Catching Up on Retirement Savings When You Started Late

Rewritten in 2026. The original, published in 2017, was framed around that year's Super Bowl and cited figures from the same period.

A substantial share of people approaching retirement have saved considerably less than the guidance suggests they should have. The reasons are usually structural — a career interruption, a divorce, raising children, a business that did not work, supporting a parent — rather than a failure of discipline.

For a practical overview of productivity and efficiency, Monitask provides the website with further context.

Being behind is common. It is also not the same as being stuck, and the things that help are unglamorous and effective.

General information, not financial advice. Take advice from a fee-only adviser who does not earn commission on what they recommend.

Start by knowing the actual number

Most people planning around a vague sense of being behind have never calculated the gap. Doing so is uncomfortable for an evening and useful for a decade.

What you spend now, from twelve months of statements. Not what you think you spend.

What will stop — retirement contributions, payroll taxes, commuting, the mortgage if it ends, support that will end.

What will start or increase — healthcare before 65, and the things you plan to do with the time.

What you can expect — Social Security, any pension, and what current savings can sustainably produce.

The gap between the last two lines is the number. It is frequently smaller than the anxiety suggested, and where it is not, you have found out while there is still time.

See the 70% retirement income rule for why the standard target is usually too high.

The five levers, in order of effect

1. Working longer, even part-time

By a wide margin the most powerful, because it works from three directions at once: more years of contributions, fewer years to fund, and — if it lets you delay claiming Social Security — a permanently higher benefit.

It does not have to be full-time. Part-time work in the first years of retirement reduces drawdown at exactly the point when drawdown does the most damage.

2. Delaying Social Security

Benefits increase for each year you delay claiming, up to 70. Claiming early permanently reduces the monthly amount, and for a married couple it also affects what the survivor receives.

This is a decision, not a default. Health, need and whether you are still working all matter. The Social Security Administration's own calculators at ssa.gov are the reliable source — be wary of anyone offering to optimise this for a fee.

3. Catch-up contributions

Retirement accounts allow people over 50 to contribute above the standard limit, and there are further provisions for certain ages.

The amounts change annually. Check the current figures at irs.gov rather than in any article, including this one.

Take any employer match first. If a workplace plan matches contributions, that is an immediate return available nowhere else.

4. Housing

Frequently the largest single lever and the least discussed, because it is not a financial decision so much as a life one.

Moving somewhere smaller or cheaper can close a gap that no amount of additional saving would. So can paying off a mortgage before retiring, or renting out space.

5. Spending less, identified specifically

"Spend less" is not a plan. A list of what specifically changes, with amounts, is.

The subscriptions review is a reasonable place to start and frequently finds money nobody was using. See subscriptions.

What not to do

Do not take more risk to make up the gap. This is the most common and most damaging response. A portfolio that has to grow fast is a portfolio that can fall fast, and the recovery time is exactly what you no longer have.

Do not cash out a retirement account early. Taxes and penalties make it among the most expensive money available.

Do not borrow against the house without pricing the alternatives. See tapping home equity in retirement.

Be sceptical of anything promising high returns with low risk, of complexity, and of urgency. People who are behind are targeted specifically because they are motivated.

Do not stop contributing to help adult children. There are loans for education and none for retirement, and a parent who runs short later becomes a burden on the same family they were helping.

The realistic version

A household that is behind at 55 and does three of the five things above is usually in a materially different position by 65. Not the position the guidance describes — a workable one.

The thing that does not work is waiting until the number feels less frightening. It will not, and every year of delay removes one of the levers.

Rewritten in 2026. The original was framed around Super Bowl LI, cited 2017 survey figures, and contained a garbled statistic. The substance — that being behind is recoverable — has been kept and set out in order of what actually makes a difference.

For additional public information on investor education and financial planning, see Investor.gov.