Financial Independence

Gen X, Don’t Be Too Hard on Yourself About Investing

It’s not all your fault you’re behind in your financial goals

Last weekend I attended an investing conference in Houston, Texas where I had the pleasure of meeting several couples and single people who were well on their way to becoming millionaires. They weren’t those “celebrity” millionaires on Instagram and they certainly weren’t the seventy-year old with one million in their 401K after working fifty years for the same company.

These thirty-somethings were working full-time jobs, building their passive income while still paying off student loans from their college degrees.

One person I met was a graduate from Texas Tech with a mechanical engineering degree and a wife who was also an engineer. They had two kids, both under seven, yet had managed to already acquire two rental properties and was ready to find another $50-$100K to invest in the stock market, if the S&P 500 really tanked. As of this writing, they may get their wish.

As they say, “Comparison is the thief of joy.”

While my wife and I have done fairly well in our careers and savings, we are clearly behind in almost every metric when it comes to financial independence.

We were raised by boomers… focused on getting into a good college… getting a great job… then spending every waking hour delivering results for various public companies in hopes of climbing the corporate ladder.

Too many birthdays, time with grandparents, and vacations have been missed over the years.

Here was this unassuming investor, by my guess 15–18 years younger than I, who had already figured out a better path in life — not worried about killing himself for a faceless company, enjoying his family and laser-focused on retiring by age 45… worst case, 50.

I passed my really aggressive retirement goal of 35 many years ago. And in reality, that’s not THAT aggressive, especially today. But looking back, there were many hidden factors that Gen X had to swim against.

Get a Good Job

Boomers raising kids back then were relentless about their children getting a good job with good benefits. And the only path to that was through college. Today, I know truck drivers that make more than me or my wife, some have “done time” — the “go to college or you’ll be a failure,” seems amazingly silly now.

Finding and working for good companies definitely took my eye off the ball when it came to becoming financially independent. I knew about DRIP plans and buying shares directly from companies, but I was more focused on salaries and annual raises in the early part of my career.

Admittedly, traveling on the company’s dime seemed the perfect life; now we see people on IG who make thousands of dollars a month traveling around the world with no one to tell them it’s time to come back home. Nothing is more depressing than a company trip to another country where you have no time to experience the culture.

The FIRE Movement

I was always a little different than the rest. I got the concept of retiring early at a very young age, probably because I saw the negative effects of layoffs and long hours on my own father. The concept of FIRE really didn’t exist in the mid-90’s. A twenty-something talking about retiring early would have been considered just lazy, not forward-thinking.

But long journeys (like FIRE) require support, something that was hard to find back then. It was too easy to just find a better manager, or better job, with better pay or better benefits. Today, there are endless support groups online and offline for people looking to reach financial independence early.

Remember Buying Stocks By Telephone?

Imagine trying to call a broker today on the telephone and asking to buy a $5 stock while paying a $9 commission. Technology has changed everything and this engineer sitting next to me had most of his adult life to take advantage of low or commission-free trading.

I remember not having a lot of money to invest and struggling with the idea of how much my stock would need to appreciate just to break even from the steep commissions. Whatever you think about payment for order flow (PFOF), it has helped get more young people into investing than any financial class ever could.

What’s an iPhone?

Imagine this… I was a full-sized adult, mid-career still looking to reach manager level, with a child, when the first iPhone came out. Even if commission-free trading existed, I would have had no phone and no apps to buy stocks online with the swipe of my finger.

Gen X knew the value of home ownership, mutual finds, and other investments, but the hurdles were higher. Today, there are mobile notaries and DocuSign when you want to buy your next home. Everything is faster, easier and you can even own a fraction of a property… and no, it’s not a timeshare. And yes, you can buy that property through your iPhone too.

I’ve seen more than one nine-year-old with their own iPhone while I still rock my Samsung — it’s just a different world.

It’s Like Digital Gold

Like it or not, Gen X really had no equivalent to cryptocurrency. Our get rich quick dreams (or schemes) meant going to an Amway seminar or maybe watching Tom Vu (that Asian guy on late night infomercials selling real estate).

Today, more than a few people without college degrees or good jobs have made a fortune overnight buying and selling crypto. And now there’s these NFT things.

The number of ways to make money continues to grow and it’s been accelerated by technology.

Gen X was the last of the Mohicans… the last samurai when it came to retiring the old-fashioned way.

So as my new engineer friend and I parted ways for the night, I had to remind myself that my path was different than his, much (but not all) was out of my control. Sure, I could have found a way to retire at 35 if I really was determined, but I wouldn’t have found it searching Google. Their first online search wasn’t until 1998 — I was already working towards my first promotion.

Time moves forward and every generation gains some advantages (while losing others). This decade is a perfect storm for those looking to build generational wealth, but as we all know, everything comes with a price — who knows what my child will pay.

Whether it’s dollar bills, stocks, crypto, NFTs, or something else, hopefully I’m able to leave enough of “it” to give him at least a little advantage and the option to retire at 35.

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