If your retirement date is on the near horizon but you haven't contributed enough to your RRSP, don't despair. There are several options to fatten your retirement nest egg, but financial planners say older investors need to act quickly and decisively to capitalize on the relatively short time left before the RRSP window closes.

The over-50 crowd "sometimes think 'Why should I bother now? I'll never make enough,' but it's never too late to start," says Richard Sams, a certified general accountant based in Waterdown, Ont.

He says people in this position sometimes feel it is too daunting to try to catch up on contributions to registered retirement savings plans. "If they haven't put something in [to an RRSP] for several years, they've lost not only the interest they would have earned, but also the compounding on that interest," he notes. And they "have less time to recover if something does go wrong."

But it is possible to make up for lost time, if you have the will and the discipline. Catch-up strategies usually involve making changes to your current investment and financial plans, making changes to your lifestyle, or a combination of both.

One tried-and-true strategy is to take out an RRSP loan, either for an immediate lump-sum contribution or to supplement regular monthly payments. "This approach allows an individual to catch up quickly without having to make major lifestyle changes," says Dan Bodanis, a senior financial adviser with Dundee Private Investors Inc. in Mississauga, Ont.

Advisers stress, however, that investors who take out an RRSP loan need to manage the transaction wisely. The key piece of advice is to use the resulting tax refund to pay down a large chunk of the loan, so it doesn't linger as debt for too long.

An RRSP loan is "certainly a good way to jump start the process, but you've got to pay that loan back. You're spinning your wheels somewhat if all you're going to do is take the loan over two or three years and then just sit there quietly," says Warren Baldwin, regional vice-president of T. E. Financial Consultants Ltd., fee-only financial planners.

Another way to beef up your RRSP is to determine whether your other investments -- such as publicly traded stocks and bonds, Canada Savings Bonds and guaranteed investment certificates -- are eligible for transfer into an RRSP in lieu of cash. You may need to check with a financial professional to determine whether it would be prudent to transfer such assets into an RRSP, from both a retirement planning and a taxation standpoint.

Older investors who have modest funds in their RRSP might consider investing in higher-risk products in hopes of higher returns, potentially building a larger nest egg. But many financial advisers are skeptical of this tactic.

"Every case has to be looked at on an individual basis," says Murray Pituley, a senior specialist for taxation and estate planning with the Regina office of Investors Group Financial Services Inc.

For many pre-retirees, finding extra cash to contribute to an RRSP is easier because large expense commitments, such as mortgages and children's higher education, have been paid for.

But other investors may find they need to make changes to their lifestyle if they want to have more retirement savings.

Many financial advisers, for example, insist that older investors who urgently need to pad their retirement savings should first examine how all of their household revenues and expenses are being allotted, and then develop a strict weekly or monthly budget to ensure that higher, more consistent payments are made to the RRSP.

For many older investors, a major potential cash cow is their home, especially if it is mortgage-free. Downsizing is an option, but can sometimes be emotionally wrenching.

"We see that quite a bit, where there hasn't been a lot of focus on saving for retirement, but the house is paid off," says Howard Kabot, national director of financial planning for the Bank of Nova Scotia in Toronto. "It could be . . . an empty-nester scenario. So now decisions can be made around selling the house and going into a smaller one."

In the end, some people may find that their retirement plans need to be revised and that they need to work to a later age to close the gap on retirement savings. That could mean working full-time instead of part-time, Mr. Pituley says, or setting up a "cottage business that you run out of your home."