Green Panda Treehouse » Giveaways

Retirement Planning When You are in your 20s

Mike — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 09:00:49 +0000

When you are in your 20s (and for some people it is the same reasoning in their 30s), you don’t necessarily think about retirement planning. In fact, you are more concerned about finishing school, getting a good job, making money, paying off your debts, getting married, buying a house, having kids, etc. You may think that retirement planning is for old people, that you don’t need to think about retirement and that you will surely end-up with a pension plan or that you will manage it when retirement time comes around. However, we should all consider retirement planning as soon as possible. Ideally, your retirement plan should start as early as you when you land your first job… while still in school.

The power of compound interest; the very first reason to start a retirement plan today!

It is true that you don’t know when you are going to retire, or how much income you will need. But one thing is for sure; don’t count on the government or on a big fat pension plan to make your retirement comfortable; this ain’t going to happen! So if you have to put money aside in order to retire richer and happier, you should start as soon as possible. You don’t think that $25/month would make a difference? Here how it goes: $25/month at 6% gives:

4 096.98 $	10	years
7 270.47 $	15	years
11 551.02 $	20	years
17 324.85 $	25	years
25 112.88 $	30	years
35 617.76 $	35	years
49 787.27 $	40	years
68 899.82 $	45	years

And the math doubles when you do $50/month:

8 193.97 $	10	years
14 540.94 $	15	years
23 102.04 $	20	years
34 649.70 $	25	years
50 225.75 $	30	years
71 235.51 $	35	years
99 574.54 $	40	years
137 799.63 $	45	years

As you can see, this is very profitable to start at a young age since you can get used to dropping $50 per month in your investment account at the age of 20 and get to a nice 137K in your pocket when retirement hits at 65. If you increase your systematic investment each time you get a raise, you will end-up with half a million in investments just with the power of compound interest.

You don’t need a complete retirement plan; just a line of direction

If you are in your 20s or 30s, it is true that you will go through different life events that will change your financial situation. These are the 2 decades where you will go through the most important financial steps of your life. You may change careers, move outside the country or get married. However, this won’t change the fact that you need money at retirement.

This is why establishing a line of direction (through an investment plan, asset allocation and systematic investments) will insure a comfortable retirement whenever you decide that waking up at 5am is too early for you . The base of your retirement plan will follow you through your life and only serves to push your net worth higher in the meantime.

So when should you start thinking about retirement? Do Not Wait and do it right now Giveaway

This article was to introduce our new site about retirement planning; DoNotWait.com. Do Not Wait! will be concentrated on questions you may have about retirement and how to get there. For its launch, we are giving away more than $1,000 in prize! Here are a few examples:

- iPad from Apple

- Cash prizes

- Books

- Dvds

- Gift cards at Amazon

How to enter the giveaway?

All the rules are explained in the DoNotWait! and Do it Now Giveaway. The contest starts October 4^th and ends for Halloween at October 31^st.

And the Winner of the iPod Touch is…

Mike — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 09:32:28 +0000

Whoa! This has been quite a hectic week! While we are finishing the integration of Green Panda to our online business, we are already starting to work on some new stuff. For example, we are working on a new design for Green Panda that should come live within the next 2 months…

When buying a blog, there is a lot of analysis and strategy development to do. You want to clearly understand where the blog is and why it is there. Then, you want to select the right direction and start working on how you will make the blog grow. While I am already quite busy with The Financial Blogger and Gather Little By Little, adding another blog is quite a challenge! Anyway, I think things will smoother a little bit in the future and we will be able to move to a 4 to 5 posts a week schedule shortly. I’m pretty excited about this new project!

So the winner of the iPod Touch is….

You were a lot to comment and I really appreciate your feedback. This will also help me creating a great list of article ideas for the future. But before I announce the winner (yup, you’ll have to read till the end ot know if you will have a new iPod shipped at your house!), here is some link love for the week:

Buy or rent @ 20 something finance

6 money saving tips when life gets hectic @ Money under 30

Money can’t buy love @ Poorer than you

Should I open a bank account online? @ Studenomics

10 jobs I’d like to try someday @ Budgets are sexy

How to get your first credit card @ The Digerati Life

3 lessons I’ve learned in 3 years of marriage @ Man vs Debt

How to apologize for an error? Martyr yourself! @ Financial Samurai

How to learn investing without a formal education @ Bible money matters

Tips on selling on Craigslist @ Debt Free Adventure

Stick with stocks or pay off your mortgage? @ Frugal dad

All right… and now the winner is….

Congratulation to Jake Sherbert! (commented on March 12^th)

I’ll be emailing you shortly!

Enjoy your weekend!

Time to win an iTouch and do some link love!

Mike — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 09:00:39 +0000

As I previously mentioned last Monday, I have recently bought Green Panda Treehouse. While I do not intend to change the reason why Green Panda was created (it will still be dedicated to people in their 20’s), I would like to hear more about what you think and what you would like to read about.

Tell me what you want to read on this blog and win an iPod Touch!

This contest is pretty easy, in order to entry the giveaway, you can:

#1 write a comment on this thread and tell me which topic you want to read about.

#2 start your journey to investing and register to this free webinar on trading terminology

#3 Follow me on Twitter!

All participants must be based in USA or Canada.

1 entry per action (so you can get up to 3 chances in the hat!).

Comments and subscriptions are accepted until Thursday, March 18^th.

The winner will be announced on Friday, March 19^th.

In the meantime, here are some great reads around the web this week:

Using and Understanding a Net Worth Statement @ Cash Money Life

How to start an online business @ Four Pillars

Is it smart to co-sign for your child? @ Million Dollar Journey

20 income generating ideas @ Bibble Money Matters

Why Parents shouldn’t pay for their kids’ college education @ Studenomics

How to remove spyware, malware or any computer virus @ The Digerati Life

Who Does Your Car Service? @ Prime Time Money

How To Become A Successful Financial Advisor @ Good Financial Cents

Do You Really Need A Mortgage In Your Twenties? @ Gen X Finance

Dividend Investing Supplements Passive Income @ Frugal Dad

Are your Less Frugal than you were a year ago? @ Being Frugal

Learn Effective Budgeting @ Mrs Micah

How to set up a monthly budget video @ No Debt Plan

Top 6 mindless money wasters @ Budget are Sexy

How Much our Debt Cost @ Debt Free Adventure

A Little Success Post @ Money Ning

10 Things Employers Love to See in Employees @ The Wisdom Journal

Sometimes, saving money is about principle @ Financial Samurai

College Money Network is Having the Back-to-School Shuffle for a Shuffle Giveaway!

Green Panda — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 03:51:09 +0000

In celebration of the new school semester starting, I’m excited to continue the trend with College Money Network’s new giveaway. Part of the shuffle for the giveaway is that we’ll be posting on each other’s blogs this week. I think this a great opportunity, if you haven’t already, to see some great posts from our members.

New Member in the College Money Network

I’m really excited to have another hard working blogger in the College Money Network. Studenomics is a fantastic personal finance blog for college students. Studenomics has been focused on having practical and insightful content since October 2008. Subscribe to Studenomics to automatically have great posts sent directly to you.

Back-to-School Shuffle Giveaway Prizes

Now what you’ve been waiting for:

Enter with each site and earn 36 entries to win an iPod Shuffle!

4GB iPod shuffle
Copy of The Total Money Makeover
One-year magazine subscription to Kiplinger’s or Money Magazine
$20 Starbucks gift certificate

These prizes will be distributed through the College Money Network, so if you enter with each site, you can earn 36 entries to win an iPod Shuffle and other prizes!

How to Enter

Each member has their own rules for the Back-to-School Shuffle Giveaway. You’ll have a chance to increase your chance of winning by visiting all the sites. I want to keep it easy for you so here are three ways you can enter the contest on my site.

Follow me on Twitter (2 entries)
Become a fan of Green Panda Treehouse on Facebook (2 entries)
Subscribe to the site (2 entries)

Please leave a comment on this post when you enter, so I can keep track of your entry.

All valid entries will be assigned a unique number. We will use a random number generator to select the winning numbers. Odds of winning depend on the number of entries received.

All entries must be received by September 6, 2009 at 11:59 PM PST.

Winners will be notified the following week. After all the prizes have been claimed, we will release an official announcement listing the winners.

Rules and Restrictions

All winners must be 18 years of age or older and live in the United States.
No purchase is necessary to participate in this giveaway.
We will choose the winners from the qualified participants. We are the sole judges of adding entries to the list. Plagiarized content, trackback from splogs, spams, and comments containing abusive or inappropriate languages will not be considered.
To award the prizes, we must be able to contact you. Please leave a valid email address with your comment, or make sure we can contact you through your web site. Your contact information will not be shared with anyone else.
For certain prizes, winners will be required to submit a physical address to ship the prize. Again, your contact information will never be shared with anyone.
Prizes are provided as-is, and substitutions may be made at our discretion.
Winners must reply within 1 week from the time we notify them to claim their prize. Otherwise, they forfeit their prize, and it will be awarded to an alternate.

HP Better Together Winner!

Green Panda — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 12:43:53 +0000

Good morning! I wanted to announce the winner of the HP Better Together Bundle Winner. Tweetaways site was down, so I used random.org to select the winner from the contest instead.

Here’s the prize package again in case you missed it.

The HP Bundle:

HP dv6
anHP Mini 110
Syncables software that will connect your computers and share your school projects, academic papers, and personal stuff like photos and videos
a customized Green Panda Treehouse Timbuk2 bag (each site has it own bag)

Thanks to HP, Microsoft,and Timbuk2 for the prizes!

The winner is #221… Graywolfpack5

Graywolfpack5 has 48 hours to contact me from this post’s published date before I pick another winner. Don’t forget there are other sites involved with the HP Better Together giveaway that still have their contests open.

If you didn’t win, there are still several sites running the contest, including my buddy studenomics.

The official fine print:
• This contest open to anyone in the world, but if the winner is outside of the U.S., he/she may be awarded a credit to HP’s online store to avoid shipping and customs restrictions.
• Individuals who have won at another website participating in the HP Back to School Giveaway are ineligible to win a second time.
• All entries must be received byAugust 28, at 11:59 PM (NY Time).
• The odds of winning depends on the number of entires received by the deadline stated above.
• No complaining allowed…seriously. We appreciate everyone’s entries and try to keep things fun around here. Unfortunately, not everyone will be able to win as we only have one bundle to give away. If you don’t win this bundle, please enter to win bundles from the 24 other great sites that are participating in this promotion.