Is it too late to catch up on retirement savings at 45?
No. At 45 you likely have 20 working years left, and the limits on tax-advantaged saving are high. In 2026 you can put $24,500 into a 401(k) and $7,500 into an IRA. From 50, you can add $8,000 more to a 401(k) and $1,100 to an IRA, and from 60 to 63 the 401(k) catch-up rises to $11,250.
Feeling behind is common. In the Federal Reserve's 2025 survey, only 35% of adults who weren't retired thought their retirement savings were on track.
From 2026, if your wages from your employer were over $150,000 the year before, catch-up contributions in a plan with a Roth option go in as Roth.
How much do you need to retire?
Start from what you spend, not what you earn. Take what you expect to spend each year in retirement, subtract what Social Security is likely to pay, and the rest is what your savings have to cover. Your agent can start from your actual spending instead of a rule of thumb.
Your Social Security statement, in a free my Social Security account at ssa.gov, shows your estimated benefit at nine claiming ages. For anyone born in 1960 or later, full retirement age is 67, and claiming at 62 cuts the benefit by 30%.
For a sense of scale, the median family with a retirement account held $106,000 in 2025, according to the Fed's Survey of Consumer Finances.
Where does the extra money come from?
Mostly from money you haven't gotten used to spending: raises, bonuses, and cash above the cushion you want to keep. Raising your contribution when your pay goes up doesn't cut what you live on today. A bonus is worth deciding about in the week it arrives, before it disappears into checking.
IRA contributions for a year can be made until that year's tax filing deadline, not including extensions, so a bonus in March can still count toward the year before.
What Candor watches for
Candor reads the accounts every day and keeps a short list of what's worth talking through. For this goal, these are the ones that come up. Each card is filled from the records, and your agent sees it with the figures behind it.
Pay from Corvane rose to $10,200 a month
Up from $9,200. Savings transfers stayed about $500 a month.
In your 40s, the raise is the catch-up plan. Putting half of each raise toward retirement adds up over 20 years without lowering what you live on today, but only if it happens before the new pay feels normal.
Corvane deposited $15,000
On Mar 15; more than a month of your spending.
A bonus that sits in checking tends to get spent a little at a time. Deciding where it goes in the week it arrives is one of the biggest single moves a catch-up plan gets all year.
CRVN is 42% of investments
$59,600 of $142,000.
Holding a lot of your employer's stock ties your savings to the same company as your paycheck. Candor doesn't say what to sell. It shows the share so you can decide how much you want riding on one company.
$41,000 in checking and savings
About 6.6 months of spending; $35,000 of it in savings.
A cushion matters, and you decide how big. Past it, cash that sits for years is money that isn't growing toward retirement, and in your 40s those years count.
Savings transfers down to $200 a month
From about $500 a month earlier this year.
Catch-up plans rarely stop on purpose. They slow down a month at a time, and the slowdown is easy to miss when nothing else changed.
Six months in: a check-in
Corvane deposited $15,000
On Mar 15; more than a month of your spending.
Your agent
Your bonus came in: $15,000 on March 15. You haven't put anything in your IRA for 2026 yet, and you can still contribute for 2026 until the April 15 tax deadline. Your checking and savings already cover about six months of spending, so this money is free to work. I'd also keep it out of Corvane stock, which is already 42% of your investments.
You
Put the 2026 maximum in the IRA, and send the rest to the brokerage account in an index fund.
This is an illustrative example. The decision stays yours, and so does any change at your bank. Candor is read-only and cannot move money. It saves the updated plan and the reason, so the next check-in starts from what you decided. Candor is not a licensed advisor and gives no advice.
Common questions
- Does Candor pick investments for me?
- No. Candor shows your accounts, holdings, and how concentrated they are, and your agent can talk through options with you. Any trade is yours to make. Candor is not a licensed advisor and gives no advice.
- Can AI make a retirement plan?
- It can work out a target, a monthly amount, and a date from your figures, and redo them when something changes. With your accounts connected through Candor, it starts from what you really have and spend, and the plan stays saved for the next conversation, in whichever agent you use.
- How much does Candor cost?
- Candor starts at $8.25 a month on the annual plan ($99 a year), or $14.99 month to month, and the first 7 days are free.
Sources
- 401(k) limit increases to $24,500 for 2026, IRA limit increases to $7,500 IRS, November 13, 2025
- Retirement topics: Catch-up contributions IRS, May 7, 2026
- Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2025: Executive Summary Federal Reserve, May 13, 2026
- Starting Your Retirement Benefits Early Social Security Administration
- Your Social Security Statement Social Security Administration
- Publication 590-A, Contributions to Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs) IRS
- Changes in U.S. Family Finances from 2022 to 2025 Federal Reserve, October 9, 2026