Even slight changes now can have a large influence on your future retirement. If you could increase your income to $65,000 and save 20% a year toward retirement, that would most likely increase your retirement savings until you reach the age of 81 years old. It's still not enough, but you can see these somewhat small adjustments can have a huge result.
Start saving now. There's still time, but stop waiting
Matt Krantz is a financial markets reporter at USA TODAY and author of Investing Online for Dummies and Fundamental Analysis for Dummies. He answers a different reader question every weekday in his Ask Matt column at money.usatoday.com. To submit a question, e-mail Matt at mkrantz@usatoday.com. Follow Matt on Twitter at: twitter.com/mattkrantz