Not much, if you let time (and the compounding of your hard earned dollars) work for you. At a 7% annual return, it takes 30 years for an annual $10K investment to reach $1 million. Albeit, $1 million is not worth what it used to be, it is still a good goal to set (and, hopefully, surpass). For without goals in mind, the event of retirement remains too abstract for some and leads to paralysis. Unfortunately, this article points out this very fact by noting that 1 out of 3 people only have $5,000 saved for retirement. The best time to start saving was 20 years ago, the second best time is TODAY!