Retirement planning often doesn’t happen until late in life. And as a result, many Americans simply don’t have enough saved in their retirement investment accounts.

A recent report from the Employee Benefit Research Institute showed that men had an average of $139,467 in their individual retirement accounts as of 2012. The EBR reports women had even less with an average of $81,700.

Sure, $140,000 might sound like a decent amount of cash, but retirement planning experts often recommend more than 10 times your peak annual salary saved up at the time you retire — meaning $1 million for many middle-class families with two wage earners.

Even worse, a separate study indicates a third of all Americans have next to nothing saved up for retirement.

The bottom line is that you need much more money than you think you do, and the best retirement planning strategies involve saving early and saving often to help you reach the finish line.

Even if you think you’re all set, read on as we look at why you probably don’t have enough saved for retirement, and how one or two bad breaks could leave you in a world of financial hurt.

You Need Income: With the 10-year Treasury note yielding about 2.5% right now, a $100,000 nest egg will generate a measly $2,500 in annual income — or just about $210 per month. That’s not enough to live on, so if you don’t have a large chunk in retirement savings, you will be forced either to spend that cash down quickly, or to chase volatile investments like junk bonds that offer bigger yields but also much bigger risks.

You Will Live a Long Time: You might think that between Social Security and dipping into your savings, you’ll have plenty of cash to last a decade or two. But Americans keep living longer, and the worst thing that can happen is that you’re 85 or 90 years old and flat broke just because you had the unfortunate good luck of living longer than you expected. Modern medicine is amazing, and you could live considerably longer than your own parents did — meaning you need considerably more money come retirement.

Your Kids May Need Help: Nothing sets back retirement planning faster than helping your children pay for tens of thousands of dollars in college expenses, or supporting them as a dependent because they haven’t been able to move out and find work after school. Nobody would advocate letting your loved ones live on the street … but understand the trade-off involved when you support your kids instead of saving for retirement.

You Can’t Work Forever: Many older Americans are convinced they have plenty of time to save and will keep working until they are in their 50s or 60s. But aside from the obvious risk of health issues that put you out of the workforce, there’s no guarantee that your employer isn’t going to embark on some cost cutting and put a serious strain on your investment plans. The double whammy of losing the potential investment cash and having to dip into savings to support yourself earlier than planned could seriously put pressure on your nest egg.

When you take those facts into account, it becomes clear you need much more money than is first apparent. That’s why retirement planning should always center on a disciplined, long-term approach to achieving your investment goals instead of quick fixes.

Consider this: The maximum contribution you can make to a 401k plan under 2014 tax law is $17,500. Even if you make enough money where you can sock that max amount away, you’ll need 27 years to reach $1 million in your nest egg at a 5% annual return. And considering some experts think $1 million might not even be enough to retire at 65 and live comfortably in your golden years … well, you can’t afford to be lazy about your retirement planning.

Especially if you only have a few thousand bucks saved up, and are at the end of your working life.

Jeff Reeves is the editor of InvestorPlace.com and the author of The Frugal Investor’s Guide to Finding Great Stocks. Write him at editor@investorplace.com or follow him on Twitter via@JeffReevesIP. As of this writing, he did not own a position in any of the stocks named here.