IS Saving $5,000 a year a good idea?

[scfr]

Re: IS Saving $5,000 a year a good idea?

Yes - by all means get a good basic personal finance book. If you do a search of this forum you will find some threads regarding books with lots of good suggestions.

A fairly new one that I like is "The Net Worth Workout" by Susan Feitelberg. A big added bonus is that there is currently a FREE Book Club at Barnesandnoble.com that is led by this author; it is a rare opportunity to interact with a financial adviser for a major company (JPMorgan Chase) for absolutely free. That is something many people pay lots of money for. Unfortunately, the book club ends at the end of Jan, so if you are interested you'll need to do it right away.

[humandraydel]

Re: IS Saving $5,000 a year a good idea?

The S&P 500 went up about 14-16% in 2006. Some years will be more, some less, some may be negative. But historically, almost every 30 year period in history has returned an average of about 10% per year. The difference between 10% per year and 5% per year over 30 years is HUGE. That's why I said at your age you need to be investing - you've got 25-30 years to ride out any downturns in the market.