How do I retire if I'm 50 and I forgot to save?

BOTTOM LINE: The best way to know if you are on track is to check how much you spend.

Dear Beverly, in order to answer your question we use a financial software program to allow you to see how much money you will need to maintain, improve or change your lifestyle in retirement and then based on various investment return scenarios how much you would need to invest. The value of such a tool is it allows us to run many, many scenarios based on the weight you assign to each goal. We can look at the scenario from both sides - 1) if your currently investments return a certain amount, how much money will you have available to live on for the remainder of your life after retirement, or 2) if you know you want to maintain a certain standard of living in your retirement costing $ X amount in today's dollars, how much money will you need to generate. The program is visual so you can see by changing one variable the impact on others - for example, if you wish to travel frequently but are open to moving to a smaller home perhaps you will not need your investments to generate as much income to achieve your goals. I suggest you work with a good financial advisor who can guide you and your husband to make the right decisions now to ensure you have the income you wish for your retirement.