There’s 1 major money move that sets rich retirees apart from their peers. Do it now to climb the wealth ladder

Assessing your lifestyle matters too. After all, no two retirements are the same: Your financial plan should align your income with your personal goals, whether you envision traveling the world, downsizing to simplify your expenses or picking up part-time work.

A plan can even protect you against rising costs in critical areas like health care. Fidelity estimates that the average 65-year-old couple will spend around $12,850 on health care in their first year of retirement (4). What’s more, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, premiums will rise further this year (5).

The standard monthly premium for Medicare Part B, which covers services including outpatient care and physician visits, will jump nearly 10% in 2026 — from $185 to $202.90. This will be the program’s biggest single-year increase in four years, according to CNN (6).

Read More: Approaching retirement with no savings? Don’t panic, you're not alone. Here are 6 easy ways you can catch up (and fast)

Choose the best financial planner for your needs

Factoring cost increases, like Medicare, into your financial plan can help you chart a course to your financial future. But when you consider all the potential changes — from inflation to the stock market impacting your retirement accounts — making a plan yourself might seem a little daunting.

That’s where Advisor.com can help. The platform connects you with a pre-vetted financial professional suited to your income level and portfolio.

Just answer a few quick questions about yourself, like your ZIP code, and your finances. Then Advisor.com will comb through its slate of advisors in minutes. Even better, you can schedule an initial consultation for free and with no obligation to hire.

Diversify your portfolio

Risk management is another benefit of building a plan. That’s because it can help you take stock of your finances and improve your portfolio diversification. An outlook report from Morgan Stanley found that investors can get better risk-adjusted returns by broadening their portfolios with non-U.S. equities, compared to investing in the S&P 500 alone (7).

If you’re feeling shaky about the current state of the stock market, there are plenty of ways you can spread out your risk.

Try multifamily real estate investing

One way to boost your portfolio’s diversification is by investing in alternative assets, such as real estate. However, finding and source properties yourself can be cumbersome, costly and admin-heavy.

But there are plenty of real estate investment opportunities out there, so long as you know where to look.

For instance, you could leverage multifamily real estate investing. In a report prepared by JPMorgan, Al Brooks — the firm’s vice chair of Commercial Banking — said, "I think multifamily housing is absolutely where you want to be as an investor (8).” He added, “The multifamily rental market may still feel the impact of a recession, but to a lesser degree than other asset classes.”

If diversifying into multifamily rentals appeals to you, you could consider investing with Lightstone DIRECT, a new investing platform from the Lightstone Group, one of the largest private real estate companies in the country with over 25,000 multifamily units in its portfolio.

Since they eliminate intermediaries — brokers and crowdfunding middlemen — accredited investors with a minimum investment of $100,000 can gain direct access to institutional-quality multifamily opportunities. This streamlined model can help reduce fees while enhancing transparency and control.

And with Lightstone DIRECT, you invest in single-asset multifamily deals alongside Lightstone — a true partner — as Lightstone puts at least 20% of its own capital into every offering. All of Lightstone’s investment opportunities undergo a rigorous, multi-stage review before being approved by Lightstone’s Principals, including Founder David Lichtenstein.

How it works is simple: Just sign up with your email, and you can schedule a call with a capital formation expert to assess your investment opportunities. From here, all you have to do is verify your details to begin investing.

Founded in 1986, Lightstone has a proven track record of delivering strong risk-adjusted returns across market cycles with a 27.6% historical net IRR and 2.54x historical net equity multiple on realized investments since 2004. All told, Lightstone has $12 billion in assets under management — including in industrial and commercial real estate.

As such, even if multifamily rentals don’t appeal to you, Lightstone could still serve you well as an investment vehicle for other real estate verticals.

Get started today with Lightstone DIRECT and invest alongside experienced professionals with skin in the game.

Become a real estate mogul — for $100

For those looking to access real estate without a $100,000 minimum investment, there are other platforms that offer opportunities.

For instance, with Arrived, you can buy stakes in rental properties, earn dividends and skip the responsibilities of property management.

Backed by world-class investors like Jeff Bezos, Arrived’s easy-to-use platform offers SEC-qualified investments such as rental homes and vacation rentals for as little as $100.

Their flexible investment options allow both accredited and non-accredited investors to benefit from this inflation-hedging asset class with ease.

You can start by browsing vetted properties, then you simply select a property and choose the number of shares to buy.

Consider precious metals for your portfolio

Another way you can buffer your portfolio’s impact from the stock market? Investing in commodities.

For instance, gold has long been considered a safe haven asset that can protect your wealth from market volatility. And the precious metal has been surging, with gold prices rising over 70% in the past year (9).

One way to invest in gold that also provides significant tax advantages is to open a gold IRA with the help of Thor Metals.

Gold IRAs allow investors to hold physical gold or gold-related assets within a retirement account, which combines the tax advantages of an IRA with the protective benefits of investing in gold, making them an attractive option for those looking to potentially hedge their retirement funds against economic uncertainties.

To learn more, you can get a free information guide that includes details on how to get up to $20,000 in free metals on qualifying purchases. Just keep in mind that gold is often best used as one part of a well diversified portfolio.

Research private equity opportunities

Public markets show just one side of how wealth is created. Many of the biggest and most successful tech companies remain privately held for years, growing behind the scenes and building incredible value long before the IPO bell is rung.

Venture capital is where the early bets on future giants are placed. But, for decades, venture capital has been one of the few remaining tables in finance where retail investors can’t get a seat.

Fundrise finally disrupted that dynamic a few years ago by launching a venture capital product with two goals. One: build a portfolio of the most valuable private tech companies in the world. Two: make it available to as many people as possible, with investments starting at just $10.

Today, Fundrise manages billions of dollars in private market assets and their venture capital product is designed specifically for investors like you who want to get in early on transformative technologies like AI.

Check out their venture portfolio today and start investing in minutes.

Find unexpectedly uncorrelated assets

When it comes to picking out your investments to diversify your portfolio, it’s worth considering how each of your assets tend to behave. Conventional investing wisdom recommends a 60/40 split between stocks and bonds.

But alternative assets, like gold or private equity, can also be used to diversify risk.

Even then, not all alternative assets are made equal. Some are more heavily tied to U.S. markets or fiat currency than others. But there’s one globally recognized asset class that can act as solid store of value and tends to only appreciate over time.

Even better, according to Morgan Stanley, it also has a generally low correlation to U.S. equities — making for a better insulated portfolio in the event of an American market correction (10).

The asset in question? Art.

Until recently, this world was off-limits, though. Now, with Masterworks, you can buy fractional shares in multimillion-dollar works by icons like Banksy, Picasso and Basquiat. While art can be illiquid and typically requires a long-term hold, it offers unique portfolio diversification.

Masterworks has sold 25 artworks so far, yielding net annualized returns like 14.6%, 17.6% and 17.8% among assets held for longer than a year

Moneywise readers can get priority access to diversify with art: Skip the waitlist here

Note that past performance is not indicative of future returns. Investing involves risk. See important Regulation A disclosures at Masterworks.com/cd