Andrew Shilling at MarketWatch wrote for people who know they are behind on retirement savings and asked advisers what not to do. My answer was about the instinct that does the most damage.
When people realize they are behind, the instinct is to swing for the fences: get aggressive, chase returns, make up the gap with the portfolio. That instinct is understandable, but it is usually wrong. Saving aggressively late in the game does not mean investing aggressively, and a big loss at 58 is far harder to recover from than the shortfall you started with.
What works is arithmetic, not heroics. Max out what the law allows: for 2026 the 401(k) limit is $24,500, workers 50 and older can add $8,000 in catch-up contributions, and people 60 to 63 get a higher limit of $35,750. Know your actual spending target, because a lot of the panic comes from a number nobody has calculated. Build the emergency fund first so a surprise does not undo the plan.
And the single most powerful lever is time. Working two more years is worth more than any investment swap. Two more years of contributions, two fewer years of withdrawals, two more years of compounding and a bigger Social Security check. No fund on the menu does all four.
Read the full article at MarketWatch →
