Not only will you start building up a nest egg, you'll have more money for things that do make you happy, like handbags or trips to Spain.

BBC: NEWS | UK | Magazine | Money worries in your 20s? There may be a silver lining

But if, like most of us, you hold your nest egg in a savings account, a money market fund, real estate, or a 401(k) plan then what you care about is your real rate of return, not the inflation rate per se.

FORBES: Does Inflation Hurt Savers?

As retirement approaches, you can start putting more of your savings dollars directly into a online savings account, build a CD ladder or get a money market account for your nest egg.

FORBES: Should You Invest in Gold?

And he wrote in to Morning Edition to say he's less than five years from retirement and he's got a 100, 000-dollar nest egg invested right now, in a seemingly safe money-market account.

NPR: Listeners' Money Questions Answered

If you expect a private money manager to catapult you and your nest egg onto the Forbes 400 Richest People in America list, take a deep breath.

FORBES: Move over, mutual funds

They lost a lot of money on Monday, you know, and that from their only nest egg.

NPR: Unemployed Women Wait For Phone To Ring

My carefully budgeted nest egg had tided me over to the point where I was beginning to make some money from my music.

FORBES: Book Excerpts

One advantage is that money left unspent in accounts can be rolled over to the following year, building a nest egg to cover the deductible.

ECONOMIST: Corporate health plans