Reality Check: How many years are left until you're 65?
Getting ready for retirement is important and must start now, no matter how close or far away your retirement is. Figure it out. If you invest at 5% and want to make $10,000, you need $3,765. At 10 percent, you'll need $1,400 to invest. You're ahead of most people if you have a savings account, but if that's the most you're investing in, we have a lot of work to do.
Compound interest is not magic.
I started putting away $50 a month when I was in my 30s. As I made more money, I put away more. If you invest in a Roth/IRA, your money grows without you having to pay taxes on it.
If you put $1 away for 40 years at...
1 percent = $1.49
10 percent = $45.26
20 percent = $1,470
Use your money to your advantage.
Make a plan for how you will save money and stick to it. I was taught how to trade goods. To do so, you have to eliminate/minimize your emotion. You have a plan before you start, and you stick to it. This means that you only invest in certain situations, and if the price goes down more than a certain amount, you take your loss and leave. Is it a good trading system if it loses money 80% of the time? Perhaps. When you lose, you only lose $0.01, and when you win, you make $0.05. This is a good trading system because the wins are more than the losses. Some investments that are 100% safe can give you a 20% return (by the United States government, such as tax deeds).
