When you or someone you know is new to the workforce, it can feel like sipping out of a firehose with all the new information to digest. One thing you want to get right is understanding your company’s benefits and how to harness them for your eventual retirement.

The place to begin is with the company’s 401(k). How much will they match your savings? Your Survival Guy cut his teeth administering 401(k)s when I worked at Fidelity Investments. As an aside, over the weekend, I was reading about Costco and how they match close to ten percent for employees who have been with the company for 25 years or more. What Costco understands is that employee retention is a price worth paying.

But getting back to new hires or those just getting their feet wet, you want to try to save up to what the company will match. If a company matches six percent, it will “match” dollar for dollar your savings up to that percentage. In other words, if you save six percent and they match six percent, you save 12%. That’s being smart with your money. Anything saved that’s less than that is leaving money on the table.

Next step: Don’t forget to invest that money. The easiest way to invest it is to buy a target-dated fund close to when you expect to retire. If you’re in your early to mid-twenties, that’s somewhere around 2068. That seems like a lifetime from now, but hang in there. It goes by slowly at first. Then it goes by fast. And before you know it, it’s time to retire.

Action Line: Once you get into the habit of saving, you don’t miss the money because you never really “had it” to begin with. Let time and interest upon interest do its magic. Someday you may wake up and be amazed at how much you’re worth. When you want help with your retirement savings, email me at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com.

Originally posted on Your Survival Guy.