Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Hope this doesn't become just another Boomers vs Millennials thread but I have to wonder if the bad financial time Millennials are having is actually due to their tendency to grow up late?
Obviously, if you start the race late you are probably gonna loose. Life is (and always has been) a competition and while the opportunities or lack thereof change over time, a person striking out and making a place for him/herself IS competing with the rest of the world around them for everything they need to make it happen...and it's the same game your parents (and their parents) were playing too.
Stats show the Millennial generation is hitting virtually every one of life's milestones much later than in previous generations. It seems Millennial complaints generally boil down to complaints of "unfair competition", especially against boomers who seem to have it all, but is that really the gist of it?
So why do boomers have so much? Well, they started the race 30 years earlier. Obviously millennials didn't have the option to start running 30 years ago but what if they had chosen to leave home at age 18-20 (like most boomers) instead of age 27-30 (or even later)?
Yea it would really suck at the beginning... you'd have your freedom and independence from parents (the #1 priority of young Boomers and Xers but apparently not high on the wishlist for Millennials) but just about nothing else.
You would experience "slumming it" in a crappy apartment while working a crappy job, having little to no fun, not getting the things you want and really struggling to make ends meet.
Life would indeed be hard and the thought of it makes living with your parents and having a good time with your friends instead seem pretty attractive. Still, you'd be hard-pressed to find someone from the older generations who didn't take that hard road at a fairly young age.... for them, getting away from their parents took priority over personal comfort.
Fast forward to today.... instead of being finally kicked out of the nest in your late 20's-early 30's after a decade of fun and games and finally starting the race late you could of had 10 years or so of independent life experience under you belt and been well on your way to your parent's cushy lifestyle.
That first crappy job and apartment would be a memory; with time and experience you would have moved up into quite a bit more money and built up your own personal pile of stuff. If you were smart, you built up a good credit history too, allowing you to strut into car dealerships and mortgage lenders where they would be practically on their knees begging you to take out loans with them at insanely low interest rates... something your young boomer counterparts could never have dreamed of back in the 70's-80's.
If it's your goal to have a family... had you gotten married in your early 20s and started having kids back then (like virtually every generation before you) you would not be looking at the horror of having kids in your late 30's or 40s and probably raising rugrats until your 70's. Beyond that, did you realize that being a parent in a traditional nuclear family makes you appear very stable, reliable, responsible and even noteworthy to everyone who might want to employ you or lend you money? That's an "unfair advantage" you can make use of regardless of how old you are!
So what is really happening with young people? Is it really the economy, really the older generations sucking up all the opportunity and leaving nothing for the young people?
Or is it because you failed to realize your life is running on a timer and you ended up collectively dinking around and seeking instant gratification instead of looking ahead and hitting the ground running when the race started?
Hope this doesn't become just another Boomers vs Millennials thread but I have to wonder if the bad financial time Millennials are having is actually due to their tendency to grow up late?
Obviously, if you start the race late you are probably gonna loose. Life is (and always has been) a competition and while the opportunities or lack thereof change over time, a person striking out and making a place for him/herself IS competing with the rest of the world around them for everything they need to make it happen...and it's the same game your parents (and their parents) were playing too.
Stats show the Millennial generation is hitting virtually every one of life's milestones much later than in previous generations. It seems Millennial complaints generally boil down to complaints of "unfair competition", especially against boomers who seem to have it all, but is that really the gist of it?
So why do boomers have so much? Well, they started the race 30 years earlier. Obviously millennials didn't have the option to start running 30 years ago but what if they had chosen to leave home at age 18-20 (like most boomers) instead of age 27-30 (or even later)?
Yea it would really suck at the beginning... you'd have your freedom and independence from parents (the #1 priority of young Boomers and Xers but apparently not high on the wishlist for Millennials) but just about nothing else.
You would experience "slumming it" in a crappy apartment while working a crappy job, having little to no fun, not getting the things you want and really struggling to make ends meet.
Life would indeed be hard and the thought of it makes living with your parents and having a good time with your friends instead seem pretty attractive. Still, you'd be hard-pressed to find someone from the older generations who didn't take that hard road at a fairly young age.... for them, getting away from their parents took priority over personal comfort.
Fast forward to today.... instead of being finally kicked out of the nest in your late 20's-early 30's after a decade of fun and games and finally starting the race late you could of had 10 years or so of independent life experience under you belt and been well on your way to your parent's cushy lifestyle.
That first crappy job and apartment would be a memory; with time and experience you would have moved up into quite a bit more money and built up your own personal pile of stuff. If you were smart, you built up a good credit history too, allowing you to strut into car dealerships and mortgage lenders where they would be practically on their knees begging you to take out loans with them at insanely low interest rates... something your young boomer counterparts could never have dreamed of back in the 70's-80's.
If it's your goal to have a family... had you gotten married in your early 20s and started having kids back then (like virtually every generation before you) you would not be looking at the horror of having kids in your late 30's or 40s and probably raising rugrats until your 70's. Beyond that, did you realize that being a parent in a traditional nuclear family makes you appear very stable, reliable, responsible and even noteworthy to everyone who might want to employ you or lend you money? That's an "unfair advantage" you can make use of regardless of how old you are!
So what is really happening with young people? Is it really the economy, really the older generations sucking up all the opportunity and leaving nothing for the young people?
Or is it because you failed to realize your life is running on a timer and you ended up collectively dinking around and seeking instant gratification instead of looking ahead and hitting the ground running when the race started?
And if so, who's fault is it REALLY???
Woe is you lol. It's because your generation is taught to worry about everyone else before doing and taking care of yourself. If you do well then you are bad.. evil... greedy, the collective thought, the help the poor thought when it is you who is poor. We had it bad too in different ways including hyper inflation, layoffs, double digit interest rates but in those days we were taught if you want to do well it's up to you to do it, people who complained woe is me was looked down on. We just didn't expect to have it all before we established ourselves.
Seriously Chango, it's no different. Stop whining and get moving. I apologize for the harshness but the woe is me, our generation has it bad attitude will get you nowhere. Learn everything you can about personal finance, start working toward financial independence, stop worrying that someone else has more than you. Be smart and start now.
Why do I say start now? This tail end baby boomer had it hard too, couldn't afford much and couldn't afford to contribute to savings, investments, now that I am older, I have to play catch up. I make more money to help me catch up but damn it! I make more money but because of the progressive tax code, I have to pay a lot higher taxes. My point being is it is better to start earlier.
Woe is you lol. It's because your generation is taught to worry about everyone else before doing and taking care of yourself. If you do well then you are bad.. evil... greedy, the collective thought, the help the poor thought when it is you who is poor. We had it bad too in different ways including hyper inflation, layoffs, double digit interest rates but in those days we were taught if you want to do well it's up to you to do it, people who complained woe is me was looked down on. We just didn't expect to have it all before we established ourselves.
Seriously Chango, it's no different. Stop whining and get moving. I apologize for the harshness but the woe is me, our generation has it bad attitude will get you nowhere. Learn everything you can about personal finance, don't buy into the BS, stop worrying that someone else has more than you. Be smart and start now.
Guess you didn't read my post... I was arguing for just about all those things.
The previous generations could get jobs that paid a living wage right out of high school. Now you need to spend years in college getting a degree that might just have you working minimum wage at Walmart.
The previous generations could get jobs that paid a living wage right out of high school. Now you need to spend years in college getting a degree that might just have you working minimum wage at Walmart.
A "living wage" is an ambiguous term.... I'd argue that it actually means you make enough money that you don't die of starvation or exposure to the elements. 80% of the people on this planet do that on less than 10 dollars a day!http://www.globalissues.org/article/...acts-and-stats
That makes 7 or 8 bucks an hour sound positively luxurious! Something I learned from living in the slums of South America was that those people have some seriously creative survival strategies... something Americans generally tend to not currently have in abundance. Our world tends to revolve around dollar bills and our ability to buy stuff with them in stores but that's not the only way to survive.
You see, it really all boils down to expectations. I'm not arguing that your average young adult wouldn't be more comfortable initially at home with their parents than striking out on their own... they won't be. But you can't learn to swim if you don't jump into the water and that's where I think the hangup is today. In the past, freedom from parents was worth almost any price to kids so there was a strong impetus to make the leap but that changed and kids just aren't feeling anxious to get out from under their parent's wings...
Hmm.....Theres a LOT of inter related things going on.
Higher school debt, lower income at the start, those two things alone are a lot more brutal to ones income then they sound like.
Greater wealth inequality matters as well, when the top 0.1% has as much wealth as the bottom 90% that bottom 90% has a harder time preparing their children, or winning the race.
Children moving out at younger ages also has a impact.
The previous generations could get jobs that paid a living wage right out of high school. Now you need to spend years in college getting a degree that might just have you working minimum wage at Walmart.
Except for factory workers at the big three (and, btw, getting hired by them, right out of HS, was rare and pure luck) I don't recall that.
The previous generations could get jobs that paid a living wage right out of high school. Now you need to spend years in college getting a degree that might just have you working minimum wage at Walmart.
Oh yea another point..... Subsidize ---> Boom ----> Bust
Meaning, anytime our government subsidizes something, it drives the price up (i.e. college) to the point where even the middle class can't afford it, and now you'll have huge debt. I think we are at Bust.
A "living wage" is an ambiguous term.... I'd argue that it actually means you make enough money that you don't die of starvation or exposure to the elements. 80% of the people on this planet do that on less than 10 dollars a day!Poverty Facts and Stats
To some people "a living wage" means food, housing, big screen tv, cell phone, bad ass car. I didn't even have that. I was lucky to have a microwave and I think someone forgot to paint my car too.. it was putty color and we had to crawl into the passenger side to get to the drivers side. Hey it was good... it got me to college, then work and back. We laughed about it.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
