One of the worst pieces of advice that you can receive, or give to another person, is “saving for retirement can wait until you are older.” When I hear that phrase, it makes my skin crawl. Compound interest requires time to work its magic, and waiting kills most of its power. One crazy statistic that proves this is that Warren Buffett earned 99% of his wealth after his 50th birthday.
Let’s look at some compound interest math to show why this is terrible advice. We’ll deal with four different scenarios. In each scenario, the person graduates college at age 22 and starts a job making $40,000 per year. They all receive a 3% raise every year and a 3% 401k match from their employer. The differences between the examples is in how much they contribute to their 401k and when they start contributing. Each person will also earn an 8% return on their portfolio over the course of their investing time frame. Remember, this is just an example with made up people.
Scenarios
We’ll start with Ulysses the underachiever. Ulysses listened to some coworkers who said, “you’re young, worry about saving for retirement when you’re older and making more money.” Then when Ulysses turned 35, he read an article on personal finance and realized he should start contributing to his 401k, so he set his contribution to 3% and contributed until he retired at age 65. Unfortunately Ulysses missed out on the employer match from age 22 through 34, and missed out on the related compound interest. His 401k balance at age 65 would be about $590,000.
Next, we’ll take a look at Sarah who set her 401k contribution and forgot about it. Sarah’s parents told her to make sure to get the employer match at work when she started her first job. She started contributing 3% right away. She did that for the rest of career. When she retired at 65, she looked at her 401k statement and had almost $1,250,000. Not bad for setting it and forgetting it.
Third, we’ll take a look at Frank who, like Ulysses, did not think about saving for retirement until age 35. Like Ulysses, he began contributing to his 401k at age 35, with the difference being he checked the box on his 401k provider website that said “increase contribution by 1% each year, until contribution limit reaches 10%.” At 65, Frank had about $1,450,000 in his 401k.
Finally, we’ll end with Olivia the overachiever. She took a personal finance class as part of her business degree curriculum in college. She knew saving for retirement was important. At 22, when she received her 401k paperwork at work, she elected to contribute 3% right away and selected the box that said “increase contribution by 1% each year, until contribution limit reaches 10%.” Therefore from age 29 through 65, she contributed 10% of her gross pay to her 401k. When she retired at 65, she had over $2,400,000(!!!) in her 401k.
Albert Einsten once said “compound interest is the 8th wonder of the world.” Taking the time to put some effort and save for retirement in your early 20s can have a huge impact on your financial future. Don’t let time and compound interest pass you by.
I’m so glad you posted this! We are a bit behind sadly. I have been maxing out my Roth for a good five years, and my husband has for the past few. What we have going for us (at least in theory) is that both our districts require us to put about 10% of our salaries toward our pensions. I’ve been doing this for a decade, and my husband is not far behind! The tricky part will be whether or not the state can afford to pay us anything when we retire (gulp).
That’s a scary thought! I wish you and your state the best!
These 4 scenarios are fine, and the end result is they have more money saved for retirement than most people. But they are ignoring another huge avenue, one that I was guilty of for all of my 20s and the first couple years of my 30s: IRAs! You can save another $5500 a year, either pre-tax or post-tax and you get to control how it’s invested. I saved a little through my 20s in a 457(b) at one job and in a Roth 401(k) in another job, but I really wish I’d started the IRAs (I have both traditional and Roth, due to the rollovers of above accounts) but I missed out on years of contributions and compounding! Never knew I could do both 401(k) and IRA until a decade out of college.
I love a good IRA as much as the next guy, but I was just using the 401k as a vehicle to show how great compound interest is.
Well said Ferv. This is a post you should re-issue just before the start of every year to remind us to update our retirement savings goals.
Good idea!
Compound interest is a wonder indeed! I contributed 6% between myself and my employer at age 22 and from 23-28 I contributed the maximum and got some match. If I didn’t touch my 401(k) again and it grew at 8% until 65, it would then be worth $2,400,000. It’s pretty incredible to see those numbers and do some forecasting!
That is incredible! Compound interest FTW!
Reading that statement is indeed the worst advice! It made me cringe and utter arrgh! What was that?! Hope people will realize that time is gold, even in saving for retirement. It would be even great if a lot of us are like Olivia, the overachiever. But that would not always be possible to most of us, because of that we should take advantage of compound interest. In contrast to the worst retirement advice ever, I just realized that taking advantage of compounding interest is one of the best retirement advice for young people!
If only I knew how powerful compound interest was when I was a kid!
Compound interest rate is actually an excellent thing. However, it takes time to be effective. Once its established, there is full of benefit of multiples of the saving.