How You Can Catch Up On Retirement Savings

If you’ve looked at your retirement balance recently and felt behind, you’re not alone. In Bankrate’s 2025 Retirement Savings Survey, 58% of American workers said they felt their retirement savings were behind, including 37% who opened up about being significantly behind. Only 22% said they were on track.

So being behind isn’t unusual, and it isn’t a character flaw. The more useful question is what you can actually do about it this year, at the age you are right now.

This guide covers how to catch up on retirement savings with the 2026 numbers attached: what catch-up contributions are and who qualifies, the higher limit available for a four-year window in your early 60s, a Roth rule that changed this year for higher earners, and what to do if you’re under 50. 

If you want to run the numbers, it helps to know how much you need to retire before you decide how hard to push.

Being behind is more common than being on track

In the same Bankrate survey, 69% of Gen X workers, ages 45 to 60, said they were behind. So did 59% of baby boomers, 57% of millennials, and 46% of Gen Z workers. Just 13% of workers overall said they were ahead.

That’s worth sitting with before you do anything else. If nearly 3 in 5 working Americans are in the same position, the problem is structural rather than personal. Wages, caregiving, medical costs, and stretches without a workplace plan all show up in these numbers.

How to tell whether you’re actually behind

A common way to check is to compare your balance against the median for your age group, though that comparison has limits. In the Federal Reserve’s 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances, the most recent edition available, the median retirement account balance among households that had a retirement account was 

• $18,880 for those under 35

• $45,000 for ages 35 to 44

• $115,000 for ages 45 to 54

• $185,000 for ages 55 to 64

• $200,000 for ages 65 to 74

Across all households with an account, the median was $87,000.

It’s important to note these are medians among households that have a retirement account, and only about half of U.S. households do, so the figures describe savers rather than everyone. A median also describes the middle of a distribution. It isn’t a target, and matching it doesn’t mean you’re on track for the retirement you want.

A better measure is looking at how much you’re contributing now and what you’ll need in the future to sustain your ideal lifestyle. Our guide to how much of your income to save for retirement walks through that topic.

Your employer match is the most expensive thing to leave behind

Before any other move, check whether you’re contributing enough to capture your full employer match. If your plan matches 50% of the first 6% you contribute and you’re putting in 3%, you’re essentially turning down free money.

Every other way to catch up can cost you something, whether that’s spendable income now, a tax deduction, or years of working. An employer match adds money to your account without you having to put anything extra in. 

How catch-up contributions work in 2026

A catch-up contribution is an extra amount the IRS lets you add above the standard annual limit once you reach age 50. It’s a specific tax rule, not a general description of saving more. If you’re under 50, you can absolutely catch up on retirement savings, but not through catch-up contributions.

Here are the contribution and catch-up limits for 2026:

2026 contribution limits, per IRS Notice 2025-67. Eligibility is set by the age you reach during the calendar year, not your birthday.

If your workplace plan is already maxed, or you aren’t offered one, an individual IRA is an option. Here’s why you might want to max out your IRA before other accounts. You can also open an IRA with Acorns Later, which recommends a Traditional, Roth, or SEP IRA based on your situation.

The Roth catch-up rule that’s new for 2026

Starting in 2026, if your FICA wages from the employer sponsoring your plan were more than $150,000 in the prior year, your catch-up contributions had to be made on a Roth basis. The rule comes from the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022, and 2026 is its first year in effect after a delay.

What this changes is the tax treatment, not the dollar amount. You can still add the full $8,000 or $11,250. But that portion goes in after tax, so you don’t get a deduction for it in the year you contribute. In exchange, qualified withdrawals from a Roth account in retirement have the potential for tax-free growth potential and tax-free distribution, assuming you meet the holding and age requirements.

Three things narrow who this actually touches. The threshold is based on Social Security wages from the employer sponsoring your plan, reported in Box 3 of your W-2, so it isn’t household income, investment income, or a spouse’s earnings. It applies to the catch-up portion only, so your base $24,500 limit can still go in pre-tax. And it doesn’t apply to IRA catch-up contributions at all. If your prior-year wages were $150,000 or less, nothing about your catch-up changes this year.

2026 is the last year of the Saver’s Credit

The Retirement Savings Contributions Credit, usually called the Saver’s Credit, is a federal tax credit worth 50%, 20%, or 10% of up to $2,000 in retirement contributions per person. The maximum is $1,000 per person, or $2,000 for a married couple filing jointly, and you claim it on IRS Form 8880.

For 2026, it phases out entirely above $40,250 in adjusted gross income for single filers, $60,375 for heads of household, and $80,500 for married couples filing jointly. The top 50% rate applies below $24,250, $36,375, and $48,500 respectively. It’s worth checking, because it stacks on top of any deduction you already get for the same contribution.

The catch is that the credit is nonrefundable, so it can reduce your tax bill to zero but no further. That’s exactly why it has missed many of the people it was designed for, and exactly what changes next year. 

Beginning in tax year 2027, SECURE 2.0 replaces the Saver’s Credit with the Saver’s Match: a 50% federal contribution of up to $2,000 per person, worth up to $1,000, deposited directly into a retirement account instead of reducing a tax bill. Because it’s a deposit rather than a credit, it reaches filers who owe no federal income tax. The full match goes to modified AGIs below $20,500 for single filers and $41,000 for joint filers, with a reduced match above that.

The main takeaway here is that 2026 is your last chance to claim the credit, and that having a retirement account open before 2027 can put you in position to get a match.

How to catch up on retirement savings in your 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s

The levers available to you genuinely change with age.

In your 30s

You have no access to catch-up contributions, but you don’t need them. What’s in your power is your contribution rate, and your advantage is time. 

Raising your rate by one percent each year, ideally timed to a raise so your take-home pay never drops, can compound into a very different number by 65 than a one-time contribution. The other move that matters here is automation. Set a Recurring Contribution and let the decision stand instead of remaking it every month.

In your 40s

Rate still matters most, and account choice starts to matter too. This is the decade where it’s worth deciding deliberately between pre-tax and Roth contributions based on whether you expect your tax rate to be higher now or in retirement, and worth adding an IRA alongside your workplace plan if you have room. If you’re starting closer to zero, our guide to planning for retirement in your 40s covers the setup side in more depth.

In your 50s

At 50, catch-up contributions open up, and this is the single biggest change available to anyone in this article. Between the $8,000 workplace catch-up and the $1,100 IRA catch-up, you can put $9,100 more into tax-advantaged accounts in 2026 than someone a year younger. Eligibility is based on the age you reach during the calendar year, so if you turn 50 in December, you’re eligible for all of 2026. If you’re a higher earner, check the Roth catch-up rule above before you set your deferral.

In your 60s

Ages 60 through 63 carry the highest contribution ceiling most workers will ever have, at $35,750 in a workplace plan. It’s a four-year window that closes the year you turn 64. When you claim Social Security, and how long you keep working are two other big factors, and are both covered below. Required minimum distributions also generally begin at 73 for Traditional accounts, which shapes how you sequence withdrawals later.⁷

Levers that don’t involve contributing more

If your budget genuinely has no more room, contributions aren’t the only variable. These come with real tradeoffs, and it’s worth naming them.

• Delaying Social Security. If you were born in 1960 or later, your full retirement age is 67. For each month you wait past that, up to age 70, your benefit grows by two-thirds of 1%, which works out to about 8% a year and roughly 24% over three years, and the increase is permanent. The tradeoff is that you need income from somewhere else during the delay, and delayed retirement credits don’t apply to spousal benefits.

• Working longer or part-time. Each extra working year adds a contribution year and subtracts a withdrawal year, moving the math from both directions at once. The caveat is that this isn’t fully in your control. Health and the job market both get a vote.

• Reducing fixed costs. Housing and vehicles are usually the two largest line items, and lowering either one cuts the income you’ll need in retirement while freeing up money to contribute now. It’s also the slowest and most disruptive lever, which is why it belongs last.

What catching up could add up to

Contributing the full $8,000 catch-up from age 52 through 65 would mean putting in $104,000 of your own money over 13 years, which could grow to roughly $172,000 assuming an 8% average annual return. That rate is hypothetical and not guaranteed, and it’s an illustration rather than a projection.

That number moves a lot with small changes to the assumptions, which is the point. A different return, a later start, or a partial contribution each produce a different result. Run your own inputs through our compound interest calculator rather than treating any single illustration as a forecast. Investing involves risk, including possible loss of principal, and your actual results will differ.

Protect the progress with emergency savings

Emergency savings protects your retirement contributions from being pulled back out. If an unexpected expense forces you to withdraw from a retirement account before age 59½, you generally owe income tax on the withdrawal plus a 10% early distribution penalty. A catch-up contribution made in March and withdrawn in November hasn’t caught you up on anything.

Emergency Savings held in a separate, accessible account keeps a bad month from becoming a permanent setback. Building it alongside your contributions isn’t a delay. It’s what lets the catching up stick.

The bottom line

Catching up all the way won’t be possible for everyone, and partial progress still changes the outcome. Contribution limits, market returns, and how long you work aren’t things anyone controls completely, so the useful move is the one you can make this year.

Another $200 a month, a raise routed to your plan instead of your budget, a match you weren’t capturing, a credit you didn’t know you qualified for: each shifts the picture, and none of them requires you to have acted differently ten years ago. Acorns Later is built for the automating part of this. It recommends a Traditional, Roth, or SEP IRA based on your answers, invests your contributions in an expert-built, diversified portfolio, and lets you set a Recurring Contribution so the decision gets made once instead of every month.

Start investing for retirement with Acorns Later.

Frequently asked questions

How much can I contribute to a 401(k) in 2026 if I’m over 50?

In 2026, workers age 50 and older can contribute up to $32,500 to a 401(k), 403(b), governmental 457(b), or Thrift Savings Plan. That’s the $24,500 standard elective deferral limit plus an $8,000 catch-up contribution. If you turn 60, 61, 62, or 63 during the year, the catch-up rises to $11,250 for a total of $35,750. Add an IRA and you can contribute up to $8,600 more, for a combined maximum of $41,100 at ages 50 to 59, or $44,350 at ages 60 to 63.

Is it too late to start investing for retirement at 50?

No. Age 50 is when catch-up contributions become available, which means your annual tax-advantaged capacity goes up by $9,100 in 2026 rather than down. A 50-year-old planning to work to 67 still has roughly 17 years of contributions and compounding ahead. Starting later means a smaller balance than starting earlier would have produced, but it doesn’t mean starting is pointless.

What is the new Roth catch-up rule for 2026?

Beginning in 2026, workers whose prior-year FICA wages from the employer sponsoring their plan exceeded $150,000 must make their workplace catch-up contributions on a Roth, after-tax basis. The dollar limits don’t change, only the tax treatment: no deduction in the contribution year, and the potential for tax-free qualified withdrawals later. The rule doesn’t apply to IRA catch-up contributions or to workers below the wage threshold.

Can I make catch-up contributions to an IRA?

Yes. In 2026, the IRA catch-up contribution is $1,100 for anyone age 50 or older, on top of the $7,500 standard limit, for a total of $8,600. Unlike workplace plans, the IRA catch-up doesn’t increase at ages 60 to 63, and it isn’t subject to the new Roth catch-up requirement. Traditional IRA deductibility and Roth IRA eligibility are still limited by income.

What can I do to catch up if I’m under 50?

If you’re under 50 you aren’t eligible for catch-up contributions, which are a specific IRS rule tied to age. Your equivalent levers are your contribution rate, your employer match, and where your raises and tax refunds go. Increasing your rate by one percentage point a year, contributing at least enough to capture the full match, and directing windfalls to a retirement account instead of spending them are the three moves available before 50.

Does the higher catch-up limit for ages 60 to 63 continue after 63?

No. The $11,250 catch-up applies only in the years you reach ages 60, 61, 62, and 63. The year you turn 64, you revert to the standard age-50 catch-up, which is $8,000 in 2026. It’s a four-year window, and it was created by the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022.