Getrichslowly posts

This week is National Retirement Week, which is a good thing since it is a topic weighing heavily on our minds. According to a recent survey by MoneyRates and GetRichSlowly, 52% of respondents didn't feel on track with their retirement. It's no wonder so many people are concerned about their retirement savings, since the Sun Financial Unretirement Index found that nearly two-thirds of Americans will delay retirement one year -- with 27% of those individuals delaying retirement by 5 years!

The most popular reason given for entering "unretirement" was to "to earn enough money to live well," a change from last year's top reason of, "staying mentally engaged," which is in second place this year. These changes are explained in part by the general pessimism of American workers, such as findings that:

• 58% of workers under 60 don't believe Social Security will be available to them upon retirement.
• 42% aren't confident about Social Security Benefits.
• 41% don't feel confident about prescription drug benefits.
• 38% are not confident in Medicare benefits.

Psychologically speaking, the number one doesn't do a whole lot for most people. Do you want ONE extra french fry? Do you have ONE dollar I can borrow? Can you spare ONE minute of your time? See it's hard for most people to get excited about the number ONE, which is sad because it's the loneliest number...

Well what if I told you that there's at least one situation where ONE is not only important, but also as far from lonely as you can get? If you're following along you've probably already guessed that this post is about the power of an additional ONE percent interest, specifically compounding interest.

J.D. Roth of Get Rich Slowly turned me on to this easy-to-understand infographic that shows you the power of one percent and compounding interest when it comes to savings for retirement. If this doesn't help you overcome the psychological "meh" that comes from seeing the number One in an investment brochure, then I'm not sure what will.