Some Gen Xers are nearing retirement age. Therefore, now can be an ideal time for them to start thinking about their financial future.
The oldest Gen Xers are turning 60 in 2025, meaning retirement could be on the horizon. For this generation, now is the time to bulk up retirement savings to ensure there’s plenty of money to fund their golden years.
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Part of this can be done by cleaning house — both literally and figuratively. Here’s a look at four things Gen Xers might want to consider selling and putting the money toward retirement.
Also see the top three retirement fears of Gen X.
“Lured by above-average interest rates and near negligible levels of risk, investors piled into these funds since 2022, sometimes selling other investments such as stocks,” said Chris Diodato, CFA, CMT, CFP, founder and lead financial planner at WELLth Financial Planning. “The opportunity cost of selling higher-returning investments — stocks — for lower returning investments can compound over the long-run, and many investors are currently ‘overallocated’ to money markets and high-yield savings accounts.”
When it comes to having cash on hand, he said there are limits to how much is beneficial.
“Individuals should only be holding enough cash and equivalents for four to seven months of expenses as an emergency fund and enough for immediate large expenses — e.g., a down payment for a home or a car,” he said.
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“Many Xers may have purchased a life insurance policy in their 30s or 40s when children were young and funds to supplant the death of a breadwinner were scant,” he said. “Now with kids potentially out of the house and with many Xers amassing nest eggs, there may not be a need for insurance anymore.”
He explained that now could be an ideal time to evaluate this situation.
“Xers should take a look at their existing term and whole life policies and see if they would be better off cashing out and investing versus keeping their policies in force,” he said.
“Storage units profit from our aversion to getting rid of things we don’t use,” he said.
For example, he said if you don’t have space for a hand-me-down bookcase in your home right now, keeping it in storage in case you have space in a future house is a money-draining train of thought.
