All calculations are based on retiring at age 66 and earning at an average return rate of 9% a year.

Monthly Contributions

You start saving at age 21: 45 years Investing $200 a month at 9% interest generates $1,543,404 in savings.
You start saving at age 25: 41 years investing $200 a month at 9% interest generates $1,065,101 in savings
You start saving at age 30: 36 years investing $200 a month at 9% interest generates    $666,633 in savings
You start saving at age 35: 31 years investing $200 a month at 9% interest generates    $413,642 in savings
You start saving at age 40: 26 years investing $200 a month at 9% interest generates    $253,017 in savings

Lump Sum Contribution

You invest $10,000 at age 21: 45 years investing $10,000 at the beginning generates $2,050,000 in savings
You invest $10,000 at age 25: 41 years investing $10,000 at the beginning generates $1,420,000 in savings
You invest $10,000 at age 30: 36 years investing $10,000 at the beginning generates    $897,000 in savings
You invest $10,000 at age 35: 31 years investing $10,000 at the beginning generates    $565,000 in savings
You invest $10,000 at age 40: 26 years investing $10,000 at the beginning generates    $350,900 in savings

The easiest way to gain wealth is to start saving early and save consistently over a long period of time. Imagine if you taught your children this one simple concept if they put it to practice they could generate savings needed to retire quite comfortably.

This is a simple and effective way to find the leaks and you can make changes in your budget or spending habits to plug the leaks you find.

First stop using the credit card

Second take the current minimum amount due and make it the permanent monthly payment.  So if the minimum amount due today is $100 then plan on making a $100 payment every month and ignore the minimum payment that comes on future bills.

Third you will see that your credit card will generally payoff in 3 or so years depending on the size of the loan and how it is structured.

Fourth if you want to pay it off sooner, make bigger payment but never make a payment less than the $100 payment.

If you can pay the current minimum amount today then you can painlessly pay the card off in a few short years!

First determine to keep your cars 10 years that is how you get the very most out of your money.

Second buy only used cars or lower cost new cars.

Third check to see what leasing or buying a new car will cost you per month (let’s say $400)

Fourth buy a car every 5 years, say you save $400 a month for your next car and save the money in an account just for cars at the end of 5 years you will have saved $24,000 not counting the interest you would earn. That is enough to buy a lower cost new car or a fairly recent more upgraded used car.  You pay to have two cars by; keeping your cars 10 years, buying a car every 5 years,  and saving the equivalent of  a single car payment in your budget every month!

Once you are doing these things you have gained control of your money now comes the fun part, offensive budgeting, the ability to save toward your goals, both short term (i.e. saving for your next vacation or your next car) and long term (i.e. saving for retirement and for college for your kids) goals. In this regard think of your self as the quarterback directing your money toward your goals. When you get into offensive budgeting you may use defensive budgeting to cut monthly costs so you can put more money toward you goals! People doing this are well on there way to achieving their financial goals!

Our software lets you plan for known future changes to your income or budget separately from your current income and budget plan. Then update you current income and budget plan with those changes.

Our budget toolkit embraces the full Plan-Do-Review process; highlighting your bills when they are due, letting you mark bills that are paid, mapping your actual costs against your budgeted costs and income, showing where costs have exceeded your plan and collectively whether your budget and income can cover your actual costs. Finally you can quickly and easily keep a history of your income, budget and actual costs.

By following a proven process you greatly increase your chances for success!

That is why our budgeting software is designed to help you plan for the future and meet your obligations! It is not so much concerned with where you have been and is more focused on where you want to go. People ask me why we don’t provide account balancing with our software and my answer is simple unless people use a budget to plan for their future, balancing a bank account will do nothing to help them reach their goals. Planning is the first and most important part of mastering money only when you are planning can accounting provide beneficial feedback. As it has been said “If you don’t know where you want to go any road will take you there!”. When you want to go on a trip don’t you look at the map to see where you want to go? You create a plan that may include stops for gas, and food or even spending the night, all of which are needed to come up the the plan and cost. That is exactly what budgeting does it helps you come up with a plan and a cost. It is how we do most things in life, before we spend any money, we come up with the plan and a cost to see if we can afford it or how much we need to save over time to do it.

First you need a plan then and only then can you see how well you followed your plan! When you start with accounting you are putting the cart before the horse! It is your plan that makes accounting useful!

Do we want this to go down as a time in history where the American republic worked and our nation was saved? Or will we see our country burdened with; crushing debt, an anemic economy and a much lower standard of living? Will we come together as a country; black and white, rich and poor, young and old, religious and non religious, liberal and conservative, working and retired, sick and well and vote to save our country? or will we allow the political parties to divide us and focus us on petty personal benefits that will likely be lost if our country does not dramatically change direction?

When we step in the voting booth now and in the future we need to be thinking about our country, our future, our children  and grandchildren’s future. Remember the story of Solomon who had two women approach him claiming to be the mother of the same boy. Solomon simply said cut the child in half and give one half to each women. The real mother who loved the child quickly gave her rights to the boy up in order to save the boy. Which one are you? Are you a citizen who loves your country more than yourself? Or are you determined to get your “fair share” no matter the cost? That is the heart and soul of the matter.

I am sick and tired of hearing Barack Obama talk about our “fair share”. What is that? As if anyone knows what that really is! What is fair and what is a fair share? It is nonsensical political talk designed to take our eyes off of the what our country needs and to focus it back on what we think we “deserve”. I’ll tell you what we deserve….we deserve a government that works for us not one that panders to us! We are not sheep and we do not have to be to be lead to the slaughter. We are Americans and “Now is Our Time to Shine” and show the world that the United States is a great nation because of its people not its leaders.

The great gift of Ronald Reagan was leadership. Mr. Reagan set the agenda, the direction and then persuaded many to follow. That is what a good leader does and that is exactly what we need today. Good leaders may not be perfect people. Ronald Reagan was not a perfect man and neither were any of our Presidents. We better stop looking for perfection and start looking for real leaders with proven leadership skills. Change is hard, President Obama found that even with control of both houses of congress and the Presidency it was very difficult to push through his agenda. Remember Obamacare only passed because some congressman chose to risk their re-election chances by voting it in.

We need a president who is going to be for the people and for the country and who wants to limit the size of government while working to increase the economy. I will go out on a limb and say any candidate who will not embrace a flat single rate income tax is not serious about fixing the economy! Our tax is used by politicians to reward “friends” and punish “enemies”. It is corrupt and complex and we must eliminate it. As long as we have a progressive tax (one with multiple rates) the opportunity for corruption exists. With a flat tax we can eliminate all other taxes and all deductions except for generous exemptions for people so that families with a couple of kids do not have to pay tax until they reach an income of say $40,000 or possibly higher.  Many citizens already embrace the single rate flat tax but, it is an incredibly divisive issue in Washington D.C., our corrupt politicians will say anything to prevent a flat tax from being implemented. We must insist that a single rate flat tax be implemented.

Why? Because a single rate flat tax will attract businesses back to this country and will entice businesses already here to spend money to grow their businesses.

What about Obamacare? It must be stopped, it is a huge power grab that will do absolutely nothing to bring down the cost of health care. Our Federal government which owes around $15 trillion has proven to be inept at controlling spending! It is an absurd thought to believe the Federal Government of the United States is capable of controlling costs of any kind! Not only this but funding Obamacare will require money we don’t have! It isn’t only that Obamacare will fail to bring down costs, it will require significant new spending to support it. At a time when we should be reducing the size and reach of the Federal Government Obamacare does exactly the opposite! If we replace Obamacare with changes like tort reform (eliminating frivolous law suits), allowing insurance companies to compete across state lines and increasing the availability of Heath Savings Accounts (HSA) then costs can be brought down.

What about Government spending? Unlike businesses that at times have to downsize in order to weather economic downturns our government never downsizes. In the best of times the Federal government should downsize and pay down debt so that during economic downturns they can absorb additional costs. However our government increases in size and spending during the good times and the bad times.  Today our government must look to reduce in all area’s, Social Security and Medicare must be reformed.

We cannot complain about our government if we don’t vote! How we collectively vote will determine whether the United States avoids disaster or not!

To be sure these are scary times, we sit on the brink of what could be the next great depression after struggling through what now is dubbed the great recession. How did we get here? Why is this happening? Look no further than Mr. Obama, sure we all dislike the congress, they vote themselves high pay, tremendous pensions and create laws we must live with yet don’t apply to them. What is there to respect about that? Yet congress has put forth a budget that would get our house in order and put forth a cut, cap and balance plan that could also get our financial house in order. While these are not perfect they are what we need today. It will be painful to reduce our spending. America has endured a long  recession and high unemployment many of us have lost our jobs and homes, all of us have had to pay down debt and get control of our spending, while our Government has done neither. Politicians are like candy men distributing money to prospective  voters. They see their job as bringing home the bacon to their representative state now the candy men are running out of candy.

It is the President who must lead America that is his job. This President is leading us to the edge of the abyss and under his watch America is slowly grinding to a halt and what has Mr. Obama done? At every turn he has done exactly the  opposite of what is needed. If we need to reduce spending he wants to increase spending, if small business needs help he helps them by adding regulations, making it hard to get a loan and trying to raise their taxes. Mr. Obama is marching happily toward a socialist agenda. Forget about PC talk, nearly all of Mr. Obamas czars are communists and socialists who want to change America into a country where a small group of elites rule over the majority. They are the elites and we are the majority. They want a communist government where they rule with an iron fist.

Do you think I am just a kook? really? have you looked at the czars Mr. Obama put in place? Do you know who they are? If you want to see what I am talking about ask yourself why the federal government has sued the state of Arizona and now Alabama for simply enforcing federal immigration laws that are on the books. Ask yourself why the federal government believes they can force people to buy health insurance, one of the key tenets of Obamacare. Mr. Obama speaks down to us as if he knows better than we do. To him only the people who agree with him matter. The vast majority of Americans do not want our country to be fundamentally changed we want America to be restored to what it was intended to be as defined by the constitution. We believe in the goodness of America and the uniqueness of America.

We have a presidential election next year are we going to vote for more candy? or are we going to vote to restore our great nation? Do we believe the change we have experienced is the Change we Need? Is the President providing the Leadership we Deserve? The way we answer these questions is dertermined on the votes we cast. Let’s forget about the political parties and vote for the people who provide solid idea’s that can restore our great nation. Vote the incumbents out of office they long ago stop serving us, today they serve themselves. If an incumbant has been in office more than two terms send em’ home!