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