By Jane Bryant Quinn

By Duc Do/iStock

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How did you get to be in your 40s (or beyond!) all of a sudden? Age sneaks up on us, and so does reality: If you’re going to retire well, you’ll probably need more money. Is there still time to give your finances a face-lift? Yes, definitely. if you’re ready to buckle down. Here’s how:

1. Save more — much more. Put away 5 percent more than you’re saving now. You can do it easily by signing up for a savings account that takes automatic deductions from your paycheck or bank account. When you hide money from yourself, you’ll find that you magically live on what’s left without a change in your standard of living. (Don’t believe me? Try it and see.) Five percent is just a start. If you’re between 45 and 50, you should work toward saving at least 20 percent of your income (counting any employer contributions to a retirement plan). For a close estimate of what you’ll need, fill out the retirement-savings calculator at choosetosave.org or dinkytown.net. Don’t scoff at what it says! Hoping for a miracle to fund your retirement is pretty much the same as planning to be poor.

2. Increase your income. To save enough to meet your goals, you may need to moonlight. Or, if you’ve been a stay-at-home mom, you may have to go back to work, at least part-time. Either way, direct all your new earnings into retirement savings. If you can put away $15,000 a year, at a modest annual gain of 6 percent, you’ll have more than half a million dollars 20 years from now. Add Social Security plus any money you’ve already saved for retirement and you’ll have enough to see you through.

3. Take advantage of tax breaks. If your company has a retirement plan like a 401(k), invest as much money there as you can. Contributions are pretax, and your money grows tax-deferred. Plus, your company may match some or all of your contribution. If you don’t have a job outside the home, your husband can use his earnings to fund an individual retirement account in your name.

4. Invest wisely. Put the money you’re saving into a well-diversified mix of stock mutual funds and bond mutual funds. Or consider life cycle funds, available through companies such as Vanguard, Fidelity, and T. Rowe Price. These funds are labeled by the year, such as 2025 or 2030. You pick the fund that comes closest to the date when you’ll be 65. It will give you a mix of stocks and bonds that’s appropriate to your age. When you’re younger, most of your money will be put into stocks for growth. As you age, your fund will become more conservative. At age 65, it might be split equally between stocks and bonds. In your later years, it turns into a low-risk fund.

Nearly half of all company 401(k) plans offer life cycle funds. If yours doesn’t, midlife investors should consider putting 60 to 70 percent of savings into an index stock fund and the rest into a bond fund. As you age, move more toward bonds.