Wait a minute... You're young! Why should you think about retirement already?

Well, wouldn't you—at some point—like to be finished with work or school and do what you want, when you want, and have the money to do it?

Wouldn't you like to retire early?

Well, here's the cold, hard reality: If you don't have a financial plan for later in life, you may wake up one day and realize you don't have the money to maintain your lifestyle, much less have a better lifestyle.

But, get this really interesting thought:

You can be much more confident in your finances later if you start setting money aside right now. The key is to stash away money for retirement when you're young.

Get this! The earlier you save, the less you take out of your income each year:

• If you're 20, saving 10% of your pay each month will probably do it.
• If you're 30, you'll need to save 15%.
• If you're 40, you'll have to save over 25% of your take-home pay per month!

Okay, that sounds doable, but tough.

Now, how much money will you need for retirement?

• A good rule of thumb: You want to have at least 80% of your working income when you retire.
• You want to have enough retirement income to keep you going for 30 years.

You Do the Math

If that's your goal, you can start meeting it right now by putting aside 10% of your income for retirement.

But where do you put that money? In a savings account? Should you invest it?

That's a great question. Lots of factors impact both decisions. To be able to retire—early or not—you need to be able to make those decisions.

Fortunately for you, we have two fun and interactive modules, which will help you plan and sort all this stuff out. It'll only take about 30-45 minutes, and you'll have more of the information you need to prepare for a more financially sound retirement.

How? Go to FoolProof Solo and work through the two modules, "Pay Me While I Sleep" (investing) and "Time Travel" (retirement).

That's a good start, anyway. Let me know how it goes!

Cheers, Will