Don't Retire Poor -- Avoid These 10 Pitfalls

4. Accumulating credit card debt: Credit card debt means that you are paying interest to the credit card companies instead of growing a retirement fund. It's one of the worst things that you can do. When you end up paying credit card debt rather than placing the same amount of money into your 401(k) or IRA, your retirement fund will look a lot less healthy in the long run.

5. Counting on an inheritance: Counting on an inheritance or some other type of cash windfall for your retirement is playing with fire. While your parents may have a good retirement fund for themselves, there are so many things that can happen to quickly drain that fund. This is especially true if they get sick and have a lot of medical bills or if they need to go into long-term care. You should always remember that their money is theirs and not yours, and they are free to spend it any way that they like. If you do receive an inheritance, it should be looked at as an added bonus. But you should not count on it for your retirement fund.

6. Buying more house than you can afford: Purchasing a bigger house than you can afford can do huge damage to your retirement fund. This is because you're placing all your money into your mortgage instead of investing a portion of it for retirement. While a house does have some tax advantages on the mortgage loan, they are not nearly as good as the tax advantages of a 401(k) plan or an IRA. It's also much more difficult to get your retirement money out of the house than from a retirement fund. While housing as an investment is something you might want to consider to create more wealth, your own house should not be viewed as a retirement investment, and you should make sure that you can pay your mortgage and contribute to your retirement fund at the same time.

7. Neglecting insurance: Insurance exists for a reason: to protect you against an unlikely but high-cost event such as a fire, an unexpected serious illness, a natural disaster or a major auto accident. People who forgo insurance in an attempt to save money run the risk of putting their entire retirement savings in jeopardy if an unfortunate event takes place in their lives. You want to make sure that you are adequately insured to prevent this from happening.