Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

So who do you know that would like to have a cool million in the bank? My guess is that most of the people you know would like to travel through this life without having to worry about paying the bills. Do you think you can get there with just your J.O.B. or will you have to find another way to achieve that lofty million dollar goal?

Let's take a look at some of the numbers needed to get to the million dollar plateau and if you think you can make it. We'll start at the age of 25 and work our way to 55 in 10 year increments.

Starting with $0 at the age of 25: Age is on your side here and you only need to save $2,084 per month to have a million bucks by age 65. Not so bad if you have no responsibilities, a really good paying job and no bills to pay.

Starting with $0 at the age of 35: Getting close to half the age of life expectancy now and you will need to save $2,778 per month to have a cool million by the age of 65. A tuff nut to swallow if you have a mortgage, car payment and kids.

Starting with $0 at the age of 45: Kids are out of the nest and you will have to kick it into high gear and save $4,167 per month to reach the million dollar goal by the age of 65. Hopefully your salary has gone up, the household has two incomes and you're driving a beater.

Starting with $0 at the age of 55: Now you're a geezer and you will need to save a whopping $8,334 per month to have that million dollar nest egg within 10 years. Man life passes us by quickly and it seemed like only yesterday...

You get the picture and of course none of the above figures include any investing, interest or compounding of your money, inheritance or the like. It is simply an illustration of what we would all need to do to get to that magical number of a million dollars if we were to stuff the money in the mattress. With this in mind I'm willing to bet that we'll all need to supplement our livelihoods with some type of extra income to reach our goal.