The Cost of Waiting

How much more do you need to save if you start later?

Tell it the income you want in retirement. See what you would need to save each month starting now, or 5, 10 or 15 years from now.

Your retirement

When you want to stop working, and what you want to live on.

US prices rose 2.6% a year on average over the last 20 years.

To retire at 60 on $500.00 a month in today’s money ($1.3K by then), you need about $397.8K saved.

Waiting 10 years means saving 2.2× as much every month

Start now (22)

$176/mo

$80.3K put in

Start at 27

$258/mo

+$82 a month

Start at 32

$383/mo

+$207 a month

Start at 37

$583/mo

+$407 a month

Across: the age you start saving. Up: what each month has to be.

The lesson

Money saved early has more years to grow, so it does more of the work. Every year you wait, each month has to carry more.

A steady return every year, deposits at the end of each month, no fees or taxes. The target is 25 years of your income (the 4% rule). Real markets go up and down.