Many people dream of retiring early. But often, to make that happen, workers need to start funding their savings at a very young age. If you’re already many years into your career without much money in savings, you may be wondering if your plans for an early retirement are doomed. The good news is that they’re most certainly not.
The sooner you start saving for an early retirement, the better. But if you’re late to the game, that’s not a goal you have to abandon. You may just need to get aggressive with your savings efforts, line up the right income streams, and be reasonable in your spending.
1. Max out your retirement plan contributions
Maybe you’ve barely put any money in your IRA or 401(k) plan over the past 15 years. That’s clearly not ideal. But if you’re in your late 30s with the goal of retiring in your late 50s, that still gives you 20 years to build wealth. And a good way to start is to max out your IRA or 401(k) going forward.
So, let’s say you max out an IRA at today’s levels between ages 39 and 59. Let’s also assume you load up on stocks in your IRA so as to generate an average annual 8% return in your portfolio, which is a bit below the stock market’s average.
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All told, you’ll end up with $287,000. That’s not a ton of money, but if you have other income sources at your disposal, you can make it work….
