One Snarky Chica with Issues

I admit that I have been a bit lax in my retirement planning. I am 29 and I have around $1400 in a rollover IRA and that is pretty much it. I know, it’s pretty irresponsible. I hope to be able to max out a Roth IRA though before tax time is up. Lofty goal, but one I think I might be able to achieve.

This year is actually the first time I have really started work on planning for my future. As I have mentioned before, my old ways were to live for the now and worry about the future if I was around in the future. I incorrectly thought that planning for the future meant that I could not have any fun now.

Thankfully I have realized that what I thought was not true. However, planning for the future means responsible spending and saving, as well as making up for past mistakes. That is what I am doing now in my journey to pay off debt. I have also learned that any extra money I spend now is money that I won’t have in the future. Sure, it sounds a little extreme but it is true. I mean, I would love to buy a Wii but that is $250 that I really do not have to spend. Spending it now would mean putting it on a credit card which would mean interest which means it would cost more than $250.

Actually, being irresponsible and not planning for retirement is like robbing your future retired self. And who wants to rob old people?

While I did largely come to these thoughts and have this little epiphany all on my own it was also influenced by what I have been seeing happen in the lives of others around me.

Take for example my parents. My dad has been making around $100,000 a year for about 15 years or more. They have a home that is paid for and two condos at the beach with mortgages. Mortgages that they cannot afford. Their retirement savings? Around $7,500 each. That is it. And oh yeah, they are trying to sell their home because they are about to lose the two condos because they can’t afford the mortgage payments. I can only imagine how it feels to be 51 years old and have worked yourself to death all these years only to be on the brink of losing everything and have not even enough in the bank to live a year on.

Then there is my girlfriend’s mother. She was renting a house with her current husband.  They have horrible credit and declared bankruptcy a few years ago. She has no money in the bank. A month ago the husband said he wanted a divorce.  She is 55 and can’t even afford to live in a $400 apartment by herself. Savings? Zero. Retirement savings? She works in the public school system and is banking on a pension. That is it. She is 55 and practically has nothing.

I do not want to be these people when I am 51 or 55 years old. It must be so depressing to be their ages and realize that after all you have worked for you practically have nothing. Isn’t that sad? It is also motivation. Why? Because I never want to know what that feels like.

And up until my revelation this year, I was on that same path. Now I am trying my hardest to forge a new path. One that features me being debt free and having fully funded Roth IRA’s each year as well as a nicely funded account with Vanguard. Right now it is mostly a dream. But unlike a lot of dreams, I know that it is easily attainable with a little hard work and dedication.