Gen X is The Last Lucky Generation

Hey everyone! This will be a short post. I’m experiencing a bit of writer’s block this week. This happens occasionally, but I think it’ll happen more often in the future. I’m less motivated than ever because the end is nigh for blogs. That’s okay because I’m looking forward to full retirement anyway. I’m lucky Retire by 40 lasted this long. Anyway…

Gen X is the last lucky generation

Generation X is generally defined as individuals born between 1965 and 1980. This places us between the Baby Boomers and Millennials. We were born at the right time and dodged many societal problems. Let’s go through some of them. I think Gen X is very lucky.

• No internet when we were kids. We were bored a lot and had to entertain ourselves. We ran around with friends, went to the malls, played games at the arcades, went bowling, watched MTV, and interacted with other people IRL. Everything is online these days. Social media is the scourge of mankind. It’s a total waste of time, and people pay too much attention to these apps. I’m glad we grew up without the internet.
• No major wars when we came of age. Gen X was born too late for the Vietnam War. At that point, there was no draft so Gen X didn’t have to join the military if we didn’t want to. The Cold War was huge when we were growing up, but that was more ideological. We didn’t have to go off to fight the USSR or anything. There was the Gulf War in 1990, but that was limited. The Afghan war (2001 to 2021) was long, but it barely affected American civilians at home. The Millennials were the majority of service members deployed to Afghanistan.
• Higher education was more affordable. College seemed expensive when we were young, but the cost of higher education is insane now. Parents and students will pay anywhere from $120,000 to $250,000 for a four-year degree. How many of us have that much saved up for higher education?   
• More entry-level jobs. I just took a road trip to visit my brothers and old college buddies. They are all doing pretty well. Most of us found good entry-level jobs and had good careers. My youngest brother had a tough time, though. He graduated right after the Dot Com bust. Millennials had a tough time with the Dot Com and the 2008 Financial Crisis. Those were challenging times for everyone, but I think Gen X got through pretty well. Life is even tougher for new college grads these days. It seems companies are hiring fewer entry-level employees and trying to offload more work to AI. The unemployment rate for recent grads has risen, reaching its highest level since 2013. Yikes!
• Houses were more affordable. I married Mrs. RB40 in 1999, and we purchased a brand new house in 2000. It was a 2,000 sq ft, 3-bed/2.5-bath house in Hillsboro near Intel. The price was a little under $200,000. The mortgage rate was pretty high, though. I think it was around 8% back then. However, the rate came down, and we refinanced. I just checked on Zillow, and that house is now worth around $600,000. WTF! We should have stayed there instead of moving to Portland. Housing is a lot more expensive now than when we were young.
• Excellent stock market gain. The last 30 years were great for the stock market. Sure, we had the Dot Com bubble, the Financial Crisis, and Covid. However, the stock market powered through and made huge gains over the last 30 years. A $100 investment in the S&P 500 in 1995 would be worth around $2,200 in 2025. That’s amazing. Gen X should have taken advantage of the stock market and invested as much as they could over the last 30 years.
• We had awesome movies and music. I love 80s music. We had Michael Jackson, Queen, U2, The Police, Guns N’ Roses, and many more awesome bands. Contemporary music? Not a huge fan. Although, Bruno Mars is pretty good. Movies were way better as well, IMO.

• Dating was better. Dating and finding a long-term partner seem difficult today. What do I know, though? I’ve been married for 26 years. Reddit fed me a steady diet of people complaining about dating. It seems the dating apps made it much harder for men to find a good partner. Dating seemed more authentic back in the 90s and 2000s. Women didn’t ghost you for no good reason.

Alright, that’s all I got today. Can you share your life experience in the comment section? What generation are you, and do you think your generation is lucky?

Image credit: The AI overlord

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Joe started Retire by 40 in 2010 to figure out how to retire early. After 16 years of investing and saving, he achieved financial independence and retired at 38.

Passive income is the key to early retirement. This year, Joe is investing in commercial real estate with CrowdStreet. They have many projects across the USA so check them out!

Joe also highly recommends Personal Capital for DIY investors. They have many useful tools that will help you reach financial independence.