This is how long $1 million in retirement savings will last in your state

[Jwryan84]

Dan, what's the most powerful force in the universe???

I have my son doing the Dave Ramsey financial program. He's saving for his first car, which is 4 years away, at least.

Dave Ramsey is life changing, all paid for but the house. If people would do half of what he says their lives and marriage would be better. Read a book and do a few things, but folks are lazy

 

[SlugSlinger]

It is depending on the rate of return and additional contributions.
The link is a simple method to show your son how all of this works.
https://www.nerdwallet.com/banking/calculator/compound-interest-calculator

That is a great illustration of how your money can grow and work for you. I built a spreadsheet that does the same thing and gave it to my daughter. But your link is a lot easier to visually understand.

If people would just start saving and investing when they are young, and NEVER touch the money until retirement, they would have a good savings when they do retire. I think a big problem for most people is they don't understand and realize the impact of borrowing money from your IRA or 401K. That is a huge costs when you take out the power of compounding the investment returns.

My advice is save what you can, invest in an index mutual fund that follows the S&P 500 (or any other mutual that has a good, long track record of returns), and NEVER touch it until you retire, even though its very tempting especially when the value starts to grow.