The Easter break is great fun but also provides a little time to review money matters. What should you be doing?

AAAWW, come on! It’s Easter! Seriously? It’s a long weekend for chillaxing with the family. A long weekend for letting go.

A long weekend to celebrate carbs in all their fat-inducing glory! In every one of that food group’s fabulous forms. Hot cross bun carbs, potato chip carbs, pizza carbs, beer and wine carbs. And making yourself sick on a thousand different types of chocolate. And chocolate’s a carb, right?

Anyhoooo, is Easter really the time to pull apart the belly button fluff of your personal finances?

Yeah, probably. Particularly if you’re scratching to buy the family bucketloads of said carbs. So, listen up Gen X.

The main message for Xers right now is this: We are in … “the zone”. The wealth creation zone. For setting ourselves up financially.

Xers are now aged roughly 35-50. Did you know that period coincidentally roughly covers when our incomes are rising to their zenith? According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, average incomes rise until about age 50. Then they slowly waver, then stumble, then fall off a cliff.

So, you MUST set yourselves up in your 30s and 40s.

Doing so requires action. Sacrifices. Future wealth is completely reliant on little actions now, for yours and the family’s longer-term good.

A little bit of salary sacrifice – start from your late 30s. A little bit of investing in shares – now, forever, constantly. A little bit in property – longer term bite, but generally worth the effort.

Don’t fob this off. If this Easter has been a struggle … every Easter will be until you “Walk this way to wealth”. Cue Aerosmith.

Bruce Brammall is the principal adviser with Bruce Brammall Financial (www.brucebrammall.com.au) and author of Mortgages Made Easy.