Should you talk to your kids about retirement?
Theirs, that is, not yours.
It struck me the other day that now may be exactly the right time to begin talking to my son about his retirement. Now I know that at age 14, he’s probably much more interested in what’s going on now in his life than what could be happening 50 or 60 years in the future, but I don’t think it can hurt to start at least mentioning the idea now. At the very least I want to talk to him about it before he gets his first job.
Many companies allow their employees to contribute to 401(k)s, and it seems like many of the people I know that are just starting out don’t take advantage of that ability. And I wonder if it isn’t because no one ever sat them down and said, “hey, you know, if you put in a little bit each week now for a few years, you’ll never miss it, AND you’ll be a heck of a lot better off than someone who waits until they’re forty and puts in many thousands of dollars each year.”
Because who thinks about retirement in their teens?
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March 5th, 2007 at 12:02 pm
I think kids have a hard time thinking about what is going to happen in a year from now…let alone retirement.
I don’t know that my kids, as teens would listen to me in regards to retirement.
I think your son seems to be more mature than alot of kids–since he has $2K already–that is really good.
March 5th, 2007 at 1:04 pm
I think talking to your kids about retirement and teaching them how to manage their money effectively is very important. If they start a 401(k) (or roth IRA if their employer doesn’t offer a 401(k))when they are in their teens, and contribute just a few hundred per year, they’ll be way ahead of someone who starts a 401(k) when they graduate college and start their first job.
I also plan to incentivize my kids to contribute to savings, especially for retirement. Maybe an additional 50% or 100% match of what they save.