Have you finished your spring cleaning yet? Don't forget to make a clean sweep of your retirement accounts - clearing away bad spending habits or losing investments.

Taking control now could get you where you want to be years from now - something fewer people are saying these days, according to the 13th annual Retirement Confidence Survey (RCS).

Almost one-quarter of workers age 45 or older this year say they plan to postpone their retirement age, up from 15 percent in 2002.

"The Retirement Confidence Survey shows there continues to be widespread lack of knowledge and even apathy about key investment issues that could prevent Americans from adequately preparing for their financial futures," said Daniel J. Houston, senior vice president at Principal Financial Group, underwriter of the survey.

Get rid of debt

So what to do about it?

Start by seeing where you can clean up some bad debts, especially those bearing high interest, such as credit cards.

If you feel like credit-card debt is getting out of control, stop spending. Cut up the card and learn to spend only what you can pay for in cash.

Then focus on the highest-interest cards and aggressively pay them down.

Paying off cards carrying a 15 percent interest rate is like automatically getting a 15 percent return on your money - something hard to do anywhere these days.

After debts, look at your retirement savings picture. Make sure you are maximizing contributions to an employer-sponsored account, such as a 401(k) or 403(b). Consider opening a Roth IRA, if you don't already have one.

Examine what those accounts hold. Is your money concentrated in a few stocks? Or adequately spread out?

You might decide to rebalance your assets, selling some losers and moving money to where it might have a better chance to grow.

Just $20 a week

The Retirement Confidence Survey showed that taking the time to examine your retirement position can make a substantial difference.

• Forty percent of workers who did a retirement-needs calculation made changes in their retirement planning as a result: 58 percent started saving more; 26 percent changed the allocation of their money; and fewer than 1 in 10 researched new methods of saving for retirement, started saving for the first time, or reduced their debt.

• Seventy-three percent of workers who say they have saved for retirement say they could save an added $20 a week. Fifty-four percent of those who have not saved for retirement say it is possible for them to save $20 a week for retirement.

Saving $20 a week equals $1,040 over the course of a year. If you save this amount for 25 years, assuming a 5 percent annual rate of return, you end with $50,000.

And that could add to a much tidier retirement.

Contact Amy Higgins at 768-8373; ahiggins@enquirer.com; or 312 Elm St., Cincinnati 45202. She regrets that she cannot reply to all individual questions.