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Veterinary Practice News Editorial Blog:
Sept. 27, 2011
How I Helped a Technician Become a Millionaire
Phil Zeltzman, DVM, Dipl. ACVS, CVJ
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As I’ve written before, we truly have some powerful conversations in the OR.
A few days ago we ended up talking about retirement with two technicians during a TPLO surgery. Let’s call them Belinda and Amanda. I have no clue how we ended up talking about it besides the fact that it’s one of my favorite subjects.
The conversation went something like this:
Belinda: “I’m only 23 years old, so I have all the time in the world to worry about retirement. In fact, I’ll probably never retire.”
Me: “If you start now, you can definitely retire. It’s only fair after a whole life of hard work.”
Belinda: “But I can’t afford to save for retirement.”
Me: “Actually, you can’t afford not to save.”
Belinda: “What do you mean?”
Me: “Well, the longer you put it off, the more money you’ll have to save to catch up. Heck, if you start young enough, you could easily become a millionaire.”
Belinda: “Huh? Come on, I’m just a tech!”
Me: “Personal finance books are full of stories about ‘just a postman’ or ‘just a school teacher’ who saved early with a lot of self-discipline and who secretly retired a millionaire.”
Amanda: “Plus, Dr. Smith will match your savings up to 3 percent.”
Me: “Even better, it’s free money you’re leaving on the table. It’s like getting an instant 3 percent raise. Many people wish they had such a generous employer as Dr. Smith.”
Belinda: “So how much should I save? Amanda, how much do you save?”
Amanda: “I save $40 out of each paycheck.”
Belinda: “What? I could never do that? How am I gonna pay my bills?”
Amanda: “Actually, it’s taken automatically from my paycheck, so I never really miss that money.”
Belinda: “Oh, really?”
Amanda: “Hello! Belinda! We’ve all tried to tell you for years!”
Belinda: “What? No you haven’t.”
Amanda: “Oh, yes, we have, but you never wanted to listen.”
Belinda: “Anywho, I guess maybe I could save $50 out of each paycheck.”
Me: “Excellent. At that rate, it will probably take you 50 years to be a millionaire assuming you match the historical return of the stock market, but if you slowly, steadily, consistently increase your contributions, you will, of course, shorten that time.”
Amanda: “Belinda, do you really think you can spare $50 per paycheck? I thought you couldn’t do $40.”
Belinda: “Well yeah, but now I have a new goal in life: I wanna be a millionaire.”
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