Introduction
Saving money for the things we want is a well-understood concept. If you want to buy a TV or go on vacation, you’ll have to save up for it. Simply put, you can’t expect future expenses to pay for themselves.
Yet, despite this basic idea, people are still not saving for the really important expenses—emergencies and retirement. It’s easy to abstain from buying coffee for a month so you can afford new shoes, but it’s harder when the end goal is so far off. Many people believe Social Security will be enough to cover them during retirement, so they don’t buy into their retirement plans. In fact, only 54 percent of workers are earning retirement benefits at work, according to the Department of Labor (DOL).
