Taking the next step...

My road to financial freedom has been a bumpy one...to say the least. I'm learning that I have to think about today and tomorrow at the same time. It's not easy and at times I think I have a lot of time to plan for retirement so I just blow it off.

The ups about working in education is the MANDATORY retirement plan they put me on. Each payday I contribute (still sounds funny considering they TAKE it from me) about $83 to this plan. Every payday the school district puts in over $100 for me. Thats about $180 a payday straight to my retirement fund.

Today I signed up with ING Direct for another retirement plan. I'll be putting $100 a payday toward my 403(b) plan for retirement. It's on a 30-70 split with 70% going to stocks, bonds, etc.

I think that is about $560 a month toward retirement. Looking at this now, it doesn't seem right, but it is. If all I did was put that money away, in 30 years I'd have $201,600...with no interest. I'm not sure what that will work out with if you include interest, but I think it's a great start considering I have done nothing before this.

After all, I'm already 29 and want to retire when I'm 60. Can I do it?