Do you want to be financially successful, even well off? There are many people, videos, books and podcasts willing to give you advice, to tell you how to accumulate wealth as if there is a big secret to uncover.
The fact is the only secret is there is no secret. There are just a few key elements – financial discipline on your part, perseverance and time.
Jonathan Clements of the HumbleDollar blog sums it up this way in a recent post.
Those who have enjoyed a reasonable degree of financial success will find that the key contributors to their wealth weren’t big career breaks or a fabulous investment or two, but rather the prosaic business of collecting an income over three or four decades without too much interruption, and then regularly socking away a healthy chunk of that income.
Jonathan Clements, HumbleDollar.com
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I have noticed, anecdotally, that women seem to be better savers than men, even though they earn less, on average. Even in my small circle of acquaintances, a surprising number of young(ish) women are more likely to have a nest egg than men.
Out of curiosity, I googled it and one article confirmed my observation. What I didn’t expect, was dozens of articles showing women were also, generally better investors than men.
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Interesting, I need to learn more about that.
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More disciplined and focused.
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May be everything is different now, but in my 20’s-30’s, for dinners, movies, concerts, etc., who usually paid?
Or is it just me?
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And perhaps because they are overall more passive investors, i.e. they don’t feel like they have to active trading or constantly fiddle with their investment, behaviors that are associated with lower returns. I don’t see a lot of female day traders, for example.
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Back to the basics. I have always heard 15 percent minimum, in addition to SS taxes. I think I’ve heard that since the 70’s. Would that still work today?
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A lot of variables, but I’d say 15% as a minimum, but more is best and you can count any employer contributions in that. The goal is to create an income stream that will provide the desirable percentage income replacement in retirement. I say that should be 100% of working BASE PAY. Most guidance says 70-80% income replacement. It all depends on how you want to live in retirement and the fixed ongoing expenses you will have.
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Depends upon when you start to invest. Stating at 21 or earlier, because of compounding one can maybe go as low as 10%. Starting later in life, say 30, then need to up it to 15%. If one doesn’t start until 40, then it is even higher. It is time IN the market, along with the annual % invested, that are the biggest influences of one’s next egg size at retirement.
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