Suze Orman: This is what you should do right now to retire a millionaire

You've heard it before but Suze Orman is telling you once again: Start investing right now.

The former CNBC host and personal finance maven barely had to think when asked about smart things 20-somethings should be doing with their cash to ensure they'll have enough later in life.

At Miami's eMerge conference in June, Orman told CNBC Make It that having a comfortable retirement at 65 is all about using compounding interest now.

"You invest money and your money makes money, and the money you made with the money that you had makes money, and everything compounds," she said.

Orman explained that if you, as a 25-year-old, put $100 each month into a Roth IRA, you could have one million dollars by retirement. But if you wait ten years to start investing, you'll end up with only $300,000. Waiting means blowing hundreds of thousands of dollars you could have made by letting that money sit and accumulate interest.

In November 2016, a GOBankingRates survey showed that 69 percent of Americans have less than $1,000 in their savings account while 34 percent have nothing saved at all. Many experts guess this is because people so often live beyond their means.

Orman made a name for herself serving up tough love to people who wanted to go on lavish vacations but admitted they still hadn't paid off their credit card bills.

The trick, she says, is to find the same kind of pleasure you get from spending when you save.

"I am a seriously wealthy woman," she told CNBC Make It, "and [I] get such joy when we go to the grocery store and say, 'Look, because I have this coupon we saved two dollars and fifty cents!'"

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Don't miss: Here's exactly when you'll become a millionaire if you save $1,000 per month

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