This single mom saved $1 million in 15 years to retire at 49. How to use her strategies to catch up on retirement savings.

By Venessa Wong

It's not too late to fast-track your retirement savings, even if you're 50 years old and have debt

Many Americans in their 50s need to catch up on retirement savings. "I see this a lot, especially after divorce or a late career reset - and I think we're going to see it more and more," one financial planner said.

Many middle-aged Americans have fallen behind on their retirement savings - but financial experts tell MarketWatch it's not too late for people approaching their 60s to catch up.

Among Americans ages 55 to 64, just 77% had savings specifically for retirement such as a 401(k), pension or IRA, according to 2024 data from the Federal Reserve. Just half of people ages 60 and older said their retirement savings were on track. The median 401(k) balance of people ages 55 to 64 with accounts at Vanguard was $95,642 in 2024. Facing this reality, about two-thirds of adults surveyed by TIAA said they think retiring between ages 65 and 70 is realistic for them.

"I see this a lot, especially after divorce or a late career reset - and I think we're going to see it more and more," Juan G. HernandezAriano, a financial planner at WealthCreate Financial, told MarketWatch. As a result of these life shocks, on top of ongoing "lifestyle creep and the way social media normalizes spending, a lot of people reach their 50s with far less saved than they expected."

While time is working against late savers, financial experts say it is possible to get on track in a short amount of time with a clear and focused plan and extreme discipline. The path is not easy, but people who've done it say the first step is to realize that it is possible to turn your financial life around.

Jackie Cummings Koski, a single mother in Ohio, only started meaningfully putting aside money for retirement after a divorce in 2004. She retired in 2019 with a portfolio worth about $1.2 million at age 49. Her income was "modest," she said, increasing from about $50,000 to $90,000. Even including $860 in monthly child support (which Cummings Koski received for a portion of that time), her total earnings barely tipped over $100,000 the year her salary peaked, she said.

To fast-track her retirement savings, Cummings Koski said she started saving 30% to 40% of her income - contributing the IRS limit to her traditional 401(k) and health savings account, which she mostly invested in an S&P 500 SPX index fund that had a higher historic rate of return than most target-date retirement funds. These deferrals dramatically reduced her taxable income, putting her in an extremely low tax bracket. She and her child had about $40,000 to $45,000 for annual expenses, which she said was adequate for "living comfortably" in her midsize city.

"The fear of it was way [worse] than what the reality was," said Cummings Koski, who is now a financial planner, author and co-host of "Catching Up to FI," a podcast about achieving financial independence for late starters. "People make the assumption that for you to do smarter things with your money, the only way to do it is to cut out your expenses," she said, but their tax strategy can be just as impactful.

"We're told by society, the professionals and whoever that it's a 30- or 40-year journey to build enough wealth to be able to retire," Cummings Koski said. "Really, it's more like a 10- to 15-year journey once you start to really focus."

The strategies Cummings Koski and other financial experts apply are similar to those of the "financial independence retire early" (FIRE) movement, which advocates automatically investing a large share of your income and finding ways to live off of a small portion of your pay, often by keeping three large expenses - housing, transportation and food - very low.

While the path to financial independence is the same at any age - whether for a college grad hoping to quit their day job in their early 30s or a late starter - it becomes harder the older a person starts, as they have less time for their investments to compound and less time to take risks.

There is just "a much higher level of urgency" because of the compressed timeline, Mindy Jensen, co-host of "BiggerPockets Money," a podcast about financial independence, told MarketWatch.

'We're told by society, the professionals and whoever that it's a 30- or 40-year journey to build enough wealth to be able to retire. Really, it's more like a 10- to 15-year journey once you start to really focus." Jackie Cummings Koski, CFP

A plan to reach financial independence, starting at age 50

Jensen and "BiggerPockets Money" co-host Scott Trench, author of financial self-help book "Set for Life," laid out a hypothetical playbook in a recent episode for a healthy 50-year-old who is divorced and starting over with $0 in financial assets and $50,000 in debt (a car loan, student loans, medical debt and credit-card debt) to amass $1 million by age 65. They assumed the person was a stay-at-home parent with no formal work experience.

It is one of "the hardest possible positions," Trench told MarketWatch.

In a previous episode, Trench, Jensen and Cummings Koski had teamed up to create a similar plan for a 50-year-old with $0 in assets and no debt - but received feedback from viewers that it would be more realistic to account for debt. Gen X-ers on average owe $158,000, according to Experian.

The first step in the playbook, the hosts said, is for the person to acknowledge their emotions so they are prepared for the tough work ahead. Then they assess where they are in terms of expenses, potential income and net worth.

A person starting from scratch at age 50 must acknowledge that it will be "very difficult" to amass a retirement-level amount of wealth in 15 years, Trench said, but is entirely possible if they can stay focused and save about 50% of their income.

Melissa Caro, a financial planner with My Retirement Network, a financial-education site, reiterated the significance of this step. "What consistently comes up is that the biggest challenge isn't just limited savings, it's overwhelm and the belief that it's too late to do anything meaningful," she told MarketWatch. "The shift that matters most is moving away from idealized retirement planning and toward realistic, behavioral planning."

Related: MarketWatch's 7-day money challenge to get rich(er) in 2026, Day 1: Know your worth.

'The biggest challenge isn't just limited savings, it's overwhelm and the belief that it's too late to do anything meaningful.'Melissa Caro, CFP

Because the person has not worked outside of the house, Trench and Jensen have them start with an entry-level receptionist job paying $45,000 a year, and work up from there. They supplement this job with $10,000 from side hustles (for instance, driving for Uber, babysitting or tutoring) for a total gross income of $55,000 in the first year.

Jensen said she personally had to get creative with her resume when she re-entered the workforce after being a stay-at-home parent for eight years. She highlighted her experience flipping homes during those years when she applied for a job as a community manager at BiggerPockets, which focuses on real-estate investing.

The 50-year-old who's playing catch-up will commit to an extremely low-cost lifestyle for the entire 15-year period, with annual expenses of just $32,000 in year one. They will keep their rent low (under $800) by having roommates and spend an average of just $40 on entertainment each month. They will trade down their car to reduce their auto debt, and aggressively pay down their credit cards, medical debt and student loans in the first few years.

Cutting out mindless, unnecessary daily expenses - like your daily coffee or subscriptions - can be the start of big changes, as author David Bach noted in the book "Start Late, Finish Rich." (Bach also wrote "The Latte Factor.")

In Trench's model, they will need to hold jobs in which they can earn bonuses most years, and be strategic to get three promotions along with standard cost-of-living adjustments to pay, bringing their annual salary from their full-time job to $88,000 by year 15. They will grow their side hustle to $15,000 in that time.

By age 65, they will earn a total of nearly $117,000 (about a 160% increase over their starting salary), but still have low annual expenses of $43,000 (only a 34% increase).

Keeping costs low throughout these years will allow the person to invest a large share of their income (automated, if possible) so it can compound and build wealth. "It really comes back to the savings rate," said Trench.

By year three, the supersaver will need to contribute roughly the annual IRS limit to their 401(k), investing in index funds that have historically grown 10% annually. These will likely not be the target-date retirement fund for the year they turn 65, which will be more conservative.

Eventually, they will also start maxing out a Roth IRA. As their finances improve, they will also take advantage of the higher IRS limits for people their age, and invest any additional earnings through an after-tax brokerage account.

It is a demanding sprint that assumes everything goes right: no medical emergencies, no joblessness and strong financial markets. But a 50-year-old who adopts these moves can put themselves on a path to having $1 million in financial assets by age 65, well above the $410,000 median household net worth of Americans ages 65 to 74 in 2022 (which includes just $120,300 in financial assets), according to Federal Reserve data.

While it's a major accomplishment, Trench and Jensen note that the value of $1 million will be reduced in those 15 years due to inflation. They added that by age 65, the person will also likely want to stop living an extremely frugal lifestyle, which has so far required them to live with roommates to keep housing costs low, for instance.

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