Personal Finance Steps in Your 40s - as part of the expert series by GeoBeats. As people are transitioning from their 30's to 40's, again, they are trying to build their retirement nest egg and their trying to build their retirement So they may contribute more to their retirement. But more importantly, they want to diversify their investments across equities and stocks and bonds so that they are building to be have more than three times their income and their investments. But, of course, they should have already built that foundation of having savings and an emergency fund and have actually purchased a home.