Ten years used to sound like plenty of time. Then you pull up your 401(k) balance, run the numbers, and realize the runway is shorter than you thought.
If you’re in your mid 50s to mid 60s, this decade carries more weight than any other stretch of your working life, because it’s the last one where you can still change the outcome. In 2026, workers ages 60 to 63 can put up to $35,750 into a 401(k), more than triple what someone in their 30s can save in the same plan.
You don’t need a financial degree for any of this. You need a few forms, a few numbers, and a handful of decisions made on purpose instead of by default.
Table of contents
- Squeeze every dollar you can out of catch up contributions
- Pull your actual Social Security numbers instead of guessing
- Decide when to claim Social Security based on the numbers, not a feeling
- Keep working, even part time, to buy your savings more time
- Start a Roth conversion plan before required withdrawals force your hand
- Get ahead of the Medicare surcharge before it is too late to fix
- Max out your HSA while you still qualify
- Pay off the debt that will follow you onto a fixed income
- Rebalance so a bad market year does not wreck your timeline
Squeeze every dollar you can out of catch up contributions
The federal government builds in extra savings room specifically for people in their late 50s and 60s, and most people never use it. In 2026, the standard 401(k) limit is $24,500, but if you’re 50 or older you can add another $8,000 in catch up contributions, bringing your total to $32,500.
There’s a narrower window that’s worth even more. Workers who are 60, 61, 62, or 63 in 2026 get a bigger catch up amount, $11,250 instead of $8,000, which pushes the total 401(k) limit to $35,750 for that specific age group. IRAs got a bump too, up to $7,500 plus a $1,100 catch up for anyone 50 or older, for a total of $8,600.
If your plan allows it and your budget can stretch to meet it, even for a few years, this is the single biggest legal lever available to you before you retire. Once you turn 64, the extra catch up amount drops back to the standard $8,000, so the bigger window only lasts four years.
Pull your actual Social Security numbers instead of guessing
Most people planning for retirement are working off a guess they made years ago, not the number Social Security actually has on file, and that guess can be off by hundreds of dollars a month. You can pull your real numbers for free by creating a personal online account, which shows your full earnings history and gives you benefit estimates at age 62, full retirement age, and 70.
The numbers behind those estimates move every year. The average retired worker’s benefit rose to $2,071 a month in January 2026 after a 2.8% cost of living adjustment, but averages don’t tell you what you’ll get. Your own earnings record does, and it’s worth pulling up even if retirement is still a decade out, since it also shows you what a spouse or survivor could collect on your record.
Check the earnings history line by line while you’re in there. Every year of work is supposed to show up with the wages you actually earned, and a single missing or understated year can lower your benefit for the rest of your life. Fixing an error is far easier before you file than after, when the mistake has already been baked into your monthly check.
Decide when to claim Social Security based on the numbers, not a feeling
Full retirement age is 67 for anyone born in 1960 or later, and 66 years and 10 months for people born in 1959. Claim before that and your monthly check is permanently reduced. Wait until after that and it grows by 8% for every year you wait, up to age 70, for a maximum increase of 24% above your full retirement age benefit.
The dollar difference is real. In 2026, the maximum benefit for someone claiming at full retirement age is $4,152 a month. Delay three more years and that same worker’s check grows by nearly a quarter, for the rest of their life and, in many cases, for a surviving spouse’s life too.
Waiting isn’t right for everyone. If you have health issues that shorten your likely lifespan, or you need the income now to avoid pulling from savings at a bad time, claiming earlier can be the better call. The point is to run the actual numbers for your own situation instead of picking an age on gut instinct.
Keep working, even part time, to buy your savings more time
If you claim Social Security before full retirement age and keep working, there’s a limit on how much you can earn before benefits get withheld. In 2026, that limit is $24,480 a year if you’re under full retirement age, with one dollar withheld for every two dollars you earn above it. In the year you reach full retirement age, the limit jumps to $65,160, and only one dollar is withheld for every three dollars over that.
The money isn’t gone. Social Security recalculates your benefit once you hit full retirement age to credit you for the months that were withheld, so you get it back over time as a higher monthly check. Once you actually reach full retirement age, the earnings limit disappears completely and you can earn any amount without losing a dollar of your benefit.
Part time work in this decade does more than pad your paycheck. Every year you delay tapping your 401(k) or IRA is a year that money keeps compounding, and every year you delay Social Security adds another 8% to your eventual monthly check.
Start a Roth conversion plan before required withdrawals force your hand
Traditional IRAs and 401(k)s don’t let you keep deferring taxes forever. Required withdrawals start at age 73 for most people currently approaching retirement, rising to age 75 under a later phase-in for anyone born in 1960 or after, whether you need the money that year or not.
The years between when you stop working and when Social Security and required withdrawals both kick in are often your lowest income years of the decade. That makes them a useful window to convert some traditional IRA money into a Roth IRA, paying tax on it now at a lower rate instead of later when required withdrawals, Social Security, and possibly a spouse’s income all land on the same tax return at once.
This isn’t a move to make without running numbers specific to your tax bracket, since converting too much in one year can push you into a higher bracket or trigger higher Medicare premiums two years down the line. A tax professional or fee only financial planner can model a conversion amount that fits your specific income.
Get ahead of the Medicare surcharge before it is too late to fix
Medicare uses a two year lookback to decide what you pay. Your 2026 premium is based on your 2024 tax return, which means income decisions you’re making right now won’t show up in your premium until 2028. The standard Part B premium is $202.90 a month in 2026, but that number climbs fast once your income crosses a threshold.
Single filers with modified adjusted gross income above $109,000, or married couples above $218,000, start paying an income related surcharge on top of the standard premium. At the highest income tier, that surcharge pushes the total monthly Part B premium to $689.90, more than triple the standard rate, and it applies to each spouse separately if you’re both on Medicare.
The surcharge works like a cliff, not a slope. Cross a threshold by one dollar and you pay the higher rate for the entire year. If you’re doing Roth conversions or planning a big capital gains year in your early 60s, check the numbers against these thresholds first, because the decision you make now affects a bill that shows up two years later.
Max out your HSA while you still qualify
If you have a high deductible health plan, a health savings account is one of the few places in the tax code where money goes in tax free, grows tax free, and comes out tax free for medical expenses. In 2026, you can contribute up to $4,400 for self only coverage or $8,750 for family coverage, plus an extra $1,000 if you’re 55 or older.
Unlike a flexible spending account, HSA money never expires and isn’t tied to your employer. You can invest it, let it grow for years, and use it for medical costs well into retirement, including Medicare premiums once you’re enrolled. What you can’t do is keep contributing once you’re on Medicare, so this window closes the moment you sign up.
If you’re within a few years of Medicare eligibility and can afford to fund your HSA to the max, this decade is the last real chance to build up that balance while it’s still growing tax free instead of just sitting there.
Pay off the debt that will follow you onto a fixed income
Credit card debt doesn’t care that you’re about to retire. The average rate on accounts carrying a balance was running above 21% in early 2026, which means paying that debt off is effectively a guaranteed return most investments can’t match. A dollar you send toward a 21% balance does more for you than a dollar sitting in a savings account earning a few percent.
A mortgage is a different calculation, and paying one off early isn’t automatically the right move if the rate is low and your money would do more invested elsewhere. But high interest debt of any kind, credit cards, personal loans, car loans with steep rates, becomes far more dangerous once your income is fixed and predictable instead of tied to a paycheck that can grow with a raise or a second job.
Use this decade while you still have earned income to knock out credit cards and anything else charging double digit interest. Going into retirement without that debt gives your retirement income more room to actually cover your life instead of servicing a balance every month for years to come.
Rebalance so a bad market year does not wreck your timeline
A stock market drop the year before you retire hits differently than the same drop hits someone in their 30s. When you’re still decades from retirement, a downturn is a buying opportunity. When you’re about to start withdrawing from that account, selling shares at a loss to cover your expenses can permanently shrink how long your money lasts, a problem often called sequence of returns risk.
This doesn’t mean panic selling out of stocks entirely. It means gradually shifting some of your portfolio toward cash and shorter term bonds as retirement gets closer, so you’re not forced to sell your stock holdings during a downturn just to pay your bills. Many people aim to have one to three years of planned expenses in cash or cash equivalents by the time they actually retire.
If you haven’t looked at your asset allocation in a few years, this decade is the time to check whether it still matches how close you actually are to needing the money, not how it was set up when you were 20 years further away.
