Three Reasons You Should Start Saving For Retirement Before You're 25

How far away is retirement for you? 10 years? 30? 40? Even if retirement isn’t for another 50 years for you, there are plenty of reasons to start saving up for your golden years as early as possible.

1.   You can reach retirement sooner: If you begin saving for retirement at 16 when you get your first job, putting away $2,000 a year for just 40 years, you could have around $560,000, assuming earnings grow at 8 percent annually.  And that's a heck of a lot more than you would have if you weren't saving anything at all. When you're young, you can invest relatively little for a short period and wind up with far more money than someone older who saves much more over a longer period. Seems like a no-brainer, right? Save a little now and reap big rewards later
2. Avoid Procrastination & be financially secure in old age: Start saving ASAP. There are plenty of ways to get yourself in the habit. If your job offers a 401(k), sign up. If you don’t have a company retirement fund, use a Roth IRA instead. Be aggressive with your investments, and put 90 percent of your investments in stocks; Stocks are interchangeably referred to as equities, since as a stockholder you own a slice of the company's value in the market, its equity.
3. More money = More time for the things you want to do and buy: Begin putting automatic deposits into an emergency fund, then you’ll always have a cushion for when things come up. You’ll never have to dip into your retirement savings to cover those unexpected expenses.

Remember, you should start your retirement savings right this second. If you contribute $100 a month, appreciating at 10% a year, you' could have over half a million dollars after forty years. Your most valuable asset is time, so make sure you use it.

To listen to 97.5 Y-Country’s Wild Bill and Honor’s CEO Scott McFarland talk about saving for retirement early, listen to the Mason Jar Monday episode below!