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In our cases........adjusted for inflation our daughter made more than my wife or me first year out of college. Recently she went off to medical school so her income is now zero. My wife and I are paying so she'll have no debt.
Our son makes a shade more than my wife and a shade less than I did adjusted for inflation. His longer term earnings picture is very bright. He's an MD surgical resident with no debt either - the wife and I paid.
My son's wife is also an MD resident she has ~$160,000 in debt - had to finance undergrad and much of medical school. Her earnings prospects are exceptional, however.
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On the other hand I have a niece, she and her husband - both around 30 - both with chiropractor's licenses, neither works as a chiro and between them they have not quite $450,000 in debt. Both have expensive undergrads, expensive masters degrees and expensive chiro degrees.
Played golf with a buddy this weekend, his 31 yr old son is working/owns a home/married.....so he has a good start but he never finished more than 1 yr of college, has a job that could evaporate in a recession and they are drowning in credit card debt. Kid acknowledges they are "in deep" but my buddy hopes it isn't more than 20-25K. The level of spending likely put them in double that guesstimate. No savings and the potential for an upcoming child puts this millenial squarely in the trouble zone.
IF they sold their home right now they might be able to erase the debt or atleast a good portion of it but then they have no cash to buy another home.
The massive amount of credit card debt is completely different.
I have a former coworker like this. Her and her husband at the time spent like crazy. They were probably $120k HHI in Indiana, but she mentioned they had around $55,000 in CC debt. They divorced and she's kept going. She makes around $90k now, but the job is not local and she lives in a low cost area of a different state.
She had been posting pictures of her new, custom home as it was being built on Facebook. She actually had a large inheritance that was earmarked for a home.
If she has the slightest disruption, she's in big trouble in a lot of places.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Katie the heartbreaker
This forum does not reflect the general population of the United States. The demographics have been posted before which showed that the average city data member is much more educated and makes a substantially higher income than the average United States citizen. The article is correct, for the general population that is.
Absolutely. I don't know people sometimes don't understand or acknowledge this.
Location: Unlike most on CD, I'm not afraid to give my location: Milwaukee, WI.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JGMotorsport64
It's also why so many of us, even my white collared high earning capacity peers, have foregone having children. Simply not sustainable to have them.
Sounds like as good an excuse as any.
Amazing how I did it as a soldier, mechanic, then factory worker never making more than 62K a year at my peak. And wife didn't work for years, and then only worked part-time for usually about 3-5K a year.
I submit to you that most high-earning couples that forego having kids are doing so more for selfish reasons than economics. I've heard and seen it all many times. They gotta travel, have the expensive house, 2 newer SUVs, etc.
i don't pay much attention to any article that talks in terms of straw people .. all my opinions are based on those i personally know . there is nothing in these articles that is my worry .. some may be a concern but nothing is my worry unless it relates to those i worry about . a concern is not a worry
To this point keep several things in mind re. Lowrey.
1). The Atlantic is a pot stirring left-wing apparatus with the occasional really excellent apolitical piece. It's good that she's honest enough to divulge her democrat status.
2). Lowrey has a degree in English with apparently zero education in economics.
Lowrey is a gifted writer. But always be leery of analysis derived from an author's opinion, stated as fact that becomes the/a thesis statement.
This forum does not reflect the general population of the United States. The demographics have been posted before which showed that the average city data member is much more educated and makes a substantially higher income than the average United States citizen. The article is correct, for the general population that is.
It seems to me that the average post in the economics forums on city data is way more doom and gloom than what the general population represents.
Amazing how I did it as a soldier, mechanic, then factory worker never making more than 62K a year at my peak. And wife didn't work for years, and then only worked part-time for usually about 3-5K a year.
I submit to you that most high-earning couples that forego having kids are doing so more for selfish reasons than economics. I've heard and seen it all many times. They gotta travel, have the expensive house, 2 newer SUVs, etc.
You’re comparing income without adjusting for inflation and debt but more power to them. As a military member you get benefits that you should acknowledge in fairness. I’d submit to you that 62k back in the 70-90s yielded a higher quality of life than 100-130 does today, especially if you went to college and financed it.
Amazing how I did it as a soldier, mechanic, then factory worker never making more than 62K a year at my peak. And wife didn't work for years, and then only worked part-time for usually about 3-5K a year.
I submit to you that most high-earning couples that forego having kids are doing so more for selfish reasons than economics. I've heard and seen it all many times. They gotta travel, have the expensive house, 2 newer SUVs, etc.
I realize you highlighted "most" and didn't say all, but I am not sure I agree that childless couples are primarily motivated by selfish reasons. I see many young people struggling to make the decision when to have a child at the same time they are trying to rise in the ranks at work, often changing jobs and moving to new cities. We tell women to go for these big careers, but it puts them in the middle of many competing forces and while they are trying to figure it all out, time slips by, they get older, and it becomes harder or impossible to conceive. Childbirth is still a career negative for women in many companies. It shouldn't be, but it is.
I realize you highlighted "most" and didn't say all, but I am not sure I agree that childless couples are primarily motivated by selfish reasons. I see many young people struggling to make the decision when to have a child at the same time they are trying to rise in the ranks at work, often changing jobs and moving to new cities. We tell women to go for these big careers, but it puts them in the middle of many competing forces and while they are trying to figure it all out, time slips by, they get older, and it becomes harder or impossible to conceive. Childbirth is still a career negative for women in many companies. It shouldn't be, but it is.
A high school classmate of mine is going through this right now.
She's 33 or 34, and started community college at 27-28 while newly single after working low end jobs and having been in a relationship most of her life. She graduated either last year or in 2017 with a useless degree, and is working as a flight attendant. She's seeing the world, but posted on Facebook about how she wants to get married and have children. I don't want to say it's "passed her by," but at 33/34, the biological clock is ticking.
Typical generational warfare type article filled with poor assumptions, and parroting cherry-picked statistics to "prove" it's hypothesis.
Pretty much.
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