According to a survey conducted by the Employee Benefit Research Institute, “Nearly half of all workers saving for retirement have savings that fall short of the $25,000 mark”.

This is why I don’t necessarily agree with Dave Ramsey’s idea of postponing contributing to your retirement fund.

• First of all, in most cases, there’ s an employee match (read: free money).
• Secondly, The good ol’ power of compounding interest will always work in your favor.
• And lastly, saving for your future becomes a habit, if not unnoticeable after a while.

It may not be nice to say this but this story actually makes me feel good. I’m only 26 and in pretty good shape with about $10K and growing in my retirement accounts. According to the “Rule of 72“, if I were to stop contributing now I would have $25K in less than 14 years – making me 40 and putting me in the “bad average” in this survey. So basically, I like my chances that I’ll be doing much better than that if I keep going as I am now.