1. Start saving, keep saving, and stick to your goals. If you are already saving, whether for retirement or another goal, keep going! You know that saving is a rewarding habit. If you’re not saving, it’s time to get started. Start small if you have to and try to increase the amount you save each month. The sooner you start saving, the more time your money has to grow. Make saving for retirement a priority. Devise a plan, stick to it, and set goals. Remember, it’s never too early or too late to start saving.

2. Know your retirement needs. Retirement is expensive. Experts estimate that you will need 70 to 90 percent of your preretirement income to maintain your standard of living when you stop working. Take charge of your financial future. The key to a secure retirement is to plan ahead. Start by requesting Savings Fitness: A Guide to Your Money and Your Financial Future and, for those near retirement, Taking the Mystery Out of Retirement Planning.

Planning for Retirement While You Are Still Young

Retirement probably seems vague and far off at this stage of your life. Besides, you have other things to buy right now. Yet there are some crucial reasons to start preparing now for retirement.
You’ll probably have to pay for more of your own retirement than earlier generations. The sooner you get started, the better. You have one huge ally - time. Let’s say that you put $1,000 at the beginning of each year into an IRA from age 20 through age 30 (11 years) and then
never put in another dime. The account earns seven percent annually. When you
retire at age 67 you’ll have $192,933 in the account.

Missing bill payments may hurt your credit scores, because it may establish a poor payment history and can lead to debt collection. Help make sure your payments are on time by setting up automatic payments or electronic reminders. If you’ve missed payments, get current and stay current. You can use the “Bill calendar” (in Module 4) to help track when your bills are due and decide when you’ll pay them.

I'll spend under my credit limit and won't get anywhere close to "maxing out" my credit cards.
Credit scoring models look at how close you are to being “maxed out”, so try to keep your balances low compared to your total credit limit. Experts advise keeping your use of credit (credit utilization) at no more than 30 percent of your total credit limit.

If you close some of your credit card accounts and put most or all of the balances onto a single card, your total credit limit may be lower than before. If doing this means that you’re using a higher percentage of your total limit than you were before, it may hurt your credit scores because it’s increasing your credit utilization. In some cases, it’s better to leave credit cards open even if you don’t use them, to increase your total credit limit. But it depends on how many cards you have and if you can avoid using all of them.