Creating Your Nest Egg.... Where to Begin?
No longer are the days of huge companies handing out pensions in award of our tenure at the company, enabling us to retire at the ripe old age of 65 and not having to worry about money in our golden age. With baby boomers left to fend for themselves, with terms like 401k and IRA… how do they manage in a fast paced, constantly changing economic world? The advice of our elders on getting a secure job is long gone, due to the fact that companies today are less secure than they used to be. There is so much more competition, that companies are downsizing, merging, and liquidating faster than you could say retirement!
So what to do in these fast times of uncertainty you ask? Well here are a couple of things you could do to get your feet wet in this journey you will navigate called operation, “retirement!”
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Pay yourself first!! Now how many times have you heard this one? A lot huh? Well apparently not enough… because you would be surprised as to how many people are not following this very simple rule. Once you get your paycheck, take out 10, 20, 40, 60, 100, or 200 bucks out of your check. If you don’t know what to do with it for now, just put it into a savings account at the bank you cash your checks at. What you will do later does not matter now if you don’t know how to pay yourself first!! And I don’t want to hear you don’t have enough to start. I belief anyone can do without 10 dollars of there paycheck, I mean… hey, it is for a good cause!!
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If you have a 401k at your job you are not vested in, invest now!!! Put in as much as they will allow you (or as much as you can afford) into it. The great thing about the 401k is that if you leave the job you have now, you can most likely roll it over to your next jobs 401k that they offer. Even if you forget to roll it over (which I strongly recommend you don’t!!!), it will still gain interest, and the interest is a lot better than the interest a bank will offer on a savings account.
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“The Spare Change Game.” Ever play? This is where you take all of your spare change at the end of the day and put it into a jar. Once the jar is full, take it to a local Coinstar or a bank that takes change, and make it into dollars. Then take those dollars and put them into a savings account. You will be surprised how much change you can get just in a month. I once raked in 200 dollars in 3 months. That is not bad for spare change. P.S. don’t take that money and use it to buy Blockbuster and McDonalds!! You should have spending money that you already allocate from you paycheck for that!! I know it is just change, but think about the 1000 dollars I had sitting in my account at the end of the year! If I keep doing that for the next 30 years, not including the interest I could gain, wouldn’t you agree that could be a big help in the future?!?! Just for putting away loose change!!!
In conclusion… Do these three things, and you will be off to a wonderful start in planning for your future. Look in future articles for some more money saving and making tips! So remember… pay yourself first, participate in your companies 401k, and save the change!! Everyday you lose not putting these steps I mentioned into use, is money you are losing for your future. Good Luck, and write to me to let me know how these steps are working for you, or if you have other useful money saving tips you would like to share! They just might make it on our next article!
William Martinez
william@longislandexchange.com
February 13, 2006 2:35 PM Eastern
Advice Column
