I was recently given a copy of the book, The Minimum Wage Millionaire: How a Part Time After School Job Can Change Your Financial Life, to review. I’m offered books to review almost every week, but I have been declining them for quite a while since I’ve read so many personal finance books that I’m pretty much burnt out on the subject. Plus, I regularly read lots of personal finance blogs so I like to read about something else for my additional reading. Since I hadn’t done a giveaway for a long time and I liked the idea of this book I decided to review and give away this book.
The concept of the book is fairly simple. If you are able to invest the maximum Roth IRA contributions for six years while in your teens and early 20’s then you have a good chance of that money growing to a million dollars by the time you are retirement age. You can quibble about the expected return on investment or note that a million dollars won’t be worth near as much by that time, but it is still obvious that starting your savings early will dramatically improve your financial situation later in life.
The author states that this is the book he wishes he would have read when he was younger. By writing the book he hopes to make more young people aware of how beneficial starting to save early for retirement can be. This idea resonates with me. I read a lot personal financial books when I was in my early 20’s and knew how powerful starting to save early could be. Unfortunately, I worked minimum wage jobs back then and barely made enough to pay my bills so I wasn’t able to save much. Once I finally landed a decent paying job I totally abandoned my good financial habits and blew all my money and went into debt. I eventually ended up cashing out the few thousand I had managed to save in an IRA while trying to get out of debt. If only I had kept the same money habits I had when I was making minimum wage once I started making a decent wage I’d be a lot better off financially right now. Having the knowledge isn’t the same as applying the knowledge. If there are any young people reading this post, don’t make the same mistake I did.
The Giveaway
In order to enter to win a Kindle copy of the book, “The Minimum Wage Millionaire”, all you need to do is leave a comment. There is a limit of one comment per person. Other contest rules will apply as needed to maintain fairness. Entry to the giveaway will end on Sunday June 22, 2014 and a winner will be chosen by random drawing. Note that you do not need to own a Kindle in order to be able to read a Kindle book. There are free Kindle apps for smart phones, tablets, and PCs that can be used to read the book.
I want to at least help my kids by perhaps matching their contributions when they have earned income (and maybe funding up to their incomes in the beginning – as that would be the time to front load their accounts). I hope in doing so, it encourages them to do the same for their children someday.
Thank you for the opportunity.
I would love to read a copy of this. My daughter will be 16 next month, and if she can follow these guidelines, she will be much better off in life.
My son is 16 and starting his first job.
I know someone who might benefit more from reading this than you.
My teen daughters are starting now at 13
I probably need to read this due to the game I play.
I’d make sure my twentysomething daughters read this! (And they have Kindles.)