On becoming a nag. . . . .

I had my hair cut today, at one of those cheap places where you never see the same stylist twice. It's always sort of a crapshoot: "Will my bangs be too short? Will the layers be short enough? Look at all that hair on the floor! I swear I asked for just an inch off the bottom!" Quite the adventure! I've still not been home to 'style' it the way I like it, so while I have a good feeling about this $15 haircut, the jury's still out.

Anyway, as I was chatting with the young stylist, she mentioned that she had just recently opened a savings account, with which she is going to save up for a trip to Europe next year. Excited, I immediately started asking questions: "What kind of savings account? Were there fees? Is she saving automatically?" Then I realized that I was asking very personal questions of a relative stranger, and shut my trap. I truly wanted to ask her about how she is saving for retirement, which probably hasn't even entered her mind at this point, but I successfully reined in my curiosity. Based on some other comments she made, however, I gathered that saving money is not her strong point.

I've been trying, for two years, to convince a young (28) coworker to open a tax deferred investment account in addition to the pension that we'll receive as state employees (assuming we make it to retirement age). He's been dragging his feet, and will probably continue to do so, regardless of my nagging (or maybe because of my nagging. . .) I use the words 'compound interest' and 'millionaire' many times in my little talks with him, to no avail. I simply can't understand his reluctance. Then, yesterday, I read this article concerning young Americans and their reluctance to save for retirement.

The survey results presented in the article indicated that young Americans (defined as those in their "20's and 30's") often cash out their 401(k) accounts each time they change employers, rather than letting the accounts roll over and continue growing! And most people will change jobs at least 6 times during their lifetime (I think I've almost hit that milestone). I actually have a friend who did this recently---she and her husband were moving across the country, and she took money out of her retirement account to use as savings while she looked for a job----as far as I know, it never went back into her fund.

Although I am in no way a financial expert, and my own financial history is less than stellar, I consider the money I put into my 403(b) to be sacrosanct, not to be touched unless there is a dire emergency. This is because I understand that I've waited a long time to begin saving, and I need all the compound interest benefit I can get so that I can someday retire. I only wish I'd figured all of this out when I was in my mid-20's before racking up thousands (and thousands) of dollars of credit card debt!