If early retirement is something you’re considering, you’re not alone. A 2024 YouGov survey found that 22% of Gen Zers and 30% of millennials expect to retire between the ages of 51 and 60. (1) That’s young, especially when you consider that Medicare eligibility doesn’t typically begin until age 65 and that Social Security’s full retirement age for Gen Zers and millennials is 67.
If your goal is to retire early, you need to save aggressively throughout your career and invest your money wisely. Financial personality Jim Cramer has some guidance on this.
He told CNBC (2) that he has an “aggressive” approach to helping everyday investors grow their portfolios and meet financial goals. Here are three assets that Cramer says to invest in — and what you need to know about them.
Investing in index funds is a strategy recommended by many financial experts.
Index funds are passively managed funds that aim to mirror the performance of a certain market benchmark. For example, an S&P 500 index fund will seek to replicate the performance of the S&P 500 by adjusting its holdings and weights.
They differ from actively managed funds because they don’t have professionals hand-picking stocks. An active fund will try to outperform the S&P 500 by picking a handful of stocks from it. In contrast, instead of trying to beat the market, an index fund is happy to capture its returns.
Investment legend Warren Buffett has long recommended that everyday investors put their long-term savings into index funds. And research supports this theory. Index funds tend to outperform most fund managers at picking stocks, especially when factoring in their low fees.
For example, over the 15 years ending June 30, 2025, about 88% of actively managed large-cap funds underperformed the S&P 500 index, according to S&P Global. (3)
While some financial experts may recommend keeping all or most of your investment capital in index funds, Cramer says to keep about 45% to 50% of your portfolio.
His argument is that a large position in an index fund helps anchor and diversify your portfolio. But branching out into other assets can make it possible to beat the market by a wide margin and enjoy higher returns.
While investing in index funds can provide great returns for your portfolio, it won’t help you beat the broader market. And if you want to retire early, you may need to do so.
To this end, Cramer recommends allocating 45% to 50% of your portfolio to five different stocks. The bulk of these stocks should be able to deliver new products or services, durable competitive advantages over peers, and consistent earnings growth over several decades.
If you’re relatively young, Cramer also suggests that one or two of these stocks should be more speculative. Such stocks offer more upside potential but also come with more risk. If they go bust, Kramer added, young people at least still have plenty of time to make their money back.
Over the years, there have been many individual stocks that have outperformed the stock market. At the close of business on October 31, the S&P 500 had climbed 95% in five years. Nvidia, on the other hand, rose nearly 1,291% in price over the same time frame.
This is just an example. The point is that it is possible to pick individual stocks that outperform the stock market as a whole.
That said, Cramer’s advice to choose just five stocks to invest in can be too risky. If you were to hold about half of your portfolio in five stocks, each would represent 10% of your total assets. This means that if a single stock does poorly, you’re looking at big losses.
If you’re going to invest in individual stocks, you’ll want to branch out a bit more than Cramer suggests. And if you’re sticking to just five stocks, you’ll want to make sure they’re not all from the same segment of the market.
One thing some investors don’t realize is that the S&P 500 is a market-cap-weighted index, meaning that companies with larger market valuations have a greater impact on its performance.
If you then go and invest in one of those big companies as one of your five personal stocks, your retirement savings may depend heavily on the performance of just one company.
Read more: Young millionaires are rethinking stocks in 2026 and banking on these assets instead — here’s why older Americans should take note.
While Cramer’s advice is to keep the bulk of investment capital in index funds and individual stocks, he favors the idea of allocating 5% to 10% of an investment portfolio to what he calls “insurance” assets — investments that can act as a hedge against stock market declines. Cramer’s two favorites in this category are gold and bitcoin.
In February of 2010, the price of gold was $1,112.50 per ounce. Fast forward to early November 2025, and the price had climbed to $4,032.70.
If you look at the price of gold over the past 100 years, you will see that it has risen significantly. Because gold is only available in limited supply, it tends to maintain its value, making it a good hedge against not only stock market volatility, but also inflation.
Bitcoin, of course, is not as long as gold. When it was first launched in 2009 it was only worth the money. In October 2025, it hit a record high of over $126,000.
But the price of bitcoin has fluctuated significantly over the years, and not always for the better. Bitcoin is considered a very risky investment for many reasons, including its lack of regulatory protection, questions about its stability and extreme price volatility.
However, limiting it to a smaller proportion of your portfolio can allow you to enjoy some upside without taking on too much risk overall.
Cramer’s approach to building wealth is valid but also somewhat risky. His guidance for individual stock portions may create insufficient diversity. And crypto assets in general can be risky, not only because of their relative newness, but also because the crypto market is still highly unregulated.
If you’re going to follow Cramer’s advice, make sure you research your individual stocks carefully and that you understand the risks of owning an asset like Bitcoin.
And if you decide to branch out with gold instead, make sure you’re getting it from a reputable source and have a way to store it safely. If you don’t like the idea of holding physical gold, you can also consider gold ETFs.
We rely only on vetted sources and reliable third-party reporting. For details, see our editorial ethics and guidelines.
YouGov (1); CNBC (2); S&P Global (3).
This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.
