52 years old and need advice on investing and preparing for retirement

I would really appreciate some guidance from this community as I’m struggling to make sense of investing and preparing for retirement. I make about $65k and live in HCOL area. I own a duplex which brings in an extra $700-800 month. I have around 200k in equity in the duplex and another 20 years on the mortgage at 4.5%. I have a 403b at work that doesn’t do a match, but contributes 7% of my biweekly paycheck. I haven’t been able to contribute anything to it yet so it’s only at $18k, but I have started 2026 by contributing 10% of my paycheck. I have an old 401k with $90k, $20k in a HYSA, $10k in an acorns account and $5k in savings. I have $50k in student loans from 2020, but am working toward forgiveness with PSLF and should be eligible in another 4 years or so. I guess my question is not whether I am behind (because I think I am behind!) but rather advice on how to make the best decisions for the next 10 years. Any advice would be much appreciated 🙂

52 years old and need advice on investing and preparing for retirement
byu/EastYogurtcloset9975 inpersonalfinance

Posted by EastYogurtcloset9975

Automatic-One586 on January 4, 2026 4:59 am

When are you wanting to retire and how do you want to handle social security? What I mean is.. how much do you want to depend upon it? Some of the money you mentioned in savings accounts I would argue should be ear marked as an emergency fund. The rest can either be part of a sinking fund for things you intend to purchase within the next few years. The rest… if you aren’t planning to spend it or need it for emergencies. You should consider attempting to get that into some kind of investment for retirement and not let it sit in savings too long.

It sounds like to me you have ~108K. If you maintain the 17% contribution. Mathematically speaking… in principal.. it would be reasonable to expect you should have ~600-700K by 67 assuming a 8% return rate using several fairly common investment strategies. This might even be arguably a tad conservative considering I didn’t factor in raises or that in the future you may be able to increase your contribution rate further. Some might argue it’s a tad aggressive because in your 50’s and 60’s you should be starting to shift more conservatively. But if you are properly invested.. and you used the 4% rule. You should in principal be able to pull 20K per year out of your investments in retirement even if I low ball you at 500K. This does NOT include social security. You can sign in to the social security website and they can tell you what your expected social security check would be at various ages when you decide to claim it. Again.. my simple basic math using a standard online calculator assumes your retiring at 67 and the market behaves. It doesn’t take a dump on your 67th birthday. So you would look at what SS gives you at 67 annually and add these two numbers together.

But if you add those two numbers together. You can get a picture of what your retirement might look like as things stand right now. This is a starting point. It’s not a final determination. It’s just to give you a bit more context in what you might be facing so as to help you make decisions. There’s all sorts of strategies to approach retirement using bridge accounts and all sorts of strategies. There’s also tax planning and consideration. So the number you get here is again.. a place to start. If the number is looking good to you. Then you might not be as far off as you think. If it looks scary, then this tells you you may need to find creative ways to increase your contributions. Your getting into that age where… if you need to do this. You need to start doing that now. If you wait too many more years, reality will set in.

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3 Comments

Werewolfdad on January 4, 2026 4:15 am

Start here: https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics.
svezia on January 4, 2026 4:47 am

Make sure the money you listed is invested and not just sitting there earning interest.

Invest it in at least an SP500 fund. Never hold it in cash unless you are expecting expenses in the next 6 months, and even the you likely only need $10K in cash at any point.
Automatic-One586 on January 4, 2026 4:59 am

When are you wanting to retire and how do you want to handle social security? What I mean is.. how much do you want to depend upon it? Some of the money you mentioned in savings accounts I would argue should be ear marked as an emergency fund. The rest can either be part of a sinking fund for things you intend to purchase within the next few years. The rest… if you aren’t planning to spend it or need it for emergencies. You should consider attempting to get that into some kind of investment for retirement and not let it sit in savings too long.

It sounds like to me you have ~108K. If you maintain the 17% contribution. Mathematically speaking… in principal.. it would be reasonable to expect you should have ~600-700K by 67 assuming a 8% return rate using several fairly common investment strategies. This might even be arguably a tad conservative considering I didn’t factor in raises or that in the future you may be able to increase your contribution rate further. Some might argue it’s a tad aggressive because in your 50’s and 60’s you should be starting to shift more conservatively. But if you are properly invested.. and you used the 4% rule. You should in principal be able to pull 20K per year out of your investments in retirement even if I low ball you at 500K. This does NOT include social security. You can sign in to the social security website and they can tell you what your expected social security check would be at various ages when you decide to claim it. Again.. my simple basic math using a standard online calculator assumes your retiring at 67 and the market behaves. It doesn’t take a dump on your 67th birthday. So you would look at what SS gives you at 67 annually and add these two numbers together.

But if you add those two numbers together. You can get a picture of what your retirement might look like as things stand right now. This is a starting point. It’s not a final determination. It’s just to give you a bit more context in what you might be facing so as to help you make decisions. There’s all sorts of strategies to approach retirement using bridge accounts and all sorts of strategies. There’s also tax planning and consideration. So the number you get here is again.. a place to start. If the number is looking good to you. Then you might not be as far off as you think. If it looks scary, then this tells you you may need to find creative ways to increase your contributions. Your getting into that age where… if you need to do this. You need to start doing that now. If you wait too many more years, reality will set in.

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