To live comfortably in retirement¹, you need "to save until it hurts," says financial adviser² and best-selling author Ric Edelman.

People give lots of excuses for not saving for retirement, he says. They may be procrastinating³, think they can't afford to save or fear losing money to bad investments, but they have to overcome those fears, because "a financially secure future will be up to them," says Edelman, who has a new book on the topic,The Truth about Retirement Plans and IRAs.

The CEO and founder⁴ of Edelman Financial Services, a firm with more than $12 billion in assets under management, Edelman has written eight personal finance books, including the best-selling The Truth About Money. He's also a national radio and TV host.

If you're not tucking money away for the future now, you can start by saving as little as $10 a paycheck or putting away half your next raise, he says. "A small amount of money can produce massive amounts of wealth over time. The key is getting started."

It used to be that people didn't worry about saving for their later years because many had pensions, and they didn't live as long as people do now, Edelman says. "But we can no longer count on our employers, partly because they aren't offering pensions, and we don't stay with one employer. Many people change jobs every few years."

Most experts expect Social Security benefits will be lower in the future, he says. "You can't count on your employer and you can't count on the government, therefore your retirement is up to you. That statement scares people, but in fact it should empower you, because it's remarkably⁵ easy to achieve retirement savings⁶ success."

Edelman offers these tips for saving for retirement:

1. Join your retirement plan at work. It's the easiest way to save because money is automatically deducted⁷ from your paycheck, he says. If your employer doesn't offer a retirement plan, if you're not eligible⁸ to participate in it or if you're already contributing the pre-tax maximum and can afford to save even more, then contribute to an IRA.

2. Start small. If you're not contributing anything to a retirement plan, start by contributing 1% of your pay. If the 1% contribution hurts, then stay at that level until it doesn't hurt anymore, he says. If it doesn't hurt, then increase your contribution by another 1%. Do that until it hurts.

A 1% contribution may be less painful than you think. Say you make $44,259 a year. If you're paid twice a month, that's $1,844 per paycheck. If you contribute $18.44 from it, you lower your taxes by about $5, assuming you're in the 25% tax bracket, meaning your paycheck only has to drop by $13. That's about a dollar a day.

It's easy to cut a dollar a day from most budgets, he says. "We're talking about one large cafe latte a week or you can skip drinking soda⁹ daily at lunch," Edelman says.

3. Start even smaller. If even 1% sounds like too much money, make it $10 a paycheck. Then increase by $10 increments¹⁰ until it hurts.

4. Save half your next raise. If you can't contribute anything now, wait until your next pay raise. When you get it, put half your raise into the retirement plan. Your paycheck will still go up some, and your contribution will be completely painless, he says.

5. Don't miss out on company incentives¹¹. Most employers that offer retirement plans give incentives for you to contribute some of your pay to your plan. Many add an amount equal to 3% of your pay. "Your employer is offering you free money, so take it."

6. Find a new job. If your employer doesn't offer matching contributions, find a job with an employer that does, he says. Matching contributions can really add up.

Consider: If you contribute $5,000 a year for 40 years, earning 6% annually¹², you'll accumulate $773,810 for retirement. If your employer adds to your account with a 3% match, the value of your account will be $232,143 more — giving you a total of slightly more than $1 million.

"You need to recognize that many employers are willing to provide a matching contribution. If your employer isn't doing that, you owe it to yourself to change jobs," he says.

7. Invest with a long-term perspective. You have to create a diversified¹³ mix of mutual¹⁴ funds that invest in stocks, bonds, real estate, foreign securities and government securities, he says.

You can keep your money entirely¹⁵ invested in stock funds provided you understand the risks and you plan to leave your money invested in stock funds for at least five years, preferably longer, Edelman says. These two criteria¹⁶ are crucial for your decision to leave money invested in stock funds, he says.

"I would never recommend that people put money in stocks if they plan on withdrawing it in a year or two. Look at 2008. If you had a two-year time horizon and had invested in 2006, look what have happened. But if you had a five-year time horizon, you would have been fine.

"If you are terrified of the stock market, you need to invest in it anyway," Edelman says. "A lot of people are terrified to go to the dentist, but they go anyway. Don't let your fears stop you from doing what you need to do."

身兼财政顾问和畅销书作家的瑞克·爱德曼说，为了在退休后生活舒适惬意，你需要“节省资金以备不时之需”。

爱德曼说，人们给出许多理由解释不节省的原因。他们可能是借故推迟，认为面对糟糕的投资时不能应付过去或害怕失去资金。但是必须克服种种担心，因为“他们将来的财政安全就取决于此，”爱德曼说，针对此课题，他出版了一本新的图书，名叫《退休的真相》。

作为爱德曼金融服务中心的首席执行官和缔造者，爱德曼已编著8本个人财务书籍，包括畅销书《金钱的真相》。他同样是国家电台和电视主持人。而他的公司管理有条，已拥有超过120亿的资产。

如果还未为将来存储资金，那么你要开始此项工作了。例如节约仅仅10美元的薪资或者储存半笔下次的加薪，他说。“时间会见证少量资金会带来大笔的财富。而重点是此刻开始。”

在过去，人们不在意为老年生活节省钱财，因为许多人有养老金，并且寿命没有如今这般长，爱德曼说道。“但我们可以不再依赖雇主，部分因为他们不会提供养老金，另外是我们不会总跟随一位雇主。大多数人会在几年内更换多份工作。”

大部分专家预测到未来的社保受益会降低，他说。“你不能依赖你的雇主和政府，这就表示你要依赖自身。这份声明让民众担惊受怕，但事实上这是在赋予你权利，因为提前为退休储备资金很简单且成功率高。”

爱德曼关于为退休节省资金而提供以下建议：

1. 工作时制定好退休计划。这会是最简单的方法，因为钱会自动从你的薪资中扣除，他说。如果你的老板未提供退休计划，如果你就此项未符合条件或如果你已缴纳税前最大标准，并能节省更多，那就设立个人退休账户。

2. 开始于少量。如果你未关注半分退休计划，那就从薪资中抽取1%作为贡献。如果1%使你感到心痛，则可开始于任何人可接受的指数，他说。如若未使心痛，则可增加1%，知道达到使你心痛的地步。

1%的抽取或许不如你想象般痛心。假设你的年薪是4,4259美元。如果你每月两次，则薪资会是1844美元。比如你从中抽取18.44美元，你就会降低5美元的税收，假设你属于25%的税阶，这意味着你的薪资仅少13美元。这就是每天一美元机会。

从大部分预算中每天减少一美元很简单，他说。“我们讨论的是每周一杯拿铁咖啡，或者你可在每天的午餐中省去喝苏打，”爱德曼说。

3. 开始于更小的金额。如果1%对你意味着数额大，那么可从10美元开始。而后继续增加10美元直到使你痛心的地步。

4. 下次加薪，拿出半数，作为储蓄。如果现在的你未能拿出一点，请等到下次加薪。拿出半数的加薪，放入退休计划中，如若有加薪时。你的薪水仍会增长少许，而投入退休计划的薪资将永不会使你痛心，他说。

5. 不要错过公司的奖励。许多雇主会提供退休计划，这会激励你投入些许薪资，使其归入你的计划。而你的工资也会增加3%。“这是雇主为你提供免费的钱财，所以拿着吧。”

6. 找到一份新工作。如果你的老板未能提供与付出等价的薪资，请更换工作，寻找做到此点的老板，他说。与劳动相对等的薪资必会增加退休储蓄。

试想：如若在40年内你每年抽取5000美元，且每年增加6%，退休时你就会积累77,3810美元。假如老板为你的账户提供3%，那么你的账户将会有额外的23,2143美元——总数会比百万美元多一点。

“你需要清楚许多老板愿意提供对等的薪资。但你的老板如若做不到，你要告诉自己去换工作，”他说。

7. 怀着长远视角而投资。你必须创立多种混杂的互惠基金，范围包括股票，基金，房地产，外国证券和政府证券，他说。

爱德曼说，基于了解风险且计划将资金投入股票基金，时间至少为5年且时间越长越适合，你可将资金全部投入股票基金。这两条标准对于你决定将资金投入股票基金很是重要，他说。

“我从不会推荐人们将资金投入股票，然后一两年后撤回资金。回想2008年。如果你有两年的投资期且开始于2006年，你就明白发生的事件。但是如果你有五年的投资期，你将会受益良好。”

“如果你对股票市场畏惧，不管怎样你还要投资其中。”爱德曼说。“许多人害怕去牙医出，但最后还是去了。不要让担心害怕阻止你需要做的事情。”