New Nurse and Retirement/Savings?

**NICU Guy, BSN, RN** · Nov 29, 2013

Start contributing to your company's retirement plan (401K or 403 B).

OCNRN63, RN · Nov 29, 2013

Start contributing to your company's retirement plan (401K or 403 B).

Put as much money into that account as you can, esp. if your company contributes...it's like getting free money. Make sure you have 8 months of emergency savings as well.

Sometimes the employer will have periodic sessions with the company that has the retirement acct., e.g. Fidelity, Prudential. Go to one if it's available to you.

Pepper The Cat, BSN, RN · Nov 29, 2013

The sooner you start, the better. I've been investing/saving since age 21. I can retire at 55 if I want to. Of course, it helps that Ontario hospitals have an excellent pension plan!

brownbook · Nov 29, 2013

Right now you should not need a financial specialist. As others said find out your employers retirement plan. Ideally you can have your contribution automatically deducted from your pay check into your retirement account before the standard tax deductions are applied so you pay less tax. You cannot take your money out of these retirement plans (but for a few rare exceptions) without paying a tax penalty, but that is their purpose, not just to save some money for a few months then use it to buy things....it is for retirement.

Well......I think, anyway I am terrible with finances, financial advice, financial terms. Yet my husband and I always put something into our retirement accounts at work. Honestly I understood very little of it....good to be knowledgeable but sometimes you just need to trust things on faith. Same as a lay person may not understand a lot of medical information, they just have to trust on faith what their doctor and nurses tell them and do to them.

If you work for a basic reputable company there is no reason to over think it or worry.

And here my husband and I are 40 plus years later with a real nice nest egg. Of course that goes along with not buying things, expensive vacations, the fancy house, etc. spending more than we could afford!

Mulan · Nov 29, 2013

There is a lot of information out there.

If your employer has matching contributions make sure you take advantage of those.

You can also open an IRA, in the stock market or a bank or credit union, though the return is low in a bank or credit union

(though it is safe there except from inflation) with interest rates now being in the toilet.

Start early and put in as much as you can. Money put in early grows to a much, much larger amount than money put in later.

http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/publications/10_ways_to_prepare.html

http://www.irs.gov/Retirement-Plans/Retirement-Plans-FAQs-regarding-IRAs

http://www.irs.gov/Retirement-Plans/Plan-Sponsor/Types-of-Retirement-Plans-1

Meriwhen, ASN, BSN, MSN, RN · Nov 30, 2013

In addition to utilizing company's retirement plans, you an set up accounts on your own via Ameritrade, Buy & Hold, E-trade, etc. The advantage here is that these accounts are not dependent on your employer in any way. Another advantage: you can open accounts with a small amount of money.

I've had my own money market account since 2001 and my own Roth IRA since 2011, and I contribute to both monthly. This is in addition to my company's retirement programs.

Not_A_Hat_Person, RN · Nov 30, 2013

If you don't have much money, there are a lot of cheap to free resources out there. I'm a big fan of Bankrate.com, Mint.com, Suze Orman, and Michelle Singletary.