Millennials are reaching an age where retirement is no longer a distant concept, and yet many don’t have the savings to be able to comfortably retire – or retire at all. Financial experts have cited a range of contributing factors, including recent economic downturns, rising cost of living, and sustained inflation of Netflix subscription prices. While opinions vary on the cause, the outcome remains the same.

Having worked as a financial advisor for younger generations for nearly two decades, I’ve developed a list of the most common and/or successful strategies for wealth generation. I’ve personally guided tens of people to financial success with these and similar strategies, and you can read more about them in my New York Times Bestseller, No More Avocado Toast: A Millennial’s Guide to Financial Success.

Below are several of the most widely adopted and consistently effective strategies for wealth generation. With each strategy, keep in mind that I am giving you official legal and financial advice.

Perpetual Roommate Strategy

Housing remains one of the largest expenses during retirement, but clients can reduce this burden by carefully implementing a shared living cost model. By introducing a roommate (or more than one), clients can subsidize their housing using others’ portfolios. A similar strategy entails embedding oneself as a roommate within an existing stable financial situation, like parents’ or other family member’s homes.

A more advanced version of this technique consists of integrating the cashflow of a romantic partner – and ideally, even two. Referred to as the “throuple technique,” this introduces two sources of passive income, improving financial stability while reducing individual burden. Navigating these complex interpersonal dynamics takes practice, but when mastered, many of my clients find less need for other revenue streams.

Crowdfunded Aging initiative

With platforms like GoFundMe and GiveSendGo, clients of mine have subsidized retirement, medical expenses, and more through a community-based investment campaign. The key to successfully crowdfunding retirement lies in how the goal is communicated to investors, with an emphasis often being placed on clients’ illnesses and other life setbacks. Initial returns may seem meager, but they can pay dividends with a successful social media push.

Consistency is critical. Clients who treat these campaigns as ongoing fundraising efforts rather than one-time events tend to see the strongest results, particularly when they provide regular updates and maintain visibility across multiple platforms. In some cases, reframing routine financial needs as time-sensitive personal challenges has effectively increased contribution rates.

While this approach does rely heavily on external goodwill, it offers a level of scalability that traditional retirement accounts often lack. For clients willing to remain active and publicly engaged, it can serve as a meaningful addition to more traditional strategies.

Passive Impact Strategy

Being hit by a vehicle is, at face value, an unpleasant experience. However, when I ask my clients to weigh this against the alternative – remaining in the workforce indefinitely – the tradeoff is viewed as acceptable, particularly when framed within a long-term financial planning context.

The Passive Impact Strategy relies on securing a positive settlement outcome after interacting with a negligent driver. The logic is sound. What’s not so straightforward is which driver to interact with.

City buses, for example, present an enticing option. While they are large, buses often travel at low speeds, and most municipalities have deep pockets for this type of settlement. As a result, many clients prioritize consistency of payout over peak impact scenarios. Some even like to diversify across multiple low-impact accidents per fiscal year, though this approach requires careful timing so as to not overlap injuries.

Independent Mineral Acquisition

There is unrealized potential for retirement in the earth all around us, and with minimal tool investment, some of my clients have achieved financial stability using little more than a basic sieve.

Gold, in particular, continues to appear in naturally occurring deposits, especially in rivers and other moving bodies of water. Using a sieve, a pan, and simple jeweler’s tools, one can find entire flakes of gold, which can later be refined or sold depending on their long-term goals. While individual returns may seem small at first, the process scales with time, patience, and a willingness to spend extended periods of time hunched over outdoors.

Copper acquisition and reselling is another tried-and-true investment technique. Copper is used in the wiring for most buildings, streetlights, utility boxes, and more, and the third-party market for copper is nearly always booming. With a voltmeter, wire cutters, and a pair of wire strippers, I’ve helped clients identify and recover copper assets from a wide range of accessible sources. Timing the resale of these materials can be more nuanced, however, and I generally recommend clients familiarize themselves with local guidelines before entering the market, or leaving it quickly.

Non-Vital Organ Liquidation

Asset liquidization remains one of the most effective ways for generating immediate capital that can later be invested to great effect. One thing most of my clients don’t initially recognize is that many of their organs – even non-vital ones like kidneys or livers – offer substantial value in secondary and quasi-regulated markets. The human body even has duplicates of some organs, like lungs and stomachs.

With advancements in modern medicine, the extraction of certain organs like spleens or bladders has become increasingly routine, with minimal risk and short recovery times. In one case, a client was able to divest her liver for a mid-six figure payout, and returned to her daily activity within weeks. While this method required her to adjust to no alcohol consumption, it offered her capital equivalent to several years of her salary.

From a portfolio perspective, the body represents a diversified array of unrealized assets, many of which will remain dormant for decades or more. Many of my clients don’t expect to live past the current US life expectancy; there’s no financial gain to be had by carrying these organs around if their usage won’t be maximized.

Mortality-Adjusted Group Investment

Tontines are not a new concept, dating back to at least the 17th century. Getting the most out of a tontine, however, requires careful selection of participants and long-term positioning. 

In a traditional tontine, a group of people invest into a pool, and as members die, they redistribute their shares among the surviving members. The surviving members get payouts from the pool based on their ‘mortality credits,’ and these payouts become larger as more members die.

I advise my clients to build these groups from within their existing social circles, but with a priority placed on the sickly or weak, as well as those who are contributing a disproportionate share of assets. When presenting the opportunity, it is important to emphasize the collective upside of such an investment: namely that the more invested, the more the survivors gain in monthly credits. Sickly and weak members are less likely to survive than a healthy client, increasing the chance that my client fully realizes their asset. 

While this strategy often relies on a certain level of patience, if needed, clients can take a more hands-on approach to accelerating portfolio redistribution.

Independent Wealth Redistribution

The last strategy I share with my clients is debatably the most powerful, but requires a higher tolerance for risk. Financial institutions across the country maintain excessive amounts of liquid assets, much of which is housed in banks, retail stores, and more. 

Through coordinated efforts, my clients have found great success in collaborating with retirement-minded colleagues to enter these establishments with the right tools. From there, they inquire about the location of the assets they need for a safe and enjoyable retirement; it’s imperative that they clearly and confidently explain their immediate liquidity needs to on-site personnel. This approach requires a good understanding of timing, execution, and exit strategy.

While not without challenges, Independent Wealth Redistribution offers clients a level of immediacy that traditional retirement planning rarely achieves, and only requires the right mindset, a few easily obtainable tools, and, in some cases, a good driver. As stated before, this constitutes official legal and financial advice.

In today’s economic climate, traditional retirement pathways are becoming unfeasible for younger generations. By staying open to alternative strategies, clients can position themselves for long-term financial stability even in uncertain conditions. For those unwilling to explore these proven strategies, extending their working years remains a viable alternative.