retiring. 24 doesn't seem to early to start saving up for retirement, anything could happen and the sooner you save up the better it may be for you in the future.
When I was in school, my teacher told me that, the rule of thumb in saving, is to never spend more than half your salary. By this, I believe that at any particular time, one has money, be it salary or personal business profit, one should save for retirement. This is because, when time comes for one to rest from active duty, the spending will not depend on when you started saving. It will still remain the same, or even rise. Therefore, in my opinion, anytime one is earning, they should put retirement saving into consideration. And the earlier the better.
