Workers In Their 30’s Not Saving For Retirement
Posted August 6, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Are you under 40? Saving money for your retirement? Didn’t think so.
Neither does a recent study of workers in their 30’s. It found that people love to spend instead of save.
Experts such as Patricia Lovett-Reid, senior VP to Waterhouse, say people need to save for both the short and long term.
“Short term, get out of debt, think about moving out of your parents home,” suggests Lovett-Reid. “Into medium term, it could be building your investment portfolio, it could be saving for your first home. And then longer term, you could be thinking about your retirement.”
The study found that even spreading your investments out a tiny bit could increase the amount you’d save at 65 by over $20,000.
“If you take $1,000 and you park it in a money market or a bond, at the end of the year it’s 1,040,” says Lovett-Reid. “But if you have it in a portfolio where you’re getting 7 per cent, you’ll have $1,070. Make your money work for you.”
If you don’t know where to go, balanced mutual funds are a great place to start: you can contribute as low as $25 a month. Just be sure to ask your advisor if there are any consulting fees involved.
