If you’re near retirement, recent market volatility may be “a reminder not to be over-invested in stocks,” financial planner Ric Edelman recently told Yahoo Finance’s “Market Movers.”

About 54% of Americans own stocks, according to a 2017 Gallup poll. Of those who do, the richest 10% of households accounted for about 81% of the total value of those stocks as of 2013, according to a working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research.

“If you're far from retirement, no big deal. This too shall pass,” he said.

However, it might be time to rethink your asset allocation if you’re getting ready to retire, he said. “It's periods like this when we realize the importance of risk management,” Edelman said.

‘Cash is still king’

As of 2017, fewer Americans owned stock than they did before the 2008 financial crisis, the Gallup poll found. But two groups have held steady in their ownership — those over 65 and people who make $100,000 or more a year.

However, for older investors, Edelman says, “Cash is still king,” he said.

He added: “Money you're planning to spend in the next two to three years should literally be in the bank.”

During his interview on “Market Movers,” Edelman also opined on investing trends among younger investors. To be sure, just one in three millennials are investing in the stock market, according to a 2016 survey from Bankrate. Still, people between the ages the ages of 18 and 39 are increasingly buying cryptocurrencies.

A full quarter of affluent American millennials are using or holding cryptocurrency, according to a Millennials with Money report from Edelman, a marketing firm not associated with Ric Edelman. The survey defines affluent millennials as aged 24-38, making $100,000 in individual or joint income, or having $50,000 in investable assets.

And while the crypto markets experienced major drops in 2018, Ric Edelman remains bullish on them.

“I think that the technology is going to be a game changer in the fin tech space. There's no question that we're moving away from cash as a society,” he said. “Sweden's almost already there, 90% of their economy is cashless. We are quickly moving in that direction, too. We can transact safer. We can do it with greater transparency. We can do it far faster and far cheaper than current payment systems. So the technology is really quite disruptive.”

To help parents teach kids some of these personal finance concepts, Edelman has written a children’s book called “The Squirrel Manifesto.”

“Two major points — one, money is good. It brings joy to life. You can have a healthy relationship,” he said. “But at the same time, the opportunity of money brings with it obligation — the importance of taking care of others who are less fortunate than you. So spend a little, save a little, and give a little.”