The most important thing to do before retiring - Make sure that your debts are paid off, particularly your mortgage,car loan, and credit card(s). Mortgage payments are the largest payment a consumer makes each month. How to do it? Every paycheck, put money aside to pay off your mortgage and credit card sooner. For example, if you have a mortgage of 1200, pay 1500 or more each month. Pay it off sooner and you'll be happy you did. Don't add anymore bills on your credit card unless you're willing to pay it all at once.
Also, if your house is too big (children have grown and left), then think about downsizing. Sell your house and go to a smaller house. Hopefully, the money from the sale can help pay off the mortgage of your new house and leftover money can go toward your retirement.
Live under your means because that's how it's going to be in retirement, but if you do it wisely, you won't even notice it. If you've got 3000 coming in every month, try and spend less than 3000. In order to do this, do a budget - sit down and see how much your expenses are - like credit card, mortgage, utilities, food, transportation, clothes, restaurants, entertainment, etc. Make sure you include all of the expenses. In another column, write down how much you make each month. Then subtract the expenses from the amount you made. See how much is left over. If you have debt - you pay it off with the leftover money. If you don't have debt, then you save that money.
I like the idea of my money earning more money - so we've done this in our household:
1) Solar panels - we invested in solar panels several years ago. We only pay 5 dollars a month during 8 months of the year (the snow months we pay usual). Each year, the panels earn over 4000 dollars worth of electricity. It's like getting money in the bank. When the electricity rates go up, you will be glad you have solar panels.
2) We invested in dividend-paying stocks, like Proctor & Gamble, Merck, etc that are solid and have good dividends (3% and above); they are a good way to go if you don't mind the ups and downs of the stock market (I've learned to ignore it - read the book "Contrarian Investing"). We've used TDAmeritrade at 7 dollars for each transaction (buy/sell), but there are other stock brokers online.
3) We invested in long-term CDs (5 year) that give the highest interest rates. The interest goes into your bank account. The more in the CD the more you get per month: It's like getting paid every month.
4) Read up on retirement, investing, and also don't be afraid to take classes in it. You'll be glad you did, because you'll enjoy your retirement better when you've planned ahead and there's money saved on the side.
But the bottom line is- have a plan to save. Save enough money to be able to put into a CD, stock, etc that can pay you dividends or interest.
PS If you have college-age children and are helping them with college, that also needs to be put into the formula. However, I think the children should pay some of that back when they find jobs, but that's another story..