How to Catch Up on Retirement Savings in Your 60s

How Much Should You Have Saved by Your 60s?

Most retirement benchmarks put the target at 6 to 8 times your annual salary by age 60. A worker earning $75,000 a year would need roughly $450,000 to $600,000 saved under these common guidelines. Plenty of people in their 60s fall well short of that range, and that gap is normal, not a sign the plan has failed.

Falling behind does not mean retirement is out of reach. It means the tactics in this guide matter more for you than they would for someone who started saving at 25. Every year between now and retirement is still a year your money can compound, and a year you can add more to the account.

Use ModernWallet's retirement calculator to see exactly where your own numbers stand against your own spending target. A generic multiple of salary is a starting benchmark, not a verdict on your specific plan.

Start With the Three Moves That Matter Most

Three moves matter most when you are catching up on retirement savings in your 60s: automating your contributions, paying off high-interest debt, and maxing out every catch-up limit available to you. Doing these three in order gets you the most progress for the least effort.

Automate your savings first. Set your 401(k) or IRA contribution to increase automatically with every raise, and treat that transfer like a bill you cannot skip. Automatic saving removes the monthly decision of whether to contribute, which is where most savings plans quietly fail.

Pay down high-interest debt next, especially credit cards charging 20% or more. A dollar used to pay off a 22% credit card balance earns a better guaranteed return than almost any investment. Once high-interest debt is gone, redirect that former payment straight into your retirement account.

Then maximize your contributions using every catch-up limit the tax code allows. The next section covers exactly how much more you can put away in 2026, including a boost most people your age have never heard of.

The 2026 Catch-Up Limits, Including the New Super Catch-Up for Ages 60-63

In 2026, workers age 50 and older can add an extra $8,000 to a 401(k), on top of the standard $24,500 limit, for a total of $32,500, according to the IRS. IRA savers 50 and older get an extra $1,100 on top of the $7,500 base limit, for a total of $8,600.

Workers age 60 to 63 get an even bigger boost under the SECURE 2.0 Act. This "super catch-up" allows roughly $11,250 in extra 401(k) contributions instead of $8,000, for a total 401(k) limit near $35,750 in 2026. If you are between 60 and 63 right now, this four-year window is one of the biggest levers the tax code gives you to close a savings gap.

Here is what that window can actually do. Take a 62-year-old with $200,000 already saved who maxes out the $35,750 super catch-up limit for five years, through age 66, before retiring. Contributing $35,750 a year for five years, growing at a 6% to 7% average annual return, brings that account to roughly $470,000 to $486,000 by retirement, according to ModernWallet's own retirement calculator. That is more than double the starting balance in five years, driven almost entirely by the higher catch-up limit and steady compounding.

That example assumes you can afford to max out the super catch-up limit, which is not realistic for everyone. Even contributing half that amount, spread across the same five years, still meaningfully changes the ending balance compared with contributing nothing extra at all.

Delay Retirement a Few Years, or Try a Phased Exit

Delaying retirement by even two or three years does more for your plan than almost any other single move. Extra working years mean more time for contributions to compound, and fewer years your savings need to cover. Working from 62 to 65, for example, adds three more years of contributions while shortening a 25-year retirement down to 22.

A full delay is not the only option. Phased retirement lets you drop to part-time work instead of stopping all at once, often in the same field or a related one. This keeps some income flowing while giving you a lighter schedule and more control over your time.

Part-time income after your main retirement date also helps. Even $15,000 to $20,000 a year from consulting, seasonal work, or a part-time job reduces how much you need to pull from savings early on. Reducing withdrawals in those first few years lowers your risk of running short later, since your portfolio gets more time to recover from any market downturn.

Run a few working-longer scenarios through ModernWallet's retirement calculator before you commit to a date. Two extra working years often changes the outcome more than people expect.

Downsize to Shrink the Number You Actually Need

Downsizing lowers the size of the nest egg you need, which is often faster than trying to save your way to a bigger one. Moving from a large family home into something smaller can free up equity and cut property taxes, insurance, and utility bills at the same time. That equity can go straight into savings or reduce the mortgage you carry into retirement.

Going from two vehicles to one is a smaller move with a real payoff. Dropping a car payment, plus its insurance and maintenance, can free up several hundred dollars a month to redirect into catch-up contributions.

Relocating to a lower cost-of-living area is the biggest lever of the three. Moving from a high-cost metro area to a lower-cost city or state can cut your annual spending need by 20% to 30% or more. A lower spending target means your existing savings stretch further, without requiring a single extra dollar saved.

None of these moves require selling your home tomorrow. Even planning a downsize for your actual retirement date, instead of years earlier, shrinks the total number you are working toward.

Delay Social Security and Rethink Your Investment Mix

Delaying Social Security past your full retirement age increases your monthly benefit by about 8% for every year you wait, up to age 70, per the Social Security Administration. A benefit of $2,000 a month at full retirement age grows to roughly $2,480 a month if you wait until 70 instead. That increase is locked in for life and adjusts for inflation every year after you claim.

Delaying claiming works especially well alongside catch-up contributions, since both moves reward you for staying in the workforce a little longer. Waiting also reduces how many years you need to fund purely from savings before a bigger check arrives.

Your investment mix should shift as your time horizon shortens, but that does not mean abandoning stocks. Most savers in their 60s gradually move part of their portfolio into bonds and cash while keeping a meaningful stock allocation, since retirement can still last 20 to 30 years. Moving entirely out of stocks this early often does more harm than good, since it removes the growth your money still needs.

Healthcare costs also deserve a fresh look in your 60s. If you plan to retire before 65, budget for private coverage or COBRA until Medicare eligibility starts. Underestimating healthcare costs is one of the most common reasons a catch-up plan falls short.

Should You Hire a Financial Advisor? The Bottom Line

A financial advisor can help most when your 60s catch-up plan has several moving parts at once. Coordinating catch-up contributions, Social Security timing, and a possible downsize is exactly the kind of decision where one mistake is costly and hard to reverse. A fee-only fiduciary advisor is required to act in your interest, unlike a commission-based salesperson.

You may not need one if your situation is simple, like a single income source and a straightforward 401(k). ModernWallet's calculators can run most of this math directly. Our Am I Ready to Retire? guide offers a broader checklist if you want to check your full picture before deciding.

Catching up on retirement savings in your 60s comes down to stacking small, specific moves: automate contributions, kill high-interest debt, max out the 2026 catch-up limits, delay Social Security if you can, and consider downsizing or working a few extra years. None of these moves alone closes a large gap, but together they can move the number substantially in a short window.

Start by running your real numbers through ModernWallet's retirement calculator, then check strategies specific to a 401(k) with our guide on becoming a 401(k) millionaire. If you are deciding where extra catch-up dollars should go, our 401(k) vs. Roth IRA comparison can help.

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