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Financial Fitness Week Coverage: Millennials Learn Value of Saving

Presentation focuses on benefits of saving early for retirement

Levi Wiget, a regional planning consultant with Fidelity, presents to more than 200 attendees at a Duke Financial Fitness Week workshop focused on how Millennials can prepare for retirement. Photo by Bryan Roth.
Levi Wiget, a regional planning consultant with Fidelity, presents to more than 200 attendees at a Duke Financial Fitness Week workshop focused on how Millennials can prepare for retirement. Photo by Bryan Roth.

When speaking to young professionals, Levi Wiget often asks about what he calls the “big, bad ‘B’ word” – budget.

It’s an important, but often overlooked, part of spending habits, and one Wiget brought up often during a presentation to about 200 Duke employees age 35 and younger as part of Duke’s annual Financial Fitness Week workshop, “Millennials: Ditch the Debt and Start Saving.”

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“How much are you spending a week?” Wiget, a regional planning consultant with Fidelity, asked the audience Tuesday in the Bryan Center’s Griffith Auditorium. “You’d be surprised at how many of my clients don’t know.”

According to a poll taken by audience members during the program, 45 percent of respondents said they contribute nothing to their retirement account, with 41 percent putting away 1 to 6 percent and 14 percent saving more than 7 percent.

During the presentation, Wiget covered a variety of topics, from how to build an emergency fund and contribute to a retirement plan to focusing on loans and credit card debt. He also showed visualizations of how compound interest would work, taking an annual investment of $5,500 from age 35 to 70, which would end at almost $800,000. Projections for the same approach started at age 25, however, would more than double the final total.

After seeing that, Amber Dodson, 34, a nurse at Duke Hospital, said it was time to rethink her spending habits in lieu of buying a new purse or shoes.

“I’m now going to be a little harder on myself, and I’m going to say ‘no’ when I can’t afford it and I’ll start setting aside funds for events and things I know are coming up months in advance,” she said. “I have to start asking myself, ‘is this worth saving for?’”

In another poll for the audience, 31 percent of respondents answered that they never check their budget, while 40 percent do it once a month and 24 percent weekly. Six percent said they keep track daily.

“There are a lot of different ways to start a budget, whether that’s an Excel spreadsheet, Microsoft Money, Quicken, you name it,” Wiget said. “The theme of today is understanding what you have and why you have it.”

To contribute to a retirement account, Wiget recommended starting low – 1 percent per paycheck – then gradually increasing contributions as salaries grow. That way, there wouldn’t be a decrease in actual take-home pay.

Desiree Bell, 25, a staff assistant at University Development, said that she’s been planning for her future by contributing $100 a month into a retirement account, but after seeing how time can impact her savings, she’s ready to save more. She’s already paying off credit cards every month and tracking spending, but admitted it’s good to hear about strategies that can last a lifetime. 

“It all makes me want to increase my savings – to one-up yourself,” Bell said. “I’m definitely going to look at my plan and see if I can increase it soon.”

Additional reporting by Alexandria Glenn