How To Jump Start Saving for Your Retirement

Let me state the obvious. The sooner you start saving, the sooner it will become a habit. By saving for retirement NOW, you will learn good retirement savings practices that will help you well into the future.

I always say that the first step to investing is to just jump in. However, what if you don’t even know how to start investing and saving for retirement?

If you are like many who don’t know how to begin, here are the easy steps to start saving for retirement:

1. Start saving your money. In order to invest your money, you need to start setting aside money specifically for it. The amount of money you save for investing is entirely up to you, but in general, the more the better.
2. Do your research. Before you start dumping your money into the stock market and other investments, it’s a good idea to know what you’re putting your money towards. Researching various investment-related tips will help you become more informed about your investing decisions, which only means you will make better decisions well into the future.
3. Find an online brokerage or someone to manage your investments. There are two main ways to invest your money- yourself through a brokerage or you can find someone to manage your investment portfolio for you. You will need to chose one of these options to actually start investing your money. Personally, I like to do everything myself through Vanguard.
4. Decide how you will invest. How you invest depends on your risk tolerance, the time period for which you are investing (when will you retire?), and more. Generally, the sooner you need your funds the less risk you will take on, whereas the longer your time period is, then the more risk you may be willing to take.
5. Track your investment portfolio. This is important because you may eventually have to change what you are invested in, put more money towards your investments, and so on.
6. Continue the steps above over and over again. To invest for years and years to come, you will want to continue the steps above over and over again. Now that you know the steps it takes to invest your money, it only gets easier.

As you can see, saving for retirement isn't impossible. By starting now, you'll set yourself up for a much better future.