So I just have to share this cool thing about financial independance...I heard it from my mom and dad awhile ago and it makes so much sense, the sooner the better to start saving, because then by the time your 50 or 60 whenever you decide to stop working the better....ok here it is....
So my mom and dad are pretty much financially independant. They have done it with smart investments and hard work, I love that they get to do pretty much whatever they want when they want and not have to have financial stress. They don't have to stress themselves out when helping out all of us kids and I want that for Shad and I....so here is what they said to do and they have a fantastic financial planner on their side..
So you take a year or 2 and save up about $10,000-$14,000...for my example I am going to start with $10,000. Once you have that starting nest egg you find a or some mutal funds to invest it in....mutal funds are very safe and net typically a 10-14% return. Ok, so now each year you let the interest acrue and the key here is to keep feeding the fund as well with your own money...Try and have it be $500-$1000 a monthly...for some this may be hard so even $100-200 is some. My example is going to use adding $12,000 a year (saving and feeding the mutal fund $1000 month) to the fund along with the growing interest each year to illustrate how cool this turns out by the time Shad and I are 50.
Ok so lets say that by the time Shad and I are 31 we have saved $10,000 to put into a mutal fun and we spend the next 9 years feeding it and letting it grow off interest, I am going to use a 10% return for this example.
Age 32 - $10,000 in + $1000 in interest + $12,000 saved for that year = $23,000
Age 33 - $23,000 in + $2300 in interest + $12,000 saved for that year = $37,300
Age 34 - $37,000 in + $3700 in interest(for the year remember+$12,000 added = $53,000
already if you wanted to stop there we could have a couple of missions paid for...but we don't want to stop so lets keep going...
Age 35 - $53,000 + 5300 in interest + $12,000 saved for that year = $70,300
Age 36 - $70,300 + $7030 in interest + $12,000 saved for that year = $89,330
Age 37 - $89,330 + $8933 in interest + $12,000 = $110,263
Age 38 - $110,263 + $11,026 in interest + $12,000 = $133,289
Age 39 - $133,289 + $13,329 in interest + $12,000 = $158,618
Age 40 - $158,618 + $15,861 in interest + $12,000 = $174,479
So at this point the mutal fund and interest it makes really start working for you, the key here is to up how much you are feeding it each year, so I am going to begin adding $1500 a month so $17,000 a year, the logic behind this is that most of us by age 40 are in our careers and making more, so saving more should be easier...ok here we go
Age 41 - $174,479 + $17,448 + $17,000 saved = $208,927
Age 42 - $208,927 + $20,893 + $17,000 saved = $246,820
Age 43 - $246,820 + $24,682(this is interest acrued for the year remember) + $17,000(and this is what we would save each year and put into the fund) saved = $288,502
Age 44 - $288,502 + $28,850 + $17,000 saved = $334,352
Age 45 - $334,352 + $33,435 + $17,000 saved = $384,787
Ok here Tae would be mission age, on the interest alone, his mission would be covered! :) Lets keep going
Age 46 - $384,787 + $38,479 + $17,000 saved = $440,266
Age 47 - $440,266 + $44,026 + $17,000 saved = $501,292
We are at a 1/2 million dollars here folks....could retire at this age and live off interest if Shad and I decided to be really frugal...it would give us $50,000 a year to live off, and then a 1/2 million to live on the rest of our lives, but lets keep going a few more years...
Age 48 - $501,292 + $50,129 + $17,000 = $568,421
Age 49 - $568,421 + $56,842 + $17,000 = $642,263
Age 50 - $642,263 + $64,226 + $17,000 = $723,489
Ok Shad and I could retire on this easily and live off the interest, we could stop working completely and live off $72,000 a year if we wanted to, kids are in college by now, it would just be us...so living off the interest while maintaining our 3 quarter of a million dollar nest egg, to use for a rainy day....sounds dreamy! But lets say Shad and I push 5 more years....and increase how much we feed the fund to $2000 a month so $24,000 a year...
Age 51 - $723,489 + $72,348 + $24,000 = $819,837
Age 52 - $819,837 + $81,984 + $24,000 = $925,821
Age 53 - $925,821 + $92,582 + $24,000 = $1,042,403
Age 54 - $1,042,403 + $104,240 + $24,000 = $1,170,643
Age 55 - $1,170,643 + $117,064 + $24,000 = $1,311,707
Shad and I stop working....and whala we have over a million dollars as a retirement nest egg and can completely live comfortabley off the interest without ever touching our investment unless we want to, we would be able to live off $130,000 a year, that is a great income and spend the last 50 years or so of our life doing WHATEVER we wanted pretty much....I love the idea and we are working towards it, being financially independant is one of the greatest things I have seen my parents accomplish and it has been a great example. There is so much freedom to it. Now the amounts are going to vary whether smaller or bigger depending on how much you save, and if you can start with more then and feed it with more then some people could retire by 40! And you don't have to invest in mutal funds either, there are other ways to go to save for your retirement, however mutal funds are pretty safe and give a consistent return. :) So there you go, thought all of you should know, start saving now, whether it is $100,000 or $1,000,000 it will be nice to not have to stress out about working or paying for things for your kids or even enjoying yourself when you are older....you got and idea for financial independance, there are a lot out there, so good luck to all, as for me and Shad.....we hope to be in New Zealand on our 30th year anniversary celebrating financial freedom! (ps - colleges and missions and weddings paid for by then as well :) I have known about this for awhile now, and it has been hard to save, so now we can start saving, and get out of debt, and then save even more to build our nest egg, some people could easily have 2 or 3 million depending on how they save and live....good luck to all of you! Thought you all should know this!
ps - always have to throw in cute pictures of my boys....:)
