For older workers, retirement may be around the corner, but only few are really prepared.

About 65% of people age 55 and older have less than $100,000 in retirement savings; just 37% have saved less than $25,000, while around one-third have less than $10,000, according to Employee Benefit Research Institute s 2010 Retirement Confidence Survey.

Even on the higher end, however, a retiree who has amassed roughly $400,000 would likely still have a hard time making ends meet, says Kelly Campbell, the founder and president of Campbell Wealth Management, a wealth advisory firm in Fairfax, Va., and author of Fire Your Broker. What is $400,000? When you think about spending during retirement, it s not a big number, he says. The reason? To sustain their savings, retirees shouldn t withdraw more than 4% to 5% from their savings each year. At this rate, $400,000 amounts to living on just $20,000 a year, says Campbell, adding: Ten years from now, $20,000 will be worth a lot less money.

So what s a cash-poor soon-to-be retiree to do? For some older workers, boosting their nest egg is a matter of taking advantage of a few choice elections.

Here are five ways to boost your retirement savings -- even later in life:

Max out your contributions

No matter if your company is offering to match 100% of the first 3% of your contributions or 50% of the first 6% you sock away, you should always contribute at least enough to your corporate-qualified retirement plan to get the employer match, says Campbell. After all, it s free money, he says. But if possible, try beefing up your contributions. The maximum allowable contribution any worker may make to a 401(k) in 2010 is $16,500. (This contribution figure gets indexed for inflation.) For workers who go this route, the results can be dramatic.

Here s an example of the savings difference, illustrated in a recent study by T. Rowe Price: Consider a 55-year-old worker who has no savings, but earns a salary of $80,000, with a 3% raise each year for the next 10 years. If he started contributing 6% of his salary -- and received the maximum company match of 3% -- in 10 years, assuming he earned 8% annually, he would have amassed $147,340. If, however, this person invested the contribution maximum of $16,500 each year instead, keeping the same earnings conditions as the earlier example, he would have $345,736 after 10 years.

Use your catch-up provision

Those over 50 can save even more using the so-called catch-up contribution, which is $5,500 in 2010. Under this provision, workers can sock away a total of $22,000 in tax-deferred contributions in their 401(k) accounts.

Borrowing from the earlier example, say that worker plowed $22,000 into his savings account for 10 years, he d have $444,610, according to the T. Rowe Price study. As an added bonus, workers can start making those catch-up contributions in the year they turn 50, says Christine Fahlund, a senior financial planner at T. Rowe Price.

Of course, parting with that much money from one s salary can be difficult. But Fahlund says that some workers who don't have to save for a child s college tuition or own their home outright may be in a better position to attempt this kind of savings regimen. Whatever gives them the chance to put more away on a tax-free or tax-deferred basis, the better, says Fahlund.

Beyond the fact that more pennies saved equals more pennies earned, saving in a tax-advantaged vehicle such as a Roth IRA outside of one s company-sponsored retirement account can also deliver tax benefits, says Dean Barber, the founder of Barber Financial Group, a wealth-management firm in Lenexa, Kan. Here s why: Unlike regular IRAs, which offer to defer savers tax liabilities into the future, saving accounts like Roth IRAs allow already-taxed contributions to grow tax free. In other words, because the savings in a Roth IRA have already been taxed, you ll be cutting your provisional, or taxable, income -- that is, a person s taxable income plus 50% of their Social Security income. Reducing taxable income might also lessen the likelihood that individuals will pay income taxes on their Social Security benefits, says Barber. For instance, married couples filing jointly won t get taxed on their Social Security payments as long their annual provisional income is less than $32,000. (For individuals, the provisional income is less than $25,000.)

Consider rolling over to a Roth 401(k)

Similarly rolling over a 401(k) to a Roth IRA would have the same effect Note that attempting a rollover may trigger a big tax hit. In 2010, however, individuals can roll over their regular 401(k) to a Roth IRA and split up their tax liability over 2011 and 2012.) For more on rolling over a 401(k), see our story on Roth 401(k)s.

Hold off taking Social Security

You can start drawing Social Security payments as soon as you reach age 62, but if you don t need the income, wait. You can only claim your full benefits when you reach your full retirement age somewhere between 65 and 67, depending on the year you were born. For those who take their benefits in advance of their full retirement age, their payments will be reduced. By contrast, for every month individuals wait until they reach age 70, their benefits will increase. For someone born in 1943 or later, the increase is 8% annually, says Barber. If people have investments that aren t earning 7% or 8%, they should spend those investments first and let Social Security defer, he says.

Correction: Regular 401(k)s may be rolled over to Roth IRAs, not Roth 401(k)s as an earlier version of this story incorrectly indicated. Employees may contribute to a Roth 401(k) as long as their employer makes the option available, but they cannot roll their traditional 401(k) savings into a Roth 401(k).