When I was 13 years old, I wanted to learn how to play the drums. I didn’t just want to play the snare drum alone, that’s boring. I wanted to rock out on the whole kit! When I first sat down and tried to play a full drum beat, it was overwhelming – how in the world am I going to get all my limbs doing different functions and actually have it sound good? The music teacher just told me to take a small step of practicing just 10-15 minutes a day. I started with just playing the hihat with my right hand and played that for a while until my brain put it on “auto-pilot” of sorts. Then I could add in the bass drum with my right foot. When playing the hi-hat and bass drum together started to become comfortable, I finally, after a bunch of tries, got the snare drum added with my left hand. I was playing a full beat! While I didn’t wake up a recording artist the next day, it was amazing how the small step of playing 10-15 minutes a day helped me achieve my goal!

When we meet with new clients, they often share that their goal is to save enough money while working so that they can retire. We often hear, “how much should I be saving for retirement to be “on track?” While that prompts more questions like – how old you are now, what age do you want to retire, how much do you want to spend in retirement, will you earn some income in retirement, etc, a good number to target is at least 15% of your gross income. Why 15%? A recent study by Fidelity showed that if individuals invest 15% of their gross income into retirement, they can retire or stop having to earn an income at 67.

A few questions might be coming to your mind right now….