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Introduction: Ensuring a Bright Financial Future

Congratulations! You made it to the final module of the text. Our focus in this module will be
ensuring that you have a bright financial future. Let’s begin with some reflection on what you
would like to accomplish in the years to come. What type of career would like to have once
you’ve completed your degree? What promotions do you hope to get down the line? When
would you like to retire? Beyond your professional life, think about where you’d like to live
and what you’d like to do for fun. If you have children, what would you like to do for them?
Identifying your goals is the first step in achieving them. Once you know where you would
realistically like to be 5, 10, and 20 years down the road, you can put financial plans in place
that allow you to actually reach your destination—and hopefully enjoy the ride!

Recall Elena Maria from Module 9. She is determined to leverage her education to get a good
job that will allow her to save for her retirement and take care of her mother, who wasn’t able
to do that for herself. Elena Maria recently began saving and investing her money, at the rate
of $100 per month. Figure 10.1 shows how much money she can accumulate over 30 years
with this rate of savings. Her cousin, Alberto, has also been working full time, but he spends
all of his money on his car and going out with his friends. What if Alberto waits another
10 years to start investing $100 a month? If they both retire in 30 years and earn a 10%
return, Elena Maria will have $226,068 and Alberto will have only $75,944—a whopping
$150,000 difference! The lesson is to save early and save often.

Figure 10.1: Saving now versus 10 years from now

By starting to save now, Elena Maria accumulates a significant amount of money over the next 30 years.

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