Question to all millennials ? (New York, York: low income, transplants, apartment)
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How have you acclimated to life in New York?
Do you find it expensive living here or are you getting by?
Are you satisfied with your line of work and rate of pay?
Do you pay rent or own your own home?
Do you plan on staying or leaving ?
There's a ton of questions I have left out but would prefer to hear from you.
I am trying to understand if millenials ( homebred or transplants ) are experiencing a good or bad time as a New Yorker.
Curious minds would like to know.
How have you acclimated to life in New York?
Do you find it expensive living here or are you getting by?
Are you satisfied with your line of work and rate of pay?
Do you pay rent or own your own home?
Do you plan on staying or leaving ?
There's a ton of questions I have left out but would prefer to hear from you.
I am trying to understand if millenials ( homebred or transplants ) are experiencing a good or bad time as a New Yorker.
Curious minds would like to know.
Acclimated? Born and raised here.
Expensive? Yes, but in my opinion I save a ton of money without hurting. I have a car, I travel, etc. I don't have any debt aside from my mortgage. Honestly, because I grew up low income, I feel pretty comfortable. Though if someone else came on the message board and asked, "Is this enough money in NYC?" Most people would tell the person no.
Satisfied? I will never be. My pay isn't terrible, IMO, but I'll never be satisfied. But that's on me because I'll never figure out what I want to do when I grow up. Neither my husband nor I make six figures individually and he is underpaid. He's having a tough time getting another job. I could get a new job whenever I want because I am a licensed professional in a field with a shortage. I actually have a second job, not really because I need it, but I figured for the time being I will do it for the extra money just because.
Home? I own a coop. I want to sell it this year and buy a house. I am basically shoving money in my savings every month to put a sizeable d/p on the table. Unlike what most people seem to believe, these millenials (my husband and I) have made it without any type of assistance from our broke families. LOL. As much as I dislike living in an apartment, getting this place was probably the smartest move I made. My mortgage and maintenance are FAR less than renting a similar apartment would be (bought it from a desperate seller) and over the course of five years, it seems I should be able to sell it for about double of what I paid.
Should I stay or should I go? We go back and forth on this all of the time. I don't really want to stay. I want warmer weather. I'm over being surrounded my millions of people. I'm kind of over NYC. I'm over all of the empty storefronts. I'm over my fifty-five minute commute taking an hour and a half because the train sucks. But where to go...
As an early 30s Millennial born and raised here that went to out of state school, I will say most of my cohorts that went to in state schools are paycheck to paycheck. 99% are renting. The bare minimum is 500-600k to buy. Even my retired mother with pension and 401b deferred comp etc. from the city can't buy now. About 50% have kids and are struggling. Same or worse quality of life as their parents. This is due to long hours, expensive child care, student loans, low wages and exorbitant rents. Things are not that much better outside of NYC. Friends living in Austin TX are seeing rising rents with stagnant wages as well as volatile employment situations (plus you know Texas practically never gives Unemployment benefits)
Younger Millennials aged 25-30 there's a large divergence. You have about 50% that are doing modestly well and 50% who are severely underemployed and have very poor future prospects. I am mentoring one of them. 26 living at home, same alma mater just got laid off. 6 months later after 50 callbacks and 25+ interviews still nothing. Reasons run the gambit but 75% of the time they did not go with another external candidate. So we know it's BS. He's doing everything right has a better GPA, references and experience than I did at his age during the recession. Yet harder for them to get jobs. The system is increasingly dysfunctional and collapsing.
It's hard to see the real conditions unless you know them personally because everyone "stunts for the gram" it's all smiles and vacations on social media. In reality it's 30k rinky dink admin level jobs, 30k student loans 3k in credit card debt and 3 roommates.
Across the board I'd say anyone aged 25-35 today is nowhere near as stable as previous generations nor what economists forecasted. Doors are closing for opportunities on all sides. Conditions for SMB entrepreneurs are horrible, it's almost impossible for young people to get good paying jobs even with experience and government shutdown aside, public service jobs are worse than ever with all the bureaucracy, politics and low pay along with worsening pension schemes at the city, state levels. Odds of getting a good Fed job are slim to none no matter your qualifications without connections.
Also due to the increased divergence we now have two Americas. Those who got lucky, or are well connected. And those who are less fortunate. The former cannot fathom the plight of the latter and believe the economy is good and that the latter is lazy and incompetent.
The media has done a fantastic job at continuing this dichotomy especially between generations. Boomers have no idea how much their aggregated decisions have negatively impacted their children and grandchildren.
My parents are Gen X, so they raised me with extra vigilance because they were already feeling the pain of poor Boomer voting and policy decisions in the early 80s. As a result I am doing better than most of my peers. My peers who have young Boomers as parents are doing horribly. All that "free love" is incompatible with free market capitalism.
The next few years will bring back some memories for many Boomers. It will be the 70s all over again minus the lines and fights at the gas pump. I cannot leave NYC until I retire. Most lucrative opportunities for my industry/specialty is here. I will plan on leaving after retiring abroad at age 50 ( when I'll be pushed out due to age discrimination) to manage what will then be my fully operational business in Malaysia.
Expensive? Yes, but in my opinion I save a ton of money without hurting. I have a car, I travel, etc. I don't have any debt aside from my mortgage. Honestly, because I grew up low income, I feel pretty comfortable. Though if someone else came on the message board and asked, "Is this enough money in NYC?" Most people would tell the person no.
Satisfied? I will never be. My pay isn't terrible, IMO, but I'll never be satisfied. But that's on me because I'll never figure out what I want to do when I grow up. Neither my husband nor I make six figures individually and he is underpaid. He's having a tough time getting another job. I could get a new job whenever I want because I am a licensed professional in a field with a shortage. I actually have a second job, not really because I need it, but I figured for the time being I will do it for the extra money just because.
Home? I own a coop. I want to sell it this year and buy a house. I am basically shoving money in my savings every month to put a sizeable d/p on the table. Unlike what most people seem to believe, these millenials (my husband and I) have made it without any type of assistance from our broke families. LOL. As much as I dislike living in an apartment, getting this place was probably the smartest move I made. My mortgage and maintenance are FAR less than renting a similar apartment would be (bought it from a desperate seller) and over the course of five years, it seems I should be able to sell it for about double of what I paid.
Should I stay or should I go? We go back and forth on this all of the time. I don't really want to stay. I want warmer weather. I'm over being surrounded my millions of people. I'm kind of over NYC. I'm over all of the empty storefronts. I'm over my fifty-five minute commute taking an hour and a half because the train sucks. But where to go...
May God continually Bless your hard working family.
I will extend a special prayer for what it's worth that
your husband find employment soon.
As an early 30s Millennial born and raised here that went to out of state school, I will say most of my cohorts that went to in state schools are paycheck to paycheck. 99% are renting. The bare minimum is 500-600k to buy. Even my retired mother with pension and 401b deferred comp etc. from the city can't buy now. About 50% have kids and are struggling. Same or worse quality of life as their parents. This is due to long hours, expensive child care, student loans, low wages and exorbitant rents. Things are not that much better outside of NYC. Friends living in Austin TX are seeing rising rents with stagnant wages as well as volatile employment situations (plus you know Texas practically never gives Unemployment benefits)
Younger Millennials aged 25-30 there's a large divergence. You have about 50% that are doing modestly well and 50% who are severely underemployed and have very poor future prospects. I am mentoring one of them. 26 living at home, same alma mater just got laid off. 6 months later after 50 callbacks and 25+ interviews still nothing. Reasons run the gambit but 75% of the time they did not go with another external candidate. So we know it's BS. He's doing everything right has a better GPA, references and experience than I did at his age during the recession. Yet harder for them to get jobs. The system is increasingly dysfunctional and collapsing.
It's hard to see the real conditions unless you know them personally because everyone "stunts for the gram" it's all smiles and vacations on social media. In reality it's 30k rinky dink admin level jobs, 30k student loans 3k in credit card debt and 3 roommates.
Across the board I'd say anyone aged 25-35 today is nowhere near as stable as previous generations nor what economists forecasted. Doors are closing for opportunities on all sides. Conditions for SMB entrepreneurs are horrible, it's almost impossible for young people to get good paying jobs even with experience and government shutdown aside, public service jobs are worse than ever with all the bureaucracy, politics and low pay along with worsening pension schemes at the city, state levels. Odds of getting a good Fed job are slim to none no matter your qualifications without connections.
Also due to the increased divergence we now have two Americas. Those who got lucky, or are well connected. And those who are less fortunate. The former cannot fathom the plight of the latter and believe the economy is good and that the latter is lazy and incompetent.
The media has done a fantastic job at continuing this dichotomy especially between generations. Boomers have no idea how much their aggregated decisions have negatively impacted their children and grandchildren.
My parents are Gen X, so they raised me with extra vigilance because they were already feeling the pain of poor Boomer voting and policy decisions in the early 80s. As a result I am doing better than most of my peers. My peers who have young Boomers as parents are doing horribly. All that "free love" is incompatible with free market capitalism.
The next few years will bring back some memories for many Boomers. It will be the 70s all over again minus the lines and fights at the gas pump. I cannot leave NYC until I retire. Most lucrative opportunities for my industry/specialty is here. I will plan on leaving after retiring abroad at age 50 ( when I'll be pushed out due to age discrimination) to manage what will then be my fully operational business in Malaysia.
I will say a special prayer for your concerted effort in helping someone in need.
Your parent have raised a fine young person.
May God Bless you always.
Despite the BS this is is one of the most interesting times to be alive on this planet
The Internet always wins
Interesting? Agreed...
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