Fund Retirement Plans ASAP

When individuals earn money, their first responsibility is to pay current expenses such as rent or mortgage and food. Once these expenses have been covered, the next step should be to fund a retirement plan.

How much difference will funding a vehicle such as a Roth IRA early on in life make?

If you're 23 years old and deposit $3,000 per year (that's only $250 each month) in a Roth IRA earning an 8% average annual return, you will have saved $985,749 by the time you are 65 years old due to the power of compounding in comparison to $724,753 if you waited 10 years later.