I had a chance to interview Jack Towarnicky this week (see“Exclusive Interview with Jack Towarnicky: ChildIRAs will make ‘Middle Class Millionaires’,”FiduciaryNews.com, August 16, 2016). Jack is full of greatideas and enthusiasm. (Read the article and see what he says is atonce the “most important concept” and “most misused/misunderstoodaspect” of behavioral finance when it comes to 401(k) plans.) One phrase that he usedreally stuck in my head. Towarnicky referenced what he termed“middle-class millionaires.” That got me thinking.

Related: Would you make this sacrifice to help yourchild retire a multi-millionaire?

Remember all those bank commercials when IRAs first appeared?“If you save $2,000 a year, your money will compound itselfexponentially and – voila! – you, too, can become amillionaire!” I remember those ads. They had about as muchcredibility as those crazy “If I had a million dollars” lotterycommercials – as in, they had no credibility whatsoever.

I’m pretty sure a lot of people agreed. Skepticism reigned in anera of a bleak economy with no expectation of improvement. (Soundfamiliar?) Besides, the newly hatched “IRA” looked great on thechalkboard, but – in real life – well we all know how wellchalkboard theories work in the board room.

Related: Leaderboards, dire headlines, andencouraging retirement saving

So, now, fast forward about forty years. We all know those bankpitches ended up being truer than true, albeit not in the mannerthey expected. Once we released those IRA funds from the revolvingCertificate of Deposit dungeon, they found their true potential inthe realm of equity-based mutual funds.

That, combined with the amazing growth of an unexpectedlyvibrant economy inspired new president (Reagan) that scared theestablishment class to death (“He’s so dumb he’s actually going tostart a nuclear war!”) but who had his thumb on the pulse ofmiddle-America. IRAs were here to stay. More important, aturbocharged version of the IRA – the 401(k) plan – emerged fromdeep within the tax code to bring riches to even more workers.

Today, the success stories of the 401(k) plan and IRAs areeverywhere to be seen. No one questions the veracity of those earlybank commercials. In fact, they’re more than merely pleasantlynostalgic. They’re annoyingly frustrating to many – “frustrating”as in “d’oh! I wish I would have started my IRA back then – justimagine how much money I’d have today!”

Which brings us back to Towarnicky’s “middle-classmillionaires.” Jack isn’t pitching anything different than thosebanks did a couple of generations ago – common sense. Only, thistime, we aren’t laughing at the idea. If there’s anything we can’tdeny from the experience of the last forty years, it’s thatcompounding really works. Boy, does it work. And it’s universal inits benefits. You don’t have to be rich to become, well, rich. Allyou need is discipline and a good eye for budgeting.

Everybody knows this. Nobody denies this. And yet…

We see retirement savings rates that are still far too low. It’sas if there’s a whole generation out there that has failed to learnfrom history.

And you know what happens when you fail to learn from history –you are doomed to repeat it.

Except this isn’t the millionaire-next-door heyday wrought forthby the entrepreneurial spirit of the 1980s, it’s more like thedependency culture that afflicted so many during our nation’s worsteconomic eras and in our most blighted areas.

But hope endures. Between this vast abyss of pecuniary indigenceand the bright shining hill of financial independence stand thosemuch maligned souls near and dear to our hearts – thoseprofessionals who possess the training, the talent, and thetenacity to coach retirement savers to achieve fiscalself-reliance.

The readers of these pages have it within themselves to changethe course of the personal history of real people, one at a time.Indeed, the more “middle-class millionaires” we create, the greaterthe demand for personalized money managers.

With Presidential election polls tightening, we may soon findourselves on the cusp of a new era of rugged individualism – andthat may be good news for financial service providers.