Some inspiration from my colleague and friend, Jared Defore, for this message. Give him a follow on Twitter for more financial tips.
When I graduated college, one of the first things that I did was start contributing 10% of my income to my Roth 401(k). I set this as my number one priority and structured the rest of my financial goals around it.
Was it easy? No, but I figured it out.
I’d bet that if you ask most young professionals how much they contribute to their retirement accounts that they’d tell you “up to the match”. Typically, but not always, the match is 3%.
Most young professionals don’t have the pension benefits that our parents and grandparents depend on for retirement and changes continue to be made to Social Security laws due to potential future insolvency of the trust fund (absent any further changes).
It’s more of a responsibility for young professionals to save for their retirement now than it ever has been in the past.
Are you confident that saving 3% of your income will get you through a potentially 30-something year retirement?
*Please note that 10% isn’t a magic number, it’s simply where I started at.*
