I recommend the book "The Wealthy Barber." It breaks down the basics of personal investing - it's a great place to get started. There's a rule of thumb that s

I recommend the book "The Wealthy Barber." It breaks down the basics of personal investing - it's a great place to get started. There's a rule of thumb that says if you have a compounding interest rate, you can divide 72 by your interest rate to get the number of years before your investment doubles. (So if you're getting 7.2%, your investment doubles in 10 years.) Also, financial planners often use 7% as a rough estimate of the average returns you'll get from a well-balanced portfolio of mutual funds. So, again: that's roughly doubling every 10 years. So run a few scenarios in your head, and you'll see how that can pay off big time. $2,000 a year now means $20,000 when you're 30, doubling to $40,000 (at 40), $80,000 (at 50), $160,000 (at 60), and $320,000 at 70. All that from $2,000 a year for 10 years. [Which, actually was also compounding even higher between ages 20 and 30.] And there's two obvious ways to kick that up. If you do the investment in a retirement account, it's pre-tax dollars. (So the $1,000 you're investing only means giving up about $750 of your post-tax income.) Best of all, you can withdraw it early without penalty for tuition, a first home purchase or medical emergencies. And if your employer ever offers a match to your retirement contributions, take it. It's free money they're offering you.