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.
$100k is a lot of loot. Are they referring to all investments and assets?
The most I've had in savings was around $25k after I sold my condo. Then I sunk $10k of that into a car. So now I'm hovering around $13-$14k and growing. I couldn't imagine having $100k saved up just in savings, not including retirement funds, at my age or even five years from now.
$100k is a lot of loot. Are they referring to all investments and assets?
To take this backwards, probably. "Savings" is a lazy term for all money put somewhere, not a passbook account down at First National.
But no, $100k is not a lot - it's a bit impressive, but if you start a career at 25 and have reasonable economic sense, putting away $50k or so in direct contributions and then adding a little equity, investment growth, employer contributions, the odd lottery ticket etc., having $100k in "savings" by 35 isn't all that unusual.
And yes, I'd say 95% of that 16% is at the very elder end of "Millennial." It's the new grads with their finger up their nose and a beer in their hand pulling down the average.
$100k is a lot of loot. Are they referring to all investments and assets?
The most I've had in savings was around $25k after I sold my condo. Then I sunk $10k of that into a car. So now I'm hovering around $13-$14k and growing. I couldn't imagine having $100k saved up just in savings, not including retirement funds, at my age or even five years from now.
They're probably talking net worth.
I'm from northeast TN. I'm 31, and some of my college buddies moved to Nashville after graduation, and bought homes. Some of them have had well over $100,000 just in equity gains alone, and that's nothing more than dumb luck with being in the right place at the right time. One guy I used to work out with is a pharmacist. He bought a house in east Nashville before the boom, sold it, and bought a much nicer house in an affluent suburb of Knoxville in cash.
When you start talking home equity and professional couples, a $100k household net worth is not at all unreasonable.
I'm from northeast TN. I'm 31, and some of my college buddies moved to Nashville after graduation, and bought homes. Some of them have had well over $100,000 just in equity gains alone, and that's nothing more than dumb luck with being in the right place at the right time. One guy I used to work out with is a pharmacist. He bought a house in east Nashville before the boom, sold it, and bought a much nicer house in an affluent suburb of Knoxville in cash.
When you start talking home equity and professional couples, a $100k household net worth is not at all unreasonable.
It's no joke. When I sold my previous home last summer in Denver, I ended up with around $60k in equity after just two years.
To take this backwards, probably. "Savings" is a lazy term for all money put somewhere, not a passbook account down at First National.
But no, $100k is not a lot - it's a bit impressive, but if you start a career at 25 and have reasonable economic sense, putting away $50k or so in direct contributions and then adding a little equity, investment growth, employer contributions, the odd lottery ticket etc., having $100k in "savings" by 35 isn't all that unusual.
And yes, I'd say 95% of that 16% is at the very elder end of "Millennial." It's the new grads with their finger up their nose and a beer in their hand pulling down the average.
Okay, that makes a little more sense. I started saving a little later in life due to financial constraints early in my career (I graduated during the Great Recession of 2008), but I have seen considerable gains in my investments/assets in the time I've been invested.
1) "millenials say"... They could be lying. Where was this poll taken? NYC financial district? If you told me 1 in 50 millennials had more than $50k I'd be shocked, I simply do not believe it.
2) How much debt do they have, maybe they put their student loans in forbearance planning on forgiveness only to give it all up to uncle sam one day. They could be $20,000 in credit card debt and $180,000 in student loan debt and just unwilling to give up their cash.
3) Parents.. Is it that crazy to think 1 in 6 kids of the "everyone gets a trophy" era didn't have their parent's put money away in investments every birthday. Pay for their student loans, pay for their car, pay for the downpayment on their house so all they have to do is put money away?
I'm not totally buying that number. I'm a millennial by definition. I'm extremely money savvy, I pay off extra debt, have less than $15k on mine and my wife's student loans. Own 2 cars and a truck with just 1 car payment of $280. Own lots of tangible investments that I pickup cheap and flip for extra capital, Max mine and my wife's IRA every year, My wife has a state pension, and we are frugal. We also own our home... Between all of that we maybe have a net worth of $200k-$250k. But we also have very little debt. I know plenty of people my age.. the only person doing better than me was handed everything in life by his rich daddy including his career.
It's not hard to believe. I don't know your age, but we hit $100K in savings back in November at the age of 32. We now have over $120K saved. I even feel we are behind sometimes compared to other peers, but then ahead in some ways.
We are debt-free. We paid it all off a few years ago.
Our parents aren't involved in our finances. My parents give all their money to my younger Millennial sister (I moved out at 19 and began supporting myself) and my husband's parents don't have any money to give. We've done it all on our own.
We are just two adults that work hard and keep our fixed living expenses low. He's in the military, I do accounting (non-CPA). We have $80K+ in retirement and around $40K saved in the bank. We would have more in retirement, but I haven't had access to a 401K in over 5 years, so I just contribute to a Roth. We reduced my husband's retirement contributions while we were paying off debt a few years ago, so we just started getting aggressive with his contributions over the last two years or so.
But, we aren't home owners, so we don't have home equity to add value to our net worth, so all of our net worth is tied to our savings assets. Since my husband is in the military, we don't wish to own homes in places we won't be staying after he retires, so we rent.
It's not hard to believe. I don't know your age, but we hit $100K in savings back in November at the age of 32. We now have over $120K saved. I even feel we are behind sometimes compared to other peers, but then ahead in some ways.
We are debt-free. We paid it all off a few years ago.
Our parents aren't involved in our finances. My parents give all their money to my younger Millennial sister (I moved out at 19 and began supporting myself) and my husband's parents don't have any money to give. We've done it all on our own.
We are just two adults that work hard and keep our fixed living expenses low. He's in the military, I do accounting (non-CPA). We have $80K+ in retirement and around $40K saved in the bank. We would have more in retirement, but I haven't had access to a 401K in over 5 years, so I just contribute to a Roth. We reduced my husband's retirement contributions while we were paying off debt a few years ago, so we just started getting aggressive with his contributions over the last two years or so.
But, we aren't home owners, so we don't have home equity to add value to our net worth, so all of our net worth is tied to our savings assets. Since my husband is in the military, we don't wish to own homes in places we won't be staying after he retires, so we rent.
Many feel behind behind those ahead of them.
I have little in cash, a condo with substantial equity, and a roth that's behind schedule.
I'm a single mid-20s (skewing late 20s) guy that gets concerned about the market even though I shouldn't.
A generation is 19 years. The media often seems surprised that we Millennials have been growing up. The recession took its toll on us but that's years behind us now.
What makes it not that hard to believe is that the oldest millennials are 37 (the January and February 1980 babies are 38) if we define their starting birth year as 1980.
Some of them have had good jobs for 10-15 years, have been putting some of their paycheck in to 401ks, etc... Not all of them were un or underemployed... some would have started working their career-type jobs as early as 2003. Many of them have been married for a similar timeframe with two incomes and 401k contributions. Others have that and/or their parents/grandparents have died and passed on their estates.
Case in point: I'm 35. I only started working at my career in earnest when I was 27, so I was a bit late to the party. People that started at age 22 or so are doing better in terms of raises, 401k, etc... Nevertheless, about 3 years in (age 29-30) I started to make decent raises. After 5-6 years in (age 32-33), better raises still. I got married and my wife brought income into the picture, she is only 2.5 years into her career and just got her first decent raise a few months ago.
Both my wife's grandfather and my father passed away in the last 5 years, passing on some of their estates to us. I bought my first house in 2014 and it more than doubled in value; we sold it last year. Add all that together and our net worth has exponentially improved in the last ~5 years.
I was always somewhat fiscally prudent, so I was never in bad debt, but for a few years in my 20s I had near-zero or negative net worth due to student loans and/or car debt. But we don't stay in our 20s forever. The media acts like we do.
Hopefully another recession doesn't come and blank everything out.
Many in the media like to think of Millennials are <25, fresh out of college kids. That's just not accurate and the economy has improved. In 2010, I think the stereotypes had a lot more merit.
Many in the media like to think of Millennials are <25, fresh out of college kids. That's just not accurate and the economy has improved. In 2010, I think the stereotypes had a lot more merit.
"Those Damn Kids!" has been given a fresh coat of paint about every ten years since... Narmer.
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.
