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I was talking to my husband how Gen X could have it the crappiest. We are sandwiched between bigger generations and if the next recession and stock market drop is bad we're not going to have as much time to recover as younger generations. Added to this will/would be the unfortunate timing when the Boomers are the most burdensome on the government. Taxes will have to go up, probably substantially. Gen X is going to run down on time soon, especially the older ones whom are now in or near their early 50's.
But then my husband reminded me of the older millennials, like yourself it seems, that didn't get a good start. They may have a little more time in the end, but that probably totally gets wiped away from the late/never start (e.g. compounding interest).
I'm 32. I graduated in 2010, and didn't get my first "career track" job until I was 27, two months from being 28. I've steadily advanced since then, and will be 33 in April. Most of the people I know who had slow starts recovered, but some never really did and are still getting by on part-time work, gigs, and other things outside of the full-time labor force. I've had nearly four years of mostly low wage, junk jobs, and now a little over four years of decent work. I also had a "good job" for six months that I would likely have been fired from if I hadn't been able to exit when I did.
With that said, today I'm about where I thought I'd be if someone would have asked me "where do you see yourself in five years?" when I was 22.
The market can drop at any time, and that's nothing in any individual's direct control. If it screws up retirement plans, you can either go ahead and retire with the reduced assets, or try to wait it out.
A lot of us older Millennials missed out on the huge market run-up. That's where the opportunity cost is.
I feel bad saying it, but 2008 was actually good to me. Of course at the time I was worried crazy but looking back I was very fortunate.
I was 27 in 2008. No serious debt and had a decent savings account. I had just finished paying off my school loans and was just focused on work and socking money away. I was renting at the time. I didn't lose my job but didn't get a raise for a year or two. Reality was I was doing pretty well compared to many others.
So, I threw a good chunk of money at the stock market in 2009/2010 buying up stock that, in my opinion, was oversold. Made a good profit, sold some stock off and later bough foreclosed property with that. I then later sold that property for a heavy profit and then bought my current home which has also enjoyed a nice run-up in equity.
I probably wouldn't be doing as well as I am if the 2008 recession didn't present the opportunities it did for me. And if we get another recession soon, I know exactly what I would do again.
Quote:
Originally Posted by CaptainNJ
what is the oldest year where someone is considered a millennial?
Depends on who you talk to, '81 or '82 tends to be the cutoff year most quote. I was born in '81 and have no idea if i'm a millennial or not.
Last edited by BostonMike7; 11-08-2018 at 10:58 AM..
It seems like demographers have finally settled on 1980, but various researchers and more widely known social commentators and publications have used start dates from the late 70's through early 80's (mostly 1978-1984). I was born on the extreme end of 1978 (mom's due date was in 1979) and I don't feel like a millennial. There many Gen X things I was a little too young to fully absorb (like the brat pack), but still very influenced by 80's pop culture, music and media. Goonies. Cabbage Patch. Coke commercials. Debbie Gibson, Madonna, Paula Abdul, Fine Young Cannon Balls, Michael Jackson, Erasure, Boy George, Sting, Guns and Roses.
Mile high bangs.
Crap, I really could go on all day.
I've heard people born between 1977-1982 referred to as Xennials, which I think is pretty cool. I had a cell phone and high speed internet in college whereas my pure Gex X sister did not.
Last edited by flyingsaucermom; 11-08-2018 at 01:52 PM..
Some of these stories here are heartbreaking. We didn't tank in 2008 but that might have been because we had a couple big projects going from before that which took a while to finish. The end of 2009 we realized the big work was done and there was nothing more in the pipeline coming. We let employees go. We lost all of our accumulated business working capitol.
Our area was VERY depressed. We had a house we were trying to sell and nothing was moving. Nothing. So we ended up keeping that for 6 years till things picked up. Business hasn't really picked up until early 2018. The hard part is we are Baby Boomers and trying hard to accumulate something for retirement. It was scary to go down at the end of our working life. That caused us to work several years past when we would have quit.
We have bounced back, but that didn't happen till the last few years.
Around here, with real estate gone and everything in foreclosure and most of our friends who were in any sort of trade out of business, people did anything and everything to make ends meet. Just oodles of people ran around the neighborhood with a lawn mower and trimmer in their trunk to make a little money. If that is the sort of work the OP is doing, that's an easy field for anybody and everybody to go into during a down time.
The kind of work we were doing was also fair game for anybody too and we suddenly had lots of competition in a field we had very little before. Just something to think about.
We were always frugal, but now we are uber frugal. It stresses me out to spend money on luxuries. I don't think I'll ever outgrow that.
Some measures never recovered. Many of those who dropped out of the labor force then never reentered it. If you were a blue collar guy 50-60 then, it was almost impossible to find anything. I know some people in that boat. Some raided their retirement savings. Others went on disability. I have a couple of high school and college peers who never got a career track job then. By the time things recovered a bit, there was a new crop of new graduates. Some of those folks never got a career job and are still kind of on the periphery of the labor force.
Yes, there's definitely that.
And then there's all the government debt we created and are still creating. The deficit never got down to a manageable level and now it's getting worse again. It wouldn't take that much for us to end up like the next Japan or the next Greece.
It seems like demographers have finally settled on 1980, but various researchers and more widely known social commentators and publications have used start dates from the late 70's through early 80's (mostly 1978-1984). I was born on the extreme end of 1978 (mom's due date was in 1979) and I don't feel like a millennial. There many Gen X things I was a little too young to fully absorb (like the brat pack), but still very influenced by 80's pop culture, music and media. Goonies. Cabbage Patch. Coke commercials. Debbie Gibson, Madonna, Paula Abdul, Fine Young Cannon Balls, Michael Jackson, Erasure, Boy George, Sting, Guns and Roses.
Mile high bangs.
Crap, I really could go on all day.
I've heard people born between 1977-1982 referred to as Xennials, which I think is pretty cool. I had a cell phone and high speed internet in college whereas my pure Gex X sister did not.
FYI, that's Fine Young Cannibals. That one hit wonder of theirs always drove me crazy.
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