If you are an employee or are unemployed trying to become an employee chances are you are being bullied. Someone is telling when and where to be and how much you will be paid for your time. Someone has probably given you a list of rules to follow for 40+ hours a week and a task to complete. In essence you are an asset to someone in that you are making them more money than they are paying you. This is fine and good for most people and since we were teenagers we have sought out the prospect of being bullied like this. The way 95% of people think is to become a specialist through work or school then work and save until you are old enough to retire, but most people never do the math and do not realize how much they will need to live “work free” until they die. I submit to you that there is no better use of 4th grade math than to do this simple exercise. Figure out how much your current lifestyle would cost yearly to maintain. Next, the age you want to retire and the probable age you will die.
Just for fun, lets say you will need $55,000 for you and your spouse to live your current lifestyle and you want to retire at age 65 (yeesh!). Then we’ll say that 80 is a ripe old age die. That’s 15 years X $55,000 = $825,000 without taking inflation and taxes into account! If you are 25 years old you need to start saving over $20,000 a year! It’s less if you started saving as a teenager but a lot sadder. Time to start teaching your kid how to Dunk! or....Start acquiring or creating assets, revenue streams.