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I came here to confess that I am within that age range and live with my parents currently. Let me tell you my story...
I moved out and went to college at age 18 and graduated after 4 years with a bachelor's degree. During my time in college I was always on the dean's list and also earned a scholarship all 4 years that covered my tuition and housing. I graduated with zero debt.
After graduation, I got a job in my career field within a month and began working steadily. I moved into my first apartment right away in NYC and lived there for nearly 3 years, and paid for it entirely by myself. But, I was just scraping by. I wasn't able to save any money on my salary living in such an expensive city. So, after 3 years, I moved back in with the parents. About a year into living at home, I had a medical problem that put me in the hospital for a week and a half and I could have died if I didn't make it to the hospital when I did. The surgery I had as well as the hospital stay for a week and a half left me with a huge medical bill that I proceeded to pay off for the next year and a half. Luckily, I had health insurance, otherwise I would probably be paying off that medical bill for 10+ years. If I hadn't been living at home when this happened, I wouldn't be able to afford the medical bill and rent, especially since I was out of work for 2 months to recover after the surgery and wasn't paid during that time. I am grateful that I was living with my parents at the time so I didn't have to stress about affording things like rent during my recovery. It was really a blessing!
It's been about 2 years now since my surgery and now that the medical bill is paid off, I am finally able to start saving money. It's true that I could live on my own if I wanted to. But my career (film production) is really confined to two of the most expensive areas of the country: NYC and LA. It's very hard to save money in these cities. So my plan is to save for a few years, then be able to afford to buy a home somewhere.
Me too.
I had roommates.
I did not have a car, a phone or TV. The PC had not been invented.
I did not have credit cards and lived within my means.
I lived on canned vegetables and cereal. That some day, people would wait in line for a $5 cup of jazzed up coffee was unimaginable.
I avoided lousy choices.
I used my employer's tuition reimbursement program to attend school.
I hate to use the term "times are different" but...
I'm 26 and work in digital marketing/PR. Since I began my career right out of college, my employers have expected me to be reachable at any hour of the day, have high speed internet access that allows me to use VPN, and have texting and a data plan. My employer does not and will not pay for internet or phone plans. While my current role provided me with a laptop, previous roles did not (though I was expected to have computer access at home). I am not provided with a smart phone, but am expected to have one for work purposes.
And this is NORMAL. One of my roommates works in a completely different field where he has similar expectations. We each spend at least $100 on internet and phone bills a month, and get off cheap because we're able to stay on family plans and split the internet 3 ways. It's still pricy.
Meanwhile, when my dad first got the internet in the house in the late 90s, his work paid for it. They bought his palm-pilot. They paid for a 2nd phone line to be installed for dial-up. I don't know if that was universal, but that same company today EXPECTS its workers to have all of the bells and whistles on their own dime.
I had similar expectations in UNPAID INTERNSHIPS when I was a college student in 2006-2010. Sure, I didn't need a smart phone because those were not common, but I was expected to be able to text with my bosses and have internet at home.
In the region where I live, people have roommates until they're in their 30s, even with well-paid jobs. Most of us would rather be able to live at home and pay our parents rent rather than landlords in ill-maintained apartments.
I have quite a few friends who ended up moving back with their parents. Some in their 30's.
The problem is, especially in big cities, is that wages haven't kept up with the cost of living. Add to that student loan debt and its difficult for people to become self-sufficient like they were a decade or two ago.
There's nothing wrong with staying at home to be thrifty.
One could look at how often young people move out from home and say it's a culture of rampant consumerism where people chase expensive ideals (an apartment, a car, $10,000 engagement rings) in order to feel worthwhile as some kind of "adult". This ideal is pretty evident by some of the posts in this thread.
Are people choosing to live with mom for thrift OR are they forced to live with mom, because they can't afford to be independent, due to a lack of a poor economy, a college degree that is not conducive to getting a high paying job, etc...
I have quite a few friends who ended up moving back with their parents. Some in their 30's.
The problem is, especially in big cities, is that wages haven't kept up with the cost of living. Add to that student loan debt and its difficult for people to become self-sufficient like they were a decade or two ago.
Totally agree with the cost of living statement. I live/work in a very expensive area, and could afford to live on my own, but I'd be scraping by. It would leave absolutely no room for saving money to eventually move out of that apartment and buy my own place.
Nothing if you don't mind nesting, lack of privacy and your parents don't mind. Me I couldn't wait to leave the nest and be on my own. I left a month after HS and never went back to live.
I thought the reason people had kids was to have someone to take care of them in their old age?
Student loan debt has to be changed to be dischargable in bankruptcy. This bubble is no different than the housing bubble. Banks giving out endless loans and young adults taking them because they believe they are investing in something that can't lose value.
Our financial system was fixed a lot under Obama's administration, but the student loan crisis is something that won't go away and there is no easy solution for it. Good jobs are hard to find in this economy and it is impossible to pay loans down.
I think of my own job crisis after graduation. And my mountain of medical bills that I incurred starting at 24. If I had student loan debt I wouldn't have even been able to even make payments on it. I didn't even find a job until eight months after graduating. What would the banks have done? Gauged my non-existent paycheck? And then when I found work the most they can gauge out of that would be 10% of a very low income. lol. Some of my friends have loans that build up more interest per month than a court can even force them to pay for their loans.
This is a catastrophe. Our society will be held down until it is fixed.
I thought the reason people had kids was to have someone to take care of them in their old age?
Maybe for some and depending upon the culture. But even in cultures like Thailand where parents typically live with their children at some point the children leave the nest, unless it's a family farm or something, in which case they either add on to the house or build a separate house.
Like I said nothing wrong with it if you don't mind nesting, lack of privacy or if your parents are willing to tolerate it.
I took care of my parents house and property, ran errands for them and took them grocery shopping until they passed. What does nesting have to do with taking care of your parents? As far as I can tell very little. It is more the parents taking care of adult children. Me? I love my kids, but I was glad when my son went out on his own.
Most of the IT jobs have been outsourced to India, and the manufacturing jobs have been outsourced to China. That translates to millions of jobs lost and unavailable to Americans.
Some of the earliest players in the Indian outsourcing market were Texas Instruments, American Express, Swissair, British Airways and GE, who started captive units in India in the 80's. Outsourcing technology to India rapidly accelerated in the 90's. About 1/10 corporations had outsourced some aspects of their technology to India by 2000. While substantial, it's certainly not most IT jobs.
Outsourcing goes back to the late 1700's when manufacturers started shifting the manufacture of goods to countries with cheaper labor during the Industrial Revolution.
I think the worst thing a parent can do is allow their kid to remain dependant on them, well into their adult life.
I was just thinking the same thing. Perpetual adolescence is the effect.
This is not unique to the U.S.
I seem to recall the media reporting plenty of young people camped out a week early in front of many urban Apple stores to be amongst the first to buy a new iphone. They took turns running making Starbuck runs.
Last edited by middle-aged mom; 02-20-2014 at 05:03 PM..
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