Before graduating from college, I got my first professional job. I was hired on as a Resident Director the last semester in my senior year. I still vividly remember the day that I received the call from the Director of Residential Life. She called me up, literally minutes before I stepped on an airplane to go home for Christmas break. Within a few minutes, she explained that the former Residence Hall Director was leaving and she wanted me to apply. I initially turned the offer down, but later changed my mind and was hired just a couple days later. I went through the official paperwork and for the first time in my life, had an opportunity to sign up for a retirement account. Being the typical 21-year-old that I was, I didn’t think twice; I turned it down. I preferred to have the cash. … Continue Reading
Category Archives: Retirement
Investing Money: How Much is Enough?
Over the past year, I have become more committed to investing any extra money that we have. It all started when I realized that we had too much money in a savings account earning .1%. That’s not even 1%… it’s 1/10th of that. Part of what allowed me to start investing money in the first place is finally making a few extra dollars each month. While I still have a long ways to go to max out our investing accounts, I feel pretty good about how much progress we have made since graduating college 3 1/2 years ago.… Continue Reading
Flashback: Articles on Investing for Young Adults
Today, I am featuring many of the great articles on investing that already exist on this site. As many of you already know, in the past year I have become more serious about investing money for our future. I still have a lot to learn, but that doesn’t mean that 20′s Finances can’t help others in a similar boat. Here are some of the older articles on investing.… Continue Reading
Your Retirement Plan: Why It’s Important to Personalize it
Retirement planning can be completely overwhelming. There is so much uncertainty and even more voices telling you what to do. How much do you need to cover your expenses in retirement? What will be the rate of inflation for the next 20 years? Will my money be worthless? Am I saving enough? Am I investing in the right thing? The questions go on and on. When you stop to think about how complex retirement planning is, it’s no wonder why people don’t do it. In many ways, it would be helpful to get a well-laid-out plan from an experienced investor or better yet, a early retiree. While it would be beneficial, I think being dictated what to do would be a complete disservice, and here’s why.… Continue Reading
Young Adult Retirement Planning – Benefits of Saving a Lot Early
Retirement planning isn’t just for old people – or even middle aged people. People in their 20s and more generally, young adults, can start saving for retirement too. In fact, young adults can make a larger impact on their retirement income than anyone else can – and that’s because they have one major advantage that older people don’t have: time. By having more time for your investments to increase and earn more interest, young adults can either make or break their retirement plans based on whether they save or don’t save.… Continue Reading
How to Invest Your 401(k) Contributions
Recently, Corey posted on How to Start Saving for Retirement. I wanted to take this a step further and help out the readers with how you should invest your retirement savings. When I first started working, I had a good idea of how I wanted to invest the money I was saving in my 401(k). I think this was because finance is what I went to school for. Many of my friends would ask me to help them out with picking their investments in their 401(k) accounts. When I would see their statement of what they were currently invested in, it saddened me. Find out how you should invest your contributions.… Continue Reading
How to Start Saving for Retirement
One of the most difficult financial challenges that young adults face is how to start saving for retirement. In comparison to saving for retirement, managing your budget, spending less than you earn, and building up an emergency fund seem like a piece of cake. Retirement planning is a great mystery to so many young adults. Unfortunately, this means delaying or putting off actually investing money for your retirement. Just because it isn’t something you are familiar with, doesn’t mean you should put it off. In fact, if you have read my post on why compound interest matters so much, you probably wouldn’t put it off one more day.… Continue Reading
Carnival of Retirement – 3rd Edition
It’s amazing how my perspective on retirement has already changed. We get a lot of submissions based that aren’t explicitly talking about retirement. That doesn’t mean that it isn’t related. In fact, retirement planning is as much about reducing your spending, investing wisely through your career, and your lifestyle hobbies as it is 401k’s and places to retire. We’ve decided to be inclusive of anything that could help those thinking of retiring. I hope you enjoy this week’s selection.… Continue Reading
ROTH IRA – Great Investment in your 20s
Finding the best first investment is a difficult thing. If you are already investing in your employer’s 401k or 403b plan or your employer doesn’t have offer one, you may be looking for the next best place to place your investment. I know this is the case for me. When trying to find the best place to supplement… Continue Reading
Using Rental Properties as Retirement Income
In these markets, it is very popular to look for a more secure retirement investment than the stock market. You may have a nice 401(k) or 403(b) package at work, but where else should you invest for your retirement. Have you considered rental properties? Maybe it is time that you did. With historic low financing… Continue Reading
