According to the most recent count, there are approximately 80 million young people in America today who were born between 1980 and 2000, making them the largest generation in American history. What’s more, over the next several decades, they are expected to inherit some $30 trillion in assets from their parents and grandparents. These facts are well known.

I’ll admit it, I’ve been obsessed with investing for a long time. My introduction to the stock market came through individual stocks, and I got lucky right off the bat. Twice in the late 1970s, I wrote an annual report for a tech company on Long Island that paid me in shares of their stock rather than cash, and the shares I received for $3 and $4 in successive years were worth $21 when the company was acquired by National Cash Register in 1980.