Retirement?

I make around 35.000 dolars a year, I'm married but my husband is graduate students so no money from him! We are 30 years old and we need to start saving for retirement too. What should we do? How can we save for retirement and live ok? Thanks for all the help you can give me.

Public Comments

1. Save what you can when you can. Its not uncommon for persons who attend graduate school to have negative savings rates (borrowing money to pay tuition). The earnings potential comes later. You have another 35-40 years realistically before you retire. In the meantime you may have children. Your peak earning years may be 15-20 years from now and thats when you will likely have the means and ability to build your retirement fund. so its good to start planning to save, but realistically right now it doesnt appear to be an option.
2. At 30 years old , his buttt should be nearly done with the graduate student thing (he should be doing some work besides student anyways ) HOWEVER , as soon as he gets a job (like this year) , put all that income into IRAs , 401 K matching and paying off any CC debt. You have managed to live off the $35K for awhile , so keep it up for a few more years and sock it all into savings . . . If he is still doing the grad student thing more than another year , seek a new husband.
3. If you make 35K/year and hubby is not contributing at this time, what can you do but make ends meet? If you can save a little bit from time to time, that's great. If you can make that little bit into a nest egg that can be put into an IRA, even better. But when he can start contributing after graduation, then you can really look to active retirement planning.
4. Pension funds can go up or down, so can shares, endowment policies and even cash on deposit in bank accounts erroded by inflation. In any country the most stable currency is property. If you own a house, in 20 years time it will still be worth the same, one house, although the monetary value will appear to have increased but that is simply the effect of the currency being devalued over time. So, to tap into that, you buy a house on a buy to let mortgage and you rent it out using the rent received to repay the mortgage, both interest and capital, so in 20 years you will have a house, at the prevailing maket value, fully paid for by someone else and owned outright by you. As time goes by and your husband completes his degree and can contribute more you could buy other houses too, then by the time you both retire you will have the capital value of all the houses to fall back on and the rental income to live on.
5. Get him out to work. Only thirty percent of graduates reach their expected earnings level.
6. Develop healthy spending levels. The secret to saving is not saving at all. it is in spending properly. Do not dig yourself in debt. You can find some good ideas on line check out this site below
7. The problem you face is that traditional financial institutions are only profit motivated and don't look at your total financial picture. Does your bank care about your student loans? does your credit card co. care about your mortgage. Etc One company, Primerica Financial Services, a division of Citigroup, offers a total solution. I was able to put a plan together to retire early and be finanancially independent. They offer a FNA (Financial Needs Analysis) for FREE. go to primericafna.com It will change your lives!!