EP247: Why Millennials are the Unluckiest Generation Ever!

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Why does it feel like this one generation keeps getting knocked back down every time they start to stand up?

Is the relentless financial beating they’ve taken just a series of setbacks, or is it actually priming them for massive financial success?

Think about it – while economic trauma affects everyone, but there’s one generation that has been on the receiving end of one economic uppercut after another. 

You might be wondering, who are we talking about?

Which generation could it be?

Don’t worry—it’s none other than the millennials.

Yep. It’s the millennials – the ones who have been called dramatic, sensitive, and even lazy – but who have also faced endless economic hits that seem to knock them down every time they stand. 

Let’s recap just a few of the past crises that millennials have clawed and crawled their way through.

With the tech bubble burst in 2001, the financial crash of 2008, the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, and now the interest rate spikes of recent years – there has been very little economic stability throughout the lives of millennials. 

To say that millennials carry a large amount of financial and economic trauma is a bit of understatement, but hope is definitely not lost.

In fact, we believe that not in spite of, but because of everything millennials have faced, they have the potential to truly thrive, using past experiences as a launchpad for lasting financial success! 

Let’s first get to the bottom of how millennials arrived at this pivotal point – how economic turmoil has shaped their financial beliefs and attitudes differently than other generations.

Then we can explore the financial strategies and retirement plan adjustments needed to secure a better financial future and grow sustainable wealth against all odds. 

It’s no secret that childhood experiences can have a big impact on adult choices, decision-making, and behaviors, right? 🤓🤓

An example of this is inspired by our dear friend, let’s call her Jemma. 

Jemma was raised by parents who were, let’s just say stingy with approval.

They wanted Jemma to work hard and become successful, so they expected a lot out of her and only praised her for actions that seemed worthy – which really just left Jemma with a major case of perfectionism. 😵😵

Now, even though she has reached the success her parents envisioned for her, she also deals with relationship troubles, insecurities, and never feeling satisfied or good enough. 

Well, it’s not hard to see that how she was raised has clearly affected every part of her adult life, and she has to continuously work at challenging her long-held beliefs and adjusting her behaviors. 

Now, it may seem obvious that patterns within a home can affect thoughts, behaviors, and actions, but think about how experiencing economic trauma at a young age can impact how a person grows up as well. 

Millennials have adopted certain financial beliefs and attitudes from going through several economic crises that shaped how the generation now acts.

They may not have even realized the impact along the way, but the psychological toll has left them with financial scars that are hard to overcome. 

Take the 2008 financial crash, for starters.

It wasn’t a headline on the news or in some history book.

This crisis was a personal, terrifying experience for most millennials, as they watched parents losing jobs, homes being foreclosed on, and life savings evaporating basically overnight. 

All the security that previous generations had promised them about saving for the future and working hard to make money suddenly went up in smoke, leaving them with not just trauma, but a literal collapse of trust in the entire financial system. 

And that’s just one financial crisis, out of the many that millennials have faced! 🫨🫨

It’s no wonder that their mistrust has spread to their choices of how to save and invest in their futures. 

Safety has become the ultimate choice for financial decisions for millennials, with anything involving risk being far too scary to take on. 

After watching retirement funds, nest eggs, and financial futures being ripped away from parents and peers multiple times, mistrust, skepticism, and financial fear makes sense. 

👉 Seeking out lower investment returns to minimize sleepless nights seems like an okay tradeoff, until they realize that real wealth can’t grow from hiding cash away in bonds or savings accounts.

Plus, the overall impact of only choosing the safest investments doesn’t just limit personal wealth growth, but also economic growth. 

Now, are you ready for the good news? 🙌

The economic trauma that millennials have endured doesn’t have to be crushing to any financial goals and dreams. 

In fact, due to circumstances out of their control, millennials have an opportunity to build even more financial resilience than other generations. 

In addition to growing up amidst economic chaos, millennials have also grown up in the age of technology – giving them plenty of financial education resources, money management tools, and digital platforms to help put them in control of their money. 

They may not trust financial institutions or advisors as much, but the desire for transparency and financial control has inspired millennials to seek out alternative investment options like cryptocurrencies, peer-to-peer lending, and crowd-funded or syndicated real estate investments.

According to the Financial Health Network, about 67% of millennials currently use digital tools for daily financial management decisions. 

This generation’s draw towards mobile banking, budgeting apps, crowdfunding platforms, and even robo-advisors further demonstrates how the effects of economic trauma have given millennials a need for financial control and transparency. 

With the help of readily available tech platforms and financial education tools, millennials can set themselves up to withstand whatever the economy throws their way in the future.

It will just take some strategic adjustments and a more non-traditional approach than other generations have used. 

In case you aren’t familiar with our personal story, we used to be in the fashion manufacturing industry – doing all the supposedly right and traditional things to find success and grow wealth. 

And you know what? It worked… for a while.

We WERE successful, until factors completely out of our control led to the loss of our biggest client! In the blink of an eye, our entire future was up in the air, which is exactly why, like many of our millennial peers, we made changes to take control of our money and future. 

Now this brings us to another obstacle millennials have found themselves facing – how to save for retirement.

You see, millennials have found ways of working and earning money that are different than previous generations, with half of millennials engaging in freelance work, according to the Freelancers Union. 

While this offers more flexible schedules and a better work-life balance, it also means that traditional retirement savings accounts are not really an option. 

So, should entrepreneurial millennials just accept that a comfortable retirement is out of the question?

Absolutely not! Many are actually turning towards self-directed IRAs and solo 401 (k)s. These retirement funds offer the flexibility millennials are craving, while giving them much more control over their financial futures! 

It’s definitely a millennial style win-win. But wait… there’s more.  

Self-directed IRAs and solo 401 (k)s offer higher contribution limits, awesome tax benefits, and plenty of alternative investment options for maximum wealth growth. 

For the generation that distrusts financial institutions, but values things like sustainability and innovation, alternative investment opportunities like multifamily apartments, solar energy projects, oil wells, and even cannabis farms really make for exciting ways to invest capital. 

On the subject of alternative investment opportunities, we’re reminded of the time when we were passionately sharing about the wealth-building power of multifamily apartment investing, which we do quite often, and a friend of ours said that they would look into it someday – when they had lots more money and time to invest. 

It’s safe to say that our minds were blown by that response, because it’s actually a big misconception about many alternative investment options! 

They appeal to millennials so much, because you don’t need to be rich to start, and you don’t need to give up your time to succeed! 

Millennials who want to invest in multifamily apartments can turn to things like syndications and real estate crowdfunding platforms to pool resources and get access to awesome investment opportunities. 

What’s even more exciting for millennials is that multifamily apartments offer stable cash flow, less risk, and less susceptibility to economic fluctuations than other investment options. The demand for rental properties is also going to remain high, even in the face of future market downturns. 

So, as unlucky as millennials may appear, the future is not as hopeless as the media makes it sound. 

By taking control of your financial education, leaning into the opportunities this age of technology offers, and choosing economically resilient alternative investment options that offer a hands-off, low-risk, scalable approach to putting money to work, you can turn bad luck into lasting wealth and freedom. 

Next, learn how other millennials are investing in land that can turn into millions of dollars by watching this video!

CRED iQ conducted a study comparing recent loans from December 2023 with those from 2011, shortly after the 2008/2009 financial crisis. The analysis examined the underwriting changes for the same asset across two distinct commercial real estate cycles.