11 Assets That Build Generational Wealth Even If You Are Starting from Zero
- Silivere Bakomeza
- May 17, 2022
- 6 min read
Updated: Jul 23
Most People Talk About Wealth. Few Actually Build It.
Wealth is not a goal. It is a system.
And the system works whether you were born broke or born into a trust fund.
Most people spend their lives chasing raises, spending tax refunds, and hoping their job title will unlock freedom.
But here is the truth nobody tells you:
You do not get wealthy from labor.
You build generational wealth by owning the right assets and keeping them.
According to the World Bank, over 689 million people still live in extreme poverty. In the United States alone, over 34 million live below the poverty line. And yet, wealth is compounding every day, just not for them.
So what is the real reason?
It is not luck.
It is not inheritance.
It is asset ownership.
Let’s break down the 11 assets anyone can start acquiring, even from zero, to build true generational wealth.
Land
“God stopped making land a long time ago.”
That quote is why smart families quietly buy up acres instead of Teslas.
Land is boring, hard to sell, and emotionally unattractive.
That is exactly why it is powerful.
According to the USDA, United States cropland jumped 7.8 percent in value year over year. Pasture land followed with 5.7 percent growth.
Land does not vanish. It appreciates.
And it does not scream “cash me out.” It teaches patience.
Why It Builds Generational Wealth:
Scarce by nature
Passed down, not spent
Harder to liquidate in moments of weakness
✅ Behavioral Insight: Lazy or greedy heirs are less likely to sell land compared to cash or crypto.
Commercial Property
Real estate is powerful. Commercial real estate is generational.
From event centers to apartment buildings, commercial properties do three things:
Generate rental income
Appreciate over time
Unlock access to business loans using the property as collateral
Wealthy families borrow against their buildings instead of selling them. That is how their assets stay intact for decades.
And because borrowed money is not taxed like capital gains, the strategy becomes even more powerful.
📌 Pro Tip: Commercial property is the only asset that pays you now, grows in value, and lets you borrow from it without triggering taxes.
Online Real Estate Including REITs Fundrise and Blogs
You do not need millions to be a landlord.
You can buy fractional real estate through platforms like:
Publicly traded REITs such as VNQ, O, and STAG
Or better yet:
You can build digital real estate.
That is what I am doing right now with this blog.
Every blog post is a brick.
Every subscriber is a tenant.
And every affiliate click is rent.
A Business
Every wealthy family has one thing in common. Someone started a business.
Whether it is a restaurant, a plumbing service, or an online brand, businesses scale faster than salaries.
Jeff Bezos started Amazon in 1994.
By 2024, he had set his family up for centuries.
You do not need to be Bezos.
You just need a cash flowing asset that grows without clocking in.
🧠 Remember: Businesses are harder to inherit than cash. That is what makes them powerful. Your kids do not get a payout. They get a system.
Dividend Stocks
The right dividend stocks can pay your family every quarter for life.
But be careful. Chasing yield can lead to dividend traps, which are companies paying high dividends while losing value.
🔒 Best approach:
Stick with dividend aristocrats
Or use broad ETFs like VIG or SCHD
Or own the S&P 500 and reinvest the dividends
✅ Bonus: These assets are extremely liquid, which makes them both powerful and dangerous for generational wealth. Set up a trust or educate your heirs.
Cryptocurrency Requires a Behavioral Edge
Crypto is digital ownership.
Bitcoin is digital scarcity.
Ethereum is digital infrastructure.
But volatility makes crypto a double-edged sword.
To win, you need emotional discipline, not hype cycles.
At BakoInvest, these are the only crypto assets we respect for now:
Bitcoin
Ethereum
Solana
Polygon
Litecoin
Cronos
XRP
📌 Never invest more than you are not willing to hold through a 90 percent drawdown. That is what separates crypto builders from gamblers.
✅ Platforms: Coinbase, Crypto.com
NFTs and Digital Collectibles
NFTs are not dead. The hype is.
NFTs are digital proof of ownership. If art can build generational wealth, so can digital art.
But 99 percent of NFT projects are junk.
Look for:
Scarcity
Real world utility
Cultural status
📌 Only invest if you already have a diversified base of traditional assets.
Metaverse Assets
The metaverse is what the internet was in 1999. Early, weird, and full of potential.
Virtual real estate, gaming economies, and digital identity systems will create massive generational wealth, but only for early adopters who survive the volatility.
Think of this like buying dot com domains before Google.
🚨 High risk. Long runway. Do your homework.
Gold and Silver
Old money loves gold. And for good reason.
Precious metals are slow, boring, and nearly impossible to destroy.
They do not yield income.
They do not go viral.
But they hold value across time.
Use them as an inflation hedge, not a growth play.
📌 Best formats:
Physical bullion
ETFs such as GLD and SLV
Evergreen Information Products
This one is slept on.
A great course, eBook, or digital product can pay you long after you are gone.
If you package your knowledge into a system and people keep buying it, you have built generational leverage.
Examples:
Fifty dollar investing course
Blog monetization system
Niche consulting templates
💡 I am building my own at Bako Academy. Every lesson I learn becomes an asset.
11. Life Insurance
Most people think life insurance is a safety net.
It is not.
It is a wealth transfer system.
Smart families do not use GoFundMe.
They use million dollar policies.
Benefits:
Pays out tax free
Covers estate costs
Let's you gift your wealth to future generations
📌 Use whole life or indexed universal life policies if you want to combine insurance with long-term investing.
Bonus Asset: Teach the Next Generation
70 percent of generational wealth disappears by the second generation.
90 percent is gone by the third.
Wealth that is not taught will be lost.
Train your kids early:
Pay them to read books
Share your investment dashboard
Give them micro stakes in family assets
✅ Action step: Create a Family Financial Playbook with passwords, asset lists, and behavioral rules for how to protect wealth.
Final Word: It Is Not About the Asset. It Is About the Owner.
Wealth is 20 percent the asset, 80 percent the behavior.
Land will not save someone who panics every year
Stocks will not help someone who sells every dip
Even a business can fail in the wrong hands
But if you master consistency, detachment, and delayed gratification…
You can turn fifty dollars into a legacy.
That is what I am doing every day with my MSTR investing journey.
And you can build your version too.
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💡 Want to Start Now?
Your first asset is proof of discipline.
Start with one dollar per day on:
Robinhood: The simplest way to automate a $1 or $50 daily stock habit. I use it to buy MicroStrategy every market day.
Webull: Clean interface, solid data tools. Great if you want to explore stocks while building your streak.
Acorns: Set it and forget it. Ideal for absolute beginners who want their money working while they sleep.
Coinbase: If you want exposure to Bitcoin and Ethereum, this is the most beginner-friendly way to start.
Crypto.com: Best for those who want more exotic crypto assets. Higher risk, higher noise. Stay disciplined.
Fundrise: For those curious about real estate exposure without buying a house. Long-term only.
Then build the streak now. Time does not wait. Wealth never rewards hesitation.
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