What I Learned

    What I've learned in reading this book is that many people can not retire at the age of 65. One in ten people can barely afford to retire. There are some acceptions though that can retire earlier than 65. These people learn how to become automatic millionaires.
    Also to not spend money on the small things. This principal is called the Latte Factor. The idea with the latte factor is if you are spending money everyday on coffee or a soda that money adds up to be quite a bit that could help you in the future. Instead of buying those things, you could make coffee at home for cheaper or buy soda at the store in a larger quanity, like a 24 pack of soda, to save money. many people don't know but saving just 5 dollars a day could add up to almost 1.2 million dollars by the time you're 65.
    An important and interesting thing I learned was to pay yourself first. the concept of paying youself first is simply. You have 10% of your income taken out of your pay check and put into a savings account or retirement account. ( You can go higher or lower than 10%) This percentage is taken out even before taxes are taken out and you don't see this money at all so you don't know how much you are missing.
   Another thing is you should have a cash cushion of at least three month's worth of expensive. This is incase something should happen, like you lose your job, this way you are covered for at least three months. You should have more because incase you do lose your job it could take as long as a year to find a new one. The money should also be kept somewhere safe and where  you could be making money on it. Either a savings account or money market account. A good plce too open a money market is ING Direct at www.ingdirect.com
    Last but not least, make all of this automatic. A good place to make things automatic is Vanguard at www.vanguard.com. Here you can do everything yourself and don't need a financial advisor. Once you make these steps automatic you don't have to mess with them anymore. It will all be done for you and because it is all automatic you don't ever see the money so you don't know how much you are missing and will still be able to pay check and etc. with the money you get in your paycheck that you do see.