Don’t put off saving for retirement – Robert Powell’s Retirement Portfolio – MarketWatch

If ever you’ve been faced with the choice between immediate gratification and future satisfaction then you have no doubt experienced the inner conflict over what researchers refer to time preference.

And that conflict can often lead to self-control problems, especially when it comes to building an adequate nest egg for retirement. Non-savers, as you might imagine, prefer immediate gratification while savers, no surprise, prefer future satisfaction.

But why do some people have trouble with self-control and others not so much? And, more important, what can you do if you’re having trouble with self-control — that is, saving for retirement?

via Don’t put off saving for retirement – Robert Powell’s Retirement Portfolio – MarketWatch.

If you could find $5,000 today by giving up a few things and invested the money for 35 years until retirement at age 60, you would have $14,270 earning only 3% a year. If you earned closer to a market average, say 7% you would have $57,531. It pays to save early even if you have to reduce your saving along the way.