How to Retire Early

Getting out of debt part 4…Getting out of debt, creating wealth, living financially free, retiring with cash in hand can all be achieved by following one simple rule: Spend less money than you make.

Are you looking for help getting out of debt? …Over the last 2 years while working to get out of debt, we have paid off nearly $30,000 in consumer debts from some mistakes that we made in the past.

My student loans were locked in at about 3%, but I don’t think rates that good are available today. I assume a 10% return on my retirement savings, so even if you are paying 5% on your student loans and earning 10% (or even 6%) you still come out ahead. Mathematically, this seems to be the much stronger answer. However, Dave Ramsey’s method -based on our behaviors rather than math, would eliminate any and all debts before investing for retirement.

Right now, you may be wondering why you should invest in a Roth IRA if you currently have a retirement plan (401k, 403b, etc.) with your employer. The Roth IRA has many benefits that other retirement plans don’t have, and chief among them is the fact that your investment earnings may accumulate tax-free. In other words, your Roth IRA has the opportunity to grow without incurring any taxes and can be distributed to you tax free, if some certain conditions are met.

“Make it a habit to have more money coming in than going out. You may need to drive the clunker a bit longer or postpone that trip to Europe.” Good advice. It is the simple 3rd grade math problem that is the ONLY way to wealth. If you can start the habit now, you will be in great shape for the rest of your life. If you don’t, you will have to face the music sometime and the longer you wait the more difficult it becomes.

There is a balance between preparing for the future and waiting until the future to enjoy life. I used to be out of balance by spending everything I had and more and having no thought about the future.

You just finished your degree and you are probably looking for your first “real” job. This is the perfect opportunity to decide how you would like your financial life to be. You have the choice to spend and buy whatever you feel like which will likely put you in heaps of debt.

What is an IRA account anyway? An Individual Retirement Account (IRA) is a retirement savings plan that allows you to contribute to it up to….

The biggest hurdle for most people is saving money. As Dave Ramsey would say, it is a behavioral problem, not a money problem. Getting in the habit of consistently saving is far more crucial to your success than getting a better rate of return (at the beginning). Let me show you why:

4 steps to retirement savings

This is about the biggest no-brainer when it comes to retirement savings. If they are matching 100% of your contributions you are basically doubling your investment for every dollar you put into your 401(K).

I found a couple calculators to help measure whether or not we are on track for our retirement goals. The first retirement planning calculator will take about 5 minutes to complete, but is more thorough than the other retirement calculator. I like both of them for different reasons, so try them out and see what [...]

An Individual Retirement Account (IRA) is a retirement savings plan that allows you to contribute up to $4,000 a year (in 2007). An IRA is an account in which you can have various different investments. You can put your IRA funds in stocks, mutual funds, CDs, money markets or other investments.