--- title: The 5 Essential Retirement Moves to Make in Your 20s and 30s description: When you're decades from retirement, planning is all about getting off to a good start with your savings and investing. authors: - name: juliabohan url: https://money.com/author/juliabohan/ at_money_since: 2015 articles: 2 covers: - Retirement former_staff: true published: '2015-10-30T19:49:20.000Z' modified: '2024-04-02T04:41:40.000Z' section: Retirement tags: - Getting Started - Investing - life stages - Planning - Retirement - salary canonical: https://money.com/collection-post/retirement-moves-20s-30s/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![RET_11_RoadMap_BuildingBlock_illo](https://img.money.com/2015/10/ret_11_roadmap_buildingblock_illo.png?crop=113px%2C0px%2C1780px%2C1001px&quality=85) At every stage of your journey to retirement, you need to know the essential money moves you should be making, the savings target you're aiming for, and the ideal mix for your investment portfolio. Those change as you move into your [peak earning years](https://money.com/collection-post/retirement-planning-40s-50s/) and [pre-retirement red zone](https://money.com/retirement-moves-five-years-before/). When you're starting out, use these checkpoints to set your course. ### **1\. Saving: Collect your full 401(k) company match** **Why it's key** • If you start saving at age 35, you'll have to put away 16.6% of your income for 30 years to retire well at 65, according to research by Wade Pfau, professor of retirement income at the American College. Begin at 30, and your target drops to 12%. At 25, a steady 8.8% a year until 65 is enough—including the match. **How to do it** • Typically you need to save 6% to earn the full 50¢-on-the-dollar match. Too much? Start at 3% and go up a point every year. ### **2\. Work:** Ask for $5,000 more in pay **Why it's key** • What you earn in your first decade on the job has a lasting impact on your wealth. The typical worker's wages grow the most between ages 25 and 35, according to [research](http://www.newyorkfed.org/research/staff_reports/sr710.pdf) by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. A pay boost of $5,000 when you're 25 adds up to $634,000 more in lifetime earnings, a [study](http://eagle.gmu.edu/newsroom/843/) by researchers at Temple and George Mason universities found. **How to do it** • Whether you're fielding job offers or angling for a raise, negotiate. First, speak up. [Only 37% of millennials](http://www.payscale.com/salary-negotiation-guide/negotiation-tips-for-millennials) have ever asked for a raise, reports salary site [PayScale.com](http://PayScale.com), but nearly half of those who did got the desired hike. Don't wait until review time. Put in your request right after you've pulled off a major project. ### **3\. Investing: Be dogged about paying low fees** Keeping investing costs down is always smart. Locking in low fund expenses when you're young is especially rewarding over time. For example, if you invest $1,000 a month in a retirement account for 30 years, you'll end up with $761,000 assuming average mutual fund fees of 1.3% a year and 6% annual returns, according to [Bankrate](http://www.bankrate.com). With an index fund's average 0.5% expense ratio, you'd have $874,000. Better yet, pick an ultra-low-cost fund that charges just 0.2% a year, and you'll retire with $921,000. ### **4\. Lifestyle:** Balance saving and student loans **Why it's key** • A third of millennials say that student-loan debt is delaying saving for retirement, a survey by the Investor Protection Institute found. **How to do it** • To free up cash, switch to an income-based repayment plan (for federal loans only), which caps loan payments at 10% of income. Then contribute enough to get your 401(k) match, says Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of [Edvisors, a college finance site](https://www.edvisors.com). That's free money. When you start earning more, you can step up repayments to be debt-free faster. Learn more at [StudentLoans.gov](http://StudentLoans.gov). ### **5\. Mindset: Get to know the future you** Picturing your future self can put you in a savings mind-set. When Prudential Retirement installed a photo kiosk to let workers see what they might look like at 65, the number who enrolled in the retirement plan or hiked contributions rose 60% from a year earlier. Run your own aging experiment at [faceretirement.merrilledge.com](http://faceretirement.merrilledge.com). Once you've made these five moves, you're on your way. To see how you're doing, use these benchmarks to measure your progress: ![RET_11_RoadMap_BuildingBlock_Portfolio](https://img.money.com/2015/10/ret_11_roadmap_buildingblock_portfolio.png) **Notes:** Savings rate assumes retiring at 66, replacing 75% of your pre-retirement income, with Social Security covering 20%; average annual real rate of return of 4%; and 4% initial withdrawal rate, adjusted for inflation. **Sources:** Morningstar, Northstar Investment Advisors **Read More:** - *[5 Ways to Power Up Retirement Planning in Your 40s and 50s](https://money.com/collection-post/retirement-planning-40s-50s/)* - *[Do These 5 Things Now If You Want to Retire in 5 Years](https://money.com/retirement-moves-five-years-before/)* - *[5 Smart Things to Do the Minute You Retire](https://money.com/best-moves-at-retirement/)* ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/collection-post/retirement-moves-20s-30s/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Retirement", "item": "https://money.com/retirement/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Retirement Planning", "item": "https://money.com/retirement-planning/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "The 5 Essential Retirement Moves to Make in Your 20s and 30s" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/collection-post/retirement-moves-20s-30s/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/collection-post/retirement-moves-20s-30s/", "name": "The 5 Essential Retirement Moves to Make in Your 20s and 30s", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2015-10-30T19:49:20.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/collection-post/retirement-moves-20s-30s/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/collection-post/retirement-moves-20s-30s/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-04-02T04:41:40.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "The 5 Essential Retirement Moves to Make in Your 20s and 30s", "articleSection": "Retirement", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2015/10/ret_11_roadmap_buildingblock_illo.png?crop=113px%2C0px%2C1780px%2C1001px&quality=85", "width": 1012, "height": 569, "caption": "RET_11_RoadMap_BuildingBlock_illo" }, { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2015/10/ret_11_roadmap_buildingblock_portfolio.png", "width": 800, "height": 1420 } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "juliabohan", "url": "https://money.com/author/juliabohan/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/juliabohan/#author" } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2015-10-30T19:49:20.000Z", "description": "When you're decades from retirement, planning is all about getting off to a good start with your savings and investing.", "abstract": "When you're decades from retirement, planning is all about getting off to a good start with your savings and investing.", "@id": "https://money.com/collection-post/retirement-moves-20s-30s/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2024-04-02T04:41:40.000Z", "keywords": [ "Getting Started", "Investing", "life stages", "Planning", "Retirement", "salary" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Retirement", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retirement" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Retirement planning", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retirement_planning" ] } ] } ] } ```