If you don’t think that starting to save for retirement at an early age is important, consider the following example: If you save $5,000 per year in a Roth IRA beginning at age 20 and assuming a 7% rate of return, you’re going to have slightly over $1.5 million at age 65. If you put this off for a mere ten years, that figure drops to $740,000. Now, $5,000 is no drop in the bucket, especially when you’re younger, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Read on to learn how to create more money to devote to your retirement investing, starting today.

1. Reduce Your Housing Costs
If you rent, look for ways to negotiate a lower monthly payment. You could offer up your services to the property manager if you’re well-versed in minor home repairs or landscaping. If you do get a notice informing you of a rent hike, politely inquire if it might be waived – you could offer to sign a longer-term lease in exchange. If you happen to own a home, investigate refinancing options now. Rates are on their way back up and the time you have left to save might be limited.

2. Pay Less for Food
The number one way to cut your food costs is to start using coupons. Check out the Yowza app on your smartphone and pick up a few copies of the Sunday paper as well. Organize your coupons by food product rather than expiration date – there’s no sense in using a coupon for something you don’t need just because it’s about to expire.

3. Cut Your Home Energy Bills
Contact your provider and schedule a home energy audit. Put all the ideas you get in the customized report into effect and you can save a bundle on energy costs. In the meantime, adjust that thermostat and dress for the season – sweats and sweaters in the winter and shorts and tank tops in the summer. Run only full loads of laundry and dishes and unplug all appliances in your home that aren’t in regular use.

4. Adjust Your Purchasing Habits
Take a moment and ask yourself about the last five purchases you made. Chances are, at least a few of them weren’t necessary – think convenience store items and electronics upgrades, for example. Commit to categorizing all potential purchases as either wants or needs and seriously evaluate everything that falls into the “wants” category, then decide if you can go without it. Once your retirement savings are back on track you can relax these restrictions a bit, but only then.

5. Eliminate the Unnecessary
Avoid purchasing household cleaners and look on the Internet for ways you can make them yourself from ingredients already in the house. Drop your home telephone line unless it’s absolutely essential and if you haven’t watched HBO in a while, get rid of it and watch basic TV channels instead.

6. Use Your Spare Time to Generate Income
Once you’ve saved all you can, set aside some of your spare time for income generation. Unloading your closets and drawers of unneeded electronics is a good way to start. Sell them on Amazon, eBay, or Craigslist. Donate old clothes and other items you can’t sell to a qualified organization and get a tax deduction. You won’t generate money, but you can certainly save it. If you own a smartphone, do an Internet search for apps that let you generate cash, like FieldAgent, GigWalk, AppRewards, ScoopShot, and TaskRabbit.

Final Thoughts
Let’s say you wind up with an extra $500 for retirement after instituting these ideas. Make sure you invest it where it can do the most good. The first place to start is with your employer’s 401k program, especially if there’s a company match. If you have to wait until open enrollment to join, set your funds aside in a separate account so you don’t blow them on unnecessary purchases. Next, investigate the pros and cons of traditional and Roth IRAs. They have differing tax consequences, and either could be more beneficial to you depending on your situation. Start early and take the time and make the effort to save more for retirement. Once it comes time to call it a career, you’re going to thank yourself.

What ways can you think of for younger people to save more for retirement?

Getting his Eagle early

Published 11:48am Thursday, January 2, 2014

Fifteen-year-old Isaac Nadgwick could breathe a sigh of relief Sept. 24, 2013. That was the day of his Eagle Scout ceremony.

The Fergus Falls High School sophomore has been involved with Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts for a decade, and he achieved the highest rank you can get, after completing a landscaping project this summer at Inspiration Point Christian Camp and Retreat Center in Clitherall.

“It felt so good to finally get it done and not have the pressure anymore,” Nadgwick said. “I was done.”

Scouts spend time earning merit badges and moving up through the ranks. But in order to achieve Eagle Scout, a lad has to lead a service project.

“That’s what makes the achievement different than the other things,” Nadgwick said.

He had a few other project ideas in mind last year at this time, but when he heard Inspiration Point (a camp he’s attended) received some land and was looking for someone to landscape around a welcome sign, he knew this was the task for him.

“It would be one that benefitted everybody in the future,” he said.

Nadgwick planned out the project, got donated materials from businesses and was the leader through everything. When it came time for the project day itself, Nadgwick didn’t just do all the work himself either.

“That’s not really what a leader does at all,” he said.

It was a combination of work and delegation.

He wrangled up fellow scouts and adult scout leaders to help; 15 of them spent five hours completing the landscaping work around the sign in July. They dug around the installed sign, put in brick bullets, sprinkled wood chips and planted flowers and shrubs.

Nadgwick spent a grand total of 62 hours on the project from the planning stages until the end. Then it just needed a few reviews and approvals before he was an official Eagle Scout. The project taught him about leadership and to avoid procrastination, he said.

“It taught me a lot about what leader needs to be and what they need to do,” he said.

Scouts have a window between their 14th and 18th birthdays to reach the Eagle Scout rank. Nadgwick has seen a lot of boys put off the big project, some even until the day before they turn 18. It’s pretty typical for many to wait, he added.

“I’ve seen four people get Eagle Scout, and all four of them waited until they were almost 18,” he said.

Nadgwick didn’t want that to be him; he was the first one of his age group to reach Eagle Scout.

“During the project, I’d have to say I was finally coming to the realization that this was possible,” Nadgwick said. “When I turned 15 last year, I realized I needed to get it done now. I realized that this was actually attainable.”

With his project behind him, the Eagle Scout will continue collecting merit badges (he already has 41) and work to earn Eagle Palm Pins. Without the pressure of his project, he is also available to help others try to achieve the same high ranking.

“It felt really good to have that experience done and then be able to help other people get that experience,” Nadgwick said.

The State Bond Commission is expected to approve $500,000 for streetscape improvements in the Upper Albany neighborhood when it meets next week.

The funding will be used for the first phase of improvements to the area, state officials said, and includes an assessment of all properties on Albany and Homestead avenues and façade enhancements along Albany Avenue.

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The assessment will include vacant buildings and lots. Once it is complete, design standards will be drawn up to craft a “comprehensive façade improvement plan,” officials said.

“We’re really pleased that the [Department of Economic and Community Development] sees the value and real opportunity in this area,” state Rep. Matthew Ritter, D-Hartford, said Thursday. “It’s a competitive grant process. It’s good Hartford was able to put its best foot forward to win the grant.”

“Revitalizing local commercial centers is a key component of our economic development strategy,” Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said in a prepared statement. “Not only are we advancing our efforts to help small businesses grow and create jobs, but we are also improving the quality of life in communities around the state, making them more attractive to employers and residents alike.”

The bond commission is expected to approve the funding at its Jan. 9 meeting.

The improvements are part of an ongoing effort to revitalize the Upper Albany neighborhood.

Earlier this year, officials from the Urban Land Institute presented their initial impressions and recommendations for renovating the mile-plus-long corridor. Hartford was one of four cities chosen for the institute’s Rose Fellowship program, which aims to create successful, long-term development plans. The city decided to focus the study on Albany Avenue.

The institute’s ideas included two mixed-use developments, one near the Hartt School of Music and another at Albany Avenue and Woodland Street.

Albany Avenue has long struggled with crime, but has had its successes. In the late 1990s, the Artists Collective opened at the corner of Albany Avenue and Woodland Street and, more recently, the new YMCA, the new Upper Albany Branch of the Hartford Public Library and the expanded Community Health Services Center have opened.

An estimated $17 million in state and local funding is earmarked for streetscape improvements. The upgrades — sidewalks, lighting and landscaping — could provide an additional boost, sprucing up the street’s appearance.

The $500,000 would be in addition to the $17 million, Ritter said, and would help revamp privately owned businesses as well as public properties. He said the first phase of improvements would begin later this year.

Staff writer Kenneth R. Gosselin contributed to this story.