Hi everyone and welcome back to Money Girls Quick and Dirty Tips for a richer life.

I'm Laura Adams. You know that you need to save for retirement, but exactly how much

money do you really need? The answer to that question is as unique as your fingerprints. There are many factors

that go into retirement planning like how long you want to work and the lifestyle

you want to live after you say goodbye to the working world.

I'll cover the major factors to consider

and point you in the direction of some great online retirement

calculators.

It's simple to enter your information

and find out approximately how much you'll need to finance your dream retirement.

The financial actions you take or don't take today directly affect the security you'll have in the future.

If you're relatively young, perhaps in your 20s or 30s,

retirement may seem too far off to worry about.

If you haven't started saving yet, one of the best ways to get motivated

is to figure out the approximate lump sum amount that you'll need for retirement.

For most people, it's a shockingly large number that approaches 1 million or is even as high as several million dollars.

But before you freak out, you might be surprised by how much you can accumulate when you start saving for retirement sooner rather than later.

I'll post a link to the My First Million calculator on the blog at moneygirl.

Quick and Dirty Tips.com, so you can see how quickly you could rack up a cool

million bucks. The more time you have until retirement the more you'll benefit from

compounding interest. Here's an example let's say John invests $100 a month beginning at age 25 in his

401k retirement plan at work. His coworker Polly also invest $100, but she starts at age 35. Assuming they both get an 8%

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