Saving For Retirement Is a Marathon Not A Sprint

A lot of people like to get rich quick. But in reality, the majority of millionaires made their money over a long time. The book by Thomas J. Stanley called the Millionaire Next Door exemplifies this very well.

The people in his book who retired millionaires are ordinary folks with ordinary jobs and businesses who saved money diligently and invested them wisely.

It takes years to build wealth and you build it slowly over time. Be frugal and increase your capacity to earn to amplify your ability to make money and save money.

Most financial advisers tell you to avoid debt. There is nothing wrong with debt as long as the debt is not bad debts.

Imagine you are training for a race and part of your training have you pulling a 100 lbs sack much like football players do in training.

If you are training for the 100 meter dash and you are pulling 100 lbs weights across your back. It will help build your muscle and get your across the finish line faster.

That's akin to a trader using leverage to try to make massive amount of money fast. If he does it properly, he will get stronger and can make a ton of money. But if he tries too hard and carry a 200 lbs sack. He's prone to get injured and be out of the race forever.

However, since saving for retirement is a marathon, you don't want to be carrying that much weight. While you're in training, it's good to carry a light weight like 10 lbs around your ankle to get you stronger. But you don't want to carry those weights when you're in the actual race. Because those weights will slow you down considerably.

And that's what most people do when they carry a ton of credit card debts and consumer loans. They are running the actual marathon with 30 lbs weights on their back. They will either finish the race last or never finish at all.

If you're in debt, your goal is to remove those weights from your back as soon as possible. It may take you a few years to eliminate your debts, but you will have to before you retire. Otherwise, you'll never be able to retire comfortably or you will be injured severely along the way.