reported median weekly usual earnings for full-time wage and salary workers age 25 and over that

corresponded to annual income of $40,612 for those with a high school diploma, $48,776 for those with a two-

year associate degree, and $67,860 for those with a four-year bachelor’s degree. Learning is not only good for

you, but it pays off financially, too.

The second key choice is to start saving money early in life, and to give the power of compound interest a

chance. Imagine that at age 25, you save $3,000 and place that money into an account that you do not touch. In

the long run, it is not unreasonable to assume a 7% real annual rate of return (that is, 7% above the rate of

inflation) on money invested in a well-diversified stock portfolio. After 40 years, using the formula for

compound interest, the original $3,000 investment will have multiplied nearly fifteen fold:

Having $45,000 does not make you a millionaire. Notice, however, that this tidy sum is the result of saving
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