Morning! Today I want to show you a very simple thing: there is no ridiculous amount in savings. $10 per week can add up to a great deal of money over the long term. Yes, it won’t be sexy at first, but with the power of compound interest it can help you build a serious nest egg.At 4% savings rate you save $80 per month and will have $160,115 in 40 years for $38,400 invested
At 10% savings rate you save $200 per month and will have $400,289 in 40 years for $96,000 invested
At 25% savings rate you save $500 per month and will have $1,000,724 in 40 years for $240,000 invested
At 50% savings rate you save $1,000 per month and will have $2,100,448 in 40 years for $480,000 invested
At 75% savings rate you save $1,500 per month and will have $3,002,172 in 40 years for only $720,000 invested! How would you like a free $2,300,000???
Now let’s assume a safe 4% withdrawal rate to see what that money will buy you.
At 4% savings rate your nest egg will produce a monthly income of $533. Since you live on $1,920, it is not enough to live on. Use all your nest egg and you can live for 7 years.
At 10% savings rate your nest egg will produce a monthly income of $1,334. Since you live on $1,800, it is still not enough to cover your lifestyle. Use up all your nest egg and you can live for 18 years.
At 25% savings rate your nest egg will produce a monthly income of $3,335. Since you live on $1,500, you can live forever. Or, to generate $1,500 per month, you will need a $450,000 nest egg that you will have achieved in 29 years.
At 50% savings rate your nest egg will produce a monthly income of $7,001. Since you live on $1,000, you can live forever. Or, to generate $1,000 per month, you will need a $300,000 nest egg that you will have achieved in 16 years.
At 75% savings rate your nest egg will produce a monthly income of $10,007. Since you live on $500, you can live forever. Or, to generate $500 per month, you will need a $150,000 nest egg that you will have achieved in… 7 years! Learn to live on 25% of your income and financial independence is only 7 years away!
Those calculations do not take into account inflation, but it does not consider your raises at work that will make up for it. The 6% rate of return is lower than the usual 7 or 8%
You can see that going from $80 per month to $200 per month in savings (4% to 10% savings rate) makes a HUGE difference on your financial future. What is an extra $120 per month? $30 per week, just over $4 per day. Maybe it is the interest you are paying on some debt, or the daily indulgence you don’t notice anymore but won’t give up. It can also be, quite easily, the amount of extra income you could bring each month. How? I talk about it on Make Money Your Way. There are plenty of ways to make $120 per month. A couple of nights of baby sitting per week, a student you could tutor on Wednesday, pet sitting, dog walking, house cleaning, taking a paper route, a night shift at a local bar once a week, making a couple of extra hours… It is really feasible for the majority of you. We are not talking thousands, just $4 a day. If you earn it, you won’t even have to change your habits, your lifestyle or your luxuries.
Rather than learning to live on $500 per month like the 75% savings rate example, you can decide to make more. Keep your $2,000 monthly lifestyle and make an additional $1,500. Yes, that is harder, much harder than the $120 we were just talking about. But your $2,000 job can give you a 2.5% raise every year. That is $50 taken out of the way. You can train to become a better employee and get a real promotion. Start a side business, and so on. If you keep living like you are today, like you currently like to live, and squirrel away any raise, windfall or extra income, you can reach really easily the next rate of savings.
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Yep, the numbers speak for themselves. There are different scenarios here though – one is to use some of this money to ‘invest in dself’ so that the increase of income becomes really substantial. Beating compound interest is hard but not impossible….
Increasing your income in order to save it accelerates the process, but even with a steady rate of savings you can get quite far.
It really is pretty amazing how the math really speaks for itself. All it takes is the discipline not to want to spend every cent that falls through your fingers.
just looking at the end numbers should give you enough motivation, although it is looking slow at first.
The thing I love about your example here is it shows how an increased savings rate not only leaves you with more money, but it also decreases your lifestyle which actually means you need LESS money. It’s a double-benefit that’s incredibly powerful.
that’s right, or you can increase your income and keep your lifestyle too. Not inflating too much your lifestyle over 20 years while you get a 3% raise every year to save can be huge.
Nice post Pauline! Its people realizing that every little bit counts that is the problem. You hear oh I just got $50 that isnt going to help me retire. Its better than nothing and how much do you spend on coffee and lunch everyday. The average person wastes more than $50 per week. They can put away $200 if the budget for it and end up with a nice little nest egg. I like how you gave different interest rate calculations. Work your regular job and get a side job to save instead of buying clothes and spending it on alcohol.
if you save all your extra income you can get a really nice nest egg but I often hear “I don’t have time for an extra job”, no matter they spend 3 hours a day on fb/tv/doing nothing.
Excellent point! Honestly I’m all about increasing income. I do live relatively frugally and save money on the things on I buy, but overall if you can increase your income your options can really open up and long-term savings/investing becomes easier.
Yep, you can’t lower expenses forever, unless you can live on water and bread under a bridge but then life isn’t really worth the trouble.
Our savings rate fluctuates a little depending on the month…but the goal is always to save as much as possible. Luckily, our expenses are low so it’s really not that difficult.
I am always surprised the midwest is so cheap. With decent salaries you can surely stash a nice % every month.
We are trying to save as much as we can. Financial independence and early retirement are definitely on our minds!
Love these examples! I plan on going the $500/month route. I like that, with a conservative investment outlook, this will satisfy my retirement requirements without ever having to increase my contributions! Once my debt is paid off (three months to go!) I plan on starting this retirement plan. I’m only 23, so I still have lots of time to make compounding interest work for me.
you do have your whole life, that is fantastic you are ready to start so early.
It’s exactly these types of numbers that has us encouraging our children not to make the same money mistakes we have, and to start saving now and keep saving. The financial reward is just too big to lose!
Over time is just grows and grows if you have them start early they are going to do amazing.
The most attractive number there is what happens if I put away $1500/month, but that’s just not realistic. That’s more than double my mortgage portion. I like to think people save what they can, but I know that’s not always the case.
Well your mortgage is still part capital repayment so there is a bit of equity building there that can be considered savings too. This example should be considered more with % of income than exact numbers.
A post I will forward to my sons but they probably won’t read it because retirement is just so far off for them.. I never thought about my retirement when I was in my twenties and I am just starting now in my forties because I did not have control of my finances for long time.
I wish I had been financially aware earlier and things wouldn’t be such a challenge now and retirement would be a certainty instead of a dream.
It is not easy in your 20s, you want to live it up with your first salary, then give the best to your kids… but the best way to help yourself is to build wealth so you can then help others and gain freedom.
Simple and to the point…and with numbers to – I love it! It’s seeing numbers like this that should encourage people to start saving and saving early.
I hope so!
I think it’s hard for most people (myself included sometimes) to know that even a little adds up.
It is depressing at first to see $80 in your savings account but using those calculator can really motivate you!
Every little does add up. I try to think about savings in chunks. If I can save $10 a month, it’s $10 that can go into savings. It’s a good way to think. A lot of people don’t save because they don’t think it’ll ever add up.
It will. Eventually. With patience and dedication it can become something big.
Power of compound interest is always very refreshing to hear. This concept works not just in savings, but also in your daily habits and tasks as well. Compounding money and compounding minutes.
True, it can be applied to several aspects of life.
This is why I love compound interest. 🙂
Finally an example in the PF blogosphere that uses numbers relevant to MY life!! 🙂 Thanks!
What an inspiring post! I would want more detail in between that 10 and 25% savings rate, though, to see where that tipping point is… I’ll play with the numbers myself.
Thank you Emily. To me the point where you should be is when increasing your savings some more means lowering your quality of life or giving up things that are important to you. As long as there is waste, you can increase.
“If you earn it, you won’t even have to change your habits, your lifestyle or your luxuries.” I love that line. I’m aggressively paying off debt right now and even though I have scaled back a lot in my lifestyle and everyday ‘luxuries’, it’s the making more money part that is helping me kill my debt faster. This was a GREAT post Pauline! Thank you!
Thanks! Making more than what you want your lifestyle to be is indeed much more interesting than limiting your expenses.
Wow, Pauline. I appreciate you running the numbers like this. So much to think about!
Keep thinking, then suddenly it all becomes clear!
A fascinating post again, Pauline! Tammy and I cut spending as much as we could without sacrificing quality of life. Now we are trying to earn more so we can raise our quality of life while we pay down our few remaining debts and save/invest. Too bad we were not doing this in our 20s!!! Damn aging and damn ignorance!
better late than never CJ, you still have many years to make up for it, and earning more is very powerful.
I love the power of compounding interest. The numbers can’t lie and I am glad you put up the numbers.
Thank you Grayson.
Inspiring figures. That’s is what I am trying to do to maintain our cost of living even I earn more income. I hungry to save more… I am impress the power of compound interest. I like to multiply my money over the time.
time can sure do a lot!
It seems like a massive saving plan. I am remembering my childhood piggy bank. Though, I am not sure if I could start at 4% savings rate and reach until I make it to 75%, but still I am going to give it a try. All it’s going to require is my sincere dedication. Believe, good for all those who run impromptu at saving grace!
Good luck Andrew! Even a 12-15% rate will already put you ahead of most.
The argument that many people use of “I don’t have time” is false. If they would not watch TV for an hour a few times a week, they would be amazed as the extra income they could make during that time. Whenever I feel like vegging out on the couch I catch myself and ask if there is something productive I could be doing instead, and most times, there is.
That is one of my pet peeve. People have time, they just prioritize differently. I love to veg but don’t complain I had no time for XYZ.
Nice math to think about… I’m shooting for $3,500,000 by the year 2045… by my estimates this will produce an income of approximately $50,000 in today’s dollars… but who knows how that’ll change over time!