The rising cost of living continues to eat into household budgets. What are your top three tips for keeping up with it?

Are you talking about a little inflation? Paying a bit extra each year to buy the groceries? The cost of fueling up the car jumping a few bucks?

Bah! They’re the least of Gen X’s spending concerns. When it comes to rising living costs, we’ve got far bigger pressures smashing our finances every day.

Like the exponential costs associated with kids. The bills for the little blighters jump not by a few bucks here or there, but by thousands of dollars each year, it seems.

Juggle that with the increasing cost of a roof to house the brood and the drop in household income that comes part and parcel with breeding and … I’m sorry, but a little inflation isn’t even a blip on the radar.

But, unfortunately, inflation is there and slowly nibbling away at your finances. Here’s three things Gen X should be doing about it.

Superannuation: Push the risk up a notch. Your super is an ultra-long term investment and will provide most of your income in retirement. Get that baby as big as you can, by investing more of it in shares and property for the next few decades.

Cash: With interest rates so low, cash as an investment is actually going backwards after tax. If you have a home loan with an offset account, park your cash there for a reasonable tax-free return.

Investments: If you don’t have a mortgage, then don’t leave all your money in cash. You need to get more of it invested in shares and property, which over the longer term should provide returns over and above inflation.

Bruce Brammall is the principal adviser with Castellan Financial Consulting (www.castellanfinancial.com.au) and author of Debt Man Walking.