Nowadays, everyone seems to be an expert on investing. How much you should invest, where to put your money, and when to get out before the value drops. So, who do you believe? What are the right answers? Why does this stuff seem so difficult?

I understand how you feel. The financial industry makes investing way more complicated than it has to be. There is a lot of bad advice out there when it comes to your financial future, and many people get overwhelmed when they’re finally ready to start investing. But there’s an easy approach I use, and it’s a good rule of thumb. Not just for me, but lots of other people.

Here it is: Every month, invest 15% of your gross income into tax-favored retirement accounts.

That’s it. I know it’s not trendy. It won’t make headlines or get you on the cover of a magazine. But it will get you where you want to go—to your retirement dream.

So why invest 15%? Good question. Let’s talk through the answer.

HOW MUCH YOU INVEST MAKES A HUGE DIFFERENCE

The U.S. Census Bureau says the median household income is around $59,000.⁽¹⁾ Fifteen percent of that would be $8,850 a year, or $737.50 a month. Over 30 years, that could grow to $1.6 million, assuming a 10% return. Sounds awesome, right? Who doesn’t want to be a millionaire?

But what if you only invested 10% of that gross income? That would be $5,900 a year, or roughly $492 a month. Invested over 30 years at the same rate of return, that percentage could get you just over $1 million. Not bad. But you’ve lost out on $600,000 you could be used to fund your retirement dream!

What about if you dropped that 15% down to 5.5%—the average personal savings rate in the U.S., including retirement savings and emergency funds? ⁽²⁾ At that percentage, you’re investing $3,245 a year, or around $270 a month. Over 30 years, assuming that same 10% rate of return, you could be looking at $586,256.

I know that’s a lot of numbers, so here’s a quick summary: Investing the average amount could get you about $586,000 for retirement. Choosing to be smarter than that could mean $1.6 million.

Which do you want to do? Yeah, me too.

SOCIAL SECURITY WON’T REPLACE YOUR INCOME

I’ve heard a lot of people say that they’re still counting on Social Security to pay for expenses during retirement. That’s a bad financial plan. In 2017, the average monthly benefit for retired workers was $1,369 a month. ⁽³⁾ That’s only $16,428 a year. To give you some perspective, the federal poverty level for a family of two (that’s you and your spouse) is currently $16,240.⁽⁴⁾ Is that a wake-up call? I hope so.

A lot of people ask me about whether Social Security will be around when they retire. The truth is, I don’t know. Nobody does. Conventional wisdom says the program will stay in place, but the amount retirees get every month could shrink. If that’s true, then you don’t want to depend on it for your retirement income.

YOU’VE GOT SOME BIG EXPENSES COMING IN RETIREMENT

I know what you may be thinking: My monthly expenses will be much lower in retirement. I won’t have to worry about a mortgage because I plan to pay it off before I retire. My kid’s will (hopefully!) have graduated by then, so I won’t be paying for college. My gas costs will go down because I won’t be driving to work every day . . .

Yes and no. Some costs may disappear or drop, but you’ll still have to pay property taxes and insurance and utilities and all those other monthly expenses. Plus, you’ll have one major expense in retirement: healthcare. And that’s a whopper of a bill.

Fidelity estimates that a 65-year-old couple will need $275,000 for healthcare costs in retirement. ⁽⁵⁾ Now that doesn’t include any long-term care costs, which could reach around $138,000 per person. ⁽⁶⁾ If you’re married, that means you need to be ready to pay over $500,000 for your and your spouse’s medical needs in retirement. Even if you’re healthy now, the Administration on Aging estimates that people turning 65 today have almost a 70% chance of needing some kind of long-term care in their remaining years. ⁽⁷⁾

HOW DO I INVEST 15% FOR RETIREMENT?

The first place to start investing is through your workplace, especially if it offers a company match. If your employer offers a Roth 401(k) or Roth 403(b), then you can invest the entire 15% of your income there and you’re done. With a Roth option, you contribute after-tax dollars. That means your money grows tax-free, plus you don’t pay taxes on that money when you take it out at retirement (although the match is taxed). Talk about making investing super easy!

If your employer matches your contributions to your 401(k), 403(b) or Thrift Savings Plan (TSP; a plan for federal employees), you can reach your 15% goal by following these three steps:

1. Invest up to the match in your 401(k), 403(b) or TSP.
2. Fully fund a Roth IRA. (If you’re married, fund one for your spouse, too.)
3. If you still haven’t reached your 15% goal and have good mutual fund options available, keep bumping up your contribution to your 401(k), 403(b) or TSP until you do.

For example, if your company will match 3% of your 401(k) contributions, invest 3% in that account and then put the remaining 12% in a Roth IRA. If that remaining 12% would put you over the annual contribution limit for a Roth IRA ($5,500 if you’re under age 50, $6,500 if you’re 50 or older), max out the Roth IRA and then go back to your workplace 401(k) to finish out investing 15%.

Here’s an example:

If your gross income is %59,000, then 15% of that is $8,850.  Follow me below.

1. Contribute to your workplace 401k to get your full company match. If your company matches your contributions up to 3%, then you contribute 3% on an annual basis!  3% of $59,000 works out to be $1,770.

2. Fully fund a Roth IRA. The federal limit for funding an IRA has increased to $6,000 a year.

Since we have invested $1,770 in our 401k to get the match and another $6,000 in our Roth RIA, we have so far allocated a total of $7,770.  But our goal is to invest the entire $8,850.  Remember?  What do we do with the other $1,080 we are to invest?  Where does it go?

3. We go back to the company 401k and invest what is left of 15%. In this case, it is $1,080.

So, when we are done, we have invested a total of $2,850 (for a total of 4.8% of our gross) into our 401k and $6,000 (which is 10.1% of our gross) into our Roth IRAs.  The two contributions together make up 15% of our gross income.

I want you to notice two things: First, you need to invest 15% of gross salary, not your take-home pay. Second, do not count the company match as part of your 15%. Consider that extra icing on the cake!

SUPERCHARGE YOUR INVESTING

Whether you invest through your workplace plan or an IRA, you need to set up your account for automatic withdrawal—preferably with a percentage, not a flat amount. Your money will go straight from your paycheck to your retirement account. You won’t even see that money. That way, you won’t be tempted to skip investing to spend that money on something else.

Automatically withdrawing a percentage of your income from your paycheck also increases how much you’re putting away over time. For example, if your annual income is $59,000, you’d be putting away $8,850 a year. Let’s say your salary increases by about 3% a year for 10 years. At the end of that decade, you’d be making just over $79,000 a year and investing a little over $11,800 annually. See how your contributions increase? That’s a good thing!

So, what does that get you in the long run? If you keep investing 15% of your income no matter how much you make, you could reach the $2.1 million mark in 30 years, assuming a 10% return. If you increase your lifestyle instead of investing the raises you get, you could have $1.68 million in 30 years. Now, I know, that’s still a lot of money. But you could miss out on over $420,000 for your dream retirement! That amount would put a dent in any medical expenses you might encounter in your golden years.

IT’S TIME TO TAKE ACTION

Listen to people . . . what happens next is up to you. Your financial future is in your hands, not someone else’s. You start on the path to your dream retirement the moment you take that first step. Knowing this information won’t change your future if you don’t act on it.

Investing 15% might feel like a big step. But whether we like it or not, the clock is ticking—and now is the time to act! If you want to go from floating with no real plan to on track and investing in your family’s future, you have to create a plan and stick to it.

If you still have questions about investing, talk to your financial advisor. If you don’t have one, check out a SmartVestor Pro. These are the people I use to help me with my own investing, and they want you to succeed with money as much as you do!

Ready, set, go!

Written by Chris Hogan from ChrisHogan360.com