At what age should I start or stop saving money?

There is no age limit in fact, the sooner you start the better - the sooner the money starts to compound.

There is an old Chinese proverb that I find really motivating:

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.

While there is no age limit, bear in mind that saving money makes sense only if it doesn't delay your paying off expensive debt. If you have credit cards or expensive loans you would be best placed to focus on paying them down before saving a lot. If you save and keep debt, you'll effectively lose money as the interest on your debt will usually be higher than you can earn on savings.

Having said that, it's worth saving a small amount anyway to have as an emergency fund. As you pay off your debt, start saving the money you no longer have to pay out and it will soon pay dividends.

Are you working? Does your employer offer a 401(k) and if so, is there any match?

Saving should be taught to kids at the same time they are old enough to get an allowance. There are many numbers tossed around, but 10% is a start for any new saver. If a college graduate can start by saving even 15%, better still. If you find that the 10% is too much, just start with what you can spare, and work to build that up over time, perhaps by splitting any future raises, half going toward savings, half to spending.
Good luck.

As an example, I'm opening a Roth IRA for my 12 year old daughter, a 10 year head start on her retirement savings.

• 2010-Nov: She made good money this summer baby sitting.

• 2013-Jan: She's 14 now. Three deposits to the Roth total $6000, and she's planning to up the number this year. Her goal is to have $50K saved in her Roth by the time she graduates college.

• 2017-July: Age 18 and off to college next month. Just under $24K, all invested in an S&P low cost index. We are planning to continue deposits of $4-$5K/yr, so the $50K is still a good goal.

• 2019-Nov: She turned 21 last month. Third year of college. The Roth is just shy of $45K, 2018 ended with the S&P down 4.4%, but the deposit was more than this, so the account still grew. And YTD, S&P up 28% really helped. 2020/21 deposits point to a balance over $50K by graduation even if the next 18 months are flat to down a bit.

• 2021-May: age 22.5 graduated last week. The Roth is at $65,300. We rode out the Covid crash and bounce back. The S&P has continued to be kind in the long run. We haven't made the 2021 deposit yet. She just got a summer job, and I now know we can make the full deposit this year. A jump to $71K with that.

As all said, the age limitation thing is nothing, and saving money not necessarily means to live poor nor Skimpy, spend your needs and try to get what you need instead of what you want, the 24 years old is a good start for saving money, the whole life still in front of you

Good luck!

You've never saved money? Have you ever bought anything? There probably was a small window of time that you had to pool some cash to buy something.

In my experience, if you make it more interesting by 'allocating money for specific purposes' you'll have better results than just arbitrarily saving for a rainy day.

Allocate your money for different things (ie- new car, emergency, travel, or starting a new business) by isolating your money into different places. Ex- your new car allocation could be in a savings account at your bank. Your emergency allocation can be in cash under your bed. Your new business allocation could be in an investment vehicle like a stocks where it could potentially see significant gains by the time you are ready to use it.

The traditional concept of savings is gone. There is very little money to be earned in a savings account and any gains will be most certainly wiped out by inflation anyway.

Allocate your money, allocate more with new income, and then use it to buy real things and fund new adventures when the time is right.

It's nearly always a good idea to save for your future, if you don't already have sufficient funds to see out the rest of your days. The hardest part of the saving decision is knowing exactly what portion of your funds to save.

If we save too aggressively, we risk having an adverse impact on our everyday life and, of course, there's always the possibility that we'll never make it to old age. But if we don't save, we risk the prospect of a poverty stricken retirement.

It's not always easy to find a balance. The best solution is to make so much money that we cannot possibly spend it all!

"Savings" are economic form of deferred gratification, and deferred gratification is the key to success in almost everything in life.

Thus, start deferring gratification now.