Personal Finance Advice posted a lot of things that you could do to negatively affect your retirement and most of them have to do with not beginning early enough or putting money towards other things besides retirement. Here’s my take on them

• Setting money aside for college ahead of retirement Although every parent wants to help their child attain higher education, they don’t give scholarships or loans for retirement. One of the best gifts you can give to your child is your own independence.
• Believing it’s OK to wait The power of compounding interest over decades can be pretty powerful even if you only manage to save a small amount every month. $100 a month invested in an S&P 500 index fund make almost $700,000 after 40 years. What are you waiting for?
• Not taking advantage of 401(k) matches Workers under the age of 35 are less likely to take advantage of their company’s 401(k) programs. In the age where pensions are out the window, I just don’t understand why participation is so low. Aside from the instant tax cut, your employer most likely matches 50% of the first 6% of your salary contribution. Where else are you going to get a 50% return on your investment?
• Accumulating credit card debt Credit Card debt is the biggest sapper of American wealth. Every month your balance isn’t fully paid off you’re being charged upwards of 14%. And if you make a late payment, some cards default your interest rates to 30%!
• Counting on an inheritance Do you think mom and dad or that rich uncle will leave you hundreds of thousands or dollars? Think again, the average inheritance that’s received is less than $20,000. That’s it their estates doesn’t come saddled with debt already. It’s a nice little nice egg or something to start with, but certain not enough to last a few decades after retirement.
• Buying more house than you can afford The average American house has gone from 1500 square feet to almost 2500 square feet in the last 35 years. What’s even more odd is that the size of a typical family has decreased. Having to pay off a huge mortgage in your twilight year is darn risky, especially with the housing market of today.
• Neglecting insurance After taxes, I think the thing I hate the most about personal finance is insurance. You hate purchasing is because it’s insurance for bad untimely events. Whether it’s burglary, floods, fire, care accidents, health, or God forbid death, you just don’t want to deal with insurance. But you’ll be glad you bought it when any of those things happen. Otherwise, you’re dealing with having to replace and repair things or worse leaving loved ones without money.
• Failing to take advantage of Roth IRA After some research on how to best utilize your government supported retirement plans, I’ve come to the conclusion that after you’ve received your company match on your 401(k), the best place to put your money is into an Roth IRA. Unlike a 401(k), where the tax breaks come when you put money into it, the Roth’s benefit is that you’ll be able to withdrawal money from it tax free after a certain age.
• Investing too conservatively Part of the reason that you want to invest early is to take advantage of compounding interest. If you place your retirement money in investment that are too conservative, the compounding will be greatly deflated. You also need to remember that inflation will take away part of the savings that you have placed in your retirement fund, so you need to make sure that you invest in a way that you significantly outpace inflation.
• Investing too aggressively On the other side of the coin, you don’t want to invest your money in high risk ventures that there is a good chance that your retirement fund will be wiped out. Your retirement fund should be aggressive but not high risk.