Last week we talked with bartender extraordinaire and life coach Shaun McGuire about money management for folks in the service industry. This week we're covering a related topic—how people in the service industry can set themselves up for a cushy retirement.
Everybody in the industry knows that saving for retirement is up to them—it's rare for bar, restaurant, and brewery owners to offer retirement plans.
But even though that's common knowledge, a lot of folks in the industry aren't saving. The reasons why vary—some just don't think about the fact that one day they're going to be 55. Some have considered it, but don't know where to start.
But everyone in the industry should start saving immediately, and the good news is starting isn't complicated. Here's the simple approach Shaun recommends:
- First off, a good investor is boring. Stay away from Robinhood and trading individual stocks. This might feel exciting but it's essentially gambling. You don't want to gamble with your retirement.
- Instead, invest in an index fund. IRAs and Roth IRAs are a good place to start (here are the differences between the two), since there are tax benefits and they can auto-adjust your portfolio's risk based on your target retirement date.
- Set up auto invest so that you don't have to remember to save. It just gets automatically withdrawn from your bank account and deposited in your retirement account.
- Where should I set it up? You want a reputable operation with a sub 0.5% management fee, of which there are plenty. Wealthfront (great app), Vanguard (the OGs), and Betterment are all good choices.
- How much should I invest? Whatever you feel comfortable, but know that anything you can contribute—even if it's just $50 or $100 a month—is absolutely worth it. It may feel like you don't have room in your budget for this kind of saving, but you need to treat your retirement like you do rent, groceries, electricity bill, etc.: it's a necessity.
- If you still want to play with individual stocks you can certainly do so, but limit that to 5% or less of your investing. Play it safe with the vast majority of your retirement.
Setting up a retirement account takes just a couple minutes, so if you don't currently have one set up, Shaun urges that you should stop what you're doing right now, go over to Wealthfront, Vanguard, Betterment, or whatever investment site you prefer, and set up an account. Seriously. It's that easy and that important. And your 55-year-old self will thank you for it.
Check out the interview clip for more from Shaun about money management and retirement saving: