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If you’re starting to plan your retirement, you’d do well to remember Aesop’s fable about the ant and the grasshopper. The story follows an industrious ant who works hard throughout the warmer months to store up its grain for the winter. All the while, the grasshopper mocks the ant for being so boooooooooring, while it sings and dances and plays its fiddle. It’s all fun and games until the grasshopper is stuck in the cold — and it learns that a song alone won’t keep it fed or warm.
Of course, as you think about your own retirement years, you want to be more like the ant in the story. You probably imagine that most people do — and that the biggest regrets people have about retirement are being a little bit too carefree with the money they’ve saved for their golden years or retiring too early.
Surprisingly, you’d be wrong. Turns out, one of the biggest regrets among retirees is not making like that ant and planning to save early on, in the “springtime” of their lives, as well as retiring too early.
Waiting Too Long To Start Saving Is the Top Retirement Regret
According to AARP, one of the general rules around retirement is that you’ll need about 80% of your working income to maintain your lifestyle in retirement — that’s a significant amount of money. And that’s assuming you’re not hit with an illness or other life crisis that would require you to have even more on hand.
When the organization surveyed a group of retirement savers, only 36% of people said they expected to have enough money to feel secure in retirement. As if these results weren’t dire enough, many of the respondents were in their 50s.
The AARP article quotes Kevin Chancellor, CEO of Black Lab Financial, who observes why this happens to so many retirees and how difficult it can be to overcome: “Life events kept them from saving, and now those decisions made back in their 40s, 50s and even as early as 30s are really biting them. It’s making it hard for them to live a good quality life with the cost of things so much higher.”
Not Saving Enough or Retiring Too Early Can Cost You Thousands
When you start saving for retirement early, you give yourself the gift of time. Not only in the amount you’re earning but in the power of compound interest to grow that amount over the years. Simply put, the longer you’re growing that interest, the more money you’ll have for retirement — which means you should start saving, like, yesterday and hold off on retirement for as long as you can.
Compound interest is one of your strongest allies in growing retirement savings because it allows you to earn interest on your interest, boosting your nest egg over time. Take this example: Let’s say you invest $500 a month into a retirement account, earning an average annual return of 8%, and plan to retire at age 65. If you start at age 25, you’ll accumulate a massive $1,757,140; starting at age 35, that number drops to $750,146; and if you start at age 45, it dips further to $296,472. The sooner you start, the more you can benefit from compound interest.
Catch-Up Contributions Can Help You
If you haven’t prioritized your retirement savings and you’re already in your 30s, 40s, or even 50s, you don’t have to feel like you’re doomed to the grasshopper’s fate of being left out in the cold. While starting as early as you can is the best approach, the next best time to get started is right now.
Kiplinger recommends making catch-up contributions to your 401(k) or other employer-sponsored retirement plan. A catch-up contribution allows investors who are age 50 and older to contribute extra money to retirement accounts beyond the traditional limits. In 2025, people between ages 50 and 59, or 64 and older, can contribute up to $31,000, including the $7,500 catch-up contribution. Those between 60 and 63 can contribute up to $34,750, including the $11,250 “super catch-up” contribution.
There Are Other Ways To Catch Up
If you’re not old enough to make those catch-up contributions or you’ve already maxed out on them, you can make after-tax contributions to your 401(k), provided your employer allows them. However, if not, you can still open a traditional or Roth IRA.
If you work with a professional advisor, you might consider opening a taxable brokerage account after you’ve already maximized your tax-advantaged accounts. Annuities can also be a strong option for retirement savings since they can offer guaranteed lifetime income, protection from market volatility, and tax deferral. You can purchase one at any age, as long as you’re older than 18.
To protect yourself from future healthcare costs, you’d also be wise to start funding a health savings account (HSA), which can help cover health-related expenses in retirement.
Bottom Line
When it comes to retirement, you want to be snug in your ant-hill — or, you know, your condo — and not out in the cold, so it’s important to start saving as early as you can. But even if you’re getting a later start in life, you’re certainly not out of options, and with some pluck and determination, you can build a comfortable retirement.
This article is part of GOBankingRates’ Top 100 Money Experts series, where we spotlight expert answers to the biggest financial questions Americans are asking. Have a question of your own? Share it on our hub — and you’ll be entered for a chance to win $500.