How much is your time worth? What are you paying yourself for every hour you work? Today over 75% of those retiring have only social security to depend on. The retirement lifestyle this creates is not one filled with the dreams from your youth. It is one that lacks the funds for travels you thought you would have when your 9 to 5 is complete.
Making bi-weekly payments to yourself, automatically, is the best way to get ahead for your future. If you pull money out before you get your paycheck in hand, it will appear as if it was never there. In a sense you are tricking yourself into savings! Starting small is the key. Take $25.00 from each paycheck and have it automatically deposited into your savings account. After a couple months add another $25.00 to total $50.00 a paycheck into savings. The goal within a year is to be saving 10% of your pay. This is not calculating the 401K’s or retirement funds that many employers automatically pull out of paychecks. If you do not have a retirement plan with your employer start small and put $25.00 into an IRA, Mutual Fund, or another automatic interest earning fund for retirement. You can get help from your employer or bank on how to make sure this money comes out of your check before taxes.
Once your savings reaches the minimum for a higher yielding CD pull the available funds and place those into a CD earning 2.5 to 5 percent. Let it sit for the 12-month CD term and then add your annual saving for the next year and roll it over for another 12 months CD. While this money is earning within the CD you are still automatically putting 10% into your savings account and then at the end of each year adding it to the CD sum. Continue this plan annually and watch your funds grow!
By automatically pulling funds from your paychecks you are guaranteeing a financially rich future. Dream on and Dream Big! Begin with the dream of what you want your retirement to look like. Write these ideas and hopes in a journal; now begin to automatically save for this future. When you feel frustrated or unmotivated remind yourself of the life being created for the near future. Live well now, within your means, and save to paint the canvas you want in your future! We are the artists of our lives, live it expressively.
Today’s post was brought to you by Danell Lynn, M. Ed.