Agreed! You almost need to brainwash them! Not really, but sort of...

Yep, that's a good one too. If you have kids, start them young. That way, that's what they will always know about finances. You save. That's what you do.

I always recommend to start small, but start early. Habit helps and if you "pay" yourself first you never really think you have that money anyway.

FrugalFran wrote: T My husband was never a big spender, which is good because I never have to worry about him running out and buying the latest gadget or toy.

I read somewhere that if you buy a gadget or toy of some sort, at least buy one that has a financial application. Meaning, something you can use to help you save or make money. If you're going to spend your money on something, you may as well spend it on something that can make finances more fun. A return on your investment so to speak.

Thanks, Wanderer! I agree with you and I think it's becoming more of a problem with every generation that comes along. In my case, I will admit that I squandered a lot early on when I should have been saving. My divorce situation would have still been a nightmare, but I may have come out of it with something had I saved when I should have. My husband was never a big spender, which is good because I never have to worry about him running out and buying the latest gadget or toy.

Wish you the best of luck and your work to put aside a good sum of money for your future. Too many people (my opinion only) find it difficult and loose their way with the many life challenges.

My problem is that my husband and I didn't get started saving for retirement until recently (early 40s). Both of us lost everything in bad divorces and we basically have started from scratch, so I feel the pressure of having to save all that in just over 20 years.

It's scary when you sit down and actually do the math, isn't it? I just don't see how it's possible for people to only live off of their retirement. I guess this is why you see people just working until they can't work anymore. I know that there is no way that I will have even close to a million dollars by the time that I retire, but what else can you do?

You're right.....I forgot about that variable. Inflation can have a way of cancelling out that 1%. Thanks for bringing that up. Back to the calculator.

I'm no financial expert by any means but the first thing that I would worry about (in your scenario) is the effect of inflation on that $27K annual allowance.

Let's assume someone starts out in the workforce at age 18 and they plan on saving for a retirement that would begin at age 65, This is 47 years of work to save up for a retirement that can last half of that time......say 23 years, meaning the retirement savings would last until they are 88 years old.

Now let's say that this person averaged a yearly salary of 50,000 for those 47 years and they lived comfortably. In order for this person to live comfortably for the remaining 23 years without working at all, they would have to have saved a little over 1 million dollars. This also means that they would have earned a little over 2 million dollars over the course of their 47 working years.

Now, let's assume that all this person did to save was put one fifths of his yearly earnings, $10,000, into a regular savings account that earned 1% compounded interest yearly. At the end of the 47 years , this person would have amassed roughly $620,000. Now divide this into the 23 years they expect to live after the age of 65, and they have a yearly "allowance of roughly $27,000. During their working years, they lived off of $40,000 a year. 50,000 minus the $10,000 they saved yearly.

Doing the math, and looking only at the numbers, it all sounds realistic doesn't it? But how do numbers like this play out in real life? When you think of all the variables and unknowns life can throw at you, does it still sound realistic?