Whether you’re just getting started in your career or have been slogging away at the same desk for a few decades, you’ve probably already imagined what your ideal retirement will look like. Regardless of whether it means spending your days tending to your garden or traveling the world to visit all your bucket list destinations, all retirees are going to need the same thing: money.
In terms of the actual dollar amount you’ll need to save in order to live comfortably post-retirement, that figure varies from person to person and is based on personal lifestyle and what you hope to accomplish in those post-work years. While financial planner Wes Moss says that most people can live happily ever after with $500,000 socked away, other financial analysts believe that $1 million is the golden number.
While saving up a seven-figure sum might seem like an insurmountable task, Smart Couples Finish Rich author David Bach says that, “Becoming rich is nothing more than a matter of committing and sticking to a systematic savings and investment plan,” adding that, “You don’t need to have money to make money. You just need to make the right decisions—and act on them.”
As Business Insider reports, it’s never too late to start saving. To illustrate Bach’s point that smart decision-making is the key to building a healthy nest egg, they broke down the amount of money an individual would need to save on a daily basis in order to become a millionaire by age 65.
The good news for Millennials is that it doesn’t take much: Just $2 a day would get a 20-year-old to millionaire status by the time he or she was 65, while a 25-year-old would need to save $3.57 per day—about the cost of that second latte. Of course, the older you are when you begin to save, the more money you’ll need to cobble together: A 40-year-old will need to find $20.55 in savings per day, while a 45-year-old is looking at $38.02 daily. Still, it’s never too late to start saving: if a 55-year-old can manage to put away $156.12 per day—or $4749 per month—he or she should be able to reach that $1 million goal in just 10 years.
Check out the full chart from Business Insider below, then start checking your sofa cushions for change. And if you need some ideas on how to save more, here’s one quick way to “trick” yourself into building up your savings account.
[h/t: Business Insider]
December 30, 2016 – 5:00pm