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.
Well, my company doesn't have one - so that's another issue - I'm in the restaurant industry, and I'm going to be there for the foreseeable future - at least until the spring, when I'm relocating to the East coast. Until then, it's just saving on my own.
They have a way of setting up automatic transfers from your bank account, which is a good way to enforce the discipline of regular savings.
Oh thank you! That's exactly what I need. Going to look into this ASAP, thanks again!
08-07-2015, 11:11 AM
i7pXFLbhE3gq
n/a posts
Yes, millennials actually do have it tougher. Say you're a millennial and you do all the right things. You go to college, graduate on time, get a good job. Great, right? Well, sort of.
You're likely to find yourself paying a higher portion of your income on rent and food since those things keep climbing while wages stay relatively flat for decades at a time. You're also much more on the hook to save for your own retirement. The days of pensions or 10% employer 401k contributions are gone. Now you're lucky if you get anything. The burden has been shifted almost entirely onto the employee because employers see no other way to maintain profits and meet the obligations they made to prior generations. You also likely have more student loan debt because tuition rises much faster than inflation, thanks to states cutting education funding so they can use the money to pay for benefits for older workers.
Basically, we've been handed the bill for other people's retirements, and those people actually have the gall to criticize and attack the people who are busy trying to plan for their own future while simultaneously paying for the lack of planning and lack of sacrifice of previous generations.
When you're asking why boomers have so much, keep this in mind. It's in no small part thanks to those millennials you hate so much who got stuck with the bill for your excesses and lack of planning.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chango
A "living wage" is an ambiguous term.... I'd argue that it actually means you make enough money that you don't die of starvation or exposure to the elements. 80% of the people on this planet do that on less than 10 dollars a day!Poverty Facts and Stats
A totally stupid and irrelevant point since I'm not in sub-Saharan Africa, India, southeast Asia, South American slums, or any of those places where living on $10/day is actually doable.
Well, my company doesn't have one - so that's another issue - I'm in the restaurant industry, and I'm going to be there for the foreseeable future - at least until the spring, when I'm relocating to the East coast. Until then, it's just saving on my own.
I think it's more of an individual thing Chango. I grew up being treated like the unwanted step child by my biological parents while my brother was handed everything on a silver platter as the "chosen" one. I escaped at 20 opting for working two jobs and providing for myself. My brother lived off of my mother until the day she died. He was in his 30's and a total loser. I guess he liked living stress free and without responsibility. I on the other hand found it repugnant. I also stared planning for my retirement in my 20's. I just quit my job last week and although I'm 4 years away from drawing my SS I don't need it and can live comfortably until I do. I don't know what ever happened to my brother, nor do I care. It's not my turn to babysit. Anyone can choose to be a loser. It's not a generational issue. It's an individual choice.
way off on this one as well. the youngest of the silent generation is 75 years old, born in 1945.
there's only a handful of congressmen/women 75+. Most are late 40s to upper 60s, so...boomers, with a handful of older gen x thrown in.
I graduated in 1996. My rent was about $450. Minimum wage was $4.75. It took me 95 hours to pay my rent every month.
Same apartment today? $650. Minimum wage is $7.25. 90 hours to pay monthly rent.
hmmm.
That apartment sounds like it's in a pretty inexpensive city. Young people today need to move to places with ridiculous rents like the SF Bay Area, Seattle, NYC, DC, etc. in order to have a decent chance at landing a good job. I myself moved from Sacramento to the Bay Area during the recession because the number of jobs available for people at my level of experience in Sacramento was ZERO.
Early 30s is NOT too late to begin saving, but every day you wait is one less day of savings you can be building up. As soon as you possibly can, you should march right down to your company's Human Resources department and tell them that you want to open a 401k. They will tell you what you need to do and how to do it. The money you deposit will come straight out of your paycheck, without you ever touching it. It all runs in the background, and pretty soon you'll pretty much forget about it. And all the while, you'll be building up your retirement nest egg.
Do it now. You'll be glad you did.
The problem is I have multiple tens of thousands in student loan debt. Every penny I put into an investment account is a penny I an NOT using to pay off debt. I don't really see the point in investing while I simultaneously have a pile of debt earning interest against me (Essentially a negative investment).
That apartment sounds like it's in a pretty inexpensive city. Young people today need to move to places with ridiculous rents like the SF Bay Area, Seattle, NYC, DC, etc. in order to have a decent chance at landing a good job. I myself moved from Sacramento to the Bay Area during the recession because the number of jobs available for people at my level of experience in Sacramento was ZERO.
College town.
Lots of "young people today" manage to make a go of it without moving to one of the major metros you mention.
Hope this doesn't become just another Boomers vs Millennials thread but I have to wonder if the bad financial time Millennials are having is actually due to their tendency to grow up late?
Obviously, if you start the race late you are probably gonna loose. Life is (and always has been) a competition and while the opportunities or lack thereof change over time, a person striking out and making a place for him/herself IS competing with the rest of the world around them for everything they need to make it happen...and it's the same game your parents (and their parents) were playing too.
Stats show the Millennial generation is hitting virtually every one of life's milestones much later than in previous generations. It seems Millennial complaints generally boil down to complaints of "unfair competition", especially against boomers who seem to have it all, but is that really the gist of it?
So why do boomers have so much? Well, they started the race 30 years earlier. Obviously millennials didn't have the option to start running 30 years ago but what if they had chosen to leave home at age 18-20 (like most boomers) instead of age 27-30 (or even later)?
Yea it would really suck at the beginning... you'd have your freedom and independence from parents (the #1 priority of young Boomers and Xers but apparently not high on the wishlist for Millennials) but just about nothing else.
You would experience "slumming it" in a crappy apartment while working a crappy job, having little to no fun, not getting the things you want and really struggling to make ends meet.
Life would indeed be hard and the thought of it makes living with your parents and having a good time with your friends instead seem pretty attractive. Still, you'd be hard-pressed to find someone from the older generations who didn't take that hard road at a fairly young age.... for them, getting away from their parents took priority over personal comfort.
Fast forward to today.... instead of being finally kicked out of the nest in your late 20's-early 30's after a decade of fun and games and finally starting the race late you could of had 10 years or so of independent life experience under you belt and been well on your way to your parent's cushy lifestyle.
That first crappy job and apartment would be a memory; with time and experience you would have moved up into quite a bit more money and built up your own personal pile of stuff. If you were smart, you built up a good credit history too, allowing you to strut into car dealerships and mortgage lenders where they would be practically on their knees begging you to take out loans with them at insanely low interest rates... something your young boomer counterparts could never have dreamed of back in the 70's-80's.
If it's your goal to have a family... had you gotten married in your early 20s and started having kids back then (like virtually every generation before you) you would not be looking at the horror of having kids in your late 30's or 40s and probably raising rugrats until your 70's. Beyond that, did you realize that being a parent in a traditional nuclear family makes you appear very stable, reliable, responsible and even noteworthy to everyone who might want to employ you or lend you money? That's an "unfair advantage" you can make use of regardless of how old you are!
So what is really happening with young people? Is it really the economy, really the older generations sucking up all the opportunity and leaving nothing for the young people?
Or is it because you failed to realize your life is running on a timer and you ended up collectively dinking around and seeking instant gratification instead of looking ahead and hitting the ground running when the race started?
And if so, who's fault is it REALLY???
Change the rules.
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.
Do a Kirk.
