Sell these 4 things before you retire in America — holding can cost you a fortune. How many do you still own?
Photo by SabrinaBracher / Envato Moneywise and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue through links in the content below. If you’re on the brink of retirement, there are a few good moves you can make to enhance this chapter of your life. Developing a concrete retirement plan, finding ways to boost passive income…
Moneywise and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue through links in the content below.
If you’re on the brink of retirement, there are a few good moves you can make to enhance this chapter of your life. Developing a concrete retirement plan, finding ways to boost passive income and deploying tax strategies can help you step away from work with confidence.
But there is another aspect that often gets overlooked: decluttering.
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Getting rid of some stuff that’s either too difficult to maintain or a silent drain on your finances could make your retired life much more comfortable and enjoyable. With that in mind, here are the top four things you may want to consider selling before you retire.
Oversized home
When it comes to real estate, perhaps no generation has enjoyed this asset class as much as Baby Boomers. Buying in at low prices and enjoying decades of steady appreciation has fueled many a retirement across the country.
However, the multi-decade boom has also left many seniors with unnecessarily oversized homes.
Roughly 28% of large homes (three or more bedrooms) across the nation are owned by baby boomers who are empty nesters, according to a Redfin report (1). All these empty bedrooms could be pushing up your maintenance, utilities — and, yes, property tax bills.
Downsizing to a smaller home could be the savviest move you make in retirement. Not only does this help you save on shelter costs, but it also gives you the chance to tap into some of that home equity to enhance your retirement in other ways.
If you’re reluctant to downsize, you could still tap into the value of your home through a Home Equity Line of Credit or HELOC.
AmeriSave offers a flexible HELOC that lets homeowners borrow against their equity as needed during a draw period, making it useful for renovations or debt consolidation. The application is mostly online and available in most states.
It’s a good fit for borrowers who want convenience and flexibility rather than a large lump-sum loan upfront.
You can draw funds only when you need them, so it’s useful for ongoing or unpredictable costs. Interest is charged only on what you use and you repay the balance over time. It’s essentially a flexible credit line secured by your home, delivered through a mostly-online application process.
Read More: Millionaires under 43 hold only 25% of their wealth in stocks. Here’s where their money is actually going
Concentrated employer or single-stock positions
Maybe you got lucky and bought a huge stake in Apple in the early 2000s.
Or, you’re one of the 15.1 million Americans who had a chance to participate in an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) (2). Regardless of how you got there, if you’re holding a highly concentrated stock position, retirement could be the right time to finally let go.
All the risk and volatility of keeping all your eggs in one basket could probably be justified when you’re young and still working. But when your portfolio is your main source of passive income, these concentrated positions could be too risky.
Vacation homes or timeshares
The math on a second property gets uglier when your income drops.
And timeshares are in a class of their own: The average annual maintenance fee hit $1,480 per weekly interval in 2024, up 17.5% in a single year, according to the American Resort Development Association’s 2025 State of the Industry report (3).
Those fees are mandatory whether you travel or not and they typically outlive the original purchase price. Over a 20-year retirement, a $1,480 fee compounding at recent rates can quietly consume tens of thousands of dollars — for one week of vacation a year.
Unlike a timeshare, owning rental property for passive income could be a better model.
Many retirees depend on this income. But only if your investment is cash-flow positive and you have a tight grip on all costs, from maintenance to insurance.
Shopping around for a good deal is often the clearest way to tackle insurance costs. But most property owners neglect that step. OfficialHomeInsurance.com makes it easy to find the coverage you need without the hassle of calling multiple providers for quotes.
Simply fill out a few details and you could save an average of $482 a year.
Second (or third) car
A family with young kids and both partners commuting to work could probably justify owning two or three cars.
But your lifestyle in retirement is likely to be very different. Without the commute or school runs, you could offload one vehicle to reduce costs significantly.
Owning and operating a new vehicle costs $11,577, or $964.78 per month, according to the AAA’s 2025 report (4). That’s money you can use to fund your retirement instead.
As for your primary vehicle, a comparison site like Insurify can help you instantly view quotes from all the top-rated providers to find the best deals. Just answer a few basic questions and Insurify will show you the most affordable deals in as little as 3 minutes.
Not only is the process 100% free, but you could also save up to 15% by bundling your car and home insurance.
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Article Sources
We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our ethics and guidelines.
Redfin (1); National Council on Economic Education (2); American Research and Development Association (3); AAA (4)
This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.
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