The economy has been in recovery mode for almost six years now, but that doesn't mean everyone is feeling financially comfortable.

Indeed, Gallup's Financial Worry index, which tracks the percentage of Americans concerned about multiple common financial challenges, stands at 50 percent, up slightly from 49 percent last year.

While the index has dipped from the 56-to-61 percent range that prevailed from 2008 through 2012, it remains higher than it was before the Great Recession.

The gauge measures the percentage of Americans who are worried about three or more financial issues out of the seven that Gallup tracks.

The most common worry, afflicting 60 percent of us, is not having enough money for retirement. The most minor wary, confronting 20 percent of us, is not being able to make minimum payments on our credit cards.

"Americans' current levels of worry suggest they have still not fully recovered from the recession," writes Gallup's Lydia Saad.

"While they are less worried about everyday financial matters than they were during and immediately after the 2007-2009 recession, Americans remain more worried than they were in the years preceding it."

When it comes to retirement, now that spring is here, it's a great time for retirees and those approaching retirement to get rid of extraneous possessions, says Joseph Coughlin, director of MIT's AgeLab.

"Spring-cleaning is an opportunity to sort that stuff — making the option of downsizing possible, aging-in-place easier or simply helping family members make sense out of all that stuff you have accumulated for decades," he writes in an article for MarketWatch.

"The more you have, the more there is to maintain, clean and organize. A house full of furniture that was once the home of a family of five, but now only has two, makes the decision to downsize difficult. . . . A new ritual of retirement, may be the adoption of minimalism."

Then there is the stuff you'll want to organize rather than jettison. That includes "documents that you and your family need access for managing legal, financial and health matters that will become more critical as you age," Coughlin says.

That includes real estate documents, financial documents, wills, health documents, insurance policies, etc.

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