Gen Z Prefers An Old Friend When Accessing A Chatbot -- March 28 ,2026

Locator: 50356CHATBOTS.

One source suggests:

• Generation Z (born 1997 - 2004) (if so, currently 22 - 29 years of age): prefers ChatGPT.

Gen Z prefers ChatGPT:

For my most serious, most important questions, I use ChatGPT. For quick questions while blogging I generally use Google Gemini. My son-in-law, an engineer, software coder, and part-time web page designer, prefers Claude.

Gemini, I find, is very, very matter-of-fact, business-like colleague; ChatGPT comes across as an old friend with whom I could discuss philosophical questions over a bit of Scotch. 

Intergenerational Wealth Transfer -- Update -- December 6, 2024

Locator: 44508ARCHIVES.  

Updates 

December 8, 2024: within hours after posting the orinal note, Carl posted this note on Bluesky:

Social media comments (aka nattering nabobs of negativity) suggest some / many folks don't realize this is already occurring and will continue to snowball. Less important: a single curve. More important: the sum of the three (four?) curves). A fifth curve will start by 2048.

Simple arithmetic: 46 + 15 + 39 = $100 trillion.

Note: most folks will fixate on the yellow line after 2040. But importantly, right now, the yellow line is around $750 billion, or rounding to $1 trillion. To put that in perspective, MMFs are holding about $7 trillion. MMFs become a "holding tank" while heirs decide what to do with their cash inheritance.

Original Post

Links:

• Merrill Lynch, 2024: link here.
• Japan Times, December 6, 2024: $105 trillion. Link here.
• Bloomberg, December 5, 2024: same story as the Japan Times. Link here.
• Fortune, November 25, 2024. Paywall but note the amount, $84 trillion. Link here.

Merrill Lynch:

IT’S BEEN CALLED THE GREATEST WEALTH TRANSFER in history: $84 trillion in assets is set to change hands over the next 20 years, according to estimates by the consulting firm Cerulli Associates.

The recipients, primarily members of Generation X (those born between 1965 and 1980), millennials (1981-1996) and Gen Z (1997-2012), are expected to inherit $72 trillion of that amount, mainly from baby boomers, with the rest going to charity.

What could this historic transfer of wealth mean for the markets? That depends a lot on important decisions these heirs make as they invest all or part of their good fortune. Will they choose the same mix of stocks, bonds, cash and real estate that their boomer parents gravitated toward? Or strike out in different directions, exploring radically new investment opportunities in search of greater growth? Already, some clues are emerging: 75% of millennial and Gen Z investors surveyed for Bank of America Private Bank’s “2022 Study of Wealthy Americans” believe “it’s not possible to achieve above-average returns solely on traditional stocks and bonds.”

Hmmmm? Crypto? 

Look how fast things are changing:

Rising stock markets and home prices, as well as inflation, have fattened the estates that members of the baby boom generation, born between 1946 and 1964, are expected to leave their heirs. The latest inheritance projection by Cerulli is 45% higher than the 25-year forecast the firm made only three years ago. US gifts and inheritances are expected to total $2.5 trillion next year alone.

Three years ago? Biden was still in his first year of his presidency. 

Inter-Generational Transfer Of Wealth -- Update -- October 7, 2024

Locator: 48520WEALTH.

Inter-generational wealth transfer. Liz Ann Sonders. A recurrent theme on the blog.  Link here. Demographics. Wealth transfer.

• $84 trillion
• over next twenty years
• largest share, $30 trillion to Gen X

 

For the grandchildren: link here.

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Disclaimer
Brief Reminder 

• I am inappropriately exuberant about the US economy and the US market.
• I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Apple. 
• See disclaimer. This is not an investment site. 
• Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment, financial, job, career, travel, or relationship decisions based on what you read here or think you may have read here. All my posts are done quickly: there will be content and typographical errors. If anything on any of my posts is important to you, go to the source. If/when I find typographical / content errors, I will correct them. 
• Reminder: I am inappropriately exuberant about the US economy and the US market.
• I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Apple. 
• And now, Nvidia, also. I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Nvidia.

Cramer's First Hour, Part 1 -- Football Weekend -- October 7, 2024

Locator: 48519CRAMER.

Cramer's first hour: a mix of facts, factoids, opinions from various sources -- often not cited -- while listening to Cramer's first hour on CNBC. 

The big question: how did media get it so wrong about the dockworker strike? Expected to last weeks, barely got started before it was over.  

NCAA football rankings out. Vanderbilt does not make top 25. Alabama drops to #7. Texas goes to #1.

Dallas wins last night. Close, but a win is a win. On the road against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

FEMA: under fire. Director's priority: the "feelings" of her workers. FEMA workers apparently feel threatened after government announces $750 / person aid package -- for those qualifying.

Inter-generational wealth transfer. Liz Ann Sonders. A recurrent theme on the blog.  Link here. Demographics. Wealth transfer.

• $84 trillion
• over next twenty years
• largest share, $30 trillion to Gen X

**********************************
Disclaimer
Brief Reminder 

• I am inappropriately exuberant about the US economy and the US market.
• I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Apple. 
• See disclaimer. This is not an investment site. 
• Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment, financial, job, career, travel, or relationship decisions based on what you read here or think you may have read here. All my posts are done quickly: there will be content and typographical errors. If anything on any of my posts is important to you, go to the source. If/when I find typographical / content errors, I will correct them. 
• Reminder: I am inappropriately exuberant about the US economy and the US market.
• I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Apple. 
• And now, Nvidia, also. I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Nvidia.

Intergenerational Wealth Transfer -- Keeping The Housing Market Going / Growing -- September 11, 2024

Locator: 48566ECONOMY.

Link here. 

An intergenerational transfer of wealth is in motion in America — and it will dwarf any of the past.

Of the 73 million baby boomers, the youngest are turning 60. The oldest boomers are nearing 80. Born in midcentury as U.S. birthrates surged in tandem with an enormous leap in prosperity after the Depression and World War II, boomers are now beginning to die in larger numbers, along with Americans over 80.

Most will leave behind thousands of dollars, a home or not much at all. Others are leaving their heirs hundreds of thousands, or millions, or billions of dollars in various assets.

This is what keeps the housing market going.

From the linked article:

In 1989, total family wealth in the United States was about $38 trillion, adjusted for inflation. By 2022, that wealth had more than tripled, reaching $140 trillion. Of the $84 trillion projected to be passed down from older Americans to millennial and Gen X heirs through 2045, $16 trillion will be transferred within the next decade.

WTI Gets No Respect; Continues To Fall -- TSMC Handily Beats Forecasts -- July 10, 2024

Locator: 48094B.

Whataburger: step aside Waffle House -- Texans now use Whataburger App  to track outages following Hurricane Beryl. Link everywhere, including here.

TSM: 2Q24 revenue jumps on AI boost; handily beats market forecasts. Link here. Up 2.4% in pre-market trading; up $4.45. What two companies are joined at the hip? TSMC and Apple.

Pre-market: tech could have another nice day. 

Cummins: increases dividend. From $1.68 to $1.82. An 8.3% increase.

Coal: US to increase domestic consumption on back of increased NG prices.

NEETS: number of those not choosing to work increasing; link here.

• NEETS: not in employment, education, or training
• mostly a young-male phenomenon
• the big question: why can they afford to do this
• not discussed: intergenerational transfer of wealth; it doesn't all happen after parents die

Demographics: financial.

• globally: number of millionaires to surge
• largest increase: Taiwan
• UK: the number will plunge
• horizontal transfer of wealth prior to intergenerational transfer

Demographics: financial. CBNC.

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Back to the Bakken

WTI: $81.17.

Friday, July 12, 2024: 28 for the month; 28 for the quarter, 354 for the year
40244, conf, Whiting, Sanish Bay 5292 22-7 9BX (Oasis naming scheme),
40230, conf, Neptune Operating, Gustafson 5-8 4H,

Thursday, July 11, 2024: 26 for the month; 26 for the quarter, 352 for the year
None.

Wednesday, July 10, 2024: 26 for the month; 26 for the quarter, 352 for the year
40299, conf, Whiting, Sanish Bay E Federal 5292 31-6 3B
40253, conf, CLR, Benner 5-7H,
39894, conf, Hess, EN-Madisyn-LE-154-94-0705H-10,

RBN Energy: LOOP retains its niche amid proposed offshore crude export terminals. Archived.

As four proposed crude export terminals off the coast of Texas navigate the long and winding regulatory path toward potential construction, the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP) already does what they want to do. It’s the sole Gulf Coast terminal that can fully load Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs) bound for global markets. LOOP started as an import-only facility, but later flexed to bring oil in and move it out as the energy landscape changed. It’s easy to wonder whether a new offshore crude export facility might be redundant –— why build another one if LOOP could just export more? Turns out it’s not that simple. LOOP is different — in its construction, its connectivity, its role in balancing imports and exports and especially the types of crude it handles. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll examine LOOP’s niche in U.S. crude exports and the role it continues to play.

Retirement And Investing -- Is Gen Z The Taylor Swift Generation? May 31, 2024

Locator: 48009TS. 

Updates

Tuesday, June 4, 2024: "She dominates our age!" How Taylor Swift became the greatest show on earth. Link to The [London] Guardian. 

Original Post

Gen Z: stepping up, making America great. Link here. Gen Z, when it comes to money, has a great, great role model.

Gen Z is off to a strong start in saving for retirement, and the youngest generation in the workforce has aggressive expectations for when they will call it quits on their careers.

Median retirement savings for Gen Z is $29,000, according to a new retirement survey by Goldman Sachs Asset Management. The research shows 68% of survey respondents believe their savings are on track or ahead of schedule.

And they may need every penny: 44% of Gen Z respondents expect to retire before 60, even as many of today’s older workers plan to stay on the job longer to shore up their savings. Working baby boomers reported a target retirement age of between 65 and 69, according to the survey.

Members of Gen Z, people born between 1997 and 2012, have perhaps benefited the most from retirement plan features such as auto-enrollment, so-called auto-escalation, and target-date funds as the default investment. Popularized after the Pension Protection Act of 2006, these features assume participation, requiring uninterested employees to opt out of contributing to a retirement account and having their contribution rate increased on a regular schedule.

Born between 1997 and 2012, these folks are currently between the ages of 12 and 27 years of age. 

Hot 100-singles in 2014:

"Shake It Off" ranked #135 by Rolling Stone, ranking all of Taylor Swift's songs to date.

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The Book Page

The Princes in the Tower: Solving History's Greatest Cold Case, Philippa Langley, c. 2023.

The Wide, Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and hte Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook, Hampton Sides, c. 2024.

Re-Posting: Millennials -- December 7, 2018

Locator: 10001DEMOG.

 

Updates

] July 12, 2025: link here.

Generation Alpha (Gen Alpha for short) are the demographic group coming after Generation Z.

According to researchers and popular media sources, Gen Alpha starts as early as 2010 and ends in 2024 or 2025.

Several sources specify 2013 as the start date and an ending year of 2028.

This generation was named after the first letter in the Greek alphabet. Most members of Generation Alpha are children of Millennials.

July 12, 2025: link here.

Generation Z (often shortened to Gen Z), also known as zoomers, is the demographic cohort succeeding Millennials and preceding Generation Alpha.

Researchers and popular media use the mid-to-late 1990s as starting birth years and the early 2010s as ending birth years, with the generation loosely being defined as people born around 1997 to 2012.

Most members of Generation Z are the children of Generation X.

July 12, 2025: link here.

Millennials, also known as Generation Y or Gen Y, are the demographic cohort following Generation X and preceding Generation Z.

Researchers and popular media use the early 1980s as starting birth years and the mid-1990s to early 2000s as ending birth years, with the generation typically being defined as people born from 1981 to 1996.

Most millennials are the children of Baby Boomers. In turn, millennials are often the parents of Generation Alpha.

January 9, 2025: Xennials, 1977 - 1983. Wiki entry.

• coined 2014
• micro-generation: on the cusp of the Generation X and Millennial demographic cohorts
• analog childhood and digital young adulthood
• analog: "the big hand is on the 9 and the little hand ..." 
• digital: flashing digits
  
• added to ODE, 2020; added to OED, 2021
• 1977 - 1983 (1980)
  
• 14 years old: 1994 -- 
• Jeff Bezos founded Cadabra, later named Amazon
  
• 20 years old: 2000
• dot-com bubble burst
• Compaq iPaq: first wi-fi-enabled device
• GPS authorized by Congress for public use
  
• personal milestones
• our first daughter: 1979
• our second daughter: 1983

May 9, 2023: Gen A (alpha: born after 2010); first mention. Sophia.

April 16, 2022: how Gallup "defines" the generations, or, link here (wiki, slightly different):

• generation Z (born 1997 - 2004): 18 - 25 years old. Arianna (2003), maybe Olivia (2007).
  
• millennials (Y) (born 1981 - 1996): 26 - 41 years old. Laura (1983)
• generation X (born 1965 - 1980): 42 - 57 years old. Kiri (1979), Josh.
  
• baby boomers (born 1946 - 1964): 58 - 76 years old. Bruce, May.
  
• traditionalists (born before 1946): over 76 years old.

March 2, 2019: two "wings" of Millennials -- generation Y (1981 - 1991) and generation Z (1991 - 2001). Broad definition of "millennials": those reaching adulthood in the early 21st century. That's a very, very wide range. That would almost include some 30-ish year-old parents with teenage millennials -- in other words, millennials raising millennials.

December 8, 2018: see also --

• 2030 - turning point in US demographics; aging population (defined as >65 years of age)
• infoplease

From infoplease:

• 0 to 19: 80 million: (generation Z, iGen)
• 20 to 34: 60 million (the millennials)
• 35 to 54: 80 million (generation X)
• 55 to 74: 40 million (baby boomers)
• over 74: 20 million

December 8, 2018: in the original post I mentioned that it might be wise to take Occasional-Cortex seriously. From wiki:

Post-Millennial is a name given by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Pew Research in statistics published in 2016 showing the relative sizes and dates of [Generation Z, the iGen].

The same sources showed that as of April 2016, the Millennial generation surpassed the population of Baby Boomers in the USA (77 million vs. 76 million in 2015 data), however, the Post-Millennials were ahead of the Millennials in another Health and Human Services survey (69 million vs. 66 million).

Original 

Re-posting from an earlier post. Our oldest granddaughter was talking to me about the various generations on our drive back from water polo practice last night. I had forgotten how long the "millennial" generation lasts, for those born between 1984 and 2000. So, those who are as young as 18 to as "old" as 34 years of age in 2018. Wow, that's the group that are now becoming the middle-level managers of US businesses, and soon to take over as CEOs, project managers, etc. Some are being elected to Congress.

Someone mentioned yesterday that it would be wise to take Occasional-Cortex seriously. She may be a ditz, but she will change the conversation, and sometimes that is all it takes. Age 29, born 1989. A real millennial.

Beto: age 46, but first elected to US House in 2012, six years ago, age 40. Born 1972, generation X.

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Demographics

Wiki now has a page on "millennials."

Follows "Generation X"; precedes "Generation Z." Therefore, also known as "Generation Y." 

Note: the correct spelling -- two "n's."

For various reasons, I'm going to update the following post by making one change. I'm changing the years of birth for millennials (previous, 1983 - 1998) to 1984 - 2000 (comes pretty close to range that wiki gives).

Millennials. Lots of talk these past few weeks about "millennials." Time to re-look at the "definitions. From an earlier post:

I had forgotten the "definition" of "Generation Z" but vaguely recalled blogging about it:

Definitions:

• iGen, generation Z, centennials: 2000 -

• oldest iGen: 2000 - 2005 (my thoughts -- teens in 2018)
• middle iGen: 2006 - 2011 (my thoughts -- middle schoolers in 2018)
• younger iGen: 2012 - (my thoughts -- pre-K in 2018)

• millennials, generation Y, 1984 - 2000 

• younger millennials (part of generation Y, children of baby boomers): 1992 - 2000
• older millennials (part of generation Y, children of baby boomers): 1984 - 1991 (in 2017:  26 - 34)

• generation X: 1965 - 1983 (no precise dates, late baby  boomers)
• baby boomers: 1946 - 1964  

Definitions (from this site)

• iGen, generation Z, centennials: 1996 --
• millennials or generation Y: 1977 - 1995 (18-year span)
• generation X: 1965 - 1976 (11-year span)
• baby boomers: 1946 - 1964 (18-year span)
• traditionalists or silent generation: born 1945 and before

Birth years important to me:

• 2014: youngest iGen
• 2006: middle iGen
• 2003: oldest iGen

At age five years of life, for

• the youngest iGen, 2019 - Apple's iPhone X
• the middle iGen, 2012 - Apple's iPhone 4s
• the oldest iGen, 2009 - Apple's iPhone 3g

There was a huge jump from iPhone 3, 4 to iPhone 6, 7, 8 and, then iPhone X. Based on iPhone models, the middle and oldest iGen generations are very similar; however, the youngest iGen generation is almost a new generation, being so much different than older iGen individuals.