What a great success the Roth IRA Movement was. In a few days we are going to enter National Financial Literacy Month, what a great month to celebrate it, ohhhh the coincidence it also happens to be my birthday in April too! National Financial Literacy Month came about in 2004 when the Senate passed Resolution 316 which officially recognized April as my birthday National Financial Literacy Month. Originally started as youth financial literacy, it was realized that we all need to be well versed money and personal finance. For my Canadian friends sorry we will have to wait until November to celebrate your financial literacy month!
Financial literacy plagues many of us in the sense that we live our day to day lives and forget to plan for the future. No matter what country you live in around the world there has to be some end goal that we are saving for, which is usually retirement. Living pay check to pay check and not setting aside funds early on can wreak havoc on your financial situation as you near retirement. Sitting at work about to turn 30, 🙁 I cannot imagine coming to work at 75 and flying through excel spreadsheets at the same speed I do now. Granted employers are not to age discriminate, but realistically when I get older I do not see myself as having the capacity to do the complex functions I do now.
What am I doing about it? I am saving for retirement so that when I am 75, I can be sitting around with my grandchildren enjoying the fruits of my labor with my wife. What I am asking is for you to take a moment and look at your financial situation and decide what you are going to do about it! If you look at your retirement portfolio at the moment, is it large enough that you could see yourself living on that for the 20-25 or more years in retirement?
I am not telling you to put aside your whole paycheck to retirement but see if you have any wiggle room to increase your contributions, if you can’t see the money outlasting you. Every now and again we get caught up in the daily routine that we have to look at the big picture. This month is not only to make you aware of financial literacy but also to look at your own situation!
Take inventory and maybe you will find an opportunity to save some money by refinancing a car loan or a mortgage now with the low interest rates. Even a personal loan with low interest rates to consolidate high interest credit cards, there are many ways out there at the moment to save a little money.
What tips or tricks can you offer the readers as ways to either make additional money or find ways to save? Any interesting side hustles like the mobile hotspot? How does your retirement portfolio look at the moment?
I’ve been saving for retirement since I was 21… once I’ve made it a non-negotiatiable, it’s becomes easier to do in the sense that I know it’s going to be the FIRST thing I fund. I even convinced my fiance to join the bandwagon a few years ago… so although we are taking a few years off to go to school, we have something already saved. That makes me feel a lot better.
@ Well Heeled Blog – I applaud your efforts for starting so young. Question: With so many youth not knowing investing for retirement, how did you get involved in saving for retirement at such a young age?
Fear! My mom drilled the fear of being old and poor into my head since I was, oh… in middle school, and I’d say her scare tactics worked pretty well. LOL.
@ Well Heeled Blog – I must have missed that section in the manual for being parents 🙂 That is great that she did that back then you probably didn’t like the idea of not having your entire paycheck but now when you see the growth you must be very happy! See kids do listen to their parents. lol
I wasn’t aware that there was a financial literacy month. Then again I’m not American. Does it actually get much exposure through the media? It definitely is a good idea in principal because young people need to become more financial savvy as soon as they can. The longer they wait, the more difficult it all becomes. They might not have enough saved up for retirement or they might have made mistakes such as getting into credit card debt. It makes you wonder why they don’t integrate it into mandatory high school learning.
@ Jeremy – Were you aware of the Canadian Financial Literacy month? Do you find it difficult to converse in topics of finance with countries other than yours? I mean in America we have products like Roth IRA, where as I have seen a few Canadian bloggers talking about rsps or something like that. Does Canada have any type of Social Security program like the United States?
As a young, unmarried professional, living with my parents first then seeking roommates after that improved my financial situation dramatically. I started using Mint.com to track my money when I was living with one other person in a townhouse… after several months of decreasing net worth, I realized that although I felt fine financially, my net worth was taking a hit. We added a 3rd roommate, and my net worth started going through the roof.
I was talking to my mentor at the time about all of it, and she said she saw the same thing with her finances when she started renting out the spare room in her home. If sharing living space is an option for anyone, it can be a great way to save money!
@ GB – very smart move, I hope it has continued up and up ever since 🙂 Was it a house you owned that you were renting out? How was renting out a room in your home? I have been curious about that as I have seen ads on Craigslist offering to rent out a room.
Actually, I rented out a room in someone else’s home and it was perfect for me. They already had all the furniture, pots and pans, etc, and just used my rent as supplement.
It was my mentor and my mentor’s daughters who rented out rooms in their homes, and she told me it was a really good experience for both of them. Her daughter was in her 20’s and renting out two rooms of a townhouse she had a mortgage on, and the rent she was pulling in covered the full monthly mortgage by itself. The daughter didn’t need to put any extra money towards the mortgage at all. (Just don’t tell that to the renters or they might resent ya for it!)
@ GB – I wouldn’t tell the guy upstairs that is renting that he is covering most our mortgage either 🙂 shhhh.. It allowed my wife to stay home with our children then they were small, which was beneficial for their development. I am glad we were able to have this opportunity for her to. Not many parents now a days can stay home that long. Wow the renting out gig sounds like a pretty good deal if you are just starting out. It is good that you atleast knew the people, it seems like it might be a little awkward renting out a room in someones home if you don’t know them.
I’m getting ready to start saving for retirement. I actually just got a second part time job. I plan on using all the extra money I make to go toward retirement and a vacation fund.
@ Katie – GET ON IT! lol Seriously though you want to get on it to take advantage of compounding and all the great products out there to invest in. Make sure that if your work offers a 401k that you are atleast contributing enough to get the match, you don’t want to pass on free money! That is great news though that you are looking to start saving. Any idea what products you are looking to invest in? Roth IRA, IRA, 401k anything else?
I need to kick my retirement savings up a notch. I opened my retirement account this year, and only have ~$250 in it. I, like most people, would love to be able to retire early, so I better get crackin’ if that is to remain a goal!
@ Daisy – congratulations on the new job, now you will have plenty of money to kick it up a notch. I asked Jeremy this as well do you find it difficult to converse in topics of finance with countries other than yours? I mean in America we have products like Roth IRA, where as I have seen a few Canadian bloggers talking about rsps or something like that. Does Canada have any type of Social Security program like the United States?
I wish I knew it was financial literacy month in April or I would’ve waited to publish my post from 2 days ago on financial literacy in America!
@ I am 1 Percent – you can save your posts and celebrate Cananda’s financial literacy month in November with them 🙂 Quick take them down and repost in April, I am not looking. Thanks for stopping by!
Both my husband and I worked for a large firm that gave us the oportunity for a pension and 401K. Now that we’re getting really close to retiring, I worry that we’ll have enough to live for another 25-30 years. Since we paid off the house in January, I’m looking at adding that money to savings. My suggestion for the young people reading would be to take your lunch to work a couple days a week and put that money in your retirement account. It will add up fast.
@ Lisa – are you retiring early or at the normal retirement ages. That is great to have a pension and 401k and Social security at the moment! Congrats on paying off the house, that has got to feel great! Great point that you make, so many people think that you have to throw large sums of money in order to see any return, you can throw many small sums in there over the years and it will add up!
Christopher, delayed gratification is the only way for us mere mortals to have a happy and safe retirement. I love all of your ideas to save more for the retirement.
@ Shilpan – your article in the comment luv would fit perfect into my post. Live on less and save more and you will enjoy your retirement.
Thats a fun way to improve on your Finance lingo.
I missed all your posts this week 🙁
@ Karunesh – I see you were quite busy though reading them all! Do they have any financial literacy month where you are located?