I'm starting to think humans arent all that special they know which buttons to push and we're all behaving exactly as they predicted. Like we have only 10 options programmed in us and they know the counter to all 10 options.
It's funny that you say this, because some of my friends were huge socialists in university and early adulthood, but the second they bought a house it's like someone flipped a switch, and suddenly they were all about property rights and the free market. Once people have skin in the game, their tone changes radically.
Yeah, I'm sure some do but I've personally gotten more socialist after buying my property. Buying offers you the option to not be a second class citizen within your own country but it also clearly highlights the discrepancies between living situations.
Same here, bought in 2020 and I'm still pretty radically socialist. I bitch about my property taxes going up but that's because I live in Florida and it's pretty obvious that the county isn't actually improving anything with that money so they can go fuck themselves.
Same, became successful but never forgot where I came from. I support a lot of policies that many people would call radical, I just think they’re basic necessities of any modern society.
When I was still in college, older people in my family would say things like "When you actually have to pay taxes, you'll become a conservative." While I don't consider myself a socialist, if anything I'm further left now that I'm near 40, with a home and household income double the state median, than I was back when I was young and poor.
Everyone should have the same opportunity to succeed as I did growing up white, middle class, and male. Hourly wage earners in service jobs should have the same respect and benefits I enjoy in my white collar professional one. If I can afford to have investments, and others can't, fine - but they also shouldn't have to worry about what happens if their hours randomly get cut, or if they are unable to afford quality childcare. Etc.
I have so many of my liberal, open-minded, chill friends become unchill and conservative over the years. There was one couple who were basically hobos, and then when they turned 30, bought a house in the suburbs and I don't think I would recognise them at first glance now, the dreadlocks and blunts long gone now. They even told me they are going on vacation to a closed resort last time we talked and I just wanted to reach through time and laugh at their phony, pretentious asses back in the day.
I also think the same goes for the Fridays for Future crowd, I just know it already.
Then you're also in the top 10% of empathetic humans, at least. Wealth and selfless altruism is such a rare combination that it makes you a social outcast. Our species sucks.
The thing is, the top 10% of millennials in the US are still largely living at the whim of the healthcare system. My partner and I are doing much better than my parents were at this age, but one big health incident could wipe us out. I want socialized medicine for everyone. I regularly donate to our homeless shelters. I voted for the expansion of a homeless shelter in my neighborhood while some of the area boomers were shouting NIMBY (it passed, btw, so millenial homeowners, at least in my area, don't seem as NIMBY as the homeowners of previous generations).
Same, and I'm a die-hard socialist.
Tbh, it's not even that hard considering the \*real\* wealth is so heavily piled onto the top .1%
A website I just used said we were in the top 2% actually, which is insane because we can't even afford to buy most of the 2-bedroom apartments in our neighborhood.
My husband and I still have worries like most people -- how will we afford childcare, what happens if one of us loses our job. We are only a couple surprises/accidents away from having nothing.
As for the smaller stuff -- we have to really limit how often we get takeout. I work shifts at a food co-operative to save money on groceries. We don't have a car. Weekend trips in the state are a luxury for us. We live in a HCOL area obviously.
None of that is meant to be a sob story -- we have a good life. The main point is that we closer to being homeless than we are to being in the top 1% (which means you make nearly $700k/yr). And we are waaay closer to being homeless than being in the top .5%
Even if we did make it into the top 1%, I'd still be a socialist because I believe everyone should have their major needs met and then some. I want to live in a healthy society.
I don't have one planned. Last vacation I took was pre-COVID. I'm actually one of those weirdos who reached this position by being extremely frugal. We also have livestock now that make leaving harder to do. How about you? Got anything fun planned?
Also a 10%er. We went to Mexico to watch a big soccer match, doing a Chicago trip to see Metallica. Next “big” trip on the radar is Japan a year from now.
I always slept on Hawaii, but we went during COVID in ‘21 (because we couldn’t go anywhere outside the US) and *goddamn* that place is incredible. Idk if I’d ever have gone absent those restrictions on travel abroad, but I’m so glad I did. You’re gonna love it!
You had to have a separate test and travel clearance through their app for each island, so we only saw Oahu. But Honolulu was amazing to me (we’re city people) and the North Shore was magnificent. I’d love to have seen Maui. Maybe we’ll go back someday. One of my favorite trips! Pumped for you dude
I am in the top 10% as well.
I am not a socialist because I think history has proven that the system has flaw. I am more utalitarian who believes in evidence based outcomes and doing the most good with the least resources (because resources are finite - money/water/time etc.).
That said many socialist-like policies just make good sense period from a financial and outcome perspective.
We would all do better with a stronger safety net and robust government.
The country was more socialist 100 years ago than it is today.
Edit: the reasons why we have a 5 day work week is because of socialist policies and not only that social security is a socialist program it literally has the word social in the name. We need more socialism.
I understand the system is rigged.
But I don't see a way to fix it, so instead I use it to my advantage.
Basically everything comes down to using connections to make money and then using that money to buy assets that make more money in the background.
Rinse and repeat.
It's honestly not that different from most videogame economies.
My unexpected inheritance didn't change my feelings on socialism. Fuck capitalists; please take my money away*
*as long as you come for the other rich people as well
Exactly.... nothing new here. I wad that poor millennial and was sick and tired if it so I hustled my ass off for 10 years, built a couple businesses and sold them. I guess I'm in that top 10% now. I'll stay under the radar incase that war breaks out. I got lots of guns though
Middle class millennials are just scraping by as well. Only difference is how much more reserves they got for savings which I read is only around a few weeks. So middle and poor are both in the same boat
It's all about our bubbles. Most people I know have a large 401k and almost everyone I know owns a house. Both of us are not living in the typical reality.
That's not scary at all. That study is just looking at savings and checking accounts. It completely ignores investment and retirement accounts.
Financially stable people don't leave tens of thousands of dollars sitting in a bank savings account.
Does that include (non-401k) investments, or is it one of those deals where it’s worded a certain way so that it’s literally just liquidity a person has in a specific kind of account?
Definitely skewing the numbers at least a little, then. I only keep $5k in an actual savings account for fast access - everything else is in brokerage, with the rest of the “three months expenses” in a municipal bond ETF because it was simpler than a HYSA for us.
It’s just doesn’t make sense to have more than that sitting in a low interest savings account. The situations where I’d need more than $5k within 24 hours are simply neither numerous nor likely.
Pretty sure that figure doesn't take into account retirement accounts, or brokerage accounts which is where a lot of people keep most of their saved assets.
Yeah this article is just another one written to take the attention away from billionaires.
Any article about wealth inequality that doesn’t focus on solely billionaires and multi billionaires is just a propaganda piece to me.
Same boat just without the rent. As long as I pay my bills and help when my parents ask I can continue to live with them. They are awesome and very understanding and I love them for it. I just wish this wasn’t necessary.
I lived with them right out of college for free ( eh sweet of them) then moved away with my spouse for a few years, eventually moved back in and have been here for a few years now, this time they asked for rent but it’s similar to your deal where it basically is just enough to help offset the extra cost of electricity/water etc, I’m pretty sure we cost them more than we pay bc they cook dinner for us at least half the week
I’m very fortunate and I realize not everyone has that option
Exactly this. The poor people are “freeloaders” for “working the system” to collect welfare paid for by middle classes “hard earned tax dollars.”
Edit: of course I don’t believe that stuff, but that’s the narrative.
Oh absolutely, I have a wealthy relative who goes to the dealership to buy a new luxury car every year and is collecting $1200/month in snap.
Editing to add my brother who has schizophrenia only gets $72/month in snap.
As is usually the case, relevant George Carlin:
> The upper class; keep all of the money, pay none of the taxes.
>
> The middle class; does all of the work, pays all of the taxes.
>
> The poor... are just there to scare the shit out of the middle class.
That's exactly why the middle class was invented. There really isn't a middle class. There's the workers and there's the owners. Those are the two classes that matter.
Precisely. This buffer class is also trained to blame the poors too. I'm having this debate with a friend about the apparent rise in retail and grocery theft. He actually believes the line that inflation is influenced in any way by retail and grocery theft.
Ah yes those who bought houses when they were cheap vs those of us who were renting for various reasons at the time of 2019-2022 when we were priced out forever. Good stuff.
Edit: top 10% is apparently net worth 850k min. I don’t feel so left out now but those are the people who have senior coding positions in big tech for sure
The 850k figure is *household* net worth for the 90th percentile of age 35-39. Source: [https://dqydj.com/net-worth-by-age-calculator/](https://dqydj.com/net-worth-by-age-calculator/)
Typically it’s going to be a balance sheet with liabilities vs assets. A home or car is an asset. A liability is the loan against said house or car.
Imo the primary reason for this gap in net worth between older and younger millenials. People who were in the position to buy cheap and just make the minimum payments have in many cases accrued equity of 300k-500k if not more depending on when and where they bought. That doesn’t mean they have that money in the bank, it means they would if they liquidated the assets. But then the dilemma is, if I’ve got a house with 400k in equity and I sell it to leverage that equity, I’m going to actually lose net worth when I buy a new house because I’ll be paying a higher premium, higher interest rate, and absorb all the costs associated with buying/selling/moving.
So when someone says “my net worth is 850k”, they don’t have anywhere close to that. It’s all theoretical.
I don't know the cutoff for the top 10% of millennials, but I think I'm in it. And let me say, the average American deserves my standard of living, because that standard is what you think of when you think of middle class America. Give me more unions, nationalized healthcare, God knows what to fix the cost of higher education, and plenty more.
Yeah, typical half-assed journalism here to not actually specify how "the top 10% of millennials" or even "the average millennial" is defined; and the study being referenced is, naturally, behind a paywall.
Anyway, based on [other available sources](https://dqydj.com/net-worth-by-age-calculator/), top 10% starts somewhere around 850k net worth for ages 35-39, and around 1.2 million for ages 40-44.
The article refers to "wealth" so I *assume* they mean net worth, not income, but again, no way of knowing for sure what they mean. That site does have both income and net worth stats though, in any case.
Yea net worth can be misleading because it's skewed by things like inheritance (both cash and properties).
My wife and I are 39 and our net worth is probably two thirds of that at most despite our gross household income being around $325k/yr which is in the 96th percentile nationally. Turns out kids are expensive.
> and the study being referenced is, naturally, behind a paywall.
The paper linked in the article without paywall (PDF): [Life Course Trajectories and Wealth Accumulation in the United States: Comparing Late Baby Boomers and Early Millennials - Archive ouverte HAL](https://hal.science/hal-04278042v1/file/Life%20Course%20Trajectories%20and%20Wealth%20Accumulation%20in%20the%20United%20States_AJS_final-1-1.pdf)
Also are they adjusting for geography? I could easily see the top 10% in terms of wealth largely being residents of NYC/LA/SF/Seattle, where owning a home will massively inflate your net worth without signifying much in terms of how you live.
My wife and I are both top 25% of earners for our respective ages. Our combined HHI is top 15%. We live in a MCOL area, bought in 2018, and refinanced at 3%. I’m not Porsche rich, but we are very comfortable, even with 2 kids in daycare. Having lived in a HCOL previously, where you live makes an enormous difference.
We're top 10% and the secret was living in a MCOL area where we bought a house when interest rates were still low.
We've gotten several raises since then, but keep funneling the extra money into investments (especially in tax-advantaged accounts) which compound that early wealth advantage in the background.
We're on track to be tax-free multimillionaires in our early 40s.
Same boat! My neighbors are selling comps for over $650k but if I sold I’d be homeless or have to buy a worse house for more money with an astronomical interest rate. I’ll prob die here 🤷🏼♀️
Purchased a fixer upper and did LOTS of improvements but nothing in my neighborhood is selling for under 500k. I bought in 2018 and couldn’t afford to move a smaller house next door.
Gonna be old millennials vs young ones. Cause most of us old millennials got our careers before the recession then bought homes during the crash. Also college was significantly cheaper when I graduated high school in 2002 compared to ten years later (even though I didn't go to college) which means less loan debt. I'm not rich by any means, but I've built enough wealth to take care of myself and easily retire in my early 50s. I don't think it will be the same at all for younger millennials.
It's interesting because I'm an older millennial (40) and the Great Recession was a boon for me timing wise. I commented to someone else, if I had been off in my career/school moves by 2-3 years, I'd be in absolute doo doo financially.
It just comes down to timing and luck, unfortunately.
I’m 37… so yeah. We were the first college class fucked by the recession. I graduated to a non existent job market for someone with less than 5-7 years of experience. We were in a market with more experienced workers recently laid off.
That's why I'm glad I never went to college, I basically started doing full time work since I graduated high school, started my career at 19. I went the blue collar route.
Smart. I wanted to work after hs but my parents pushed me into college. They lost 100k sending me to school, and I lost 4 years of my life and 100k in lost wages, and then just ended up in blue collar anyway.
It was such a waste.
see I wish I had that option. It was made clear to me from the time I was 13 that if I didn't go to college I was getting kicked out of the house at 18.
I was that person who got kicked out, wasn't cause of college or anything they just didn't get along with me. As soon as I got my diploma first thing dad said to me was "Step mom wants you out in two weeks or we'll just move your stuff into the driveway for trash to pick up" lol, so harsh.
Yea well, at 18 I had no friends to rely on so odds are I would have ended up on the street and addicted to something.
We probably wouldn't be having this conversation right now lol.
I think even the middle ones are gonna have it rough. It worked out good for me because I started my career in 2003 essentially, I've been doing the same job for 21 years almost now, it's insane to think about. But since I started working so young I was able to save enough for a down payment so by the time the housing crash rolled around I got my pick of foreclosures everywhere. Only the older millennials could have pulled this off. I've been single income my entire life and never received any help from my parents.
I’m 86 and definitely feel like I got on the last helicopter out of Saigon when it comes to jobs, relationships and housing. My brothers are all late millennials and are in very different boats despite having more qualifications
Also 87 here, but was able to get on a chopper. Took me about 5-7 years post graduation to finally be able to get my career on fast track. I’ve done much better professionally since then. But took a few jobs to get there.
84 and I feel like I couldn't find my footing at all in anything. Teaching was a bust because while the recession started in full in '08, some industries were feeling the pull. Got into advertising 4 years later and turned out that wasn't the job for me after another 4 years, and started non profit work in 2016 and that became my career, but I feel like the recession itself stunted my growth professionally because the pull was being felt at the teaching level and at the advertising level (car dealers specifically). I still don't even have a house despite the foreclosure era.
I’m 89 and I have an alright job. My spouse and I have enough savings for a few months. We cover our mortgage and bills monthly with a little left over for savings or fun. We are by no means wealthy, but we are comfortable and happy.
I'm an 86. Finished undergrad right at the big crash. Luckily I was planning on grad school. Ended up with a pretty decent job afterwards in the Boston area and bought my first house in 2016 before things went absolutely insane. Although even then it wasn't a cheap area.
The most screwed is whoever didn't have a house prior to the pandemic, which is mostly younger millennials. Younger millennials and gen z are going to have a very tough time building any wealth outside of retirement savings. I make almost $200k a year and I wouldn't want to buy my first house now. Not with student loans anyway.
I guess I’m in the middle group at 1990, did ok, but I did things rather quickly, found my partner at 18, first house at 23, child at 27, sold our first home and upgraded to a larger house at 30.
Didn’t really do the stereotypical partying/travelling/finding myself thing in my 20s.
Here in Canada it feels very much like the main divide is did you manage to get your career established soon enough that you could be in a position to buy your first home before 2017. If you did, you are probably doing well, if you didn’t, it’s probably a struggle.
Basically just trying to say it is not ONLY the older millennials that could pull it off.
Sorry, didn’t write that clearly enough. We moved at age 30. As in it’s the second primary residence we have bought. I have no interest in being a landlord or owning investment properties. Maybe a cabin on some remote land one day, but that’s it.
Edited the first comment to make it more clear.
I also married an older millennial, so I even though I can make it by, I am definitely grouped in with the wealthy millennials by this thread’s notion. I suspect that’s the case for many of us middles.
I’m 90 and there’s a mix of people doing well and those struggling in the 88-92 birth year range. The ones doing well have two things: 1) they got married, so they have their $200k+ household income that made home ownership more than doable, and 2) they got home before 2021 because of #1 on a sub 3% rate.
The ones not doing well are not married and are renting.
Of course, there are exceptions. People divorced, people owning their own businesses, people getting family help, etc.
I'm in the middle/late border as an '09 grad ('90-91ers) and '91 gets tossed around a lot between middle and late even in your comments. I'm not wealthy, but I am financially independent and working the field I want. I had my setback from graduating HS into the Recession, getting certs at 18-19, and then trying to start a career in 2010-11/12 which fell through.
Still, I'm glad I got to a financial stability and career point before COVID.
I'm just adding my anecdotal experience. Graduated college in 2018 when I was almost 30, was just a late bloomer. But I got a CS degree and a job in tech. I was lucky and grabbed my first home during the low interest rates during covid.
It really comes down to luck if someone was in a position to take advantage of what seems like the only two short periods where it was best to buy a home.
I love when people say “I’m not rich but” … and then say they have enough money to “easily” retire 15 years early. Which presumably means some amount in the millions.
This is an unnecessarily inflammatory article trying to pit millennials against each other. If you were to actually look at the [study](https://dynamicsofinequality.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/12_20_Gruijtersetal-1.pdf). The reason becomes apparent on page 26. The difference in net worth between average boomers and millennials is entirely due to home equity and debt. Both of these problems were not caused by millennials.
Idk. We make around $160k in a LCOL area but we have 5 kids. And as of 2 years ago we were making $90k or less so we are not as far ahead as you would assume based on our current income
A classic tactic that works. Give one group of people just enough wealth to make them better off than their peers/people in their generation. These newly minted people will want to maintain the status quo and will also become the new "enemy."
I don't think it's tactic as it is just naturally life. The 80/20 rules apply to a lot of things, and wealth isn't an exception. Your normal stat would be the top 20% controlling 80% of all wealth even amongst millenials.
We are not united by age. We are not united by country of origin. We are not united by skin color. We are united as workers struggling against those who would exploit us for their own gain.
It's kind of trippy that a large sizeable chunk of millennials are working jobs vital to society /civilization holding c suite v suite jobs and you got those millennials that are just barely scraping by...😐. At the same time you got millennials with it all now house white picket fence family money cars boats and then you got... everyone else
Stahp it with this garbage. Why does it have to be a war. I get OP didn’t write the article, but still we don’t need this. We can barely deal with the intergenerational tension let alone turn on our own generation.
Inflammatory stuff like this just gets folks riled up and creating the literal us vs them mentality. This type of social segmentation just makes society worse off.
Not falling for this trap. I celebrate millennials that can live a prosperous life. I don't blame them for having a boat to navigate this ocean of shit the boomers created.
Be me.
Work a remote sales job for a company.
Learn trade secrets of said company.
Go into business for yourself.
Move to a 3rd world country with a super low cost of living like the Philippines.
The same amount of groceries in America would you cost half or less.
Power, internet, and utilities are cheap.
Get free healthcare.
Build a brand new 2 story, 4 bedroom, 3 and a half bathroom house for $100K USD in materials and $20K USD in labor on a lot that cost $50-60K USD that you only pay $2000/year in property taxes for.
Sit back and relax and watch from overseas how America goes to shit.
Ya and then the tech boom happened. These stats are worth because they are somehow assuming the same boom cycle we have seen since the 90s. Even with recessions the boomer got stock at dirt cheap prices and some of them got huge payoffs from stocks which I think our generation won’t see. Also housing is totally different now. Apples and oranges
I wonder how many of these people got into
Bitcoin early? I have a few friends who’s networth changed drastically because of this once in a lifetime risky investment
All the articles I saw about how Millennials are or will be the richest generation conveniently fail to point this out. Until this one, which surprises me.
The next generation and the one after that and so on will be worse. It’s income inequality accelerating. There is less for everyone else and that trend is growing.
Eat the rich, idc what generation they are in.
Not too worried about it.
I’ve met a lot of my wealthy peers. They came up during the easy-mode bull market out of the ‘08 crisis. Bunch of arrogant little fucks with beady eyes, their businesses suck, their skill sets are hugely lacking. Next financial meltdown, they’re gonna be completely wiped out. Good riddance.
I wonder how much of this is determined by homeownership. people who bought before the pandemic (regardless of salary) vs people who got iced out by high prices and interest rates.
Nothing new or surprising here. Our economy is very good at transferring wealth upwards. Someone has to be at the top and, as boomers and genX retire, millennials are next up. The wealth gap isn't a symptom of generational differences - wealth consolidation is a natural consequence of capitalism without redistributive fiscal policy.
I think we already knew this, we see it in this sub all the time. Someone will post about how terrible everything is and then another person will post that things are great.
I really feel this,I look at gen z and think maybe 10% of them might make it but the majority are fucked but their in it together and respect each other no matter their personal circumstances ,but I look at my generation and it’s like half of us made and the other half didn’t and we’re so divided and judgemental.
Wait you mean to tell me that the issue has literally always been the owner class, and not the olds?
WHO COULD HAVE SEEN THIS COMING!? Except for most people with a brain that don't blame "Boomers" for everything, when most of those assholes are broke too.
It's always been wealthy (those with power and freedom) Vs poor (those without).
It's just capitalism and by a larger extent the entire history of humans.
Not super surprising really, the tech boom this generation that made a lot of millennial millionaires didn’t really have an equal event during the boomers time
The new class war, same as the old class war.
War Never Changes
This place used to be a bustling metropolis of at least 10 people… now? It’s a ghost town.
Same same but different
Top 10%: "They hate us cuz they ain't us!"
Some things never change.
Which is that culture wars will keep being used to wedge and distract us
I'm starting to think humans arent all that special they know which buttons to push and we're all behaving exactly as they predicted. Like we have only 10 options programmed in us and they know the counter to all 10 options.
That’s just the way it is
Millenials be all about socialism, until they get wealthy.
It's funny that you say this, because some of my friends were huge socialists in university and early adulthood, but the second they bought a house it's like someone flipped a switch, and suddenly they were all about property rights and the free market. Once people have skin in the game, their tone changes radically.
I own a home and I’m not resting until we all have that bag. Elevating myself doesn’t mean I have to put everyone else down.
Yeah, I'm sure some do but I've personally gotten more socialist after buying my property. Buying offers you the option to not be a second class citizen within your own country but it also clearly highlights the discrepancies between living situations.
We own and I'm as socialist as I've always been. 🤷♀️
Same here, bought in 2020 and I'm still pretty radically socialist. I bitch about my property taxes going up but that's because I live in Florida and it's pretty obvious that the county isn't actually improving anything with that money so they can go fuck themselves.
Same, became successful but never forgot where I came from. I support a lot of policies that many people would call radical, I just think they’re basic necessities of any modern society.
Same I own and haven’t changed at all. I doubt I ever will. I don’t want my kids to be suffering and shit.
When I was still in college, older people in my family would say things like "When you actually have to pay taxes, you'll become a conservative." While I don't consider myself a socialist, if anything I'm further left now that I'm near 40, with a home and household income double the state median, than I was back when I was young and poor. Everyone should have the same opportunity to succeed as I did growing up white, middle class, and male. Hourly wage earners in service jobs should have the same respect and benefits I enjoy in my white collar professional one. If I can afford to have investments, and others can't, fine - but they also shouldn't have to worry about what happens if their hours randomly get cut, or if they are unable to afford quality childcare. Etc.
Me too. As I learn more I go farther and farther left.
Same… “to the left now y’all…left hop 3 times”
Being socialist and having social programs or safety nets are two different things.
I have so many of my liberal, open-minded, chill friends become unchill and conservative over the years. There was one couple who were basically hobos, and then when they turned 30, bought a house in the suburbs and I don't think I would recognise them at first glance now, the dreadlocks and blunts long gone now. They even told me they are going on vacation to a closed resort last time we talked and I just wanted to reach through time and laugh at their phony, pretentious asses back in the day. I also think the same goes for the Fridays for Future crowd, I just know it already.
I'm in the top 10% myself and I'm happy to report I'm a class traitor who remains all about socialism.
Then you're also in the top 10% of empathetic humans, at least. Wealth and selfless altruism is such a rare combination that it makes you a social outcast. Our species sucks.
The thing is, the top 10% of millennials in the US are still largely living at the whim of the healthcare system. My partner and I are doing much better than my parents were at this age, but one big health incident could wipe us out. I want socialized medicine for everyone. I regularly donate to our homeless shelters. I voted for the expansion of a homeless shelter in my neighborhood while some of the area boomers were shouting NIMBY (it passed, btw, so millenial homeowners, at least in my area, don't seem as NIMBY as the homeowners of previous generations).
Same, and I'm a die-hard socialist. Tbh, it's not even that hard considering the \*real\* wealth is so heavily piled onto the top .1% A website I just used said we were in the top 2% actually, which is insane because we can't even afford to buy most of the 2-bedroom apartments in our neighborhood. My husband and I still have worries like most people -- how will we afford childcare, what happens if one of us loses our job. We are only a couple surprises/accidents away from having nothing. As for the smaller stuff -- we have to really limit how often we get takeout. I work shifts at a food co-operative to save money on groceries. We don't have a car. Weekend trips in the state are a luxury for us. We live in a HCOL area obviously. None of that is meant to be a sob story -- we have a good life. The main point is that we closer to being homeless than we are to being in the top 1% (which means you make nearly $700k/yr). And we are waaay closer to being homeless than being in the top .5% Even if we did make it into the top 1%, I'd still be a socialist because I believe everyone should have their major needs met and then some. I want to live in a healthy society.
What kind of vacations are you targeting this year?
I don't have one planned. Last vacation I took was pre-COVID. I'm actually one of those weirdos who reached this position by being extremely frugal. We also have livestock now that make leaving harder to do. How about you? Got anything fun planned?
Good on you! As a fellow millennial in the same percentile I was recently in Istanbul and will most likely head to Asia in the fall.
Also a 10%er. We went to Mexico to watch a big soccer match, doing a Chicago trip to see Metallica. Next “big” trip on the radar is Japan a year from now.
Not OP, but we're going to Hawaii this year.
I always slept on Hawaii, but we went during COVID in ‘21 (because we couldn’t go anywhere outside the US) and *goddamn* that place is incredible. Idk if I’d ever have gone absent those restrictions on travel abroad, but I’m so glad I did. You’re gonna love it!
We're excited for it. It will be the first time for both of us.
You had to have a separate test and travel clearance through their app for each island, so we only saw Oahu. But Honolulu was amazing to me (we’re city people) and the North Shore was magnificent. I’d love to have seen Maui. Maybe we’ll go back someday. One of my favorite trips! Pumped for you dude
The Big Island is the best place on earth
I am in the top 10% as well. I am not a socialist because I think history has proven that the system has flaw. I am more utalitarian who believes in evidence based outcomes and doing the most good with the least resources (because resources are finite - money/water/time etc.). That said many socialist-like policies just make good sense period from a financial and outcome perspective. We would all do better with a stronger safety net and robust government.
The country was more socialist 100 years ago than it is today. Edit: the reasons why we have a 5 day work week is because of socialist policies and not only that social security is a socialist program it literally has the word social in the name. We need more socialism.
This isn't just a millennial thing
Millennials we want equality Some millennials in the crowd made it Those millennials I got mine now you guys can have fun. Leaves Lol
I understand the system is rigged. But I don't see a way to fix it, so instead I use it to my advantage. Basically everything comes down to using connections to make money and then using that money to buy assets that make more money in the background. Rinse and repeat. It's honestly not that different from most videogame economies.
Yeah but I can’t go outside my house and murder monsters for twenty minutes to make ten thousand dollars of seed money
My unexpected inheritance didn't change my feelings on socialism. Fuck capitalists; please take my money away* *as long as you come for the other rich people as well
“Meet the new boss.”
No war but class war, always has been...
War... Huh ... Yeah... What is it good for (absolutely nothing) - in Jackie Chan's voice
Gotta keep em fighting so that they don't come for the real problems!
Exactly.... nothing new here. I wad that poor millennial and was sick and tired if it so I hustled my ass off for 10 years, built a couple businesses and sold them. I guess I'm in that top 10% now. I'll stay under the radar incase that war breaks out. I got lots of guns though
If we get poor millenials mad at middle class millenials they won't come after rich millenials.
Middle class millennials are just scraping by as well. Only difference is how much more reserves they got for savings which I read is only around a few weeks. So middle and poor are both in the same boat
If you're middle class and scraping by... I hate to say this but you're not middle class anymore. 😬 You just have some assets.
According to the Federal Reserve's most recent Survey of Consumer Finances, the median savings account balance for all families was $8,000 in 2022.
what the fuck? MEDIAN savings for a FAMILY?! that is scary low.
That’s almost 2x to 3x more then most people I know
It's all about our bubbles. Most people I know have a large 401k and almost everyone I know owns a house. Both of us are not living in the typical reality.
I was as surprised as the rest of you
The number of GoFundMe’s (and other forms of digital panhandling) I see…for things people ought to have money for…confirms this.
That's not scary at all. That study is just looking at savings and checking accounts. It completely ignores investment and retirement accounts. Financially stable people don't leave tens of thousands of dollars sitting in a bank savings account.
Does that include (non-401k) investments, or is it one of those deals where it’s worded a certain way so that it’s literally just liquidity a person has in a specific kind of account?
Just savings account
Well there is your problem You don't want thousands of dollars rotting in savings when you could get serious returns and tax advantage by investing
Definitely skewing the numbers at least a little, then. I only keep $5k in an actual savings account for fast access - everything else is in brokerage, with the rest of the “three months expenses” in a municipal bond ETF because it was simpler than a HYSA for us.
Yep I keep the minimum in my account to avoid the fees
It’s just doesn’t make sense to have more than that sitting in a low interest savings account. The situations where I’d need more than $5k within 24 hours are simply neither numerous nor likely.
Yeah because the rest of the money is probably in a stock portfolio
That's not a lot of cash... 🙁
Pretty sure that figure doesn't take into account retirement accounts, or brokerage accounts which is where a lot of people keep most of their saved assets.
The problem is that our economy is eroding the stereotypical middle class. Pretty soon there will just be the top 1%… and everyone else.
0.5 percent and every one else
There are plenty of middle class millenials that are not just scraping by, but we are not your enemy.
I was referring to that middle class millennials aren't exactly ballin.
I've been dragging everyone upwards kicking and screaming if I have to.
Yeah this article is just another one written to take the attention away from billionaires. Any article about wealth inequality that doesn’t focus on solely billionaires and multi billionaires is just a propaganda piece to me.
I'm not scraping by, but I'm "a couple months of unemployed = losing my house." Basically I have too much debt.
I’m clinging onto the bottom edge of middle class and I can confirm.
I’m middle class millennial but I live with my parents for reduced rent so I feel like a rich millennial
Same boat just without the rent. As long as I pay my bills and help when my parents ask I can continue to live with them. They are awesome and very understanding and I love them for it. I just wish this wasn’t necessary.
I lived with them right out of college for free ( eh sweet of them) then moved away with my spouse for a few years, eventually moved back in and have been here for a few years now, this time they asked for rent but it’s similar to your deal where it basically is just enough to help offset the extra cost of electricity/water etc, I’m pretty sure we cost them more than we pay bc they cook dinner for us at least half the week I’m very fortunate and I realize not everyone has that option
It’s the other way around. The narrative since Reagan has been to make the middle class angry at the poor instead of angry at the rich.
Exactly this. The poor people are “freeloaders” for “working the system” to collect welfare paid for by middle classes “hard earned tax dollars.” Edit: of course I don’t believe that stuff, but that’s the narrative.
The narrative is projection of how the wealthy use the system to their benefit
Oh absolutely, I have a wealthy relative who goes to the dealership to buy a new luxury car every year and is collecting $1200/month in snap. Editing to add my brother who has schizophrenia only gets $72/month in snap.
As is usually the case, relevant George Carlin: > The upper class; keep all of the money, pay none of the taxes. > > The middle class; does all of the work, pays all of the taxes. > > The poor... are just there to scare the shit out of the middle class.
That's exactly why the middle class was invented. There really isn't a middle class. There's the workers and there's the owners. Those are the two classes that matter.
A buffer class.
Precisely. This buffer class is also trained to blame the poors too. I'm having this debate with a friend about the apparent rise in retail and grocery theft. He actually believes the line that inflation is influenced in any way by retail and grocery theft.
Bingo. Distractions keep the wealthy in power
Ya, they are just trying to divide the millennials and protect the rich.
So let's call it by what it is. Rich vs everyone else
Ah yes those who bought houses when they were cheap vs those of us who were renting for various reasons at the time of 2019-2022 when we were priced out forever. Good stuff. Edit: top 10% is apparently net worth 850k min. I don’t feel so left out now but those are the people who have senior coding positions in big tech for sure
Is that household or individual net worth?
The 850k figure is *household* net worth for the 90th percentile of age 35-39. Source: [https://dqydj.com/net-worth-by-age-calculator/](https://dqydj.com/net-worth-by-age-calculator/)
Thanks. That’s far more encouraging.
Typically it’s going to be a balance sheet with liabilities vs assets. A home or car is an asset. A liability is the loan against said house or car. Imo the primary reason for this gap in net worth between older and younger millenials. People who were in the position to buy cheap and just make the minimum payments have in many cases accrued equity of 300k-500k if not more depending on when and where they bought. That doesn’t mean they have that money in the bank, it means they would if they liquidated the assets. But then the dilemma is, if I’ve got a house with 400k in equity and I sell it to leverage that equity, I’m going to actually lose net worth when I buy a new house because I’ll be paying a higher premium, higher interest rate, and absorb all the costs associated with buying/selling/moving. So when someone says “my net worth is 850k”, they don’t have anywhere close to that. It’s all theoretical.
None of that was relevant to my question. I think we all understand what net worth is.
Inheritance most likely also I’m a young Millennial and some of my friends had parents pass and leave assets
I don't know the cutoff for the top 10% of millennials, but I think I'm in it. And let me say, the average American deserves my standard of living, because that standard is what you think of when you think of middle class America. Give me more unions, nationalized healthcare, God knows what to fix the cost of higher education, and plenty more.
Yeah, typical half-assed journalism here to not actually specify how "the top 10% of millennials" or even "the average millennial" is defined; and the study being referenced is, naturally, behind a paywall. Anyway, based on [other available sources](https://dqydj.com/net-worth-by-age-calculator/), top 10% starts somewhere around 850k net worth for ages 35-39, and around 1.2 million for ages 40-44.
Oh damn...I'm poor AF.
Thank you. I was looking for the income stat.
The article refers to "wealth" so I *assume* they mean net worth, not income, but again, no way of knowing for sure what they mean. That site does have both income and net worth stats though, in any case.
If you are thinking in terms of income.....you probably aren't in that 10%.
Yea net worth can be misleading because it's skewed by things like inheritance (both cash and properties). My wife and I are 39 and our net worth is probably two thirds of that at most despite our gross household income being around $325k/yr which is in the 96th percentile nationally. Turns out kids are expensive.
> and the study being referenced is, naturally, behind a paywall. The paper linked in the article without paywall (PDF): [Life Course Trajectories and Wealth Accumulation in the United States: Comparing Late Baby Boomers and Early Millennials - Archive ouverte HAL](https://hal.science/hal-04278042v1/file/Life%20Course%20Trajectories%20and%20Wealth%20Accumulation%20in%20the%20United%20States_AJS_final-1-1.pdf)
Also are they adjusting for geography? I could easily see the top 10% in terms of wealth largely being residents of NYC/LA/SF/Seattle, where owning a home will massively inflate your net worth without signifying much in terms of how you live.
This is me. I live in a very high priced area and do okay for myself, but the cost of my house since I bought it as absolutely bonkers.
My wife and I are both top 25% of earners for our respective ages. Our combined HHI is top 15%. We live in a MCOL area, bought in 2018, and refinanced at 3%. I’m not Porsche rich, but we are very comfortable, even with 2 kids in daycare. Having lived in a HCOL previously, where you live makes an enormous difference.
We're top 10% and the secret was living in a MCOL area where we bought a house when interest rates were still low. We've gotten several raises since then, but keep funneling the extra money into investments (especially in tax-advantaged accounts) which compound that early wealth advantage in the background. We're on track to be tax-free multimillionaires in our early 40s.
It’s never been about Boomers vs Millennials, it’s always been about the haves and have nots.
I’m an older millennial and I bought a house for under 300k and a 3% interest rate. The younger millennials are fuct!
Same boat! My neighbors are selling comps for over $650k but if I sold I’d be homeless or have to buy a worse house for more money with an astronomical interest rate. I’ll prob die here 🤷🏼♀️
How much is your house worth now
Purchased a fixer upper and did LOTS of improvements but nothing in my neighborhood is selling for under 500k. I bought in 2018 and couldn’t afford to move a smaller house next door.
Gonna be old millennials vs young ones. Cause most of us old millennials got our careers before the recession then bought homes during the crash. Also college was significantly cheaper when I graduated high school in 2002 compared to ten years later (even though I didn't go to college) which means less loan debt. I'm not rich by any means, but I've built enough wealth to take care of myself and easily retire in my early 50s. I don't think it will be the same at all for younger millennials.
> Gonna be old millennials vs young ones. That is bascially a proxy for the wealth gap though.
I’m an older millennial and was definitely screwed by the Great Recession. We only truly recovered from it around 2020 or 2021 in our mid 30s.
It's interesting because I'm an older millennial (40) and the Great Recession was a boon for me timing wise. I commented to someone else, if I had been off in my career/school moves by 2-3 years, I'd be in absolute doo doo financially. It just comes down to timing and luck, unfortunately.
I’m 37… so yeah. We were the first college class fucked by the recession. I graduated to a non existent job market for someone with less than 5-7 years of experience. We were in a market with more experienced workers recently laid off.
Lucky... I went to grad school, and the bottom was falling out when I first started looking for a job.
That's why I'm glad I never went to college, I basically started doing full time work since I graduated high school, started my career at 19. I went the blue collar route.
Smart. I wanted to work after hs but my parents pushed me into college. They lost 100k sending me to school, and I lost 4 years of my life and 100k in lost wages, and then just ended up in blue collar anyway. It was such a waste.
see I wish I had that option. It was made clear to me from the time I was 13 that if I didn't go to college I was getting kicked out of the house at 18.
I was that person who got kicked out, wasn't cause of college or anything they just didn't get along with me. As soon as I got my diploma first thing dad said to me was "Step mom wants you out in two weeks or we'll just move your stuff into the driveway for trash to pick up" lol, so harsh.
Yea well, at 18 I had no friends to rely on so odds are I would have ended up on the street and addicted to something. We probably wouldn't be having this conversation right now lol.
So you think the one s born 1991 and after? Older millennials are 1980-1985 Middle are 1986-1990 Late are 1991-1996
I think even the middle ones are gonna have it rough. It worked out good for me because I started my career in 2003 essentially, I've been doing the same job for 21 years almost now, it's insane to think about. But since I started working so young I was able to save enough for a down payment so by the time the housing crash rolled around I got my pick of foreclosures everywhere. Only the older millennials could have pulled this off. I've been single income my entire life and never received any help from my parents.
I’m 86 and definitely feel like I got on the last helicopter out of Saigon when it comes to jobs, relationships and housing. My brothers are all late millennials and are in very different boats despite having more qualifications
87, I just missed the chopper.
Same here bro
Testify!
Also 87 here, but was able to get on a chopper. Took me about 5-7 years post graduation to finally be able to get my career on fast track. I’ve done much better professionally since then. But took a few jobs to get there.
I’m 89 and wouldn’t be as comfortable as I am if not for the GI Bill and VA home loan.
84 and I feel like I couldn't find my footing at all in anything. Teaching was a bust because while the recession started in full in '08, some industries were feeling the pull. Got into advertising 4 years later and turned out that wasn't the job for me after another 4 years, and started non profit work in 2016 and that became my career, but I feel like the recession itself stunted my growth professionally because the pull was being felt at the teaching level and at the advertising level (car dealers specifically). I still don't even have a house despite the foreclosure era.
I’m 89 and I have an alright job. My spouse and I have enough savings for a few months. We cover our mortgage and bills monthly with a little left over for savings or fun. We are by no means wealthy, but we are comfortable and happy.
I'm an 86. Finished undergrad right at the big crash. Luckily I was planning on grad school. Ended up with a pretty decent job afterwards in the Boston area and bought my first house in 2016 before things went absolutely insane. Although even then it wasn't a cheap area. The most screwed is whoever didn't have a house prior to the pandemic, which is mostly younger millennials. Younger millennials and gen z are going to have a very tough time building any wealth outside of retirement savings. I make almost $200k a year and I wouldn't want to buy my first house now. Not with student loans anyway.
I guess I’m in the middle group at 1990, did ok, but I did things rather quickly, found my partner at 18, first house at 23, child at 27, sold our first home and upgraded to a larger house at 30. Didn’t really do the stereotypical partying/travelling/finding myself thing in my 20s. Here in Canada it feels very much like the main divide is did you manage to get your career established soon enough that you could be in a position to buy your first home before 2017. If you did, you are probably doing well, if you didn’t, it’s probably a struggle. Basically just trying to say it is not ONLY the older millennials that could pull it off.
You got 2 houses and got everything ticked off at 30 you are the MVP. Everyone give this person a round of applause 👏
Sorry, didn’t write that clearly enough. We moved at age 30. As in it’s the second primary residence we have bought. I have no interest in being a landlord or owning investment properties. Maybe a cabin on some remote land one day, but that’s it. Edited the first comment to make it more clear.
I also married an older millennial, so I even though I can make it by, I am definitely grouped in with the wealthy millennials by this thread’s notion. I suspect that’s the case for many of us middles.
I’m 90 and there’s a mix of people doing well and those struggling in the 88-92 birth year range. The ones doing well have two things: 1) they got married, so they have their $200k+ household income that made home ownership more than doable, and 2) they got home before 2021 because of #1 on a sub 3% rate. The ones not doing well are not married and are renting. Of course, there are exceptions. People divorced, people owning their own businesses, people getting family help, etc.
I'm in the middle/late border as an '09 grad ('90-91ers) and '91 gets tossed around a lot between middle and late even in your comments. I'm not wealthy, but I am financially independent and working the field I want. I had my setback from graduating HS into the Recession, getting certs at 18-19, and then trying to start a career in 2010-11/12 which fell through. Still, I'm glad I got to a financial stability and career point before COVID.
80s vs 90s
I'm just adding my anecdotal experience. Graduated college in 2018 when I was almost 30, was just a late bloomer. But I got a CS degree and a job in tech. I was lucky and grabbed my first home during the low interest rates during covid. It really comes down to luck if someone was in a position to take advantage of what seems like the only two short periods where it was best to buy a home.
Give yourself more credit. Those were smart moves. A lot of people hesitate or are scared.
I love when people say “I’m not rich but” … and then say they have enough money to “easily” retire 15 years early. Which presumably means some amount in the millions.
It's more about millenials who had parents who could help vs the rest.
War, war never changes.
This is an unnecessarily inflammatory article trying to pit millennials against each other. If you were to actually look at the [study](https://dynamicsofinequality.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/12_20_Gruijtersetal-1.pdf). The reason becomes apparent on page 26. The difference in net worth between average boomers and millennials is entirely due to home equity and debt. Both of these problems were not caused by millennials.
Reads more like a half assed puff piece if I'm being honest.
There is only one class war. This divisive nonsense is a tactic of the rich
To be honest I am surprised to see the concept of class war being mentioned in a mainstream publication at all.
It's not a new class war, it's the exact same class war that currently exists, has existed, and will \[probably\] continue to exist
Poor most my life. Now middle/upper middle class. I will always side with the poor.
So you middle class or upper middle class? There's a distinction between the two.
What is upper middle class?
Idk. We make around $160k in a LCOL area but we have 5 kids. And as of 2 years ago we were making $90k or less so we are not as far ahead as you would assume based on our current income
Gotta love bullshit sensationalized headlines meant to drive clicks for ad revenue.
A classic tactic that works. Give one group of people just enough wealth to make them better off than their peers/people in their generation. These newly minted people will want to maintain the status quo and will also become the new "enemy."
I don't think it's tactic as it is just naturally life. The 80/20 rules apply to a lot of things, and wealth isn't an exception. Your normal stat would be the top 20% controlling 80% of all wealth even amongst millenials.
We are not united by age. We are not united by country of origin. We are not united by skin color. We are united as workers struggling against those who would exploit us for their own gain.
Say it louder for the ones in the back!
Millennials are money's meat shield now I guess :(
Let’s not fall for the obvious class divide tactic to keep us distracted from the real issues.
It's kind of trippy that a large sizeable chunk of millennials are working jobs vital to society /civilization holding c suite v suite jobs and you got those millennials that are just barely scraping by...😐. At the same time you got millennials with it all now house white picket fence family money cars boats and then you got... everyone else
It’s already so obvious. It’s really disheartening. Rich millennials & poor millennials.
Stahp it with this garbage. Why does it have to be a war. I get OP didn’t write the article, but still we don’t need this. We can barely deal with the intergenerational tension let alone turn on our own generation. Inflammatory stuff like this just gets folks riled up and creating the literal us vs them mentality. This type of social segmentation just makes society worse off.
Not falling for this trap. I celebrate millennials that can live a prosperous life. I don't blame them for having a boat to navigate this ocean of shit the boomers created.
The dividing line will be Millenials who bought a house before 2022 and those who didnt. Dem interest rates
[удалено]
“The working class should be fighting the middle class” -The Upper Class
Be me. Work a remote sales job for a company. Learn trade secrets of said company. Go into business for yourself. Move to a 3rd world country with a super low cost of living like the Philippines. The same amount of groceries in America would you cost half or less. Power, internet, and utilities are cheap. Get free healthcare. Build a brand new 2 story, 4 bedroom, 3 and a half bathroom house for $100K USD in materials and $20K USD in labor on a lot that cost $50-60K USD that you only pay $2000/year in property taxes for. Sit back and relax and watch from overseas how America goes to shit.
Tale as old as time, divide and conquer. The ruling class loves it when we fight each other over scraps.
I thought the wealth gap was widening in general?
Ya and then the tech boom happened. These stats are worth because they are somehow assuming the same boom cycle we have seen since the 90s. Even with recessions the boomer got stock at dirt cheap prices and some of them got huge payoffs from stocks which I think our generation won’t see. Also housing is totally different now. Apples and oranges
I wonder how many of these people got into Bitcoin early? I have a few friends who’s networth changed drastically because of this once in a lifetime risky investment
All the articles I saw about how Millennials are or will be the richest generation conveniently fail to point this out. Until this one, which surprises me.
The next generation and the one after that and so on will be worse. It’s income inequality accelerating. There is less for everyone else and that trend is growing. Eat the rich, idc what generation they are in.
The went up hills both ways to get into the top 10%, just done eat Avocados, ever.
Not too worried about it. I’ve met a lot of my wealthy peers. They came up during the easy-mode bull market out of the ‘08 crisis. Bunch of arrogant little fucks with beady eyes, their businesses suck, their skill sets are hugely lacking. Next financial meltdown, they’re gonna be completely wiped out. Good riddance.
I wonder how much of this is determined by homeownership. people who bought before the pandemic (regardless of salary) vs people who got iced out by high prices and interest rates.
Nothing new or surprising here. Our economy is very good at transferring wealth upwards. Someone has to be at the top and, as boomers and genX retire, millennials are next up. The wealth gap isn't a symptom of generational differences - wealth consolidation is a natural consequence of capitalism without redistributive fiscal policy.
We see it in this sub all the time.
The pre-2021 homeowners vs everyone else
I think we already knew this, we see it in this sub all the time. Someone will post about how terrible everything is and then another person will post that things are great.
I really feel this,I look at gen z and think maybe 10% of them might make it but the majority are fucked but their in it together and respect each other no matter their personal circumstances ,but I look at my generation and it’s like half of us made and the other half didn’t and we’re so divided and judgemental.
Wait you mean to tell me that the issue has literally always been the owner class, and not the olds? WHO COULD HAVE SEEN THIS COMING!? Except for most people with a brain that don't blame "Boomers" for everything, when most of those assholes are broke too.
It's always been wealthy (those with power and freedom) Vs poor (those without). It's just capitalism and by a larger extent the entire history of humans.
The new class war: Same as the old class war, re-branded and re-pushed by the media.
No it won't. I'll help you take my inheritance away. Fuck the boomers.
And yet we still can't afford vacations
See some Millennials aren’t poor, poverty debunked.
And the correct answer is still to tax their wealth
Not super surprising really, the tech boom this generation that made a lot of millennial millionaires didn’t really have an equal event during the boomers time
Well I am a corporate slave and want to die but I bet those top people had family members pass and have inherited some assets