**Update at the bottom**
Get excited! I've got charts for you:
The first chart shows how conservative we are with our spending. When I say "not spending" I don't always mean "saving" because sometimes that extra money sits in our checking account (instead of our higher-interest savings account) until we move it over to savings. Which we/Mr. S recently did. 
Boom... and...
The second chart shows the breakdown of our expenses. There is some wiggle room in there as we did just pay for flights to Nicaragua in January (the dark blue slice) and we pay for a family plan for cell phones when we get reimbursed for the cost of some of the users (the lighter blue slice) and that reimbursement isn't reflected here.
BAM!
These charts reflect January's spending, saving and where all the money went. It's it glorious!?
When we were in Nica with our friends B.Lill and her husband (collectively they are called BaM), B and I started discussing investments, particularly retirement. (If retirement savings isn't considered an "investment", please leave a comment to correct me. I love learning and am working on humbly accepting fault!)
Anyway, BaM saves aggressively for retirement. M's parent's retired early after selling their dental practice and are still living-da-vida-loca as young retirees. BaM want to do the same and are busting their butts to make it happen.
Their primary goal is retirement savings (as they already own their forever-home, a car and probably have a nice cushion set up if/when kids come along in the next few years).
Hearing about Social Security in the news and learning how flawed of a plan it is for both our parents and our own golden years makes me scared for retirement. Not for me necessarily, because I believe Mr. S and I are aware of the issue there and realize that we need to start planning now if we want to take it easy in our older years, but for our generation.
Are you scared about retirement? Do you know where your security is going to come from when you're older? Are you squirreling away ANYTHING now? Yes, even in your 20's.
My advice to you: start saving for your retirement. Max out your 401k. Is a Roth IRA better for you? More tips for planning for retirement while in your 20's.
Also, keep a handle on your finances. Check them regularly (I have made charts quarterly, but I check Mint.com regularly). Get a handle on overspending and reward yourself when you've done well.
What tools do you use to plan for retirement? To save?
Drink Pairing: fresh orange, pear, parsley and strawberry juice. We juiced this morning (as we committed to do everyday this week for breakfast) and it was our best combo yet. Parsley may be an odd choice, but it has vitamin K!
**Update**
I had a comment from what I assume is my college roommate, RM. Not sure what happened to the comment, but she said she uses Mint.com and that her transactions are appearing twice. Does this help? If not, should you alert Mint to your problem? I know Mint is working on fixing things overtime and opening tickets with them might help you and others get solutions faster. :) So glad you use Mint!!
