Are you missing the boat?

This post is more for the younger folks who may be just getting into their career but have not started saving toward retirement yet.

Get started.

I know the stock market has its ups and downs and has been volatile the last few years but that is no excuse.

I am not going to propose asavings plan for you. That is something you will have to decide on based on what is available to you but I just want you to get startred.

I once worked for an employer who matched by contributions to a 401k dollar for dollar but that isn't likely to happen again. My present boss does 50 cents on the dollar for the first 3%.

That doesn't seem like much but it works like this:

For every $1,500.00 I actually contributed to my savings account, my employer has added $1,100.00. The increase in the stock market over the last three years has added another $1600.00 to my balance.

In other words, I put $1100.00 into a savings account that is worth $4200.00. That includes the great dip in the stock market when people were losing 40 to 60 percent of their savings.

I admit it was hard but I kept telling myself that the lower the market got the more stocks I was buying per dollar invested. I was right because when the market began to recover, I recovered quickly.

I can't promise you that you will do as well with your savings plan as I have done with mine but i can't say you won't do better either. All I am saying is that if you save nothing you will have nothing but if you save a little, you may end up with a lot.

So get going on that.

PS Never touch it. You may move it around but never take anything away from the account.

Seriously.