In times like these financial conversations are more common than ever. They are particularly important for those just starting out in their careers. The young generation of today has entered a battered workforce and economic turmoil. This article will discuss the importance of saving in your youth.
Compound Interest
Einstein is known for making the statement, “There is no greater force in the universe than compound interest.” This is certainly pertinent to this subject matter. Saving doesn’t have to be a matter of high salaries or inheritance, it is more important to have a disciplined steady approach. Someone who saves $100 monthly from age 25 to age 65 will have saved a total $48000.00 in 40 years time. These figures assume no interest gained in those 40 years.
Now here is where compound interest takes over. Now lets take that same scenario; $100 a month for 40 years assumed a 6% interest rate annually. Over that period of time your total would now be $200,144.82. Quite a stark difference you might say. Now let’s try to do this scenario with a 10% return; that would give us a total of $637,678.02! Your starting to get the picture now.
But why is it important to start early? Well simply put, your money will grow the most when it has the most time to compound. The example above is certainly impressive, but what if that same person started saving when they were 45 rather than 25? With the 10% annualized return they would have $76,569.69. A nice figure but nowhere near the $637,678.02 over 40 years. This should illustrate both the power of compounding and the importance of starting early. To compute your own scenario visit this compound interest calculator.
How do we find the interest?
So after exploring the scenario above you may be wondering how you achieve these rates of return. There is no simple answer to this. Currently interest rates on certificates of deposit and money markets are near 0%. These are the safest types of investments, but they do not provide much of return these days. The other options are stocks and bonds. These securities can be complicated to make money on even for an experienced investor. The best bet for a new investor would be a mutual fund.
A mutual fund is a collection of stocks and bonds that provide an investor with more exposure to the market. Instead of just buying one stock the investor holds shares of a fund, this fund can hold hundreds of stocks or bonds. This provides more diversification for the investor and more safety overall. Historically growth stock mutual funds have returned an average of between 8%-12% annually. For more information on investing options, check out Morningstar.com.
David Spader is a freelance writer and blogger who usually looks at savings account deals over at SavingsAccount.Org. His most recent review looked at the best saving account rates.
