The Suze Orman Show recently went off the air and I’ve been heartbroken ever since.

I never watched Suze on tv, but I listened to her show religiously, podcast-style. After all, Suze’s money commentary was addictive, and she dispensed the good advice to give up cable, which I haven’t had in years to begin with.

There are so many points Suze repeated over and over that made simple what used to feel so complicated in the world of money. She kind of changed my life. In tribute to her, my next few money posts will be as short and simple as possible- her best ideas were short and powerful and repeated time and time again.

So here’s how much you should be contributing to your retirement account(s) in your thirties:

1. First, if you are an employee (and not an independent contractor) make sure you are actually signed up to contribute to your work 401k. Are you SURE? I have so many friends who thought they were signed up for years but actually weren’t. So they contributed ZERO…by accident. Double check.

2. Second, if your workplace offers a 401k match, contribute money into your 401k up to the match. Then stop and contribute to your IRA or Roth IRA. 

3. If your workplace doesn’t offer a 401k match, or you’re self-employed, start out by contributing the maximum to your IRA or Roth IRA. Don’t know how to open an IRA? Read about simple ways to do so here.

4. You can contribute up to $5,500 a year to your Roth IRA OR your IRA. Total. Try to hit that mark. If not, do what you can.

5. Contribute what you can to that IRA or Roth IRA. This is your main retirement vehicle. I try to contribute 10% of my income to my Roth IRA. Many financial advisors recommend 15%…I’m not ready for that yet, but once I finish paying off my student loan I will be.

6. If you max out both your 401k MATCH and ALSO your Roth IRA or IRA, then go back to your 401k and contribute as much as you can. You can contribute up to $18,000 in 2015.

7. If you don’t have a 401k because you’re self-employed like me, and you’ve maxed out your Roth IRA or IRA (good for you!), then you can start contributing to special retirement accounts for the self-employed. Learn about those here.

Hope this helps you learn how to save for retirement! Please ask any questions you have- I’m happy to answer or find you answers! 🙂