Finance: Retirement Savings in Your Budget!

If you've been reading the Accounting blog recently, Tom wisely reccommended you set up a budget. I know on a entry-level salary saving is hard, but you should at least consider and start planning for your retirement future. The sooner you plan, the faster you can retire! Setting aside money monthly from your salary towards retirement is very important. You can even have it auto-deducted if that is easier. Put it in a 401(k) if you have one or an IRA, and try to put away between 10-15% of your monthly income. Hard, I know! Even if you can't do that right away, put away what you can and make a plan to increase that amount as your salary increases. Also, don't automatically spend bonuses and tax rebates- put some of that away too! You'll need millions to retire- that's right, I said millions- and the sooner you start saving the less stress you'll have and the more money you'll have to plan with when you are 65 on the golf course!

Tip: try Bloomberg's financial calculators. I love them. They have everything from auto loan calculators to retirement calculators.
They are easy to follow and the reports are printable and easy to follow. Try it for different retirement saving scenarios (i.e. saving 5% a year, 10%, and so on) to see how much of a difference a couple of hundred dollars now could make!