On Thursday, Biola students discovered how to prepare for retirement – starting now. The Crowell School of Business Investment Society hosted a seminar to help college students make the most of their money by teaching them to invest early.

“As a college student, you don’t think of retirement that is 40 years away. But if you start investing sooner, you’ll have more money and you’ll have to invest less,” said junior Christie Lam, who is the virtual stock exchange director for the Crowell Investment Society.

The seminar speaker, Brent Honea, is a financial adviser at Fidelity Investments, and gave students tips on starting their retirement plans.

Less than 10 percent of people across the United States have a retirement plan, according to Honea. Here’s how to change that.

1. Start investing early.

Fidelity believes it takes 85 percent of your working income to cover retirement expenses, which means the sooner planning begins, the better.

“Every year you wait to start putting money away costs you lots and lots of dollars later on,” said Honea. “Your money works harder when you start earlier.”

When you start investing earlier, you gain more compound interest, which means you will make more money investing less. Honea gave an example of two investors: one invested x amount of money starting at age 30; the other invested twice that amount at age 40. The earlier investor made over $100,000 more than the other, all because of compound interest.

Honea even suggests funding your retirement account before paying off student loans, because of the importance of starting early.

2. Develop a retirement plan specific to you. Visit www.fidelity.com/myplan. It’s a retirement planning engine that will help you craft a plan to fit your needs. It only takes about 5 minutes to get started.

You can also check out your local Fidelity Investor Center for free insight from one of their experienced investment specialists. They’ll help you start a plan, make smart investing choices and manage your portfolio. Brea Investor Center: 815 E. Birch St; Brea, CA 92821 Phone: 800-331-5829

3. Learn your retirement number, and set goals so you can reach it.

Your retirement number is how much money you want to have in your account when you begin retirement. For those in their mid-20’s who live in the Orange County area and make an average of $60-75,000 a year, the average retirement number is near $2 million, according to Honea.

Your number differs depending on how long you want to work, how much you are saving per month, even on what you’d like to do during retirement – whether it’s golfing, traveling, or even buying a plane.

4. When choosing your career, pick a company that offers good benefits, not just a good wage.

You want the company you select to offer a 401k plan, preferably with company match (this means they contribute an amount to your account that matches how much you put in). Pension is also a great thing to have if you can find it; it means you have a guaranteed income for the rest of your life. Many companies, however, no longer offer pension because they lose money doing it.

Check if you’re on track with your retirement plan by visiting Fidelity’s Web site and searching Quick Check.

The Crowell Investment Society, formed in Jan. 2006, allows students to gain experience with tools like the virtual stock exchange, and a real cash investment account. The society also provides educational speakers and reading material and practice through a real cash investment account, according to their mission statement on their Web site. Their goal is to teach students to be good stewards of their money as Christians, according to Vice President Garrett DeBlauw.