Retire a millionaire (even if you havent started yet)

Retire a millionaire (even if you havent started yet)Retire a millionaire (even if you havent started yet)Did you know you canretire a millionaireby contributing just $35 per week? When youre in yur early twenties, retirement seems so far away that it isnt a priority. In fact, according to Bankrate,only one-third of millennials have started saving for retirement.This is so disheartening because we are a brilliant generation of innovative thinkers, hard workers, and do-ers. When we see something we want, we go for it. I say we because I am technically a millennial (just barely) at the age of 36.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and moraWhy arent Millennials saving for retirement?Answer We prioritize ur current needs and wants over future goals. akaIts my money and I need it now.The single reason my husband and I stopped contributing to retirement was that we listened to Dave Ramseys advice . We figured wed pause retirement while we hustled hard to get out of debt.The problem is, several years later, we were still in debt and had no retirement savings and nothing to show for ur great income. Two people without so much as an associates degree were earning over six figures and were stillliving paycheck to paycheck.The truth is, I can budget all day long. In fact, I am a numbers nerd. The problem isnt lack of planning or budgeting. Its alack of self-controland wanting instant gratification.Wed pay off thousands of dollars of debt only to charge the leistungspunkt cards back up. Even worse, we had a car trading problem. We had a track record of trading cars in at least once a year or two. In our nine years of marriage, weve owned 15 cars.FIFTEEN, yall.What the actual F were we thinking trading in vehicles that often? Ill just share with you some of my own (what Dave Ramsey calls) stupid tax.When my husband and I were engaged in 2009, I drove a 2002 Chevrolet Trailblazer wi th 90k miles. He drove a brand new 2009 Honda Civic SI, six speed. He loved that car. And he didnt owe anything on it. ButHis stepmom had recently passed, and as part of his inheritance, his Dad bought him this car in exchange for Aaron giving him his truck and continuing to make payments on it.So we had a truck payment and my car payment, although I only owed about $3,000 on my car. He owed about $12,000 on his truck. Here was our first huge mistake that started an avalanche of debt and poor car buying choices.Selling an upside down car to CarmaxYoure probably wondering what cars have to do with being able to retire a millionaire. Stay with me.First, we traded my Trailblazer for a $23,000 Chevy Tahoe. I wanted more space and I got it. I also was consideredupside down on my car notebecause I owed more than what the dealership would pay for it. So, stupidly, I financed about $25,000.Then, we thought wed sell my husbands car for cash outright. We werent patient enough to wait it out a nd sold it to Carmax for way less than it was worth. We paid off my father in law with the proceeds and bought my husband a beater. It was a 1999 Jeep Cherokee, and he loved it. But eventually, he wanted something nicer and so our quest for vehicles began.We ended upselling an upside down car to Carmaxyears later again when we foolishly bought a brand new Honda Odyssey minivan and were stuck with a $733 per month car payment (for one vehicle).How to retire a millionaire on $60,000 annual incomeSelling my husbands car to pay off his Dad wasnt a bad financial decisioneven though he was driving a beater for a while. However, heres what our financial picture could have looked like if wed have done things differentlyIf wed have kept my car and Aarons beater, we could have paid off my car in a matter of a few months. The rest of our debt, which really was quite small at the timebut felt huge, could have been paid off by the end of the year. But because we chose to double our payments and total debt obligation, we were even deeper in the hole.Lets pretend that Aaron and I did, in fact, keep my car and his beater and as a result, we had $1,500 per month to save or invest after we paid off all of our other debts using thedebt snowball method. At the time, we didnt make much money.We had a combined household income of about $60,000 before taxes. And our rent accounted for 25% of our gross income. Child care was also expensive as I had a five-year-old from my first marriage, and as soon as we got married, we had another on the way.At the time, we were 25 and 26 years old. If we would have invested $1,000 into our 401k plans at work ($500 each, or approximately 20% of our gross income monthly each), assuming an annual average rate of return of 10%, we would have approximately $201,000 today.Take advantage of the 401k employer matchThe above example is assuming were only putting our own money into the mix, and its based solely on compound interest, not increases in contrib utions based on raises. Most employers offer a company match to retirement contributions.For example, my husbands employer contributes 3% towards his 401k no matter what, and this money is vested immediately. Pretty cool, right?To take things a step further, his employer will also match 100% of his contributions up to 5%. So basically, if my husband contributes 5% of his pretax income towards retirement, his employer contributes 8% and hes now got 13% growing at an exponential rate.Now, because I dont want to shareallof our business, Im going to use the standard household income for this next calculation as an example. Lets assume my husbands gross income is $67,000 annually before taxes. Remember, if wed have followed the scenario above, we would have $201,000 in retirement.Now lets assume he wants to continue contributing 20% of his gross income and his employer contributes 8% and his total contribution is 28% or $18,760 per year.Assuming an inflation of 3% and raises of 2% annual ly, he would be on track to retire by age 67.This article originally appeared on Melissa Blevins.You might also enjoyNew neuroscience reveals 4 rituals that will make you happyStrangers know your social class in the first seven words you say, study finds10 lessons from Benjamin Franklins daily schedule that will double your productivityThe worst mistakes you can make in an interview, according to 12 CEOs10 habits of mentally strong people