NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - I'm 52-year-old woman who makes $115,000 a year, but has no savings due to withdrawals I made to pay for a parent's cancer treatment. I now want to save quickly for retirement at 65. My plan at this point is to use the first six months of 2005 to save an emergency fund and then try to replenish my 401(k). Any advice?

—Sylvia, Alexandria, Virginia

Your experience shows that sometimes, despite our best efforts, we find ourselves closing in on retirement with little or no savings put aside.

But for people who find themselves in situations like this, the important thing isn't to dwell on the past. Rather, the focus should be on the future and, specifically, how to make the best use of the time you still have until you retire.

Happily, you appear to have the right outlook and, even more important, the beginnings of a plan, a roadmap so to speak, that gives you a shot at accumulating a retirement nest egg.

What's more, I think your plan makes great sense, although perhaps I can make a few suggestions to make it even more effective.

There's no doubt you're getting a bit of a late start, but you still have a high enough salary and sufficient time to accumulate quite a decent size nest egg over the next 13 years or so.

The key is ratcheting up your savings to as high a level as you can.

You say that you want to devote the first six months of this year to building an emergency fund. Fine. You should have a reserve equal to three to six months' living expenses put aside in a safe place such as a money-market fund.

But if I were you I would try to that in conjunction with funding your 401(k), if not to the max, then at least to the point where you take full advantage of your employer's match.

Missing out on matching funds in a 401(k) is never a good idea since a match essentially amounts to free money. And in a case where you're playing catch up, you certainly want every edge you can get.

Once you've got your emergency reserve taken care of, you then want to plow as much as possible into your 401(k).

Keep in mind that the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 allows for people 50 and older to make "catch up" contributions on top of their regular 401(k) contributions.

The maximum catch-up amount is $4,000 in 2005 and $5,000 in 2006, after which the amount rises in $500 increments depending on the level of inflation. The law doesn't require that plans allow these catch-up contributions, but most do.

Although there are limits to how much you can contribute to your 401(k), the combination of your regular contributions, an employer match and the catch-ups can build into a significant pile of cash down the road.

Let's say, for example, that your plan allows you to contribute 6 percent of your salary (many plans have even higher percentages) and that your employer matches what you put in by 50 cents on the dollar.

And let's further suppose that you throw in a catch-up contribution of $4,000. That would give you a total 401(k) contribution of roughly $14,350.

And let's assume you earn an 8 percent return on your contributions and that you continue investing that amount each year until you're 65. (In reality, you'll probably be able to invest more as your salary rises and the catch-up amount increases, but let's keep this simple.)

You could end up with a 401(k) balance of about $195,000 -- not bad for someone starting from scratch in her early 50s.

Once you're maxing out on your 401(k), you should also check out other tax-advantaged plans such as an IRA. Since you're covered by your 401(k) at work, you're not eligible for a traditional deductible IRA.

But you may be eligible for a Roth IRA, in which case you would make after-tax contributions in return for tax-free withdrawals from the Roth in retirement. (The IRA section of Vanguard's site has a good overview of the pros and cons of different types of IRAs, as well as the criteria you must meet to open each type).

If you qualify and can manage it, I'd recommend contributing to a Roth in addition to your 401(k), not just because it provides another way to save, but because the ability to pull income absolutely income tax free from a Roth during retirement gives you more flexibility for increasing your after-tax retirement income. (For more on the advantages of doing a Roth in addition to a 401(k), click here.)

Chances are, of course, that fully funding your 401(k) and a Roth may still leave you short of the amount of savings you would need to be able to retire comfortably at age 65.

If that's the case, you'll have to consider other options, such as delaying your retirement, or scaling back your retirement lifestyle a bit, working part-time or finding ways to tap other assets, such as your home equity if you own a home.

I discuss these and other catch-up strategies at length in my book, We're Not In Kansas Anymore: Strategies for Retiring Rich in a Totally Changed World, although you can get a quick overview of these strategies by clicking here.

To sum up, you've certainly got to do some big-time saving over the next 13 years or so if you want to be able to maintain anything close to your present lifestyle in retirement.

But the goal of a comfortable and secure retirement, even at this relatively late date, is still achievable.

Or, to borrow a line from one of reggae star Jimmy Cliff's songs, "You can get it if you really want, but you must try, try and try, try and try. You'll succeed at last."

Walter Updegrave is a senior editor at MONEY Magazine and is the author of "We're Not in Kansas Anymore: Strategies for Retiring Rich in a Totally Changed World."