retirement
Retirement savings for 40-, 50- and 60-year-olds
Contribute to a traditional or Roth IRA
Once you've maxed out your company-sponsored plan, if you can find some extra money in your budget, consider starting or adding to an IRA or a Roth IRA, says Evan Shorten, a Certified Financial Planner with Paragon Financial Partners in Los Angeles.
"If you haven't saved as much as you could have, you'll need to cut your expenses and find some money in your budget so you can save more," he says. "Or, if you get a bonus, you could earmark some of the money from that bonus and use it to fund an IRA or a Roth IRA."
Even if you can't max out the IRA, putting something into it is better than nothing. You could set up an automatic transfer of $50, $100 or even $200 per month from your checking account into an IRA and increase that contribution as you get raises or once your kids are through college and you have some extra money.
