Opening a Retirement Account Now

I´m still young, but one thing I have is a retirement account. Why? Because the younger you start, the better you do. But you don´t have to be as young as I to open a retirement account. As long as you are younger than 70, and not yet retired, you can open some sort of retirement account. And in today´s world, every little bit helps when it comes to retirement planning.

Your mid-20s to early 30s is a great time to start saving for retirement. Someone who opens a retirement account at the age of 26 can build up as much as four times (or more) as much as someone who starts 10 years later. That´s a big difference.

That´s because the average retirement account grows, on average, at a rate of 7% to 10% a year, depending on the investments in the portfolio. Even if it grows at a slower 4% to 6% rate per year, that´s still pretty good. And think of how many years your nest egg has to grow. There are plenty of options, even if you are self-employed (as I am). Just because you work for yourself is no reason to deny yourself a good retirement investment account.

Just because you didn´t get an early start is no reason to despair. You can gain some fairly good ground by opening a retirement account now, and adding to it while you can. If you are at least 50, you can make use of catch-up contributions offered by many retirement plans. Even though most retirement plans have a cap on how much you can contribute each year, a catch-up contribution allows you to put more money into your retirement account.

However, the catch-up contribution is also capped. No matter your age, you can start saving now for retirement. And the sooner you start, the bigger your nest egg will be.