My wife and I were talking about this earlier. Boomers who managed to save cash were able to put that money into fixed income assets at incredibly high interest rates during the eighties. A 5 year CD in 1984 paid 12%, at renewal in 1989 it was, 9%, then 6.5% at the next renewal in 1994. In 1999 rates started their race to the bottom but stocks skyrocketed. So if you amassed cash in the eighties and nineties through fixed income, you had a great position to capitalize on the dot com boom, buy cheap during its crash, buy cheap real estate after the 2008 financial crash, capitalize on the market rebound, etc. All mostly for free because of timing.