It's never too early to start saving for you retirement. The great thing about putting money away little by little into a 401(k) is that it can quickly grow to a substantial sum, and the money contributed is pre-tax.  Begin saving in your 401(k) plan as soon as you can.  Most employers have a waiting period of 30 days after your hire date before you can begin contributing. 

Remember that if your employer offers a matching contribution, take advantage of that; it's free money.  For example, Bob works for The Home Depot and contributes 6% of his paycheck to the 401(k) plan.  The Home Depot matches the 6% contribution each month.  Assuming Bob earns $3,000 a month, his conribution will be $180 and The Home Depot will contribute $180, which is free money for Bob.  Bob now has $360 each month going into his 401(k).  

The longer you wait the more you're losing out on, and if your employer matches a percentage of your contribution, you're missing free money.

When investing and saving early in your life, there is no reason to get out of the market if it is going down.  No one can ever time the market, so we never know when the right time to get in and out is.  Stay in, be a long term investor and over the long haul, your savings and investments should return an attractive yield for you.  Being young allows you to take on a little more risk becasue you have a longer period of time to recoup any losses, if and when losses occur.

This is a hard question to answer.  There are many variables that are involved when considering how much you will need to save.  There is no set figure amount, but having a target goal is always a great idea.  You need to first consider at what age you wish to retire at?  Many people strive for 65.  This will tell you how many years you have to accumulate funds for retirement.  If you are 20, that gives you 45 years to accumulate. 

Next, you need to visualize what you want your lifestyle to be.  Think about your parents or other older influences and how they live their lives.  If their pre-retirement income is $100,000 a year and it seems reasonable that you can achieve this too, pick the $100,000 figure.  Then you need to adjust for 3% inflation, since $100,000 today will not buy you what it will when you retire.  If you are 20 and plan on retiring in 45 years at 65, then your income will need to be $326,203, which will be like someone today living off of $100,000.  remember that wages and income will increase.

Now that you have a "ball-park" figure of your income, you now need to consider how much of your pre-retirement income will you need in retirement?  Many experts assume that you will need anywhere between 70%-110%.  Picking the average of those two, lets assume you will need 90% or $293,582. 

Experts advise that a retiree never pull off more than 4%-5% of thier portfolio in any given year.  If a retiree pulls off more than that, the chances that they will run out of money before they die are extremely high.  Using the 5% number, you will need to accumulate $5,871,640 by the age of 65.  Using the 4% figure you will need to accumulate $4,791,640. 

By going to the home page of www.financialyoung.com and plugging in this information, you will receive back in an e-mail 5 different saving scenarios to reach your projected goal.  you might find out that retiring at 65 may not be obtainable or that you will have to contribute more than you thought.  If you have a spouse, you might have to talk to them about starting a savings plan as well; two savers is always better than one.  Remember that many factors will change throughout the course of your life, but this is still very important information to know at an early age.  The earlier you begin saving, the better off you will be.  

Typically speaking, no, but there are stipulations.  If you use a consolidation agency, you must pay all your payments in full and on time.  If you don’t then you run a major risk of your credit score being hurt.