These days, it feels a lot like the worst of times.  I'm not going to go into the state of the economy here because chances are you are feeling it accutely, whether you were working on Wall Street, just had your bonus taken away, or can't get a student loan.  For my peers in their 20s, we've never seen anything like this.  And its a little scary, to be sure.  Having gotten used to seeing 21 year olds with Hummers and Chanel bags, the idea that people may in fact have to live within their means is something new to us.  The new shocking isn't Britney's "hmm hmm" in a camera lense, but rather the idea that maybe the market isn't infallible and that we will have to work very hard to get what we want in life.

Yet, in a way, I think that today's economy offers a lot of opportunity for my generation.  No, I don't mean that stocks are historically cheap or that now is a great time to buy a foreclosed house ( though that may indeed be true).   Rather, I think this economy gives us a great opportunity to completely realign our thinking.  Our parents generation ( as radical as they think they were), really screwed up on a lot of things.  Somewhere in the mix the idea that hard work, not an Ivy League degree and a good credit card with a low APR, lead to the American Dream was lost.  Its time we reclaimed it. I'm tired of boomers meligning my generation for being self centered and incapable of being decisive.   True, I can't imagine a day with the internet and my cell phone, but so what?  I ( and a lot of my friends might I add) am serious about understanding and controlling my finances, and diligently saving for a rainy day.  Perhaps our generation is just a little more pessimistic, but I think this economy gives us the opportunity to take back the fundamentals of the American Dream and build our wealth on solid ground.