Nearly half of all baby boomers will face a cash crunch in retirement, according to a recent study by the Employee Benefit Research Institute.

Boomers’ net household assets – 401(k)s, pensions, homes and other investments, minus their total debt – have lost 18% of their value since 2007 and today average roughly 1,000 a person, the EBRI study found.

The upshot of these losses is that boomers between the ages of 56 and 62 now have a 47% chance of falling short on funds to pay for basic retirement costs, according to the EBRI study. Boomers between the ages of 46 and 55 have a 45% chance.

The problem is compounded by lower expected returns on some assets and a weak labor market. Economists have lowered their long-term projections for the stock market since its downturn. High unemployment casts some doubt on boomers’ ability to re-enter the work force should they need to generate more income.

Boomers appear to be cutting back already. In a 2009 study of their spending habits conducted by MetLife, 65% of respondents reported eating at home more often in 2009 than in 2008, and 5% reported doing so less often. Thirty-seven percent said they were shopping at big-box retailers like Wal-Mart (WMT) and K-Mart more often, and 15% said they were doing it less often.

Here are six more expenses retirees should consider ditching to help close the gap.

Disability and life insurance

Retirees can save thousands of dollars a year by getting rid of unnecessary insurance policies.

“If you had an individual disability policy and now are retired, there is probably no need for it anymore,” says James Miller, President of Woodward Financial Advisors.

A retiree who no longer has dependents or has a spouse who could easily support him or herself without the partner’s help also should consider cashing out their life insurance policy.

“If you are paying these life insurance premiums, ask yourself ‘What would be the financial loss for my family if I die, and how much is that worth?’” says J. David Lewis, a registered financial advisor.

High investment fees

Investment fees come in many forms, including expense ratios, transactional fees and trading and account costs. Some retirees can cut these fees substantially without upsetting their portfolios or making substantial allocation changes.

Wes Moss, chief investment strategist at Capital Investment Advisors, says a thorough vetting of fees can yield a savings of thousands of dollars a year.

First, retirees should assess whether they are paying too much. Moss recommends keeping total fees as close to 1% of their total portfolio as possible. (People with more than million in investments should expect to pay less than 1%, he says.)

Investment vehicles with lower fees are generally easier to find in retirement because investors tend to allocate more assets to low-fee fixed-income products as they age.

If a consumer believes they are paying too much, Moss suggests he or she ask the advisor for a fee reduction or find a fee-only advisor at NAPFA.org.