What do you do now?

Here are my thoughts:

1) Cut your expenses
- do a thorough review of everything you spend money on - from the big things like high interest (ex. credit card)debt, where you live and little things like newspaper subscriptions and going out for coffee.
- sort through this and try to cut things to get this number as low as possible. There are often lower cost services for phone, cable, insurance, etc. out there.
- if you own a home - consider taking out tax deductible debt (ex line of credit) on the house to pay down higher interest debt

2) Try to drive up your income
- get a better paying job or ask for a raise
- plan on working longer (more years)
- delay getting Social Security until at least age 65 - hopefully longer

3) Look at other sources of income
- reverse mortgages
- life settlements
- additional benefits that you may be eligible from the government or your employer

4) Look for tax efficient saving mechanisms
- IRAs, 401Ks, etc
- these will allow you to put pre tax money away - offering an instant return

* There are several of these ideas in the NewRetirement site - maybe try their calculator.

Once you have done that - hopefully you are now earning more than you spend. If you still have high interest debt then try to pay that off first - since it's typically hard to beat that return in any investment.

Once your cash flow situation is fixed and you are saving money, then consider talking to a fee based financial advisor.

Note: these are just a few ideas - there are books and sites written on this. Keep researching and hopefully taking action - Good Luck!