Speaker 1: Welcome to another edition of Checks on the Right podcast.
We are here with our BFF, our financial BFF and
BFF Zach from Bulwark Capital. We're talking about gen X
being the forgotten generation in every single way. So there's
a new article from the Economist and they suggest that
gen X those born between nineteen sixty five and nineteen eighty.
I am one of those, and I feel like you're
considered one of those. You're eighty two, right. They say
that we might be the most overlooked and most stressed generation.
So boomers complain. I feel like, I'm not really not
that stressed, but boomers complain about retirement, Millennials complain about
housing and costs of stuff. Gen Z complain about everything right,
and then gen X is kind of in the background,
and we're struggling because apparently during our midlife when we
were supposed to be having our midlife crisis, and I
can attest to this, this is when the bad stock
markets hit, there was weak job growth. It was harder
and harder for us to build wealth. We're stuck in
that sandwich generation where we're caring for both kids and
aging parents and is social security going to run out?
So let's talk about some stereotypes of the different generations,
like money myths about each, whether gen X is unfairly
ignored in some of these finance discussions. But first of all,
I want to know, like just having your practice for
as long as you have, when it comes to the
different generations, do you see different saving methodologies with different generations?
Do you see a difference in the generation? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Huge, really yeah, it's and it's and it's and it's
really it's really interesting to me because it does not
follow the typical arc that I think people would guess at. So,
for instance, you know, and you talk about our certain generations,
is gen X getting ignored? I hadn't really thought about
in those terms, But when you put it like that,
like to think to myself, it probably.
Speaker 1: Is like jan from the Brady Bunch.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Marsha Marshall, Martia the middle child, right yeah, right yeah. So,
And here's why I say it. Everybody talks about Gen
Z and millennials being despondent, not having hope in the future,
having more of a cynical outlook, which typically right, cynicism, skepticism,
all of those things are typically hallmarks of older folks, Right,
you would usually think that there now, and there's all
kinds of reasons that would back that up. We could
point to that and be like, you know, home prices,
all the things that we realize. What is interesting to me, though,
is that Gen X by and large seems to be
much more skeptical than the Baby boomers. Yeah, there is
much more of a jaundiced eye around Generation X.
Speaker 1: Ok.
Speaker 2: And I think a lot of it has to do
with what you just said, meaning there were so many
Baby Boomers that OAIGHTO nine was not fun for and
was not pleasant for, but a lot of them, and
think about in your own personal lives, A lot of
them were established enough to where their life didn't fundamentally change.
Right when you look at Gen xers, I don't think it.
I don't think it's hard to argue that we were
by far the most impacted by O EITO nine totally Yeah, right,
because you're earlier in your career, which by definition, you know,
you look at corporate America, you know tenure equal security,
meaning if you want to know who's going to get
thrown overboard first, it's the people with the least amount
of seniors. Totally right, You're also least likely to get hired.
How do I know that? Try being a twenty six,
twenty seven year old in the middle of the financial crisis,
just starting out in the financial industry and calling people
when the SMP is down sixty percent over the previous
eight months, and asking them to trust you with their money.
And then they ask you how long you've been in
business and you say six months? Right, as you can imagine,
that was kind of a tough sell, little bit, right,
just a little bit, a little bit. And so once
again you kind of look at this dynamic where gen
X had virtually nothing to do with what ca I mean,
if you look at the housing crisis, that was truly
a baby boomer generation moment, meaning the legislation that enabled
that was in the late nineties passed by baby boomers.
Speaker 1: Right, you never hear you all. I mean, you will
not hear the end of it from gen Z s too,
because they will constantly blame boomers for all of that,
and they'll be like, we can't afford housing because of
the boomers. Sometimes they lump us in with it too.
Gen xers are to blame for that too, like they
have it so easy, we have it so hard. But
do you really think that. I mean, granted, yes, I
will put some blame on them, But at the same time,
I do think that our generation and the generation before us,
you know, we didn't have we didn't live in laps
of luxury and expect a lot of things that I
think this new generation does. So there's it's it's more
than just one aspect that we're dealing with, you know
what I mean, It's an onion. I feel like it's
not just one thing. Like a lot of these kids
are used to so many wonderful things, and they're not
willing to give up the wonderful things. They're not willing
to live with five roommates and have ram and noodles
every night. You see what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, yes, there is no question about that, you know.
And I even deal to be fair, I deal with
that issue with my own kids, and my wife and
I talk about all the time. One of our biggest
concerns is are there enough struggles? Are there enough obstacles?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: Because I grew up with an I grew up in
an idyllic setting as a kid. At the same time,
there were so many things that we were responsible for. Yeah,
the kids today just aren't, you know. And what I
mean by that is, let me give you a really
small example. You want to play with your friend, so
you got to go outside, jump on your bike, ride
down the street, and go knock on his door and
see if he's there. Totally just even something like that.
Speaker 1: Totally yes.
Speaker 2: And the reason you have to do that is because
you tried calling him, but the phone's busy. Right somewhere,
millennials are going homes.
Speaker 1: What are you was talking about? Yeah? I mean I
always telling my daughter we were raised on hose water
and neglect. Okay, we totally loved it. We were so autonomous.
Our parents had no idea where we were until we
had to come in for dinner. And we were just
hungry and dirty, you know, ye, hungry, dirty.
Speaker 2: To live and slept like babies, right right, yeah, And
it was that and that was a shared experience, right.
And you look at it today and you don't see
kids outside no, right, Like it's it really is it
really want.
Speaker 1: My kids outside because it's not a safe you know.
So there again, it's like a double edged sword, right.
Speaker 2: It really is. And then on the then, like I said,
then you get to the younger generation too, and you
don't ever want to tell somebody not to aim so high.
But it's not because it's materialistic. But I want to
look at him and go listen, guys, let me just
let me just tell you something right now. I'm not
telling you to lower your sights. But if you think
that getting a job and quote unquote being successful involves
high six or low seven figures income incomes and Lamborghinis
like you've been lied to, I'm not saying it's impossible.
But what I'm saying is that is a very bizarre outcome. Okay,
the vast majority of people that you think are having
that outcome, it is a total ruse and is a
total fake. And you can just look at the stats,
right if if you know in the state of Washington,
which is higher up the deal, you know, I think
I think the cutoff line for top one percent is
five hundred and thirty thousand dollars. Okay, Well, five hundred
and thirty one thousand dollars doesn't pay for two hundred
and fifty to three hundred and fifty thousand dollars cars
and four million dollar houses, right, It just not even that.
And five hundred and thirty thousand dollars is an unbelievable
amount of money to make for year.
Speaker 1: Right, Absolutely agreed.
Speaker 2: But these kids have just these incredibly unrealistic expectations they do.
Speaker 1: It's very inflated.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think that that is as big a danger,
if not a bigger danger than reality on the ground.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Right. And what I mean by that is if you
don't have expectations in terms of and when I say expectations,
I had really high expectations of myself, but they were
based around what I believed I was capable of and
more importantly, what I was prepared to do for it, right,
Meaning I had high expectations of myself because I was
going into my job thinking, no one will outwork me.
Now did people outwork I'm sure there are people that
outworked me, but it was kind of that athlete mentality, right,
I'm going to go after this hard. It was not, Oh,
I'm entitled to that, that's just part of the game.
I'm going to get that because I'm great, and that's
what I'm gonnachieve.
Speaker 1: I got a four year degree, so I get a
corner office in a BMW's.
Speaker 2: That works.
Speaker 1: That's not how it works.
Speaker 2: No, it it just doesn't. It just doesn't work that way.
And the thing that you want to get across to
them is you want to say, hey, I didn't say
it was impossible, but it will be achieved by doing
nothing that you think will achieve it, Meaning you need
to become blind to everything else. You need to work
like a dog. You need to you know, like, if
you think it's going to get done five days a
week for forty hours a week, you're lying to yourself, right, actually,
you know. And you try to tell people like, hey, guys,
light you can't cheat life, Hey, you can't cheat life.
When you get eight billion people on the planet, there
will be some people that just fall out of bed
into a great thing and they take us all off. Okay,
but that is not a replicatable journey, right, you can't
do it that way. So and I teach my little
football team this, guys, you will get out what you
put into it. Period. So if you're not busting your
tail and you're not willing to push sixty seventy and
sometimes eighty hour work weeks, do not cry to me
about the fact that you're not getting the desired outcomes
and just meaning you will get out eventually. It will
be very similar to the effort and the resources that
you put in right, and it usually takes a lot
longer putting in than to get out right. Usually there's
a delay there.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Eventually, yep, eventually you will get an ROI.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but it's going to take a while. I agree completely.
Sometimes you have take zero paycheck to do it. Mack
and I did that for like four years. We did
that without question. A lot of people who are entrepreneurs
understand that. I think most people who are entrepreneurs understand that, Zach.
How can people find you? Tell them all about how
awesome you are because you're awesome.
Speaker 2: Well, I can tell you how easy we are to find.
So go to Bowordcapitalmanagement dot com or Know your riskpodcast
dot com. You can sign up there or subscribe to
our podcast. We do it once a day. It's about
twenty five to thirty five minutes, go over everything that
matters in the world of finance or any politics related
to finance or investing. And then just today did about
an hour long interview with a buddy of mine that
just put out a book about Warren Buffett put out
interviews with specialists and folks in the industry about once
a week. And yeah, between those you can find out
everything to know about Boward Capital Management and hopefully you'll
become a client and you know, we can all do
a'll make a lot of money together, hopefully.
Speaker 1: Yeah, skater around the social security all that.
Speaker 2: Well, there you go and take advantage is so many
of these other things right like that in these era
of governments running out of money, there's also all these
wonderful investments that can protect you from it and graving
a heck of a year. And hopefully we can tell
you why.
Speaker 1: Yes, thank you, Zach, appreciate you.
Speaker 2: Thank you. Investment Advisory Services offered your Trek Financial LC
and SEC Registered Investment advisor. The opinions expressed in this
pro grammar for general informational purposes only, and are not
intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual
or on any specific security. Any references to performance of
securities so are thought to be materially accurate, and actual
performance may differ investments involved risk and are not guaranteed.
Past performance doesn't guarantee future results. Track twenty four three
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