The others have given you some good advice on techniques (Live Cheaply + Earn Well + Boring Stock Index Investments) but I'll throw some maths at you that you might find helpful.<p>There's a handy little formula that you can play around with in order to work out a suitable target and savings timeline. Although it ignores the stochastic nature of stock markets by assuming a constant return, it's a good ballpark figure, especially if you use conservative estimates for things.<p>X = The amount you will need to save and invest each year until retirement<p>T = Your target amount (Between 25 to 30 times your desired living expenses in retirement - See the Trinity Study and the 4% rule)<p>R = The expected rate of return after inflation<p>N = Number of years until you want to retire<p>X = T * R / ((1 + R)^N - 1)<p>Assuming a relatively conservative rate of return like 0.04, and a modest but liveable target of $500,000 in 10 years:<p>X = 500,000 * 0.04 / (1.04^10 - 1)) = $41,645<p>If you can keep your living expenses low, that could potentially be done on an $80,000 or $90,000 salary. Notice that your current age does not factor in this formula, only the number of years until you'd like to retire. Now obviously, if you'd started at say 28, you could retire at your current age with the same savings amount, or take the full 20 years but only have to save $16,791 each year, but overall, you'll be fine getting started right now.<p>You can also flip the formula around to work out how long it would take on a particular savings target:<p>N = log(base 1 + R) ((T * R) / X + 1)<p>Your calculator might only have ln, so you can just divide by ln(1 + R) in order to get the same thing:<p>N = ln((T * R) / X + 1) / ln(1 + R)<p>Like before:<p>N = ln((500,000 * 0.04) / 41,645 + 1) / ln(1.04) = 10 years<p>Play around with those numbers and you should be able to find a plan that feels attainable, even on a relatively modest income compared to some thrown around here. In all likelihood, you'll end up exceeding your savings target as you pick up a few salary increases along the way. And if you can save especially hard in the first couple of years, those early investments will put you ahead of schedule which gives you flexibility later on.<p>One more thing... On decade or shorter timescales, the rate of return doesn't really matter that much. That said, you'll need to invest your savings by the time you retire, so may as well get comfortable with it now - just keep it nice and boring.<p>Fingers crossed I've written those formulas correctly and that they are clear enough. Hope that it all helps!