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You make 70k or so which means you should be in that magical 20% if you have any discipline and longevity without taking into account any side businesses you may start. I'm really at a loss as to why you have such deep negativity in so many aspects of life
Me, too. I suspect it's residual trauma from a rough upbringing.
Another thing that will keep our generation from retiring as soon as our grandparents is our infatuation (like our parents) with consumerism. It wouldn't be that difficult for a 70 year old couple to pay off their home and cars over 40+ years and save a nest egg of 250-500k and live off of SS and an additional $10-20k/yr. problem is no one is willing to put aside the $1-200 a month to do that because they'd rather go out to eat every day or go shopping every weekend.
I agree with this to a large extent.
However, a majority or near majority are losing good paying employment in their 50s, so most people really won't have until age 70 to save. That said, if we would just give up the consumerism nonsense, I bet a majority could be at least semi-retired in their 50s.
I knew a gal who left her public 80k yr job with 2% PERS retirement to go help water habitat restoration in the PNW. I thought she was being short sighted but I didn't say anything negative. Some people follow their dreams without thinking things through. When she turns 55 I'm sure she'll have a few regrets If she doesn't already.
But everyone is different, I like job security with good benefits vs risk taking. The closer I get to retirement the better I feel about staying put.
If she was there for at least 5 years, she will at least get something starting at 55.
My personal plan for retirement is to leverage my house and then future houses. I was lucky to buy a place relatively cheap in a rapidly rising CoL area. After 3 years its rental value is already about 80% more than my mortgage payment. At the rate I overpay the mortgage it should be paid off in about 13 years. I'll be 46 at that point.
If by the grace of God my wife gets a job, we should be able to move up and out of the current house in 3-6 years, refi and rent out the current one which will bring in a couple hundred, then after a few years when paid off well more than $1K, probably like 1300 or who knows what given the market here.
My hope is to rinse and repeat with the next house. By retirement have at least 2 and preferably 4-5 rent houses bringing income in. At the very least I'll be keeping the house & renting it out even if we have to move because she can't find a job here. Although if we move I will then be in the situation she is.
I disagree that it's consumerism affecting millennials. I don't think they buy that much crap. At least their attachment to things seems to be less than boomers or silents. My parents have a FAR greater attachment to "stuff" than I do and my grandparents even more so - much of the "stuff" my parents have was handed down by their parents. They are quite perplexed that I'm not attached to it. I'm like, "I'll keep great-grandpa's rocking chair and sell all the rest" and they are genuinely shocked, almost enough to disinherit me lol.
The bigger problem is the rising tide of costs for them. It's a problem when a former GI could buy a house for $15K on a $5K salary - that same house now is $400K which is an impossible lift on a $50K salary.
Last edited by redguard57; 06-07-2016 at 12:46 AM..
Not having an attachment to stuff doesn't mean we aren't spending money like rabbits. I know very few people that bring their food to work. Many of my friends go out to eat with friends several nights a week and on weekends. The guy that buys the $500 tv once every few years and eats at home will come out far ahead of the person that eats out for 50-60% of their meals. Also, for millennials name brands with clothing seem to be a much bigger deal, which will cost a lot more than JCPenney or Kohl's clothes. I shop at JCPenney and gently used stores like Plato's closet and probably spend less than $500/yr on clothing and I work in a corporate setting. Most people I work with probably spend 5-10x that every year on clothes.
I also think unlike our parents generation we won't start out in quite as good of a non-debt laden financial situation so even if they were slightly more consumeristic that doesn't mean we can be slightly less and be as successful.
Guys I understand what you are saying, but every economic indicator for my Generation as a whole does not look good. You guys also didn't have to deal with massive student loan debt and an overall lack of job security where you HAD to keep changing jobs (most times by moving to different parts of the country) every 5 years or so. With that type of running around, when does someone buy a house?
I understand that this might sound negative, but every economic indicator for my Generation going forward is negative. What's positive? My Generation will not do anywhere NEAR as good as the Baby Boomers. Also, that 20% number that might have the luxury of "retiring", I want to change that. Put that number more around 10%. When you get a chance, check out this very good debate about my Generation:
I think that your ambitious peers have a chance to do even better than the ambitious among us Boomers. Those who buy into the "Millennials don't stand a chance" mentality are shooting their own feet and almost certainly guaranteeing their own failure.
The bigger problem is the rising tide of costs for them. It's a problem when a former GI could buy a house for $15K on a $5K salary - that same house now is $400K which is an impossible lift on a $50K salary.
Correct, you notice the people saying that we are too negative have listed out NO economic measurements to base their argument on? It's just blind optimism.
It's very similar to the video I posted, notice if you watch that the people arguing that Millennials Don't Stand A Chance are arguing based on data, stats, changing economic structures, the fact we were dealt a bad hand, etc. The people arguing that the future is "bright and sunny" are doing so based SOLELY on emotion, no data, stats, or anything to back up their blind optimism.
If you are a Millennial, you need to realize that you aren't going to be able to live the life that your Baby Boomer parents or grandparents did. We are going to have to mainly embrace Minimalism, delay starting families, work multiple gigs, and use debt to get to a "somewhat stable" field, I can't even say an "even field".
Again, these are based on data, stats, facts and other economic measurements. My Generation is the screwed Generation.
My personal plan for retirement is to leverage my house and then future houses. I was lucky to buy a place relatively cheap in a rapidly rising CoL area. After 3 years its rental value is already about 80% more than my mortgage payment. At the rate I overpay the mortgage it should be paid off in about 13 years. I'll be 46 at that point.
If by the grace of God my wife gets a job, we should be able to move up and out of the current house in 3-6 years, refi and rent out the current one which will bring in a couple hundred, then after a few years when paid off well more than $1K, probably like 1300 or who knows what given the market here.
My hope is to rinse and repeat with the next house. By retirement have at least 2 and preferably 4-5 rent houses bringing income in. At the very least I'll be keeping the house & renting it out even if we have to move because she can't find a job here. Although if we move I will then be in the situation she is.
I disagree that it's consumerism affecting millennials. I don't think they buy that much crap. At least their attachment to things seems to be less than boomers or silents. My parents have a FAR greater attachment to "stuff" than I do and my grandparents even more so - much of the "stuff" my parents have was handed down by their parents. They are quite perplexed that I'm not attached to it. I'm like, "I'll keep great-grandpa's rocking chair and sell all the rest" and they are genuinely shocked, almost enough to disinherit me lol.
The bigger problem is the rising tide of costs for them. It's a problem when a former GI could buy a house for $15K on a $5K salary - that same house now is $400K which is an impossible lift on a $50K salary.
Comsumerism is a lot less about being sentimental about papa's rocking chair and more about the latest smart phone, tablet, BMW etc.
Additional you can find houses in my metro area for 150k so that 50k would be in line with the same ratio of 15/5. Not only that but the house that you would buy now would be more than likely 1.5-2 times this size of the 15k one and have 2x or more bathrooms as well. The comparisons get skewed when you aren't comparing apples to oranges.
Lastly those who complain about how hard Millennials have it and other generations had it great miss the fact that every generation has had its challanges and it's not nearly as one sided as you believe it to be because your challanges are yours and those older people had aren't relevant to you
even here in nyc you can buy co-ops in that range 150k or so , in very nice areas . my daughter bought one 2 years ago . the one we are looking in to is 300k which is a fair price when homes in the area start at 800k and run millions
The bigger problem is the rising tide of costs for them. It's a problem when a former GI could buy a house for $15K on a $5K salary - that same house now is $400K which is an impossible lift on a $50K salary.
I think that largely depends on where you are. If you want to live in some of the most expensive cities in the US, sure. Where I live you can still get a nice house for $150-200k. Same for where I grew up.
But then again, were military vets earning $5k/yr (which is the equivalent of about $65k/yr in purchasing power) buying homes in Manhattan or the equivalent for $15k?
Quote:
Originally Posted by jotucker99
Correct, you notice the people saying that we are too negative have listed out NO economic measurements to base their argument on? It's just blind optimism.
It's very similar to the video I posted, notice if you watch that the people arguing that Millennials Don't Stand A Chance are arguing based on data, stats, changing economic structures, the fact we were dealt a bad hand, etc. The people arguing that the future is "bright and sunny" are doing so based SOLELY on emotion, no data, stats, or anything to back up their blind optimism.
If you are a Millennial, you need to realize that you aren't going to be able to live the life that your Baby Boomer parents or grandparents did. We are going to have to mainly embrace Minimalism, delay starting families, work multiple gigs, and use debt to get to a "somewhat stable" field, I can't even say an "even field".
Again, these are based on data, stats, facts and other economic measurements. My Generation is the screwed Generation.
Embracing minimalism, man that sounds terrible. Wow, our life will be so much worse because we can't buy all kinds of cr@p and spend frivolously. Everyone knows buying all kinds of stuff = the happy life. We can all see how happy the baby boomer generation is, with that insane divorce rate, lack of retirement funding, etc. Sure looks like not embracing minimalism was successful.
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