Piute County School District,

Hope you’re still listening to those motivational songs “Woah, we’re half way there, woah livin’ on a prayer.” We’ll make it, I swear ;)

While we should be setting and monitoring goals all year, January is a common time to really do some reflection and get serious about goals. This time of year I teach the school district’s seniors about retirement. 18 years old is the best time to set a retirement goal and start saving for it. Wednesday in class I’ll give students a copy of a document I created called “10 Ways To Retire/Die A Millionaire.” It is a Google Doc and a Google Spreadsheet. I thought you might find it interesting.

Document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1C-H_dkBd-XG9S6KN2kDoJJJNiuPKgpSgkqu5kpVrDxU/edit?usp=sharing

Spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17q18uh_wQS_pcFPeI7chSXpEX1U8M8GRtboM_j3JOuQ/edit?usp=sharing

The examples are intended to show some comparison. Investing is like planting a tree, you should have done it 20 years ago 😁. However, it’s never too late. Obviously I show the comparison of how much more difficult it is to make a million if you wait until you’re 35 or 45 to start investing. I tell students about compound interest being called the 8th wonder of the world. You should remember it as the 1st wonder of the world as none of the others can make every family generationally wealthy. 

I find it inspiring that with less than $10,000 someone can die a millionaire. With less than $25,000 someone can retire a millionaire. I’m not even using overly optimistic interest rates. I use 8% (4% less than some of Dave Ramsey’s materials). The stock market average over the last 100 years is 10%. Most quality mutual funds have been earning well over 10% as we have spent nearly all of the last 10 years in a bull market. If you invest in a Roth account you also will not pay any taxes on over 90% of that million dollars.

No investment pays higher returns than education. While it does bring great financial returns, most returns from obtaining more education are not financial. Education brings returns of cultural understanding, habits for good health, skills for solving complex problems, solutions for looming disasters, etc, etc, etc; it is literally the key to peace in the Middle East. In generations past students had to seek out education. Now we carry the world’s knowledge around in our pocket. It is our generation's challenge to separate good information from bad information and prioritize the most beneficial knowledge and skills.

Thank you for your investment in education. The world is a better place because of the work you do. 

Koby