Friday, January 8, 2010

Financial Freedom Fund

 Retirement savings can tend to have a certain stigma attached to it.

When you first hear it, it sounds pretty boring. It also sounds pretty painful.

You may be used to spending all or most of your paycheck on fun.

Retirement sounds like something that is so far off, that you may not even be thinking about it at all.

Because of this, if I term my own savings a bit different, it can help keep me on track when I feel like veering off course.

I like to think of my retirement savings as my Financial Freedom Fund.

You may be thinking "Hey, I got enough financial freedom right now! I spend whatever I earn!" and I definitely see that point of view. But I think of every dollar I can put away as getting me that much closer to financial freedom, or the idea that if the unforeseen happened, I would still be able to take care of my wife and my family.

Life happens, and life tends to cost money. I only see my costs rising over time. Helping to take care of family, raising kids, college costs, it will all add up very quickly. These things are going to be very powerful deterrents to our own savings. It's with that in mind that we put our plans in place. We may not be able to save much, if anything later, but right now we can make some sacrifices to ensure that we are not behind our own financial needs later. The power of compound interest makes the time your money is invested so much more powerful than just saving more later.

If you can only save 5% of my income now, well over time that 5% will mean more actual money going in. Your salary will go up over time, and you bump up your percentage as it does. Eventually you are saving 15% of your income for your fund. Then life gets in the way, and you have to use some of that money for another cost, so now you have only 12% going in.

You will still have all of that money "locked in" and earning you compound interest! Think about that stack of money...



This is a much better scenario than never even starting to save!

Do you see yourself as helping care for your grandparents/parents at some point? Do you want to send your kids to college? Do you want to go on vacation without feeling like you are shooting yourself in the financial foot? Do you want to be less stressed about money?

Find what motivates you, and use that energy to get yourself to start saving for your own FFF!

2 comments:

  1. What about "Do you see yourself as helping care for your aging aunt who just had an over-the-hill birthday?"

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