Related to the index funds, although a lot of people lost quite a bit of money during the dot-com bubble popping, that period also democratized and made buying and selling stocks/index funds/other mutual funds much less expensive and accessible.
401(k)s had been around for a while but it was probably around then that online trading was really normalized as opposed to something that investment professionals largely handled for you out of sight out of mind.
Related to the index funds, although a lot of people lost quite a bit of money during the dot-com bubble popping, that period also democratized and made buying and selling stocks/index funds/other mutual funds much less expensive and accessible.
401(k)s had been around for a while but it was probably around then that online trading was really normalized as opposed to something that investment professionals largely handled for you out of sight out of mind.