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On January 1, 2004, a friend of mine was 46 years old. His IRA balance stood at $3,055.
He admitted he’d been late to the retirement game. “Beyond scared” might be more accurate. Reality had caught up with him. He felt behind and wasn’t sure it was even worth trying.
It would have been easy to ignore the problem. To assume it was hopeless.
Instead, he began contributing to his company’s IRA. He stayed invested. He let time and compounding do their quiet work. There was nothing flashy about it—just discipline and patience.
Through the financial crisis of 2008–09, the COVID plunge and other market corrections along the way, he didn’t look and he didn’t stop. Every two weeks, money went into his account from his paycheck.
Today, his account stands at $961,680.
Why tell this story?
Because you may know someone in their 30s or 40s who quietly believes they’ve already missed their chance. They feel behind. They feel embarrassed. So they do nothing.
Over the years, I’ve come to think of change as a simple formula:
Δ = 𝑓(Ds + V + Fs)
Where Δ is change.
Ds is dissatisfaction with the current situation.
V is vision of what could be.
Fs is the first steps.
Most people already have the dissatisfaction. What they lack is a hopeful vision—and clarity about how to begin.
Sometimes the most helpful words aren’t, “You should be saving more.” Instead, try: “Help me understand how you’re doing in preparing for retirement.” That question might open the door. You can then share a story like this—and perhaps help someone take that first step.
It’s never too late to start.
I’m 40 years old and this is EXACTLY what I needed to hear today. I have $60,000 in my retirement account and currently saving 28% of my paycheck but I’m going through a job change and won’t be able to maintain that savings rate for the next year or two. I will have to play catch up again and feel pretty scared but it is doable!
Sometimes working backwards helps. Decide where you want to be in ten years (or twenty years or another time, if you prefer.) Set a quantitative financial goal for that target year. Then build a chart year by year that tells you where you need to get to in each of the years before that target year to make that final goal. That chart should help you see how much you need to put away each year or how much your existing portfolio needs to grow each year in order to make it to the next year, and ultimately to the final goal. This is a realistic way to plan for the future, and will keep you from setting unrealistic goals that are simply unattainable, goals that won’t get you where you want to go, or goals that you won’t really commit to.
I can relate to this post and the comments. We were late starters and came to our mid 50s in a new town with a new, better job for Spouse. We were not at 0 for retirement, but low 3 figures. We did not waste the last 10 years before retirement. We did a combination of much saving and paying off a home. We kept to the frugal lifestyle we always had. All of this allowed us to grow our net worth to over 7 figures by the time of retirement. It is never too late, I agree. We are living proof. God has been good to us. Chris
I agree. We can’t change the past, but we can influence our future.
I suspect there are quite a few people who have triumphed in some fashion over financial difficulties. The author’s point isn’t much different from my own experience. At the age of 53, my retirement and investment accounts had a combined value of $848. No pension either.
We spoke of setting goals and management by objective. The terms may have changed. Life is a marathon. When we can, we run. When obstacles occur, we may find that we can only walk. That’s okay. For me, it was always to continue and never stop. The real goal is to finish.
We get stopped from time to time by an obstacle. Sometimes it was simply that internal conversation “I can’t”. When I was in kindergarten, as young children that would occur; I didn’t deal all that well with discomfiture or adversity. I recall the nun who was my teacher once telling the class “You are Americans and that word ends with four letters ‘I can’. So you can!” That was good advice; it is funny what we remember and even the life’s lessons that can be learned at such an early age.
It is just never too late to change the course, good info for the many. Keep writing these important articles. Congrats.
Good words of encouragement. I would agree 100%. In fact that story sounds just about where my wife and I were at the same time with one income. It’s amazing what just 10 years of diligent investing and maximizing out your employer’s 401K can do. And if you have the ability going beyond and maximizing two ROTHs. We ended up pretty close to where your friend did just before retiring 5 years ago. It’s never too late to start saving for retirement. 😎
William,
Thanks for the excellent post!
And it is the same with Trees.
The best time to plant a tree was 10 years ago. The second best time to plant a tree is today!
I was in the upper 40s when divorce and a new career forced me to reboot my financial life. 48 seemed too late, it seemed like my best years were in the past. Fast forward 25 years and I know I was wrong, it wasn’t too late and I had plenty of good years left in me.
The strategy might be a little different in your 40s, eliminating debt became a priority for me. I sure didn’t want to be making a house payment until I was 78.
Dan – I did the same, but I was in my 50’s. We split everything down the middle, but that meant I lost a lot of IRA/401(k) to a QDRO. It wasn’t too late for me, either, but I had to start maxing-out my retirement savings and minimizing my expenditures. The thing is, I’m so much better off now marriage-wise, emotionally, financially, and socially.
Sounds familiar, Jeff, congrats brother.
Good for you Jeff. That’s quite a comeback.
Maybe I am wrong, but it seems to me that reducing debt and saving more are two sided of the same coin.
I tend to agree. The maths often indicates that investing is a better financial decision than paying down low interest debt, but that ignores the wonderful feeling of being debt free.
It’s true that you have to do the math. When we contracted to build a house, interest rates were at 3%. Having a mortgage would have been a strategic decision. When the house was finished, rates were 7%, so no mortgage for us.
My point and opinion is that debt is something to be managed for young people just starting out. Buying a house, having student loans, car payments, raising kids, establishing savings, must be balanced with income. As we get older we transition from managing debt to eliminating it. This is of course, just one of those rules of thumb that won’t fit everyone’s situation, but it sure worked for us.
What a great example of “It’s never too late!”
It reminds me of what I use to tell folks back in my financial advisor days, “The best day to start saving for retirement was the day you turned 18. The second best day is today!”
I had less than $150,000 in my IRA when I started my last job, in 2009, at 58 years old. When i retired in January 2024, my 403b and our Roth IRAs were over $700,000 and our total Net Worh was $1.3 M. (My wife did not work ourside the hoime except for 6 years in the late 1990s early 2000s, when we owned a Natioinwide Insurance Agency.)
It really isn’t ever too late!
Thanks William. I think all of us get stuck on how to make a meaningful start on something – losing weight, exercising, decluttering the house. I agree that the vision and the first steps are likely often enough to promote real progress.
Amen to that. I don’t have quite such a dramatic success story, but in 2019 I hired a recently divorced woman of 45 who had spent the previous two decades as a homemaker raising five children. She had no assets to speak of when she started. By the time I sold the business in 2025, she had a low six-figure investment pot, another 10 to 15 years of runway to grow it further, and enough cash savings to cover four or five months without a wage. She also found time along the way to pass her driving test and buy a small car. As you say, it’s never too late to start.
Thanks Mark. Great to hear of people making such progress despite lots of challenges.