Jonathan Reitzes, who helps administer his event-staging company's 401(k) plan in Boca Raton, Florida, signed up as soon as he hit 50 last year and has done a good job of bringing along his colleagues. Out of ten eligible employees, six have already maxed out their catch-up contributions and two have put in requests to start in 2016. He plans on checking in immediately with the remaining holdouts.

Reitzes also had a financial planner to nudge him towards making those contributions, in the way of Adam Vega, a wealth manager at United Capital in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Vega uses software to alert him when clients approach age-based milestones.

While there is a bottom end of the income spectrum who opt for catch-ups, there really is no top, Vega says.

"Somebody earning $300,000 is still considering a 401(k) strategy," Vega says. "It's more about the tax benefit - not that they need to save more money."

For Timothy Noonan, managing director at Russell Investments in Seattle, Washington, and author of "Someday Rich," turning 50 coincided with the end of paying college tuition for his two daughters. Noonan was able to seamlessly fold more money into his retirement savings without missing it from his daily budget.

He doubts that most people will consider catch-up contributions because of the issue of delayed gratification. His motivation was more about facing mortality. After attending several funerals of friends who died young, he decided that time was more valuable than money.

"The change after 50 was that I wanted to accelerate the point at which future employment was voluntary," he says.

For others, a fat bottomline may do it.

Fidelity found that the average 401(k) balance of those doing catch-ups was $417,000, versus $157,000 for those who did not.

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