How To Catch Up on Retirement Savings if You’re Between 55 and 65 and Feel Behind
If you're between 55 and 65 and feel like you're behind on retirement planning, you're not alone. Surveys consistently show that most people in this age bracket believe they haven't saved enough, and many haven't sat down to calculate exactly what "enough" even means for them.
The good news: this decade is one of the most important you'll have to close the gap. Incomes tend to be at their peak, catch-up contributions are available, and you still have time to make adjustments before you need to start using your savings to support your needs in retirement.
The key to making progress is a clear planning process built around specific goals. Here's how to build one.
Start With Goals, Not Just Numbers
It's tempting to jump straight to "How much do I need to save?" But, that question is unanswerable until you've defined what retirement will look like for you.
Your planning process should start with a handful of questions:
When do you realistically want to (or need to) stop working full-time?
Do you want to retire completely, or transition into part-time or consulting work?
Where do you want to live? Does that involve relocating, downsizing, or paying off a mortgage?
What does a typical month look like? Travel, hobbies, grandchildren, volunteering?
What are your must-haves versus nice-to-haves?
These answers shape everything else. A retirement built around staying local and gardening costs very differently than one built around international travel.
Writing your goals down can help turn retirement from an abstract fear into a concrete target you can plan toward.
Get a Real Picture of Where You Stand
Once you have a sense of the life you're planning for, it's time to take inventory. This step is necessary but can be uncomfortable for a lot of people, which is why many avoid it.
Gather the full picture:
All retirement accounts (401(k), 403(b), IRA, Roth IRA, pensions)
Taxable investment and savings accounts
Outstanding debts (mortgage, credit cards, loans)
Expected Social Security benefits (you can get an estimate from ssa.gov)
Any other income sources (rental property, part-time work, inheritance expectations)
Estimate What You'll Need
A common rule of thumb is that retirees need 70–80% of their pre-retirement income annually, but this can be misleading in either direction. For example, someone with a paid-off house and modest goals may need far less than someone planning extensive travel or expecting high healthcare costs.
A more reliable approach is to build a rough retirement budget based on the goals you outlined earlier:
Essential expenses (housing, food, insurance, utilities, transportation)
Healthcare and long-term care considerations
Discretionary spending (travel, hobbies, gifts)
Taxes on withdrawals
From there, you can estimate how long your savings need to last (consider to age 90–95 based on increasing life expectancies), then work backwards to find your target savings number.
This is where a comprehensive financial plan can add value due to the complexity of projecting inflation, healthcare costs, and investment returns over decades.
Take Advantage of Catch-Up Contributions
This is one of the biggest advantages of being in this age range. Those age 50 and older can contribute more to retirement accounts than younger savers. All of the numbers listed below are updated for 2026.
401(k)/403(b): The standard limit is $24,500, and those 50+ get an additional catch-up (an extra $8,000!) on top of that.
New for those 60–63: Recent legislation (SECURE 2.0) allows an even larger "super catch-up" contribution of an extra $11,250.
If maxing out contributions isn't realistic right now, even increasing your savings rate by 1–2% each year can move the needle over a decade.
Reduce Debt
Entering retirement with high-interest debt is one of the fastest ways to erode a fixed income. Between now and retirement, prioritize (in order):
High-interest debt: Credit cards and personal loans should generally go first.
Mortgage payoff: Decide whether paying off your mortgage before retirement makes sense for your situation.
Avoid new long-term debt: Financing a car over 6-7 years at 62 means payments well into retirement.
Reducing fixed monthly obligations before you stop working lowers the income you'll need to replace.
Build a Social Security Strategy
Social Security is one of the few sources of guaranteed, inflation-adjusted income you'll have, and the timing of when you claim it is important.
Benefits increase for every year you delay claiming past your full retirement age, up until age 70. For some households, especially where one spouse earned significantly more, coordinating when each person claims can meaningfully change your lifetime benefits.
This is highly individual. Health, other income, marital status, and cash-flow needs all factor in, but it's worth running the numbers rather than defaulting to claiming at 62 just because you can.
Plan for Healthcare Before Medicare
Healthcare is often the most underestimated cost in retirement planning, and it's especially tricky if you retire before age 65 when Medicare eligibility begins. If early retirement is part of your goal, map out:
How you'll bridge healthcare coverage until Medicare (COBRA, marketplace plans, or a spouse's employer coverage)
What Medicare will and won't cover once you're eligible, and whether a supplemental (Medigap) or Advantage plan makes sense
Potential long-term care costs, and whether insurance or self-funding is the right approach for your situation
This is important for a number of reasons, but especially because healthcare costs tend to rise faster than general inflation.
Consider a Phased or Delayed Retirement
If the numbers show a gap, one of the most effective tools is time. Working even a few additional years, whether full-time or in a reduced capacity, can:
Extend your savings runway
Delay Social Security claiming for a higher benefit
Reduce the number of retirement years your savings need to cover
Provide continued access to employer health coverage
A phased approach where you drop to part-time can ease the transition.
Revisit Your Investments
Reassess how your savings are invested. Being too conservative too early can leave you short of growth you still need, and being too aggressive close to retirement increases the risk that a market downturn hits right when you're about to start withdrawing.
Many pre-retirees benefit from gradually shifting toward a more balanced mix and thinking through a withdrawal strategy.
Put It on a Timeline
All of this comes together best when it's organized into an actual plan with checkpoints. Consider mapping out:
Now to 1 year out: Finalize your goals, calculate your gap, increase savings rate, address high-interest debt.
1–3 years out: Model your Social Security claiming strategy, plan your healthcare bridge, stress-test your budget against your planned lifestyle.
Final year: Finalize your withdrawal strategy, understand tax implications of early withdrawals, and confirm your healthcare enrollment timeline.
The Bottom Line
Feeling behind on retirement savings is common. The households that catch up most effectively aren't necessarily the ones with the highest incomes, they're the ones who build a clear goal, get honest about where they stand, and follow a process to close the gap.
The years between 55 and 65 offer tools like catch-up contributions, Social Security strategy, and the flexibility to adjust your timeline that can meaningfully change your outcome.
If your situation is complex and you have multiple income sources, a business, significant assets, or a spouse with a different retirement timeline, working with a fiduciary advisory can help translate this general framework into a plan built around your specific numbers.
This material is purely intended to be general and educational in nature, and should not be construed as specifically-tailored investment, financial planning, tax, legal, or other professional advice. Information and data contained herein is as-of the date of publication, and may be subject to change in the future without notice. Any investment performance referenced is purely past performance, which is no guarantee of any future performance. Nothing contained herein should be construed as an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy, or a recommendation of any security or other financial product or investment strategy. All investment, tax, and financial planning strategies involve risk that you should be prepared to bear. You are highly encouraged to consult with professionals of your choosing before taking any action based on this material.