Retirement, for 18-22 year olds, seems like a million years into the future. But the average work career in the United States is about 40 years. Finish with post-high school education at 20 or 22, and then you retire at 62 or 65. Will you be ready?
Retirement is that post-work period of time when a person can fully control their time and travel, work on the bucket list, relax, work on self-improvement or whatever you want to do. But you will only be able to retire if you have a good plan and most importantly provide financially for your own retirement.
According to the Social Security Administration (SSA) in a web article “The Future Financial Status of the Social Security Program” (www.ssa.gov), the SSA estimates that all funds in the Social Security Trust Fund will be exhausted by 2037. Social Security taxes at that time will pay about 76% of the scheduled benefits. So counting on Social Security is not a solid bet for younger workers and high schoolers for the future. Even if the Social Security problem is fixed, it will not provide the type of retirement a lot of workers would like to have. What will people do?
It will be very necessary that younger workers now plan to save earnings and invest into their own retirement accounts. Retirement plans such as the 401K, IRA, Roth IRA, and others offer the younger generation a chance to not only save for retirement but make their money grow. “It is hard to get rich quick; it is not hard to get rich slow.”
In order to provide for your retirement, financial guru Dave Ramsey recommends putting away at least 15% of your earnings into a retirement investment (www.daveramsey.com). It will require higher earnings which will be necessary for you to invest into post-high school education. That could be college, apprenticeship, career and technical education, or the military. You cannot wait until you are 55 to provide for your retirement. You need to start once you have completed post-high school education, and then you invest into retirement during your 40 year work career. With higher earnings through post-high school education, younger workers will be able to provide for their own retirement. This is just another reason for you to invest into post-high school education.
Steve - ICAN Council Bluffs Center
