How would you like to retire young and rich? It seems that’s a goal of many young college students; to somehow win the rat race, get out and travel the world while still young enough to enjoy it. But how do we do it?

I present you with the Dave Nieman Plan for Financial Riches.

Are you excited? You should be. Time is on our side. A very small amount of money and planning early in our lives can alleviate a lifetime of financial worry and frustration as we approach retirement.

First, the money: it can be hard to find work in Rexburg, but I know of one place that’s always hiring and is willing to pay $20 an hour, as long as you weigh over 115 pounds and haven’t been to France in the last year.

Drum roll please…The Bio-Medics Plasma Center on Main Street! Plasma donors can donate twice a week, giving up an hour or so of their time for a free movie, cookies, Capri-Sun and a crisp Andrew Jackson on your way out.

The Plasma Center pay scale alternates between $20 and $25 for each donation.

So now that your wallet is exploding with cash, what do you do with it? Well there are a few places you could invest it: Craigo’s Pizzeria, the Paramount Movie Theater or in an Individual Retirement Account.

IRA accounts are managed by professional financial planners that diversify your investment between stocks, bonds and real estate. This means that there is very little risk involved, and it requires little effort on your part to earn the highest interest you can.

Historically, people have been able to earn 10 percent interest using an IRA. Ten percent? That doesn’t sound like much, but thanks to the miracle of compound interest it adds up real fast.

Say you invest half of your plasma payroll each week throughout college. By the time you get your diploma, if you invested $20 a week, two semesters a year, for four years, earning 10 percent and then didn’t look at it until you retired at age 65, your small investment of $3,200 would have matured to a whopping $246,025.26 all on its own.

That’s a pretty good return – enough to travel the world a time or two. But some people might want to travel the world in their own private plane once they retire.

Well, if you invest a little less at Craigo’s and the Paramount, and invest your whole plasma payroll into your IRA, you can do that. Under the same assumptions as before, but investing $45 a week, you would be able to retire with $442,845.47 in your pocket.

That’s a healthy chunk of change, especially because it only cost you $5,760 to earn it. But for some people it’s just not enough to have a plane and travel the world. They need a house in Fiji as well.

No problem. If you can maintain your little pattern of investment over your off track you can have the house in Fiji too. Actually you can have $672,965.55 and whatever it’ll buy you.

Now you may be thinking to yourself, “sounds great, Dave, nice plan, but how can I invest in an IRA account? I don’t know nothing about anything!” Well that’s OK; even you can do it!

Many financial institutions allow you to establish these accounts very easily, and more importantly, with very small amounts of money.

In David Bach’s book The Automatic Millionaire he discusses the benefits of connecting your bank account with your mutual fund and automating the process of investing. That way once you set up your account, you can leave it alone and have it invest the $45 a week for you. Then there’s no chance of making a mistake or forgetting to invest one week.

As college students, we may not have much money, but we have a lot of time. And when working with compound interest, time is worth more than money. If you can maintain your $45 weekly investment until you turn 30, you can retire with $1.3 million to travel the world.

Not only will starting young help us get a head start on our goals, but it will help us develop the habits that will bring us success throughout life.