In your 50s

retirement savings 55

Joe gets a raise and at 55 he's earning $75,000 a year. By now, he should have $532,500 saved.

How to get there: Start playing catch up. After age 50, you can start contributing more each year to your retirement savings accounts (the cap is lifted). This year you can put an additional $6,000 into your 401(k) -- for a total of $24,500 -- and an additional $1,000 in your IRA accounts -- for a total "catch-up" contribution of $6,500.

This is also a good time to start shifting some of your retirement savings from stocks into less risky assets. At 10 years away from retirement, you should only keep about 70% of your assets in stocks.

First published December 6, 2018: 4:08 PM ET
Source: Calculations come from Charlie Farrell, CEO at Northstar Investment Advisors. Figures target a 70% to 80% pre-retirement income replacement at age 65 for an assumed 30-year retirement. It assumes Social Security will account for 20% of retirement income, a 3.5% return on investments, and a withdrawal rate between 4% and 5% annually in retirement.

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