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Now that my newspaper gig pays more than my rent, I'm going to try and start putting $25-$50/month in a Roth.
Attention Duff and Alvarez.
Start on your first $1 million at age 16
It's easier than you think to become a millionaire. The magic combo? Getting an early start saving and having the discipline not to raid the piggy bank.
By Scott Burns
Here's a simple recipe to become a millionaire:
Work four summers, starting at age 16
Fast-food millionaires
A million dollars. It has such a nice sound.
So let me show you how four summer jobs can become your first million.
Let's suppose that you are 16 years old, in high school, and willing to work. Let's also suppose that you can clear about $2,000 over the course of a summer, if only because a doting grandparent puts money in the Roth while you take your earnings to school. If you invest in a Roth IRA, it will grow, tax-free, for as long as you have the account. All withdrawals from the account after age 59 1/2 will be tax-free.
If your money is invested in common stocks and you achieve the average compound annual rate on large-capitalization U.S. stocks, 10.7%, your account will grow to $9,378 at the end of the fourth year. You will be 20 years old. Invested in the same way, with no additional savings, the account will grow to:
$25,917 by the time you are 30
$71,625 by the time you are 40
$197,943 by the time you are 50
$547,037 by the time you are 60
And $1,114,423 by the time you are 67
And you will have started and finished all of your saving before turning age 21.
Worth the risk
Note that this plan does not require investment brilliance. It does depend on two things, an early start and tenacity. If you invested in small company stocks, whose long-term annual return clocks in at 12.5 percent annually, you could have much more money. (Try $2.4 million.) Similarly, you could diversify to reduce your risk and make your 47-year ride more comfortable. But you would do it at the expense of a somewhat lower return.
The "Yes, but" crew will be happy to tell you that $1 million isn't what it used to be. I can remember people telling me this in the '60s. It is as true now as it was then. Millionaires are, well, just dreadfully common.
Even so, the number of millionaires is relatively small. And being a millionaire is a better choice than being a pauper.
The same crew will be happy to tell you that the future won't repeat the past, that SARS, terrorism or some other misfortune will cripple the future, or that we will be crushed by a rising China. Similarly, an actuary might tell you that you have a substantial chance of being dead by 67.
Perhaps.
But so what?
All you've got to risk is four summers.
Now that my newspaper gig pays more than my rent, I'm going to try and start putting $25-$50/month in a Roth.
intelligent thinking Johnny.
Other guys your age start thinking of "new car" about that time.
Aren't you guys around the same age?
I just turned 25.
I had a truck when I was 16 and the only reason I got a "new" ('99) in 2002 was because the old truck was going to need more work than would be worth it.
I would much rather just get my truck paid off since I'm very lucky to have a dad who is a mechanic and does me vehicle work for me.
can you do that before the initial $2000 or does it have to be afterward?Now that my newspaper gig pays more than my rent, I'm going to try and start putting $25-$50/month in a Roth.
The last time I researched it and the place I researched it at didn't require me to make a starting deposit, IIRC.
That's what I was thinking...
Duff's too busy arguing politics today which gives evidence that he does not have a job. Nice try Jim.
Duff's too busy arguing politics today which gives evidence that he does not have a job. Nice try Jim.
Does not hurt to try, Hookdem.
Agreed! It would have been your second kind deed!Does not hurt to try, Hookdem.
I should rephrase sorry.Aren't you guys around the same age?
OUR age.
I wasn't really correcting you. I was just wondering. I didn't know exactly how old Blaze was.
No I know, I reread and it does look strange...
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