November 28, 2025 • 10 mins
Gen X nostalgia meets economic reality. We talk with Bulwark Capital’s Zach Abraham about whether the “good old days” were actually better, why housing is so expensive for Millennials and Gen Z, how government policies and 0% interest rates warped the market, and what today’s culture shift means for the American Dream.
Schedule your free Know Your Risk Portfolio Review, and subscribe to Zach’s Daily Market Recap at https://KnowYourRiskPodcast.com
Schedule your free Know Your Risk Portfolio Review, and subscribe to Zach’s Daily Market Recap at https://KnowYourRiskPodcast.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to another episode of the Chicks on the Right
podcast where we talk to our friend and sponsored the show,
Zach Abraham from Bulwart Capital Management. And today we're going
to talk we're all gen xers here, We're all proud
of being gen xers. And I know I often think
of the good old days. Growing up in the eighties
was like the best time to grow up ever. I
just am one hundred percent sure of that. No one
(00:22):
can tell me otherwise.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
You're right, And I think.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
That now millennials and Gen Z kids often say they
often talk about the good old days because that was
a time when it was a lot easier for people
in that age group, young people to get ahead or
just be in the middle class. And so recently there
was a real interesting video that John Stossel put out saying, yeah,
(00:48):
there's that complaint out there, but isn't really true, because yes,
it was easier to get a home, for example, but
the homes were way crappier than they are now. They
didn't have air conditioning, they didn't have washers and dryers,
they didn't have all of this stuff. So are we
comparing apples and oranges, or do kids today really really.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Have it bad. Yeah, And also they didn't have Starbucks.
They didn't have they weren't getting their nails done, they
weren't getting their eyebrows done, they weren't like, they didn't
have all the social media stuff. They didn't have fourteen
hundred dollars phones. I mean, there's just a plethora of
items that kids today have that I didn't have when
I was in my twenties, you know what I mean.
(01:29):
And I was living with four other people in an
apartment like stacked, you know, four high, you know what
I mean. It was. Yeah, it's different.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
It is very different. And I think when you start
talking about it, is it better or worse? I think
that's all about context, right, Like what are you referring to?
And I think both things can be true at the
same time, meaning there is absolutely that part of human beings.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
That you know that.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
What is the term or you know, nostalgia, right, we
nostalgia eyes for I know that's a butchery of the
English English language.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
But we do that.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
It's yeah, we idealize the past, right, and we tend
to see it with just rose colored glasses on. But
I think that that was much more true if you
look at like the eighties.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
For instance, if you heard kids.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
Saying or people talking about the good old days back
in the eighties, are like, you know, so when we
grew up back then, the good old days meant the
fifties and the sixties, right, I think that's a better
comp for how people look at things and talk about
the good old days. And because there's something really fascinating,
and I've had an interesting ability because of my job
to observe this. If you and I, if we start
(02:42):
talking about our childhoods, growing up, high school, that kind
of stuff, us three are going to have different stories,
but they're going to be the same story, right. It's
gonna be different places, different names, different cases. It's gonna
be the same experience relatively. When I have those conversations
with eighty year old clients, it's the same way. Right,
when I go have those conversations with my children are sixteen, seventeen,
(03:03):
eighteen year olds today, it's completely different.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
It's a completely yeah, it.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
Is a completely different reality. There is a different way
that they associate with adults. There's a different way they
associate with each other. There's different rhythms and things that
run their days. What they do after school, is different.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Right. You know, for instance, I raise three kids.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
I'm probably the only guy in my neighborhood at least
from what I can see, that still has to tell
kids when they get home to take off their school
clothes because they're.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Going to go outside and play.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
No, right, nobody does that, and just so yes that
we I think that I didn't see the Stoscil piece,
but I do think that there's this habit of idealizing
the past. But when you look at how kids are
growing up these days and what's happening culturally, I think
it's really hard to I mean, look, you could be
a guy working in a factory making automobiles in Detroit
(03:57):
at twenty four years old and use that I'll read
to go buy a night starter.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Home, right, and the homes were the homes were a
lot more modest back then. They were smaller, they were cheaper,
and obviously they were cheaper. Everything was cheaper everything. I mean,
like Mock and I watched a movie the other night
at her house when we were together from the nineties,
and we were we were just like we were joking
because in one of the scenes they were renting a
(04:21):
car and the car rental was like fourteen ninety five
a day and we were like, oh my god, what
like we were freaking out. So we're like this from
the nineties. So everything we know inflation is crazy. Everything
was cheaper back then. But the houses, by and large,
we're I mean, they weren't like they are now. Like
houses are like McMansions now, you know, they're huge, and
(04:42):
they have all the they have all the fixings in them,
and like kids that are in their twenties and thirties,
they want these things. And I saw the other day
that like the average first time home buyer is forty.
Now that's older, it's a lot older.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
Yeah, and now here's, here's, here's this is going to
go back to the same thing. So I'm going to
sound like a blow broken clock. But the biggest reason,
the biggest reason by far, that housing is so expensive
is because you had zero percent interest rates for fifteen years.
And if you think about that, if you think about
like you said, there's so much more stuff in a
(05:18):
house today than there was forty years ago.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Yeah, thank you to low interest rates.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
Right, It's not like the standard of living has jumped
that much. Right, It's not like incomes, for instance, we
know that the last so the last expansion that we
came out of, meaning starting in nine, right the end
of the eight to eight oh nine recession going into
COVID was the longest and today because technically you had
a COVID, you had a recession during COVID, but stock
(05:42):
markets don't go up seventeen percent years where you have recessions.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Right, So it wasn't a real recession. But it's been
the longest economic expanse.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
In US history for ever, and yet it has also
been accompanied by the weakest in wage growth up until
this inflationary pressure kicked in. And so, yeah, how do
you explain the rising price of houses and the fact
there's so many more goodies in them? It's a factor
of low interest rates. And people go, well, that's why
(06:10):
I like low interest rates, And I'm like, but that's
also why you like record levels of mortgage stat too.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Right, there's a cost.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
And I think if I look at culture today, I
think the younger generation will be far better off if
they had less marble in their starter home and the
prices were thirty to forty percent lower.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Yes, totally.
Speaker 4 (06:31):
So, yeah, and the guys, these are the issues that
pop up that we as adults need to be thinking about.
We want the government to step in and steady the
ship in a time like oh, wait to nine, But
nobody stops to think about what is the cost of this,
right And the problem is is that the costs of
decisions like that typically don't show up until much later,
(06:54):
and by the time you're looking at the symptoms rising
to the.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Surface, it's too late.
Speaker 4 (06:59):
Right like you've are, the damage is done, and they
like this is when you don't like what free markets do.
When you only want the upside, you don't want the downside.
These are the situations that arise. There are no natural
factors for what's going on in housing right now is
one hundred percent government created the whole thing.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
The whole thing well, and.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
It's kind of like the idea that we you know,
even the definition or a description of someone who in
the United States is living in poverty, they still probably
have a big screen TV. They have a car, they
have electricity, they have ac they have all these things.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
It means they have more screens per household. Our part,
we are the first country in the history of mankind
that we know of that the biggest correlation between our
poorest is that they are the most overweight, right, that's
that's the highest correlation to low income. They think about that,
Think about the history of humankind.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Fat people were.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Rich, yes, right, yeah, that's right, that's right.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
Right. Remember you what was attractive back in the seventeen
hundreds was if you were twenty five pounds.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Overweight and pail right, right, So think of.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
That dynamic that shifted and so you know, and and
and that's the problem when you want guaranteed it and
you know, we've talked about this too, but it's also
the changing of the culture. Meaning you know, fifty years ago,
America's culture.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Was much different.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
And the reason it was much different is you add,
you were much closer to real immigrants, right, meaning and
what I mean by that is people that came to
the United States to get a fair shake, right, did
not come here because of what was promised was come
They came here because of what was prevented, right, Like,
they weren't going to have a government breathing down their neck.
(08:46):
And the further you move away from that, the more
cushion you give people, the more handouts, the more the
more you're diluting you know that American attitude right of
get up early in the morning and kick butt and
all that kind of stuff, and the further we get
away from it, those less are lost.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
And yep, yeah, so true.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
These these are the insights that we love you for, Zach,
and people can hear a lot more of them if
they attend one of your webinars or if they request
a portfolio review with you. How do they do that?
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Yeah, I got to have you do transitions for me
all the time. I know she's the best. I know it.
She's got to like Moonlight on our podcast to just
transition us contractor out exactly.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
The easiest way to get a hold of us go
to Bulworkapitalmanagement dot com.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Prop box shows up. You can sign up for the
webinar there. It's free.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
We're not going to call you, We're not gonna bug you.
If you like it, great, you can hook up with
me or one of our advisors. If not, hopefully you'll
learn more. You can also go to Know Your Risk podcast.
We do a daily dots than an hour show once
a week with interviews and things like that. All things
finance and investing, so not hard to find. Is Google,
Know Your Risk podcast or Bulwark Capital Management and that's
where you'll find us perfect.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Than you, thanks ladies. Investment advisory services offered through TRACK
Financial loc and SEC Registered Investment Advisor.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
The opinions expressed in this programmer 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 security so are thought to be materially accurate,
and actual performance may differ investments involved risk and are
not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Past performance doesn't guarantee future results. Track twenty four to
three zero eight
Welcome to another episode of the Chicks on the Right
podcast where we talk to our friend and sponsored the show,
Zach Abraham from Bulwart Capital Management. And today we're going
to talk we're all gen xers here, We're all proud
of being gen xers. And I know I often think
of the good old days. Growing up in the eighties
was like the best time to grow up ever. I
just am one hundred percent sure of that. No one
(00:22):
can tell me otherwise.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
You're right, And I think.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
That now millennials and Gen Z kids often say they
often talk about the good old days because that was
a time when it was a lot easier for people
in that age group, young people to get ahead or
just be in the middle class. And so recently there
was a real interesting video that John Stossel put out saying, yeah,
(00:48):
there's that complaint out there, but isn't really true, because yes,
it was easier to get a home, for example, but
the homes were way crappier than they are now. They
didn't have air conditioning, they didn't have washers and dryers,
they didn't have all of this stuff. So are we
comparing apples and oranges, or do kids today really really.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Have it bad. Yeah, And also they didn't have Starbucks.
They didn't have they weren't getting their nails done, they
weren't getting their eyebrows done, they weren't like, they didn't
have all the social media stuff. They didn't have fourteen
hundred dollars phones. I mean, there's just a plethora of
items that kids today have that I didn't have when
I was in my twenties, you know what I mean.
(01:29):
And I was living with four other people in an
apartment like stacked, you know, four high, you know what
I mean. It was. Yeah, it's different.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
It is very different. And I think when you start
talking about it, is it better or worse? I think
that's all about context, right, Like what are you referring to?
And I think both things can be true at the
same time, meaning there is absolutely that part of human beings.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
That you know that.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
What is the term or you know, nostalgia, right, we
nostalgia eyes for I know that's a butchery of the
English English language.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
But we do that.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
It's yeah, we idealize the past, right, and we tend
to see it with just rose colored glasses on. But
I think that that was much more true if you
look at like the eighties.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
For instance, if you heard kids.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
Saying or people talking about the good old days back
in the eighties, are like, you know, so when we
grew up back then, the good old days meant the
fifties and the sixties, right, I think that's a better
comp for how people look at things and talk about
the good old days. And because there's something really fascinating,
and I've had an interesting ability because of my job
to observe this. If you and I, if we start
(02:42):
talking about our childhoods, growing up, high school, that kind
of stuff, us three are going to have different stories,
but they're going to be the same story, right. It's
gonna be different places, different names, different cases. It's gonna
be the same experience relatively. When I have those conversations
with eighty year old clients, it's the same way. Right,
when I go have those conversations with my children are sixteen, seventeen,
(03:03):
eighteen year olds today, it's completely different.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
It's a completely yeah, it.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
Is a completely different reality. There is a different way
that they associate with adults. There's a different way they
associate with each other. There's different rhythms and things that
run their days. What they do after school, is different.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Right. You know, for instance, I raise three kids.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
I'm probably the only guy in my neighborhood at least
from what I can see, that still has to tell
kids when they get home to take off their school
clothes because they're.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Going to go outside and play.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
No, right, nobody does that, and just so yes that
we I think that I didn't see the Stoscil piece,
but I do think that there's this habit of idealizing
the past. But when you look at how kids are
growing up these days and what's happening culturally, I think
it's really hard to I mean, look, you could be
a guy working in a factory making automobiles in Detroit
(03:57):
at twenty four years old and use that I'll read
to go buy a night starter.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Home, right, and the homes were the homes were a
lot more modest back then. They were smaller, they were cheaper,
and obviously they were cheaper. Everything was cheaper everything. I mean,
like Mock and I watched a movie the other night
at her house when we were together from the nineties,
and we were we were just like we were joking
because in one of the scenes they were renting a
(04:21):
car and the car rental was like fourteen ninety five
a day and we were like, oh my god, what
like we were freaking out. So we're like this from
the nineties. So everything we know inflation is crazy. Everything
was cheaper back then. But the houses, by and large,
we're I mean, they weren't like they are now. Like
houses are like McMansions now, you know, they're huge, and
(04:42):
they have all the they have all the fixings in them,
and like kids that are in their twenties and thirties,
they want these things. And I saw the other day
that like the average first time home buyer is forty.
Now that's older, it's a lot older.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
Yeah, and now here's, here's, here's this is going to
go back to the same thing. So I'm going to
sound like a blow broken clock. But the biggest reason,
the biggest reason by far, that housing is so expensive
is because you had zero percent interest rates for fifteen years.
And if you think about that, if you think about
like you said, there's so much more stuff in a
(05:18):
house today than there was forty years ago.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Yeah, thank you to low interest rates.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
Right, It's not like the standard of living has jumped
that much. Right, It's not like incomes, for instance, we
know that the last so the last expansion that we
came out of, meaning starting in nine, right the end
of the eight to eight oh nine recession going into
COVID was the longest and today because technically you had
a COVID, you had a recession during COVID, but stock
(05:42):
markets don't go up seventeen percent years where you have recessions.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Right, So it wasn't a real recession. But it's been
the longest economic expanse.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
In US history for ever, and yet it has also
been accompanied by the weakest in wage growth up until
this inflationary pressure kicked in. And so, yeah, how do
you explain the rising price of houses and the fact
there's so many more goodies in them? It's a factor
of low interest rates. And people go, well, that's why
(06:10):
I like low interest rates, And I'm like, but that's
also why you like record levels of mortgage stat too.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Right, there's a cost.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
And I think if I look at culture today, I
think the younger generation will be far better off if
they had less marble in their starter home and the
prices were thirty to forty percent lower.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Yes, totally.
Speaker 4 (06:31):
So, yeah, and the guys, these are the issues that
pop up that we as adults need to be thinking about.
We want the government to step in and steady the
ship in a time like oh, wait to nine, But
nobody stops to think about what is the cost of this,
right And the problem is is that the costs of
decisions like that typically don't show up until much later,
(06:54):
and by the time you're looking at the symptoms rising
to the.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Surface, it's too late.
Speaker 4 (06:59):
Right like you've are, the damage is done, and they
like this is when you don't like what free markets do.
When you only want the upside, you don't want the downside.
These are the situations that arise. There are no natural
factors for what's going on in housing right now is
one hundred percent government created the whole thing.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
The whole thing well, and.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
It's kind of like the idea that we you know,
even the definition or a description of someone who in
the United States is living in poverty, they still probably
have a big screen TV. They have a car, they
have electricity, they have ac they have all these things.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
It means they have more screens per household. Our part,
we are the first country in the history of mankind
that we know of that the biggest correlation between our
poorest is that they are the most overweight, right, that's
that's the highest correlation to low income. They think about that,
Think about the history of humankind.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Fat people were.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Rich, yes, right, yeah, that's right, that's right.
Speaker 4 (08:03):
Right. Remember you what was attractive back in the seventeen
hundreds was if you were twenty five pounds.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Overweight and pail right, right, So think of.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
That dynamic that shifted and so you know, and and
and that's the problem when you want guaranteed it and
you know, we've talked about this too, but it's also
the changing of the culture. Meaning you know, fifty years ago,
America's culture.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Was much different.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
And the reason it was much different is you add,
you were much closer to real immigrants, right, meaning and
what I mean by that is people that came to
the United States to get a fair shake, right, did
not come here because of what was promised was come
They came here because of what was prevented, right, Like,
they weren't going to have a government breathing down their neck.
(08:46):
And the further you move away from that, the more
cushion you give people, the more handouts, the more the
more you're diluting you know that American attitude right of
get up early in the morning and kick butt and
all that kind of stuff, and the further we get
away from it, those less are lost.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
And yep, yeah, so true.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
These these are the insights that we love you for, Zach,
and people can hear a lot more of them if
they attend one of your webinars or if they request
a portfolio review with you. How do they do that?
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Yeah, I got to have you do transitions for me
all the time. I know she's the best. I know it.
She's got to like Moonlight on our podcast to just
transition us contractor out exactly.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
The easiest way to get a hold of us go
to Bulworkapitalmanagement dot com.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Prop box shows up. You can sign up for the
webinar there. It's free.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
We're not going to call you, We're not gonna bug you.
If you like it, great, you can hook up with
me or one of our advisors. If not, hopefully you'll
learn more. You can also go to Know Your Risk podcast.
We do a daily dots than an hour show once
a week with interviews and things like that. All things
finance and investing, so not hard to find. Is Google,
Know Your Risk podcast or Bulwark Capital Management and that's
where you'll find us perfect.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Than you, thanks ladies. Investment advisory services offered through TRACK
Financial loc and SEC Registered Investment Advisor.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
The opinions expressed in this programmer 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 security so are thought to be materially accurate,
and actual performance may differ investments involved risk and are
not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Past performance doesn't guarantee future results. Track twenty four to
three zero eight
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Are You A Charlotte?
In 1997, actress Kristin Davis’ life was forever changed when she took on the role of Charlotte York in Sex and the City. As we watched Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte navigate relationships in NYC, the show helped push once unacceptable conversation topics out of the shadows and altered the narrative around women and sex. We all saw ourselves in them as they searched for fulfillment in life, sex and friendships. Now, Kristin Davis wants to connect with you, the fans, and share untold stories and all the behind the scenes. Together, with Kristin and special guests, what will begin with Sex and the City will evolve into talks about themes that are still so relevant today. "Are you a Charlotte?" is much more than just rewatching this beloved show, it brings the past and the present together as we talk with heart, humor and of course some optimism.