Millions of Americans today are in their 40s to 50s and have little to no retirement savings.  To many this would seem to be too late, that you’ll never have a significant amount of retirement money.  But that is often not the case.  It is important that you start as soon as you can, but it’s still possible.

First you need to estimate you much money you need to live off in your retirement years.  Don’t spend much time trying to figure it out to the penny, a base figure should be sufficient.  As long as you get reasonably close, you’ll know how much of a retirement savings you need.  If you want a closer estimate than just getting a basic figure, there are a number of online retirement calculators that can help.

You will need to know how much of an income you can expect from sources other than your savings during your retirement years.  Figure out what your expected Social Security benefits will be.  If you or you spouse have a pension plan, what will be the expected value of that when you retire?  Be very conservative with these estimates.  Its better to underestimate than to overestimate.  Now you know how much of a difference you need to make up with your own savings.

Sign up for a 401k if you haven’t already, your employer will contribute a portion of what you do so it’s a perfect starting point.  You can alos make automatic withdrawals from your pay checks and deposit them into an online savings account. If you qualify for a Roth IRA sign up for that in addition to the 401k.  If you are in debt, try and get out of it now since that will free up considerable funds.  If you live in an expensive area, it might be worth considering moving to save some money.  Just don’t be too conservative, even if you’re in your 50s, you still have a decade or two to catch up.