| Saving for your retirement is important, like never | | | | generation before us. |
| before. Yet very few people have enough saved up | | | | So what can you do about it? We need to choose |
| for their retirement. They seem to believe they can | | | | politicians who take the problem seriously and do |
| continue to borrow their way through life. It seems it | | | | something about it. But you also have to take care |
| is only around 5% of the American population that | | | | of your own life. You have to start saving for your |
| has enough saved to have a retirement with the | | | | retirement - and the sooner the better. This is the |
| same standard of living as when they worked. | | | | major thing you can do as an individual to help |
| Demographics in the western world are changing. | | | | yourself. If you want to be able to lead the same life |
| More and more of us become senior citizens. It has a | | | | when you retire as you do now, there is no way |
| significant impact on our possibilities as senior citizens. | | | | around it. You have to save for retirement, and save |
| Not only will governments have problems supporting | | | | a lot. |
| the current level of expenses for senior citizens. At | | | | One of the important factors of saving for |
| the same time, the demand for specific goods for | | | | retirement is to start young. If you are young when |
| senior citizens will very likely exceed what can be | | | | you start, you can retire with a substantially bigger |
| supplied. Health care will, for example, be put under a | | | | nest egg than if you start late. This is not only due |
| much heavier strain than it already is, as senior | | | | to the fact that you will be saving for more years. It |
| citizens need more health care than young people. | | | | is also because the first years are the most |
| At the same time, there will be relatively fewer | | | | important years. |
| people in the age group of working people. | | | | If, for example, you save $1,000 every year from |
| Therefore, the people who do work will have to | | | | when you are 20 until you are 30 and then stop, you |
| work harder to be able to sustain the economic life | | | | will end up with $112,540 when you turn 60 if you |
| of our societies, if nothing is done by the | | | | receive a 7% return. If instead you decide to wait |
| government to avoid this. There will be fewer people | | | | until you are 30 and then save $1,000 every year |
| to pay taxes to pay for the essential services the | | | | until you are 60, you will only have $101,070 when |
| State provides. Some of it will most likely be offset | | | | you are 60. So saving for 10 years when you are |
| by an increase in productivity. But, if we don't start | | | | young is more important than saving for 30 years |
| taking this problem seriously, we can be the first | | | | when you get older. That is something to think about! |
| generation to actually be worse off than the | | | | |