Retirement:

The further I dive into learning about personal finance, the more I hear about retirement savings and compouded interest. I've heard in several places that a dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow. This is because a dollar saved today can earn more interest than a dollar saved tomorrow, and will work longer to increase your net worth.

So now I find myself looking into retirement options. I'm 30, and haven't put much thought into retirement, but I am now looking at my entire financial future. I want to retire and live comfortably. So now I'm looking into retirement savings options.

I'm already working to save 10% into a personal savings account. It's got an .8% APY currently, and it's hard to access. So any money I put there will do a little work for me, and any money I put there is not easily accessed in an attempt to make it a true necessity for me to take it out of that account.

But now I'm looking at my retirement as well. I'm not able to start big and make up for what I could've saved through my 20's, it's way too late for that. But now I can start small and start earning little by little toward my retirement. I'm looking into IRA options to see what IRA would be best for me. I'm still learning the difference in IRA, Roth IRA, SEP IRA......but the point is that I know I want to start an IRA very soon. Even if all I can put in that account is $10-week, that's $520 over a year. If I work for the next 30 years, saving $520-year, that'll be 15600 that I've saved toward retirement. Obviously, that's not gonna cut it, but with the right compounded interest rate, that amount will balloon over time. Also, the amount of money that I can apply to retirement will increase as I pay off my debts over the next 5 years.

So here I am, 12 days from my 31st birthday, looking seriously at my retirement options for the first time in my life.