Tough question. Personally, having watched inflation during the last 50 years cause average people to get priced out of owning their own homes, even though a household went from a single earner to a two earner norm, I don't think there IS a safe way to plan for saving your way to retirement. I do think you need investments in yourself, your own land, your own business, your own community. Do not give your money to big institutions that are unaccountable to you for how they make profits, as that is what caused the global financial crisis we are currently navigating. Catherine Austin Fitts (www.solari.com) suggests that a college age person would do better to avoid the debt of a college education, and instead invest that money into building your own house, and then offering your services locally. By the time you retire, you'd better be out of debt, own your own home, and you need to have a source of income at least double the income you are making in your thirties to cover an inflated cost of living. For this, I suggest being an entrepreneur, or joint venturing in a business that is valued locally, where you and your customers are loyal to each other.
Source(s):
www.solari.com

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You need to start a Roth IRA right now. The contributions will not be deductible, but your withdrawals in 30+ years will be. Due to the wonders of compounding, whatever you can deposit now will be worth much more in the future.

Your best bet would be to invest it in a small cap index fund--higher risk, but you have a very long investment horizon.


But if you're not comfortable with that--its ok. The most important thing you can do is get in the habit of saving--so before you think about it anymore, open a Roth IRA--anywhere--a local bank, brokerage firm--online. Just do it, and start making deposits. You can switch it around whenever you want to.
Source(s):
Personal knowledge

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A great book that I would highly recommend on the subject of saving money would be "The Richest Man in Babylon." It is $6.99 on Amazon.comand a quick read. The following are the seven principles it aimed to instill in the reader.

1. Budget your expenses.
2. Save a consistent percentage of your paycheck every month.
3. Take your savings and invest them in income yielding assets.
4. Don't take more risk financially than you are comfortable with.
5. Make your home an investment rather than an expense
6. Reinvest the income from your investments
7. Find ways to make yourself more valuable in the market place and increase your income.

Other answers have already expressed the importance of opening a Roth IRA so I won't go into the details on that. In 2008 and 2009 the maximum investments into a Roth IRA is $5,000 so I STRONGLY suggest you max out. You mentioned your office doesn't offer a Roth IRA. This is ok since a Roth IRA is technically something you open up on your own and not through your employer. Any of the companies I have listed at the end of this answer would be more than happy to help you open a Roth IRA account. Two products you may consider purchasing in your Roth IRA are a low fee mutual fund or an index fund.

If I am reading your question correctly then I get the sense you are looking for suggestions on specific products to purchase which will grow over time. I personally have always been a fan of Vanguard Funds due to their low expense ratios. Every mutual fund will have a 12b-1 fee which is essentially a fancy way of saying how much the fund takes out for itself to pay for its varied expenses. The beauty of most any Vanguard mutual fund is that the 12b-1 fee will be much lower than comparable funds.

Another investment product you may want to look at are called Index Funds. These are funds which simply track the major indexes. You may be familiar with indexes like the S&P 500 or Dow Jones Industrial Average. These are indexes which track a basket of companies and are intended to give a reflection on the overall health of the market on a given day. There are mutual funds you can buy which emulate these indexes. This means when you hear on the news that the S&P 500 was 2% then you can reasonably assume your investment was up the same amount.

The best advice I can close with is to simply call different companies that specialize in retirement planning and ask them for advice. Most of them are more than happy to walk you through their retirement calculators and help you plan for free. They won't charge you for their consulting since they make their money on the products they sell (i.e. mutual funds). Below is a list of the financial firms I find useful and their phone numbers. I would encourage you to call them and ask for their professional advice.

USAA: 1-800-531-8910
Vanguard: 1-877-662-7447
EdwardJones: edwardjones.com (Find a branch in your hometown)
State Farm: statefarm.com (Find a branch in your hometown)

I hope my answer was helpful. If you would like clarification on any of my points then feel free to reply and I'll do my best to clarify. I strongly recommend reading the sources I have posted to learn more about the two specific products I outlined. My answer only gives the absolute basics. Without knowing more about your situation and risk tolerance it is hard to recommend specific products right for you.
Source(s):
http://www.amazon.com/Richest-Man-Babylon-George-Clason/dp/0451205367/ref=s...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roth_IRA
http://www.vanguard.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Index_Fund
http://www.usaa.com
http://www.edwardjones.com
http://www.statefarm.com

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I think the best thing to do right now is to store your money in a safe place so you don't lose it right away. However, once this economic crisis has passed (1-2 years), I think that you should try taking money out of your paycheck now and putting it in stocks and bonds. Try to calculate just how much you need and then put the rest into stocks and bonds. Try asking your boss if he/she will put something like 10-15% of your paycheck into the market and that if he/she does if you could get a little bonus added onto the money going into your savings because he/she doesn't have to pay you immediately.
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Given the state of the economy, prices are either very low or very high at the minute. I notice that you aren't asking for millions of dollars/pounds etc, and just want enough to live.

The answer to your question depends on one more factor. Do you have money now to invest for the future, or are you only getting by as it is?

If you have money now, then now is a very good time to invest in property/housing markets, but only in places where there is likely to be demand for it. For example, London, Indian major cities and Dubai outskirts or flats are cheap right now and worth buying. Not only can they be sold for a profit in the future, but rental income should be enough to pay off mortgages on them (after a few years), after which the rental income by itself will be enough to live on. All you need right now is enough for the downpayment, which where I live is approximately 10% of the value of the property.

You could also put a lot of money into government bonds which promise to pay you the rate of inflation plus more at a later date.

However, if you do NOT have money like that right now...

You don't necessarily have to contribute to your own company's pension scheme, and this may not even be possible. Private insurance companies will offer an annuity to private individuals. (I am training to be an actuary, so this is my field!) Basically, you pay a lot now/or smaller amounts over the years, which then become payable to you at a specified time, (for example, retirement age), every regular time period (such as every week or month), until death. This is basically just a pension which you have set up yourself, as oppose to through a company.

Ideally, it would be better to get your company to start a savings plan, but lastly, and most importantly, a savings plan is almost useless if you yourself are capable of simply putting as much of your own earnings aside as possible, and making sure you do not spend it, but either put it safely into a high interest bank account, or invest it in government bonds as I said before. (Notice that I said government bonds as oppose to corporate bonds, as government bonds are the least likely to default, seeing as governments of the western world will pretty much never go bankrupt.)

Hope that helps!
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People think it is really hard to find the best retirement plans. Actually, the truth is, it is not hard at all. It is very easy. A good retirement plan is something that ensures financial security. It is as simple as that. How do you define financial security? By the time you retire, you should have built quit a nest egg that you don't have to depend on either your friends or the government for your daily needs. Sounds simple, right?

1. 
   
2. Before we discuss further about retirement plans, I need to ask you a question. Are you in charge of your money? Do you have the freedom to invest your money wherever you want or are you still dependant on your employer to make all these decisions? The answer to these questions decides how your post retirement life will be.
   
3. 
   
4. Unfortunately, a lot of people do not put their retirement funds to good use. The funds remain dormant in their traditional accounts due to two important reasons. Here they are.
   
5. 
   
6. 1. A lot of people are unaware of the fact that they can do something with their retirement funds. You can actually opt for a self directed IRA (individual retirement account) and invest your retirement funds whichever way you want and make lots of profit. A lot of people are not aware of this at all.
   

2. People think that they lack the financial acumen to be able to make the right investment decisions. They think of options like the stock market and they are wary of the fact that they could lose their money by the thousands by investing in a volatile market. So, they decide to play safe by earning a tiny little interest on their retirement funds.

Like I already said, the best retirement plans are the ones that give you financial freedom. How do you get financial freedom? Simple - by getting higher returns on your investment, you can safely build a nest egg for your post retirement life. How do you get higher returns? Again, the answer is simple - by investing wisely. How do you invest wisely? Now, this is a very important question. Let us take a detailed look at the answer now.

To invest wisely and to pick the right retirement plans, you need to have freedom. In other words, you should be in charge of your own money, not your employer. With traditional retirement accounts like 401Ks, you are always dependent on your employer.

Whatever money you have in your account continues to give you very small returns. To change all this and to get higher returns, you should opt for self directed IRA (individual retirement account). Why should you do that? Let us see.

A self directed IRA, as the name suggests, is truly self directed. You are in charge of your retirement money and you have plenty of investment options as well. Some of the options include stocks, real estate, mortgages, franchises, and partnerships.

If you are knowledgeable about the stock market, you can invest your money there, if you have good business acumen, you can get a franchise, or if you want steady returns, you can go for real estate as well. Of late, a lot of people have invested in real estate as it is both safe and gives high returns.

Now that you know all these details, choosing the best retirement plans does not look like that big a deal, does it?

So, get started today and plan your retirement life the right way.

Pick the right investment option, get steady returns, and enjoy complete financial freedom in your post retirement life.

Some articles you may like to read: --

1, If one were to design an ideal retirement plan, it would probably include the following features:

Broad-based coverage, which covers all workers automatically.

Secure money for retirement, with limited opportunities for leakage of retirement assets.

Portability of benefits, which will allow workers to retain benefits if they switch jobs.

Shared financing, with contributions from both employees and employers.

Lifetime benefits, so that retirement income cannot be outlived.

Spousal and disability benefits to provide protections against death or the inability to work.

Professional management of assets.

Low costs and fees.

continue reading..... (http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/07/retirement_testimony.html)

2. Tap into Americas best pension plans

Link --http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Retirementandwills/Retireinstyle/P95335.asp

3. What You Should Know About Your Retirement Plan

Link -- http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/publications/wyskapr.html

4. The best retirement plan I have ever seen

" MENTION RETIREMENT to any group — no matter how young or old — and the knee-jerk reaction is almost always the same: Stuff as much as you can into a qualified retirement plan, such as an IRA, 401(k) or profit-sharing plan. Actually good advice.".... continue reading

Link --http://contractormag.com/columns/blackman/cm_column_663/


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