It is never too early to start thinking about your retirement and how you are going to finance it, and it is never too early to start working toward building a retirement fund. Just because you may be a young professional and feel as if retirement is a long way off, starting now allows you to build up wealth over time!

Regardless of whether you’re brand new to saving for retirement or already saving some in a 401(k), there’s a good chance you’re probably looking for ways to boost your retirement savings, as maximizing the chances of a good retirement and minimizing our tab liability are generally things we like to think about! Here are a few relatively painless ways to help boost your retirement savings:

Set up automated savings

If you are someone who struggles to find the will to save much if anything for your future, then an easy way to boost your retirement savings is to automate them. If you set it up so that your retirement savings are deducted from your account as soon as you are paid, then you are less likely to miss the money because you will not be seeing it in your current account, and you are less likely to dip into it because it will be immediately allocated to a different pot, too. I’m a huge believer in paying yourself first and paying yourself automatically so it becomes mindless and you don’t even think about it. Right now I’ve got 15% of my salary automatically going into my 401(k).

Start investing

If you have not already started investing, not only in your 401(k), but also in stocks and shares, then you should definitely start. The tax code caps 401(k) contributions at $20,500 but outside of that you may qualify (depending on income level) for a IRA (individual retirement account) and then outside of that you always have the ability to contribute to a regular brokerage account. Investment companies, like M&R Capital Management, can help you to significantly grow your wealth by advising you on the best stocks and shares to add to your portfolio. You’re probably more familiar with brokerages offered through your bank or sites like RobinHood (whom I am still mad at for their debacle during the Gamestop saga). You don’t need to know a ton about the market to invest or even follow it that closely, I keep 95% of my income in low cost index funds and have found that those boring types of investments often outperform (on the average) my individual stock picks (which I do less and less of). The longer you are an investor, the bigger your returns will be over the years, and the sooner, and more comfortably, you should be able to retire.

Contribute to 401(k) match schemes

If your employer offers a 401(k) match program, then you should be sure to invest at least the minimum amount required to benefit from it into your 401(k). By doing so, you will be able to take advantage of the free contributions, which may be 2, 4, 6 or even 8% of your income. This means that they’ll match up to that percentage, meaning they are giving you free money as long as you are also contributing. I like free money and I imagine you do too – so definitely contribute at least the match amount out as you’re able to! It means you can save twice as much for your retirement for half the cost!

Get on the property ladder

There’s an old adage that owning a home is one of the best ways to build wealth in our society. Although everyone’s situation might be slightly different, the sooner you can get on the property ladder, the sooner you can start building equity in your home. Equity means the portion of the house you own – and you accumulate this each month by making your mortgage payment which is part interest payments, part principal payments. This will give you more security over the years, allowing you to save on rent and mortgage costs and create a stronger nest egg for your retirement. Property is one of the safer investments out there and buying a home as soon as you can is, therefore, can be a very smart move.

Stop spending

Instead of spending any surplus income or any little windfalls that come your way, stash them in a savings account invest them in stocks or an IRA and make sure that you are wasting as little as possible. You don’t have to put 100% of that surplus income in a retirement / brokerage account but it’s good to do some. I typically try for a 50-50% split of saving/investing vs spending. You will be glad you did when you can retire earlier in more comfort than your peers who were spending all the time.

Summary

If you do as many of these things as possible, either now or in the future, then you should be able to boost your retirement savings and maximize the amount of cash you have available to you when the time comes to give up working. The sooner you start, though, the bigger your ultimate retirement pot will be.

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