9 Tips to Start Or Improve Your Retirement Savings Strategy
Founder Principal, Limestone Financial Group
Start Small and Think Long-Term
Start small if you are just starting out or looking to improve your savings strategy. You won't double an account value overnight via returns, so manage expectations by thinking long-term. Yes, you may need money sooner and have other cash flow constraints, so think about a percentage of your income or salary deferral. Over time, inflows increase with more invested as a percentage of your cash flow, which adds up over time. Time matters the most.
Kids can mess around with this at home as an experiment to get them interested in math and investing using an "exponential calculator" (if available, used in high school math, not a basic calculator). Performing various calculations on the calculator shows us that when using annualized returns as the variable (or unknown) and exponent = number of compounding periods, in our case, years, the largest factor to impact returns over time is a higher number of compounding periods.
Though I am not an AP math student, the other factor that compounds over time when your accounts go up is CONFIDENCE, which helps you keep setting goals and improves your well-being.
Stephen Roth, Founder Principal, Limestone Financial Group
