0 voters
I’m in the second half of my 30s and only just starting to take this seriously. I feel like it’s worryingly late, so I’m partly creating this poll in the hope that most people will have started later than me and I’ll realise late 30s isn’t too late. 
Started saving a little in my late 20’s when I got my first “real” (salaried) job with a retirement plan. Didn’t start saving nearly enough until well into my 30’s, though, when I moved to Taiwan and could therefore afford to save a lot more. That’s one of the reasons I’m still here!
I was putting a little money away for retirement starting in my 20’s, but really set a retirement goal in my early 30’s. Luckily(?), I was single and at a job that allowed me to work 80-90 hours/week and put away a lot in a fairly quick time.
My original goal was to retire at 50, but I got married while working in Taiwan and that set things back a bit. I retired this year at 55.
Late 30’s is definitely not too late, but you’ll need to either save more or work longer. I started in my early 30’s and I should be able to retire before 60. I saved a lot and lived below my means.
For sure. Unfortunately, though, most of us aren’t able to earn enough in our 20’s and early 30’s to be able to start saving anything significant. Personally, I was aware of the need, but didn’t have the means.
In my case I was getting paid well in my 20’s but pissed it away with some bad decisions. Dug myself out of that hole and got serious when I turned 30 and got married. I didn’t save a lot at first, but slowly increased that with every raise while maintaining the same standard of living. When I hit 40 I decided to develop a financial plan to track investments and forecast my retirement. At that time I thought I would be 65 before I could retire. When I hit 50 I updated that plan, factoring in our expenses which I was tracking more closely since 40. Then it became apparent that I could retire sooner than I thought. Now I’m 52 and am blessed to be getting paid very well and keeping my expenses less than 40% of my salary. My mortgage will be paid off in 4 years.
Things that helped me:
How much is the retirement goal in Taipei?
Amazing. Would you mind sharing how it has worked out for you?
I am in early 30s, and started invested. Will purchase apartment in 2 years.
Paying rent makes it harder to increase wealth.
Have kids and failed with business, so everything is a bit postponed. Should get public pension with 68 years old, around 1500 euros monthly.
Goal is to work part time from 55 to 68. We might relocate to Taiwan, if I manage to get salary of 3 millions twd.
Otherwise I don’t think it’s a good deal.I am not sure how much potencial my kids have in a Taiwan
I started preparing in 2017 when I invested in crypto. It should have been four years before that when I prepared to invest in Tesla 
I have been squirreling away money since mid 30s …Harder when you have kids and no free apartments , deposits from mom And dad. I think Taiwan is not a good place for people to work towards retirement especially in prime earning years or younger …I just got lucky to have a good gig for the last few years.
I’d estimate around 20 million ntd . this amount can provide a 50k a month pension
Age 16 for me, thought it was due to my Employer compelling us all to pay 5% of salary into a Superannuation fund. It was in a time when Retirement funds were few and usually only for Government Employees and Big Companies, now its compulsory savings in many countries.
Worked out fine for me, I got a Golden Handshake (aka Pink Slip, Redundancy) at age 58 and that Handshake plus Superannuation Fund plus my paid off apartment and money in the bank was enough for me to not go looking for another job. No regrets since.
The advice of one random math teacher in high school: don’t be an idiot like my colleagues and wait until you’re 30 to invest for retirement.
The advice of my American Democracy teacher: get a credit card the second you have a job. Use it for a monthly subscription or the pay for gas only and pay it off on time every month. The other advice: regardless of how much money you make, from the moment you get your first job, put $60 of each paycheck into retirement.
Now, I listend to them from a savings standpoint, but I failed to listen carefully to my 7th grade math teacher: if you don’t invest in the stock market, you will never have enough money to outpace inflation and won’t ever be able to retire.
I’m always on at my wife to invest her savings but she is so reluctant to do it. Without investing or using leverage (housing usually ) it’s almost impossible to build up a retirement nest egg (for those not getting a govt pension).
To make a decent return you’ve got to take some risk on. Can balance the risk by DCAing every month.
That is, of course, the beauty of compounded returns if you start early enough - you don’t need to invest significant amounts to end up with a good chunk of money.
Not much to share yet. I have only been retired for about 3 months, so far. I wouldn’t recommend the 80-90 hour work weeks unless you are young, single and have no other interests. (I only did that for 8 or 9 years)
We were planning on moving back to Taiwan this year, but have decided to wait until the quarantine restrictions are lightened.
Agree.
Let me add…For “Invest according to your risk tolerance”…study and understand the levels of risk related to each type of investment for short and long term. Understand the realities of investing related to how much you have and how much you need which affected your risk assessment.
Let me add…If not married yet…find a partner who thinks like you regarding finance with similar financial goals…and is willing to put in the time to learn how to achieve those goals.
Of course. But that means you have to earn enough money at a young age to not only pay your bills (as opposed to going into debt) but still have more left to put aside! Few have the means to do that, and I certainly didn’t. (And, as another poster illustrated earlier, even of the few who have the means to do that, many are not wise enough at that age to do so.)
That’s great advice if you can swing it, but for young people to do that requires either a relatively high income or a relatively low cost of “things you enjoy”-- ideally both!
I’m able to do that now, but it requires my six figure income and my rather tight-ass tendencies for “enjoyment”-- and took me until middle age to get there.
$10/week will make a big difference at if you start young. For most people, they wouldn’t notice and it’s about making it a habit more than the inability to do so.
Yep. Compounding interest at 7% returns means your initial investment doubles every 7 years. Starting when you’re 23 with barely anything is SIGNIFICANTLY easier than waiting til you’re 30 and have a lot of money.