Financial Life After College Learning the Basics of Retirement Planning

You did it! You’re about to graduate. As you close this chapter and begin a new one, it’s important to think about your goals for the future, both short and long-term, and create a roadmap to help you work towards them.

Retirement might not feel like a top priority as you’re just kicking off your career, but it’s important not to put it on the backburner. When it comes to investing for retirement, the sooner you can get started the better.

Here are some things to consider as you start your retirement planning journey:

The amount of time you are invested is one of the most important factors in growing your wealth. Starting to invest for retirement early on is important to take advantage of the power of compounding. The earlier you invest, the more time your money has to potentially grow. Some employers offer tax-advantaged retirement plans that allow employees to contribute a portion of their paychecks towards their future retirement. Many employers match a portion of their employees’ workplace retirement plan contributions. If your company offers a retirement plan with a match, consider taking advantage of this. If you can, contribute at least the maximum amount your employer will match. You don’t want to leave any money on the table.

If you don’t have an employer-sponsored retirement plan, or want to invest for retirement alongside your workplace plan, you may want to consider an Individual Retirement Account, or IRA. An IRA offers a taxadvantaged way to help save for retirement.

Remember you can start small. Consider contributing as much as you can to your retirement accounts. You can work towards increasing your contribution amount over time. If you can increase your contribution rate automatically every year, that might also be a good idea. It can be easier to contribute more when the increases occur automatically.

Financial health is a journey, and we can help you create a plan for now and the future. Planning tools like J.P. Morgan Wealth Plan, a free digital money coach available in the Chase app and on Chase.com, can help you set goals and create a plan to work towards them. At chase.com/ the know, we have free educational articles about investing to help you in your financial journey.

Remember, you can reach out to community organizations and city and state resources that can help connect you to aide if you need it.

For resources, tools and information on how to manage your budget, grow your savings and build your credit, visit chase.com/personal/financial-goals.

J.P. Morgan Wealth Management is a business of JPMorgan Chase & Co., which offers investment products and services through J.P. Morgan Securities LLC (JPMS), a registered broker-dealer and investment adviser, member FINRA and SIPC.