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Mentor
As a Millennial, you don't realize how good you have it with respect to the stock market. In the Boomer generation, many of them did not invest in stocks at all. You don't realize how the rise of the internet, discount brokerages, and low-cost ETFs changed the landscape. My parents, who are Boomers, did not have a broker and did not invest at all. The markets were beyond their reach. Access was just not there.
As a Gen-Xer, I at least had easier access to the market, although there were not widely available low-cost brokerages (I paid $8 a trade when I started out), and ETFs were not widely available. We had mutual funds, but fees were a lot higher. VOO and chill did not exist. Also, there were a bunch of down years - the 90s was a lost decade, plus we had Y2K, the Financial Crisis of 2007-2009 (where we lost 50%), and Covid. The financial crisis permanently scared a wide swath of Gen X off the market entirely.
If you are smart and consistently invested, you will do better than the Boomers because you got in much earlier. Do your research and use the benefit of time to your advantage. Good luck!
Mentor
MD2 - you are correct. Thank you for the correction.
Historical returns on the market go back long before boomers. I wouldn’t try to reinvent the wheel. It’s a great long term investment.
Subject Expert
Disney was one of the best companies of the last 50 years. They barely make anything of “tangible” lasting value.
Nvidia, Tesla, Apple and many others are all making amazing tangible products.
I’m a millennial who has worked for 17 years now and has gotten quite a few good years of returns on my 401k and personal investments.
Are you thinking of Gen Z?
Millennial market returns have been pretty phenomenal since March 2009
What do you mean "is it the same stock market"??? When is the stock market ever the same over a rolling 10 year period? The biggest asset is human ingenuity and the best thing the US has going for it over other countries is that to a large degree, it promotes capital formation and business creation within a framework of rules and regulation. Human ingenuity is what takes a bunch of rocks and sludge that's been sitting underground for millions of years and converts it into energy that powers entire industries and our civilization. It is what does the same thing with wind, sunlight and atoms. There is no limit to human ingenuity and with the right incentives, this can be monetized and add value to millions of people
Not sure I agree with the sentiment of millennials getting the short end of the stick. It’s a certainty that the market won’t be the same over the next 30 years as it was the last, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a great option. You will also adapt. If the market does better or worse than expected, you might take more or less time to get to FIRE or you might adjust your spending plans.
Diversifying into real estate, crypto, etc. is probably a good idea, but a simple 401k into broad market ETFs still seems like the simplest and surest option to me.
Subject Expert
Objectively millennials are doing significantly better than boomers.
Most importantly as an analyst you have the ability to earn far, far, far more money than you could ever possibly need.
When are you retiring?
If your only retirement is sitting in a 401k you’re in trouble, buy a few rentals over time, get some cash producing assets that will grow but are outside of Wall Street
What’s the alternative?
Thanks for the data, the Industrial Revolution started in 1790. Now we are in a Digital revolution, a market growing based on businesses “on paper”. No physical assets and before we know fewer and fewer employees.
And this has generally accelerated returns in the stock market. If you were earning and investing for the last 5-15 years, you have experienced much better returns than just about any older generation that is alive today and retired more than 5 years ago
Companies are good at finding new ways to make money