New Money

up doing the complete opposite of what they should. Having a sound financial adviser to call during those times will help you put things into perspective, calm your fears and keep your mindset focused on your goals, not the news.”

Wood agreed, adding that trust has never been more important between the adviser and client, especially when it comes to putting today’s opportunities into proper historical context.

“There will always be ‘new’ trends in investing. Most of them are not new but a recreation of something old,” she said. “Tax codes change often and how you take advantage of the current rules will need to evolve. For example, investing in incomeproducing properties, normally rental properties, made sense for some individuals in a historically low-interest rate environment. That same approach will be more difficult to achieve in a highinterest rate environment where mortgages will be steeper.”

Once this education starts to sink in, younger investors don’t cling to previous habits at all costs any more than their parents did. As Munyon noted, learning from past missteps and lifelong access to information has helped them become astute and strategic in ways their predecessors may have come to more slowly.

“You learn by trying, right?” he said. “I have had many conversations with Gen Xers on investing, and I think that they have learned from things and are investing more with a purpose and a long-term time horizon.

“I do feel that this generation is thinking that Social Security may not be there for them or may not exist in the way it does currently. They know that they may have to have more of their own money saved up for their future financial security. That thought, along with the increased accessibility to trading, has them saving more, and starting earlier, than any other generation.”