40s
By your 40s, you should be actively saving and looking at investments. This is the age when your “time horizon” and “risk tolerance” are at their most balanced, according to Tim Carpenter, financial adviser at Smith Barney/Citigroup – which is a fancy way of saying you have enough years to reap the benefits of investing in stocks or real estate while still being young enough to recover if your gamble tanks. As for what to invest in, most advisers say there are no sure bets right now. Carroll likens recommending hot stocks without assessing a person’s particular circumstances to a doctor pushing a popular prescription drug without first examining the patient. “It would be malpractice, in my opinion,” he says. If you can’t afford a portfolio analysis at Smith Barney, start watching CNN Money or other market-related television programs religiously.

50s
The 50s are generally the time we start panicking over how little we’ve saved and turning to various “get-rich-quick” schemes to make up for lost time. Resist the urge. “What I see with too many people at this age is desperation,” Sullivan says. “All of a sudden they’re 56 years old and they’ve got $10,000, and they’re looking to turn that into $200,000 in 10 years.” Sullivan says to watch out for “affinity scams” – too-good-to-be-true schemes tied to a trustworthy name – and home refinancing offers, a “huge scam that we’re running across now. People, in effect, giving away the equity of their homes to someone they think is going to help them.” It’s better at this age to resign yourself to the fact you’re never going to be Donald Trump. “A lot of us suffer from a lifestyle expectation,” Sullivan says. “And it makes it very difficult when all your friends are driving a BMW or Lexus for you to ride the bus or be renting. Get over it!”

60s
By your 60s, you should be getting even more realistic – especially about pending health costs. Fidelity Insurance estimates that the average retired couple will need $215,000 to cover their health care costs for the rest of their lives. Adopting healthy habits helps. Studies show that people over 50 can cut health care costs by $2,000 a year simply by taking a 30-minute walk three times a week. Putting off retirement helps, too. Every extra year you work, advises AARP, is a year that you make money instead of digging into savings. Plus, many employers offer “catch-up provisions” for employees past age 50 that allow them to put away an extra $5,000 a year in tax-deferred accounts. Sullivan says the best way to retire wealthy is just to stick with the Ramen noodles lifestyle you develop as a starving college student, no matter how much your income grows.
“If you’re just getting by, and you can convince yourself never to increase your standard of living – even though you know that you’re going to get raises and bonuses and you’re going to do better – that is the best way to accumulate wealth,” he says. “If you can tell yourself, ‘This is the way we’re going to live. If I get a raise, I am not going to buy a bigger house, a better car,’... I’ve seen people accumulate a lot of wealth over 10 or 15 years without really suffering.”