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Kids are expensive, and people increasingly cannot afford "expensive" in their lives.
The price of having them continues to increase faster than inflation or income. Kids require higher education (vastly more expensive than it used to be), more healthcare (again, expensive and increasing faster than inflation), and larger housing (housing prices are back to "insane" in most places in the nation that have jobs.) Oh, and job security continues to be terrible; while it's not as bad as it was during the Great Recession, it's still not great.
Kids may be great, if you're into that, but the simple reality is that they are increasingly unaffordable.
They don't need all those things. Save enough for them to go to two years of community college or trade school. Beyond that they can get scholarships, grants or loans. You don't need a big house with kids, many of us grew up in two bedroom houses, sharing rooms and bathrooms.
How about this, buy a two or three family home and get someone else to help pay the mortgage.
As luck would have it, raising kids for many means a far less financially comfortable retirement.
However, for poor people, raising kids means that you up your odds of having a least one person in the universe who cares about you enough about you to look after you in your declining years.
My son is on the spectrum. My wife would earn less than daycare cost, he cannot be left alone as he would disassemble the house.
3rd shift Night jobs that are not full time are uncommon. I earn far more selling appliances evening (2nd shift) than she would plus my 1st shift job.
The opportunity cost of my kids means I will die directing people at a Walmart somewhere. After a while you just accept it. Life goes on.
Such as what? You sit on the throne of your computer, judging strangers for their choices and you have not answered my most basic question. How does a new high school graduate get a job that supports them without going to college, getting into deep debt, and being able to support just themselves, much less these theoretical children? I'm not afraid at all. I'm asking a simple question, one that you (and many other judgmental people) seem unable to answer.
So tell me what they are. All you are saying is that there are solutions. It seems to me like you don't even know yourself. And you are criticizing, BTW. I'm beyond childbearing age, but I, and I am sure many millennials who really want a family, would love to hear any CONSTRUCTIVE words of advice you may have.
Solutions: Cheaper education
Community College
Dual enrollment while in HS: get an AA for free
Trade school for two years get a skill that will pay $20+ per hour. Work for a year save save save THEN go to 4-year school, paying your way
Get really good grades in HS than apply to second/third tier colleges for a free ride
getting a job
Pick a major that makes sense for an industry that will pay well after you graduate. Hint: do not major in medieval lit or film studies. Those are hobbies, not work.
Network and get to know people while in college that can help you once you graduate. Not people who you think are cool, but people who are working in the industry you want to get in.
By doing ANY of those, you are setting yourself up for more success than if you don't do them.
You seriously couldn't think of this? Really? It's basic stuff. Common knowledge for anyone who is looking to NOT BE A VICTIM.
No wonder millenials have no clue. They have zero guidance from adults. Good gawd. Judgemental? no. Common sense? yes.
I don’t want to have children because I don’t want to create the kind of dysfunctional family that I grew up in. I literally would have no idea how to properly raise any children that I might have.
Dysfunctional families aren’t good for anyone involved or for society as a whole.
Only smart, competent people who are good with kids should be having them.
I'm 32. I spent most of my early 20s chasing older women. I dated a woman in my mid-20s for several years who couldn't have children. I didn't graduate until I was 24, and didn't have my first "professional track" job making decent money until I was 28. I don't think I really started "living" until I was 25 or so.
At 32 and living in a relatively small metro, my dating options are basically much younger or 40+. I don't want to raise someone else's small kids. I want someone who is college educated or at least intelligent. I want someone with a decent job if they're of the age where they should have one, or least be career-track if they're younger.
That's a very small pool for me here. I've lived in major cities, and even then, it's better but still not easy. I don't want to be the "old dad" either. If I'm not a dad by 35, it probably won't happen. By 40, I'm getting a vasectomy.
I've never had a desire to have kids and life's just too damn fun on my own a lot of times.
And if you did nothing to help yourself and are now sitting on that master's in medieval lit with $75K in debt.
Sit down. Breathe.
1. Budget
2. Find a way to maximize inclome. May mean second job.
3. Pay off debt
4. Look for where you want to be in 5 years workwise. What do you need to get there? Who can help you? What effort/skills do you need to make it happen?
5. Take advantage of any service your college offers, alumni networking, resume help, etc.
6. Look in to state/county employment assistance
7. Look for networking events and ATTEND being professional and polite. Intorduce yourself around
Again. Common sense. Seriously? Took me less than 5 min, two posts.
Solutions: Cheaper education
Community College
Dual enrollment while in HS: get an AA for free
Trade school for two years get a skill that will pay $20+ per hour. Work for a year save save save THEN go to 4-year school, paying your way
Get really good grades in HS than apply to second/third tier colleges for a free ride
getting a job
Pick a major that makes sense for an industry that will pay well after you graduate. Hint: do not major in medieval lit or film studies. Those are hobbies, not work.
Network and get to know people while in college that can help you once you graduate. Not people who you think are cool, but people who are working in the industry you want to get in.
By doing ANY of those, you are setting yourself up for more success than if you don't do them.
You seriously couldn't think of this? Really? It's basic stuff. Common knowledge for anyone who is looking to NOT BE A VICTIM.
No wonder millenials have no clue. They have zero guidance from adults. Good gawd. Judgemental? no. Common sense? yes.
Excellent advice. Not everybody needs a college degree. Trade school can earn you a job with decent money.
How did this discussion become about how to have financial success? I know lots of Millennials who have children and some who don't. The oldest members of the Millennial generation are currently 37 years old. Many of them are sitting in commuter traffic just like the Gen-Xers and younger Boomers going to work each day beside them. The childcares and schools around me are chock full of kids, so somebody is having babies. The only people on my street who never had kids are older, so that decision was made long before any current panic over college loans, house prices, or global warming. Sounds to me like some of you just want an opportunity to ***** about young people, like every other generation in history. They'll find their own way, just like the rest of us did, whether or not that includes marriage and parenthood.
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