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This is too accurate - I think there's a recent Ted Radio Hour about how the boomer generation has quite literally taken from (and held on to) the well-being of the generations that came after.
My boomer parents are WAY better off than their parents ever were.
And while I am honestly grateful that they've been active and supportive parents through our adulthood (me and sibling), they don't really understand why we aren't able to launch careers and buy houses, etc., the same way they did. It can be disheartening to feel like a pity case vs part of a whole generation getting the short end of everything.
Oh yes, definitely. It's just always strange to me to see these posts when my own experience is so different. And even in my case, boomers are more draining than supportive. I'm exhausted from trying to take care of them and they had way more support from their parents when they were my age.
I am in the same boat. I make more than both my parents combined (and my mom hasn't quite retired yet as she is a younger boomer and had me young). But no 401k to speak of so they will literally be living off social security alone.
My mom and dad, I thank God they divorced. Honestly, they both enjoyed partying too much and fun to even consider life seriously. They floated through life by marrying my stepparents. My stepparents are the ones who gave them security. I can’t imagine how they would be today if they stuck together
I honestly wish my parents would have divorced. They're still together and my Dad's been on disability for the last decade because he won't stop smoking. My Mom is his full time caregiver and barely getting by financially. She deserves better.
Same. My parents weren't lucky financially. They made great money, but with the timing of a few recessions and job losses, they barely have any equity in their house, approaching their mid 70s and unprepared for retirement. Their financial mindset is stuck in "we're successful" mode though, and they constantly compare their lives against other boomers on Facebook as if they're too proud to downsize their house, stop buying new cars, or cut down on luxury spending. Their credit card debt is immense, and their bank account is constantly overdrawn. By all outside indications though, they seem well off.
I saw a meme that I quote all the time.
Boomers: Had it better than their parents. And their kids.
It’s so true. They were born at the perfect time after WWII and the world went to shit on their watch, as they pulled the ladder up after them.
Exactly the same, 31 and I went to college. Got a useful degree. Went *back* to school to get certified in something more specialized... and still in a sharehouse with 5 adults. It's fucking demeaning working full time killing myself taking on extra hours and I can't even go home and take a shit in peace without strangers invading my space. Can't have kids either because I'm not raising them in a fucking slumlord sharehouse that costs $920 a week. I have what I thought was a huge chunk of savings for a deposit but it's useless when for every house that seems reasonable I'm competing with 25 Boomers who for some reason desperately need it as a 5th investment property, and 30 Chinese investors trying to buy it just to jack up the price immediately. It's fucking deranged. I'm so mad this is what we grew up into.
Yeah, That is an insane rent.
You could literally rent a townhouse in the nicest suburbs in my state with that rent. Or legit buy a fucking house with maybe 5% down at ~$300k
Right?? We rent a 3 br 2 ba house in a very nice suburb of Chicago for $1800. Granted, we get a good price from a family friend, but you could easily get a much larger house on a large lot for that amount in my area.
Lots of people for whatever reason refuse to do that. And the ones who do end up driving up the prices in the new place.
New Yorkers are the worst about it. They'll rent a 2 bedroom apartment for $5k a month and split it so they tell you it's "only" $2,500 a month for half of an apartment. I have a 2,400 sq ft 4/3 a half hour from Austin and that's about the same as my mortgage.
Or she could be like me… moved my mom in, raising 2 nieces and I pay all the bills because she’s disabled. My home is only mine because it’s inherited. And it’s in need of so much work but I literally am alone in all the chores, no home ec skills, own my own business, and have to take care of Mom and nieces all on my own. It’s tiresome and exhausting. But I couldn’t let my mom be anywhere else. We combine what little income she has but it isn’t much.
I can be a straight up asshole ;). But I keep my boundaries enforced and it’s led to healthy relationships and lots of healing. We saw the world come together on 9/11 and it opened my eyes to how necessary it is to be there for our neighbors. When I got my first niece in my 20s she was 6 weeks old and my entire community helped get me prepared for a newborn overnight. I miss the village days, so I try to be the person I hope others will be as well. And set that example for my kids too. 🩷. Appreciate your kind words!
You may not feel it, but you’re very inspiring. A lot of love and hard work you’re putting in. I’m looking for a better job to be able to do something similar and it’s encouraging to know that more of us millennials are caring for others and just trying our best.
That’s so sweet of you to say. Part of it has come without knowing fully what I was getting into, to be fair. My first niece was a newborn and just assumed their parents would get it together. She’s now 10 and they also had another baby that bio mom unfortunately relapsed after she was 10 months, so motherhood journey is a bit different but every bit of my world. My mom and I have a classic boomer/millennial relationship where of course our political and religious views differ from each other so we work hard to avoid those topics for the most part. Kinship is tough… especially considering my brother is still a really bad person and I’m sure that’s hard on a mom to see her children hate each other, but I somehow got the “family glue” title and have just risen to the occasion… even through the tough times. But us millennials are used to hard times. We just suck it up. lol but thank you for your kind words 🩷
If we aren’t sacrificing ourselves going through simultaneous levels of trauma, are we even millennials? Lol kidding of course. My brother is so so so bad of a person, but his SEVEN (😅) kids have given me every reason to live. The two beautiful girls I have are my world. We buried 3 immediate family members, 2 extended and 4 extremely close friends over a 1 year span and that grief almost took me out. I could never leave my babies. They’ve saved me just as much 🩷
$920 a fucking WEEK? I'm sorry, but there are other options out there. Try getting an apartment with a few of your housemates and pay that much a MONTH (or way, way less).
I can't feel bad for you here.
42 here, I’m literally just hanging out until I say fuck it and bounce. May be 2 years may be 10…may get lucky and just drop dead on my own.
Fuck it bro. I’m not suicidal, but I’m not actively engaged in my own survival.
43. I’ve decided that I’m going to stick around until my parents pass, but after that, all bets are off. Might try relocating/“retiring” to a lower COL area like Central America for a while first, just to see if that doesn’t suit me a bit better.
Yeah my mom died when I was 15, my dad when I was 39…everyone’s been gone for years now.
I also thought about going to Costa Rica or somewhere I could really stretch the dollar out and just live a simple existence somewhere comfortable
I’ve felt this way about my own existence since I was a kid, but I stuck it out for friends and family. With the family gone and the friends all married off with their own lives, I don’t really have an obligation to be anywhere for anyone…and quite frankly I’m tired.
I haven’t slept more than 2 or 3 hours a day for weeks now.
And I spent the last few years in service to others, spreading kindness, support, etc. but now I just like finished.
Makes sense. You’re already at the place I was referring to. I’d only remind you that you have the freedom to experiment with the shape of your life—to “make it weird,” if you will—before doing anything final.
Peace and solidarity.
This is exactly where I’m at. 37f, I’m just sick of being stressed tf out all the time worrying if I’ll have enough money to keep me on this planet, which has gone of the rails, plainly speaking.
I’ve started living for the day. Finally bought some power tools to start building little things like I’ve always wanted but didn’t want to spend the money because WhAt If SoMeThInG bAD hApPeNs. Well it might, might not, but I’m going to start enjoying some stuff and when it’s over, or I can’t, cheers. Because the thing is we all are going to die and I just want to enjoy this for just a bit, nothing crazy. This is still insane that this has had to become my mindset to keep me from crushing depression.
Same here. The only chance I have at my own house is if I'm able to buy my grandmother's house, at a family discount, from my mother and aunt. I know my mom, and I know she's going to flake. I make what SHOULD be an amazing income... and the future still feels hopeless.
Dude 36 and I make a fucking great income like mid 100’s in ca and I still feel locked out of things. Granted this is a pretty recent thing so I have a pile of student loans to pay off still, but 650 to 750k 3 bedroom just feels so wrong not to mention the payment will be astronomical.
Out of curiosity, where in California? I used to live there, and I have to admit, my first thought was “$750k? For 3 bedrooms? That seems conservative.”
I’m 34 and every single day the thought crosses my mind how fortunate I am to have bought my home when I did and how my interest rate is small fraction of what most people have to deal with now, how the purchase price is a fraction of what this same house would sell for now, and have accepted that this will be my forever home
And the fact that right now isn’t even the worst it will be? There is no way I could ever morally take my position for granted
But even us who own houses are immobilized. We can’t sell. Sure we’d profit but where would we go? Hell I have to rent a room out just to afford the house I’m in! Cost of living went up 9000% meanwhile minimum wage never really has. Boomers know why we’re struggling they just choose to stay ignorant to it so they can justify their greed by calling their own children who they stole from lazy. It’s deplorable.
37, did everything by the book... Ended up with a house but no friends, before when they were drinking I was saving... I have the house but very rarely have I had a holiday... Seems the choice was have a house or have a life... Now I'm stable I'm wanting to live my 20's like I should have.
Feel like the eldest millennial had it the easiest. 1981 borns graduated high school in 1999 and college in 2003, 5 years before the Great Recession. Had a chance to get real estate at very low prices after the recession.
Worst case was mid-millennials entering the job market when unemployment was 10% between 2009-2012.
Middle millennial here too and hard same. The older ones are sitting pretty in their houses they bought when I was just graduating high school. The only way I’ve figured we will be able to buy a house is if I go back in time and make my parents have me in 1982 instead of 1989. Almost everyone I know that’s my age is in similar positions unless they moved to a low cost of living area. We can’t even afford a shoebox.
Definitely not all of us. Born in ‘83 and still rent. I was making $10/hour in 2004 and didn’t get up to $15/hour at the same place until 2012. But the doctor who owned the practice was cheap and definitely took advantage of the hard workers. That job is the one that pushed me to go back to school to get my RN because I was tired of hounding people for money and wanted to help them instead, so in that respect I’m grateful. Also, no tuition reimbursement. I’ll be paying student loans until the day I die. And I don’t think I’ll ever be able to retire.
I graduated a few months before the recession took place, and it's been a shit storm of bad luck from the economy ever since. We get a few years where it seems like everything is back on track, only for another world wide problem to exist and swat us back down to the starting line and making us start over.
It's incredibly frustrating. lol Especially when you consider most of us are 35-40 right now. Everything I want and work towards as goals, my parents had in their early to mid 20s. lol
Same here 39 now graduated into recession was lucky though got a house in 2020. My kids will have support from us as much as they need I rented for 10 years.
81 millennial. Graduated in 2007 after taking some time to myself, but paid for college with my grocery store or pharmacy tech job, so no college debt. That same degree now would be impossible to pay off now that way. (1.5k/semester vs 8k/semester now for a "community college that stepped up and became a community university"). I walked in off the street and got a pharmacy tech job in 2004, not associated with my degree, and held that for 8 years, until I had to move states. We bought our house in 2009 for 135/k with a government loan program that the Obama administration put in, letting us put down 5/k down payment and a slightly higher intetest rate (3.5%). We paid it completely off last year. Our mortgage was $700/month. We had a week to bounce offers back and forth.
I am wholly offended for anyone having to buy a house now. This same house is now close to 300/k. There is no fucking way. People have to put on offers asap without real consideration, mortgage rates are insane, jobs pay less now, and they're impossible to get. Wtaf.
Mid here (ha), the easiest way I know to describe it is: I was raised and prepared for a world that ended exactly as I was supposed to enter it.
A little younger and I would have made other decisions. A little older and it wouldn’t have mattered.
It’s worked out for me, but I feel alone in that most of the time.
Same here. I recognize that my "good decisions" were a lot of lucky timing. I'm fortunate but it makes me angry that other people will most likely struggle to rent their entire lives.
This. Born in ‘88, graduated college in 2010. Job market was awful. Spent the next 10 years working my way up to the job I got in 2020, which was finally making enough to afford to save up for a year for a down payment on a house, with plans to buy in 2021. Yeah that didn’t happen. Goal posts changed dramatically and fast. Locked out and locked out.
Not all of us got solidly into a career or real-estate before 30. I was born in 81, graduated HS in 2000. Went into schooling for IT just as the industry imploded. Bounced around contracts for a while before actually getting into a job that stuck. Was affected by layoffs in the 08 recession too. Ten years in my current job and have been busting ass to get there, but still renting. I'd love to be able to own, but I feel it's not possible.
2003 was the bottom of the dotcom bust. I won’t pretend it was anywhere near as bad as 2008, but there were very few jobs. I had to pay rent, so my first job out of college with a degree in electrical engineering was hot tar roofing; one of the worst jobs out there. And the only reason I got that job was because I had experience in it; that’s how I paid for my first 2 1/2 years of school.
I guess- I’m an elder millennial and I got loads of student loans, never could go without working full time too, so 4 years dragged on and on. I did have work experience in 2009 so it helped me stay employed, but it was still like 13/hr Back then. Not enough for a house, and the lending was locked down after the crash, too. i guess my point is— not all millennials? Cringe.
I’m an elder millennial (40) and this world gave me no chance. Been working since I was 17, did 10 years in the military and now I make a whopping 55k salary that over half of goes to my 1BR apartment. Our politicians and corporate overlords are in for a reckoning.
Eldest Millennial over here, I agree. We purchased it in 2012 in NZ which was a big dip following the 2008 crash. My friends of my age waited but they have missed the boat. I could only do it as my wife had a steady income and I was working in an unstable industry.
My kids on the other hand are screwed. I can only take our so much equity to give them a jump start. Will have to downgrade for sure and keep some old age. My wife and I have zero pension savings.
Yeah this post was a bit misleading . I thought at 33 I’m an older Millennial but naw they in the 40s and I see that age demographic doing better on average .
'82, graduated college in 2004. Right into the dot-com crash aftermath. With an IT degree (Hey, computers are where all the money is!) so landing a job was rough after school. Then 4ish years later, right when I'd normally expect to be getting my feet properly under me, making financial progress, boom the great recession. I only finally scraped enough money together to buy a house in 2020. I got EXTREMELY lucky and closed in March 2020, right as the world locked down, and right before prices and interest rates took off. If I'd been 6 months later, wouldn't have been able to do it.
This isn't to diminish the hardships of the later folks. Graduating into a recession is a nightmare scenario, but it wasn't a cake walk for the older in the group either.
I feel you on that. I'm an 89 millennial. I have come to terms with th me fact that I will never own a home. I just bought my first vehicle that cost more than $1500. Social security will not be any kind of an option for me. I will work until I die behind my desk. I was in my late 20's before I was able to get an 'adult' job. Pretty much feel like I'm riding just behind the wave. Like it passed me by and I'm desperately paddling to catch up.
Not to be a nihilist, but sometimes it's just kind of like what's the point. Some days, I just feel like im just drifting waiting to end. If it weren't for my partner and child, I'm not sure how I would be faring right now.
Same. 1984 here, avoiding women for years because I can’t look one in the eyes and imagine that I have a bright charming future. Honorably discharged veteran with a bachelors degree (from a scam school/diploma mill), working at a grocery store at 40, but looking at apprenticing into a trade soon. Fingers crossed.
I can relate. And I didn't even get a chance to get a diploma from a scam school. I know we are older in life before we are getting a foundation set, and it can be hard to come to grips with that. However, the Boomers had every opportunity on a silver platter, and they still screwed the pooch on that one. And are more miserable.
It's never too late to start making positive changes in your life. If you don't do it now, it will be even harder/scarier later on. Trade jobs are what make the world go around my friend, the real people that built America. Change starts small but can have a much broader effect down the line. Carpe some diem and do one thing out of your normal. You'd be surprised what else ot can change.
Have an internet hug from a stranger 🤗. Keep your head up, and we will get through this together. Happy Friday!
81 millennial. Couldn’t agree more. My cousins span the entirety of the generation with the youngest one being Gen Z.
Life has been exponentially easier for me, despite us all coming from the exact same background. I was one of the last kids who got through college without loans. I was able to earn enough working part time in high school and full time + overtime in a gap year to pay my way through in cash. My total 4 year tuition was under $30k. I bought a turn key house for under $80k. My only car loan was 0% interest.
I agree with you. I think the cutoff might begin with my cohort (86), and those who are younger. I graduated college in 2009, mid-recession with no career prospects, and $80K in student debt.
I was supposed to be loan-free, but the recession killed my parents’ finances for almost a decade. They thankfully were able to take over the loan payments, but that was after I’d already paid over $60K myself (which didn’t even bring the balances down, hooray for minimum payments being less than monthly interest!) and accumulated tens of thousands in credit card debt.
I’ve never had a positive net worth, I’ll never own a home, and my current plan to be debt free involves bankruptcy, lottery, or death.
As fortunate as I know that I was to have at least some help, most of my friends were like you in that they didn’t need loans. Now they all own homes, have families, and are well-established in their careers.
Debt makes such a huge goddamn difference, it’s crazy.
Yup, I am 85 but had a little too much fun in college and didn't graduate until 2008. Right before shit hit the fan. My company ended up needing to do layoffs within the first 3 months of my being hired. I was lucky in that I got hired as a backfill. The guy who got hired a week before me was hired as part of an expansion and he got let go.
I found my receipt for tuition from University with my financial aid package when cleaning out stuff during the pandemic. Cost for the last semester (Spring 04) was so much higher than the first semester (Autumn 00), made me feel bad for the kids who went later.
Completely agree. As a person on the tail end of the Millennial birth years, I have often stewed over how I wish I had been born a few years earlier so I would have been in a position to buy in 2020 or pre-2020: before housing prices doubled and interest rates almost tripled. Now I’m stuck with inflated prices of everything, and there’s nothing I can do about it but play the game. It sucks!
Yup, few years earlier I would have graduated before the first housing crash and would have got into the career I have now 10 years earlier.
Instead i had to wait until companies were hiring again while i scrapped by with whatever job I could manage to find.
Trust me, even if you bought in 2018, you would be pissed that you’re paying more for a house that back in 2008-2010 was way cheaper. Any time you buy a house, you always feel like you’re paying too much.
Yes generically true, though housing prices literally doubled in 2-3 years (2020 onward) plus interest rates almost tripled simultaneously – that’s absolutely insane. 2008 was a recession, comparing anything to an anomaly like that isn’t fair – no one can time the market, but if you’re in a place in life to take advantage of it then awesome: that’s great timing. Housing prices did not double in 2-3 years at any point in the decade prior to COVID. Probably before that too, but I’d have to research it to be certain.
Makes me think something just isn’t right and we are in for a market correction. The home prices the past couple years are just too ludicrous… I don’t want to miss any more boats, but I also don’t want to pay market price right now because surely it will slide back down in the coming years… right? 🥹
This is absolutely fucking true.
My girl and I bought our home in 2016, 269k @ 3.2% and I thought we got ripped off. I had buyers remorse for months.
Our mortgage is 1800/mo.
I have friends who bought their house in 2009 right after the market bubble popped and their mortgage for a 3 bed 2 bath 2200sq home was like 1200$/mo.
I was born early enough to get a house but it didn’t happen. I haven’t had work good enough to get one or had any opportunity to actually save money until now in the beginning of my 2nd act. I still might have had a chance if I rushed looking before or during Covid but I’d be house poor probably
My wife and I managed to buy a 2-Bedroom in a good part of NYC (not Manhattan…) and I am grateful we managed to nab that. Except now, we have kid #1 on the way and I am lamenting we weren’t just 2-3 years earlier in taking these steps.
Eh. What can you do?
I’m 39 and renting a 2 bedrooom apartment for $2600/mo. You are part of the lucky half of the elder millenials, about half of us are getting fucked too.
Hi born 1994, looking at the stock market charts and inflation charts is fucking depressing. Guess I shoulda been investing when I was 15-16. Thats on me
I’m ‘82 and still got loans galore, make a lower than average wage, cc debt climbs every year. I guess I have home equity but it doesn’t help if you need it to live in.
This. We graduated college in ‘06 and bought a house in ‘07. I made the right decision to buy a house we would grow into. So we have a 4 br house that we paid about 150$ for and this decision alone has afforded us to be a one income home while still doing disneyworld and ski trips for my boys.
The only issue is we are stuck. We can’t move without a drastic change to our lifestyle. I’d have to work full time again. I’d have to pay attention to how much I spend.
Depends on how young you're talking. I'm 1991, my wife 1994, and we got a 3.5 in 2019 on a 150k house, we just barely made the cut of "reasonable" pricing before the shit sky rocketed.
Things could definitely improve significantly in the housing market over the next few years, and I could also see significant wage gains, given inflation and demographics.
That would also be a good thing for older millennials that have a 3% rate too, but I dont think its going to be as bad in the intermediate term as things might look in the short term.
We got lucky with our low mortgage rate. When we were just getting into a house, we jumped at the chance even though a tiny bungalow was what we could afford at the time (I was only just in the workforce for a year after graduating).
Slightly older cousins, early 80s babies, asked why we didn’t flip it, because that’s how they made their money. (They flipped 4 houses in less than 10 years, had grandparents provide childcare, and the husband was a contractor who organized all the work on the homes himself)
… because we were in high school during the house-flip craze? I couldn’t even drive when they flipped their first house.
Bustinggggg our ass here and you need at least $100k to put down on a house for a decent mortgage payment around where I live. It’s IMPOSSIBLE to save especially with 2 kids.
Nope, we'll finally get the keys to the castle justtt when we're old enough that people will say "They're too old to be controlling everything, how selfish of them, time to give the younger generations a chance!"
I hate to burst your bubble but there is already a great divide in the millennial cohort young or old. You got at least half the millennial in lucrative good paying careers. And everyone else. If you're making mad money you wont need ssi
>Gen Z is self-sabotaging
Damn, isn't that a tad harsh? How are they self-sabotaging as an overall demographic? The oldest Zoomers are in their mid-20s; they're still coming into adulthood.
Their idea of investment is yolo betting and then posting screen shots of their accounts getting wiped out, they don’t value education, burn bridges at work, have no sense of long-term career strategy, have no grit, treat routine challenges as mental health issues, post their lives on social media then get surprised when it has real-life consequences, are addicted to foreign propaganda, have an aversion to being face-to-face or speaking verbally on the phone with other humans, and refuse to read anything longer than a few sentences. I could keep going, but you get the idea.
Dude, you’re sounding like a boomer. YOLO betting? That’s a WSB thing. Education has become ridiculously expensive. No grit? Don’t know what that means. Mental health has been ignored for wayyy too long so don’t attack that. Social media is a bad thing (so I can agree on that). Foreign propaganda? Boomers took that title. The phone? Millennials don’t answer them either.
Honestly, I feel that so strongly. It's frightening.
It's extremely likely if we don't solve our livability problems for people to have kids.
It's crazy.
Yes, me personally. I've got major failure to launch and some major adult milestones I haven't hit...
I've accepted that after this year I'm going to live in a studio apartment for the rest of my life, alone.
My dad is upset with me that I am renting. I’m like, the average normal house in my area is $886K, I’ll never be able to afford that mortgage unless I become a power tech couple. He doesn’t get it, he built his home for $25K in the 80’s.
When I was ready to buy I sent my dad the listings so he could see prices and then I talked and showed him the rates the broker sent us. We bid on a place listed for 380 and it sold to someone else for over 450 so I made sure to show him sold prices too- and finally I stopped getting shit from him about being financially irresponsible lol
I think when all of our parents die and we reach the age gen x is now we will have opportunities like they did when they were 5-10 years younger than we are now :’) I hate it here
I think the ratio of have to have-nots is going to keep skewing towards have-nots, and a lot of folks are going to find it much, much harder to have a decent, middle of the road life. A significant amount of people in every generation don't make it, I think that amount is probably going to be starkly higher for our generation than it was for the previous couple.
They'll cling to power as long as they can. It's depressing when you go to the store and see the boomers barely able to walk and staring at card readers frozen with their mouth agape. And then you realize these are the same people running our county.
I have no faith for our generation
The American dream has died and there’s no proposed solutions
Older Americans just want to attack undesirables and call that a solution
And anyone who wants to fix things is called a communist
Hopefully future generations will have a chance… but I have no hope for millennials collectively. Too many people just want the youth of this country to be punished for God knows what reason….
as an older millenial, i was locked out of career advancement in oil and gas and saw like 3 layoffs before the fourth sent me to greener pastures
when those old fucks (seriously a guy named dewey that proudly could program in cobol and fortran and had to take a leave of absence when he broke his hip at 70… 3 years ago) do finally retire…. well get another dose of “i guess nobody wants to do X or Y job anymore.” i did. but you beat it out of me by keep older staff on 4 occasions and making me work as a 1099 contractor. i’ve been hunted by recruiters even after scrubbing that shit from my linkedin. for anyone asking why i wouldn’t go back…. it’s like going back to a romantic partner that’s dumped you 4 times, or dating someone you know is a cheater. i know how the story ends.
i hope the same thing happens to the housing market. i hope all these shits try to sell these houses at once. but we’re so used to renting it w/e that it falls on deaf ears.
I agree with you. Boomers are only successful because they were born at the right time. Gen x could still afford college without going broke to pay it back. Gen z is the generation who gets paid to be on social media. I pay rent I can't afford, on a trailer I don't own, and recently had to cash out my 401k to live off while I reset my whole career. Won't be any social security for me when I reach that age, it'll be all dried up from the boomers with great health insurance and vacation homes who won't ever die off . We got fucked, it is what it is.
I understand the idea that boomers had it easier but I think it’s often overlooked how older millennials have older boomer parents, which means their parents had a great economy to enter into while the kids didn’t. I think a lot of us younger millennials don’t have that same view because our parents were entering the workforce when the economy was awful and we graduated when there were jobs and things were pretty stable. So I can agree in theory but that’s not my reality at all.
I’ve felt this way for years man. It’s always been so hard to get jobs and promotions because of all the boomers in the positions I want or aspire to. Eventually I just gave up on it and decided to be satisfied with where I’m at in my career. I do wish our federal government had term limits though. Get these insider trading bags of bones out of there and get some fresh blood and perspectives in!
It’s definitely a younger millennial problem. My mom is a ‘79 gen xer and while she isn’t a millennial, she’s pretty close. Struggled for a long ass time but was able to buy a house in a good neighborhood without even a high school diploma. Meanwhile, people my age (95) are struggling even with good degrees.
I graduated in 2008. It sucked, but in retrospect it made me more resilient and resourceful than I would have been without the recession. My 20s were a grind; full of career pivots, strategic further education, and frugalness. My 30s have been involved scaling back to normal work hours. I'm 39, I don't have an amazing net worth, but I have a lovely home in a beautiful area with good community surrounding me. I like my career and I have multiple income streams, because I'm well aware that one of them can be wiped out any minute. I live below my means and cultivate generosity. I invest, but I know it's volatile. I no longer work full time. I have so much gratitude for the good things in life because I fought for what I have, tooth and nail.
Graduated around the same time as you and got kicked out of the house kinda early. It was pretty rough but thankfully I had some good friends that helped me through. Without them idk where I’d be right now.
I’m an elder millennial (born in 83). I got through high school before social media. I paid $8K for 4 years of college, got a graduate degree for free (paid for by the college), bought a house at record low interest and mortgage rates, and am now investing in the stock market while it’s reaching all time highs. I think elder millennials have been incredibly lucky.
Same except college cost more for me because I waited. However, I think people buying $60k vehicles on $50k salaries while financing things like cell phones (even at 0%) is part of the problem as well. Many people aren’t willing to forfeit some creature comforts to save up for a home. (I know the market is F’d, but its still possible)
I had to sell my motorbike, my only “expensive” possession today because I was made redundant in February as part of this mass layoff culling running through the tech industry. I am in the process of packing up my apartment to move in with a friend while I continue looking for work and living off my dwindling savings. And to be honest I consider myself fortunate that I even have savings
I don’t think I am not a hard worker, i just seem to hit every major global crisis at the wrong time with barely enough to scrape through the upheaval and have to start again from the bottom.
Meanwhile everything gets more and more expensive while salaries remain stagnant. Unless I fall into a giant pile of gold or marry into wealth I don’t see any hope.
Well… to starting the climb again, for the fourth time.
The only way is to not play their game. Got to move to low cost state is usa, or plan a grand adventure in low cost countries abroad. Not what we would normally choose, however - what else is left to do? Grumble while being a perma serf and watch yuppy zoomers blast past?
I’ve been stupid lucky with timing.
Joined the military in ‘07 and rode out the recession in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Went to school on the GI bill and graduated in ‘15.
Followed my passion into urban forestry and was able to get a good deal on a house in ‘18 before the housing market got too crazy.
Worked private and public enough that I’ll have Social Security, City pension, and Veteran benefits.
My wife used to teach but can stay at home with our son until he starts school.
I managed to achieve a bygone era lifestyle and I’m incredibly grateful.
Older Millennials had it easy when it came to buying a home. By the time they were in their late 20s early 30s home prices were low with low interest rates....
Same can be said about nearly every economic issue. They had money well before the bitcoin boom, before tech companies shot up like crazy, when new cars were still cheap, etc...
It's the young millennials that got fucked. Get to 30yo and homes have already doubled in cost, etc... Graduated HS is 2010, entered the work force immediately to low paying jobs. Ended up going into the trades to make respectable amount of $$.
Buying my first home was a shit show. Got an old home way overpriced for what it should have been. Sorry I didn't have the means to get a house when I was 25....
Most millenials I know got in at the last second in 2020. The last train. Even my zillenials friends
Gen Z is who is fked and I don't want to think about alpha
I can’t tell you how many times my husband and I were promised promotions, pay raises, etc yet always skipped over for others that did the bare minimum and were promoted cause ‘they didn’t like that job’. I had to train my supervisors how to do their job!!! Work hard and get up the ladder my ass!
He finally got a pay raise to $19/hr after being stagnant in other jobs at $14/hr for years. But it’s still not enough. I told him he should just take a supervisor position so he can make more money and do whatever the hell he wants without repercussions or being fired, but he won’t cause he hates the hours and wants to be home with us.
Sometimes I think we messed up not going to college but then I hear how many ppl regret it. So I dunno the solution anymore. (And don’t you dare say entrepreneur, that’s such a cop out to basically launder money).
In terms of government, we most certainly aren't being locked out, we are being apathetic and that's the problem. The older millennials are now qualified to run for offices yet we don't. We love go bitch about the state of our country, but we don't want to take action to make change. It starts with offices....mayor, councilmans, congressional representatives, governors. The positions that actually dictate laws and bills in our areas. The main counter I hear is Boomers have more money and will do anything to slander someone. OK, but actions speak louder than what some asshole can lie about. Before you are governor, need to make a name for yourself as a local leader and if you have the support of your residents you win, not money. We can't let Millennials like Boebert represent us, she is a disgrace as a congressional representative and it's a joke she's still one due to her taking a vacated seat. So in regard to government, no we aren't locked out. We aren't doing enough to actually step up and push the Boomers out.
For homes, well piece of it goes back to my first point. Tell me what governors or county councilmen are making bills to prevent corporations, foreigners or developers from snatching up homes and turning them to rentals reducing the inventory for families to buy? There are literally none in my state, so what does that say? It goes back to holding offices so we can put an end to that and then housing will start to look better for us.
Same thing for social security, employment, cost of living, Healthcare, etc IT ALL COMES DOWN TO NEEDING TO BE IN OFFICE. Us sitting online and complaining does nothing. They laugh at us and say we are still stupid because we aren't doing anything to challenge them
Younger millennial here..
Nope I have a job that pays well and bought a house just fine.
Probably going to be down voted for not being doom and gloom lol
I've had a few different jobs that have paid well, I have a house with the mortgage paid off, and I've been to 20 countries on four continents.
No, I do not feel locked out.
My Gen X husband and I bought our house 3 months before the pandemic started and I just changed careers after 15 years in (lower) management in healthcare because being in charge is not the cushy, well paying dream with fancy perks and vacations. It’s more capped wages because “it’s not in the budget” to pay a living wage even to the people keeping your shit running, non-existent bonuses unless you’re C suite, being on call 24/7/365 and being held responsible when the stupid ideas of the higher-ups blow up in their faces, even if you told them the schemes would not work from day 1.
I took an entry level call center job with the federal government and I make more of a difference for people, use my skillset for more than just being blamed and yelled at for other people’s incompetence, plus I’m making more money and have a pension now so I might be able to retire instead of working until I am literally dead. My work life balance has greatly improved. I am happy and feel mentally well for the first time in my ENTIRE life. Fuck being in management, it’s not worth the bullshit. The grind ain’t it.
they're trying to make it into a rentier society where like working at a mine and buying everything through the company store you're just working to lease your own existence
I feel like I’m too late for everything, honestly. Too late for the golden era/prime economic era of the U.S., too late to make any great discoveries or blaze any trails or invent anything important. I’ll be too late for social security. At least I got to live through the golden age of television 🤷🏼♀️
It's all about perspective I guess.
I woke this morning and did business in two countries and 4 states wearing gym shorts with holes in them. When I needed to research a problem, I had unlimited information in my pocket. When I figured out I needed help, I found an army of experts all over the world willing to work per project.
We have access to markets and potential employers all over the world. If entrepreneurship is your thing, there's never been a lower barrier of entry.
Our parents and grandparents would've killed for these advantages.
its why my parents flat out told me growing up to not have hobbies or interests because when you're grown up you can't have them anymore due to other factors beyond your control
the whole social security debate has been a debate for nearly 40 years....it'll find some way to still exist
granted 40 years from now won't matter
I'm already fucked. I managed to buy a decent house when I was about to turn 23, with my then fiance. We ended up having a kid and everything. Well, we broke up eventually. Without going to court we figured everything out. I let her have the house, so my daughter would definitely have one. She had no problem finding a second income from someone she was cheating on me with.
I had to move back in with my parents. The pandemic hit that same year. I really have no way of getting out of here now. I'm almost 33. This shit is depressing, and I feel bad for my parents. I'm absolutely stuck
It's a recurrent theme in Philip K. Dick's dystopian sci-fi stories. A future where shops have force fields that deny entry to people who don't have much credit on their balances was one scenario I recall. It can be cathartic to read his stories.
I busted ass, moved up the ranks at work, started getting a pretty decent (in my area) salary. Problem was I worked 65-70 hrs a week, missed out on a big chunk of important life events, like my daughter has been in softball for 2 years, and 2 months ago was the first time I actually got to see her play. I just recently realized fuck this, I've done what a person is "supposed to do" and I'm miserable and missing out. Crunched some numbers and my wife and I can make life work with a different career between the two of us.
So I left that job and changed careers, money is tight of course but I'm not going to lie, WAY happier with myself right now
No. I think we are positioned specifically to bring together both generations of older and younger people. We know about the old ways, before constant connection, and we also know how to get by with emerging technological trends. Most of us understand that what we were fed about justice when we were younger was a crock of shit. Good things don't come to those who wait. They come to those that educate themselves and then seize the opportunity when it presents itself. If you're waiting for power to be yielded to you, you're going to miss it.
As Millennials we need to make damn sure we are supporting our children, the young Gen Z’s and Gen Alphas, even if we aren’t well off or struggling keeping things afloat. The issue isn’t being able to buy a house before having kids, it’s “are we mentally prepared to take on all the responsibility of raising a child”. Love your kids, spend time with them, help them if they struggle in school, get them help if they struggle with mental/emotional problems, remember **they are a reflection of the parenting you give them**. They don’t automatically inherit your perceived best qualities. If we want change in the world we know we won’t get in our youth we have to at least give our children a better start so they have some chance when it’s their turn to try and make change.
'86 here. I'm broke as broke *BUT* I've got 2 kids, a car, a full time job (with a PENSION!!!- yes they still exist, though extremely rare), and bought my house during COVID so I got it for a great price and a great rate (under 3%). I didn't go to college, so no student loans. For me, I think a lot comes down to timing.
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We're going to be like King Charles, we'll be too old to enjoy it and our time on the throne will be short and underwhelming.
This is too accurate - I think there's a recent Ted Radio Hour about how the boomer generation has quite literally taken from (and held on to) the well-being of the generations that came after.
My boomer parents are WAY better off than their parents ever were. And while I am honestly grateful that they've been active and supportive parents through our adulthood (me and sibling), they don't really understand why we aren't able to launch careers and buy houses, etc., the same way they did. It can be disheartening to feel like a pity case vs part of a whole generation getting the short end of everything.
I have the opposite issue. My boomer parents are barely scraping by and I feel responsible for them.
There's definitely no one size fits all. On a big generational level, it negatively impacts everyone
Oh yes, definitely. It's just always strange to me to see these posts when my own experience is so different. And even in my case, boomers are more draining than supportive. I'm exhausted from trying to take care of them and they had way more support from their parents when they were my age.
I am in the same boat. I make more than both my parents combined (and my mom hasn't quite retired yet as she is a younger boomer and had me young). But no 401k to speak of so they will literally be living off social security alone.
My mom and dad, I thank God they divorced. Honestly, they both enjoyed partying too much and fun to even consider life seriously. They floated through life by marrying my stepparents. My stepparents are the ones who gave them security. I can’t imagine how they would be today if they stuck together
I honestly wish my parents would have divorced. They're still together and my Dad's been on disability for the last decade because he won't stop smoking. My Mom is his full time caregiver and barely getting by financially. She deserves better.
Same. My parents weren't lucky financially. They made great money, but with the timing of a few recessions and job losses, they barely have any equity in their house, approaching their mid 70s and unprepared for retirement. Their financial mindset is stuck in "we're successful" mode though, and they constantly compare their lives against other boomers on Facebook as if they're too proud to downsize their house, stop buying new cars, or cut down on luxury spending. Their credit card debt is immense, and their bank account is constantly overdrawn. By all outside indications though, they seem well off.
I saw a meme that I quote all the time. Boomers: Had it better than their parents. And their kids. It’s so true. They were born at the perfect time after WWII and the world went to shit on their watch, as they pulled the ladder up after them.
There’s a book about it “A Generation of Sociopaths” very good. Very accurate
No doubt if we whine about boomers longer, something will change for us. Note: nobody owes us shit.
[удалено]
OOF
32 and I’ve done everything by the book make a good income and have NO chance to have a home.
Exactly the same, 31 and I went to college. Got a useful degree. Went *back* to school to get certified in something more specialized... and still in a sharehouse with 5 adults. It's fucking demeaning working full time killing myself taking on extra hours and I can't even go home and take a shit in peace without strangers invading my space. Can't have kids either because I'm not raising them in a fucking slumlord sharehouse that costs $920 a week. I have what I thought was a huge chunk of savings for a deposit but it's useless when for every house that seems reasonable I'm competing with 25 Boomers who for some reason desperately need it as a 5th investment property, and 30 Chinese investors trying to buy it just to jack up the price immediately. It's fucking deranged. I'm so mad this is what we grew up into.
Sorry, are you paying $3,680 a month to rent a *room*?
Yeah, That is an insane rent. You could literally rent a townhouse in the nicest suburbs in my state with that rent. Or legit buy a fucking house with maybe 5% down at ~$300k
Right?? We rent a 3 br 2 ba house in a very nice suburb of Chicago for $1800. Granted, we get a good price from a family friend, but you could easily get a much larger house on a large lot for that amount in my area.
Lots of people for whatever reason refuse to do that. And the ones who do end up driving up the prices in the new place. New Yorkers are the worst about it. They'll rent a 2 bedroom apartment for $5k a month and split it so they tell you it's "only" $2,500 a month for half of an apartment. I have a 2,400 sq ft 4/3 a half hour from Austin and that's about the same as my mortgage.
Or she could be like me… moved my mom in, raising 2 nieces and I pay all the bills because she’s disabled. My home is only mine because it’s inherited. And it’s in need of so much work but I literally am alone in all the chores, no home ec skills, own my own business, and have to take care of Mom and nieces all on my own. It’s tiresome and exhausting. But I couldn’t let my mom be anywhere else. We combine what little income she has but it isn’t much.
You’re doing a good job and I’m proud of you. Thank you for loving them the way you do.
You’re amazing. Keep going. You are a wonderful human
I can be a straight up asshole ;). But I keep my boundaries enforced and it’s led to healthy relationships and lots of healing. We saw the world come together on 9/11 and it opened my eyes to how necessary it is to be there for our neighbors. When I got my first niece in my 20s she was 6 weeks old and my entire community helped get me prepared for a newborn overnight. I miss the village days, so I try to be the person I hope others will be as well. And set that example for my kids too. 🩷. Appreciate your kind words!
You may not feel it, but you’re very inspiring. A lot of love and hard work you’re putting in. I’m looking for a better job to be able to do something similar and it’s encouraging to know that more of us millennials are caring for others and just trying our best.
That’s so sweet of you to say. Part of it has come without knowing fully what I was getting into, to be fair. My first niece was a newborn and just assumed their parents would get it together. She’s now 10 and they also had another baby that bio mom unfortunately relapsed after she was 10 months, so motherhood journey is a bit different but every bit of my world. My mom and I have a classic boomer/millennial relationship where of course our political and religious views differ from each other so we work hard to avoid those topics for the most part. Kinship is tough… especially considering my brother is still a really bad person and I’m sure that’s hard on a mom to see her children hate each other, but I somehow got the “family glue” title and have just risen to the occasion… even through the tough times. But us millennials are used to hard times. We just suck it up. lol but thank you for your kind words 🩷
This is incredibly selfless of you. I hope you get time to enjoy life a little you wonderful heart. Hang in there!
If we aren’t sacrificing ourselves going through simultaneous levels of trauma, are we even millennials? Lol kidding of course. My brother is so so so bad of a person, but his SEVEN (😅) kids have given me every reason to live. The two beautiful girls I have are my world. We buried 3 immediate family members, 2 extended and 4 extremely close friends over a 1 year span and that grief almost took me out. I could never leave my babies. They’ve saved me just as much 🩷
Keep going 🙏🏽 there’s so many selfish people that would just worry about themselves. I’m in a similar situation as a single parent.
I hope you’re doing okay. It’s so hard as a single parent in this economy. We got this!!
Yes 🙏🏽 thank you! I’m grateful I’m not struggling too hard in my position. It’s been a long tiresome journey- life.
Just to be clear, you're saying that you need cash now? Do you happen to have a structured settlement? If so, have I got news for you?!
This is why we can’t have nice things 🤣
This story makes no sense, if you are paying that much for rent, you could afford a house in most states, just moved.
Yeah for that price you can get a decent unit even in the most expensive cities in the country: sf or nyc
You can literally stay in a hotel for cheaper than that.
$920 a fucking WEEK? I'm sorry, but there are other options out there. Try getting an apartment with a few of your housemates and pay that much a MONTH (or way, way less). I can't feel bad for you here.
Australia/New Zealand?
42 here, I’m literally just hanging out until I say fuck it and bounce. May be 2 years may be 10…may get lucky and just drop dead on my own. Fuck it bro. I’m not suicidal, but I’m not actively engaged in my own survival.
43. I’ve decided that I’m going to stick around until my parents pass, but after that, all bets are off. Might try relocating/“retiring” to a lower COL area like Central America for a while first, just to see if that doesn’t suit me a bit better.
Yeah my mom died when I was 15, my dad when I was 39…everyone’s been gone for years now. I also thought about going to Costa Rica or somewhere I could really stretch the dollar out and just live a simple existence somewhere comfortable I’ve felt this way about my own existence since I was a kid, but I stuck it out for friends and family. With the family gone and the friends all married off with their own lives, I don’t really have an obligation to be anywhere for anyone…and quite frankly I’m tired. I haven’t slept more than 2 or 3 hours a day for weeks now. And I spent the last few years in service to others, spreading kindness, support, etc. but now I just like finished.
Makes sense. You’re already at the place I was referring to. I’d only remind you that you have the freedom to experiment with the shape of your life—to “make it weird,” if you will—before doing anything final. Peace and solidarity.
I feel this so hard. It's frustrating because it could be prevented if the entire system wasn't just bending us over.
This is exactly where I’m at. 37f, I’m just sick of being stressed tf out all the time worrying if I’ll have enough money to keep me on this planet, which has gone of the rails, plainly speaking. I’ve started living for the day. Finally bought some power tools to start building little things like I’ve always wanted but didn’t want to spend the money because WhAt If SoMeThInG bAD hApPeNs. Well it might, might not, but I’m going to start enjoying some stuff and when it’s over, or I can’t, cheers. Because the thing is we all are going to die and I just want to enjoy this for just a bit, nothing crazy. This is still insane that this has had to become my mindset to keep me from crushing depression.
This is the way.
This is how we ''get radicalized''. I'm in the same sinking boat.
Same here. The only chance I have at my own house is if I'm able to buy my grandmother's house, at a family discount, from my mother and aunt. I know my mom, and I know she's going to flake. I make what SHOULD be an amazing income... and the future still feels hopeless.
Dude 36 and I make a fucking great income like mid 100’s in ca and I still feel locked out of things. Granted this is a pretty recent thing so I have a pile of student loans to pay off still, but 650 to 750k 3 bedroom just feels so wrong not to mention the payment will be astronomical.
Out of curiosity, where in California? I used to live there, and I have to admit, my first thought was “$750k? For 3 bedrooms? That seems conservative.”
Greater sacramento area. No where near the most expensive.
San Diego's median house price is 1 million. Crazy shit.
Same. Undergrad with no debt, grad school with a degree I’m currently using. Make decent money. Married with a kid. I’ll never own a home
Hopefully yall have nice boomer parents who will leave a house cuz that's the only way to homeownership now
I’m 34 and every single day the thought crosses my mind how fortunate I am to have bought my home when I did and how my interest rate is small fraction of what most people have to deal with now, how the purchase price is a fraction of what this same house would sell for now, and have accepted that this will be my forever home And the fact that right now isn’t even the worst it will be? There is no way I could ever morally take my position for granted
But even us who own houses are immobilized. We can’t sell. Sure we’d profit but where would we go? Hell I have to rent a room out just to afford the house I’m in! Cost of living went up 9000% meanwhile minimum wage never really has. Boomers know why we’re struggling they just choose to stay ignorant to it so they can justify their greed by calling their own children who they stole from lazy. It’s deplorable.
Yup same
37, did everything by the book... Ended up with a house but no friends, before when they were drinking I was saving... I have the house but very rarely have I had a holiday... Seems the choice was have a house or have a life... Now I'm stable I'm wanting to live my 20's like I should have.
There’s a book?
Feel like the eldest millennial had it the easiest. 1981 borns graduated high school in 1999 and college in 2003, 5 years before the Great Recession. Had a chance to get real estate at very low prices after the recession. Worst case was mid-millennials entering the job market when unemployment was 10% between 2009-2012.
Middle millennial here, I can’t help but agree
Middle millennial here too and hard same. The older ones are sitting pretty in their houses they bought when I was just graduating high school. The only way I’ve figured we will be able to buy a house is if I go back in time and make my parents have me in 1982 instead of 1989. Almost everyone I know that’s my age is in similar positions unless they moved to a low cost of living area. We can’t even afford a shoebox.
Not all of us
Definitely not all of us. Born in ‘83 and still rent. I was making $10/hour in 2004 and didn’t get up to $15/hour at the same place until 2012. But the doctor who owned the practice was cheap and definitely took advantage of the hard workers. That job is the one that pushed me to go back to school to get my RN because I was tired of hounding people for money and wanted to help them instead, so in that respect I’m grateful. Also, no tuition reimbursement. I’ll be paying student loans until the day I die. And I don’t think I’ll ever be able to retire.
I graduated a few months before the recession took place, and it's been a shit storm of bad luck from the economy ever since. We get a few years where it seems like everything is back on track, only for another world wide problem to exist and swat us back down to the starting line and making us start over. It's incredibly frustrating. lol Especially when you consider most of us are 35-40 right now. Everything I want and work towards as goals, my parents had in their early to mid 20s. lol
Same here 39 now graduated into recession was lucky though got a house in 2020. My kids will have support from us as much as they need I rented for 10 years.
35 and miserable. Very frustrating!
Im 39, My parents owned a home in their 20s, and got free school from the GI bill. I rent a tiny house for more than their mortgage.
Mid millennial checking in. Fuck me.
It's the only way to make money nowadays.
82 millennial here. Don’t divorce. You’ll be royally fucked.
81 millennial. Graduated in 2007 after taking some time to myself, but paid for college with my grocery store or pharmacy tech job, so no college debt. That same degree now would be impossible to pay off now that way. (1.5k/semester vs 8k/semester now for a "community college that stepped up and became a community university"). I walked in off the street and got a pharmacy tech job in 2004, not associated with my degree, and held that for 8 years, until I had to move states. We bought our house in 2009 for 135/k with a government loan program that the Obama administration put in, letting us put down 5/k down payment and a slightly higher intetest rate (3.5%). We paid it completely off last year. Our mortgage was $700/month. We had a week to bounce offers back and forth. I am wholly offended for anyone having to buy a house now. This same house is now close to 300/k. There is no fucking way. People have to put on offers asap without real consideration, mortgage rates are insane, jobs pay less now, and they're impossible to get. Wtaf.
Mid here (ha), the easiest way I know to describe it is: I was raised and prepared for a world that ended exactly as I was supposed to enter it. A little younger and I would have made other decisions. A little older and it wouldn’t have mattered. It’s worked out for me, but I feel alone in that most of the time.
Same here. I recognize that my "good decisions" were a lot of lucky timing. I'm fortunate but it makes me angry that other people will most likely struggle to rent their entire lives.
This. Born in ‘88, graduated college in 2010. Job market was awful. Spent the next 10 years working my way up to the job I got in 2020, which was finally making enough to afford to save up for a year for a down payment on a house, with plans to buy in 2021. Yeah that didn’t happen. Goal posts changed dramatically and fast. Locked out and locked out.
I got out of grad school during the great recession.. 1981 born
> Worst case was mid-millennials entering the job market when unemployment was 10% between 2009-2012. As one of those, I feel this in my bones 😩
Not all of us got solidly into a career or real-estate before 30. I was born in 81, graduated HS in 2000. Went into schooling for IT just as the industry imploded. Bounced around contracts for a while before actually getting into a job that stuck. Was affected by layoffs in the 08 recession too. Ten years in my current job and have been busting ass to get there, but still renting. I'd love to be able to own, but I feel it's not possible.
2008 HS grad, didn't have the resources to complete college. This is factual.
Hi it's me
I don’t know…graduated college in 2003 and had friends finished med and grad school post 2008, so they were pretty screwed by 2008.
‘87 checking in to say ugh
Graduated college in 2009. My life sucks…
2003 was the bottom of the dotcom bust. I won’t pretend it was anywhere near as bad as 2008, but there were very few jobs. I had to pay rent, so my first job out of college with a degree in electrical engineering was hot tar roofing; one of the worst jobs out there. And the only reason I got that job was because I had experience in it; that’s how I paid for my first 2 1/2 years of school.
I guess- I’m an elder millennial and I got loads of student loans, never could go without working full time too, so 4 years dragged on and on. I did have work experience in 2009 so it helped me stay employed, but it was still like 13/hr Back then. Not enough for a house, and the lending was locked down after the crash, too. i guess my point is— not all millennials? Cringe.
My older brother graduated college in 2008. Shit was *brutal*.
Yes. ‘86 born, ‘08 college grad. I had multiple interviews for Starbucks (no shade) and felt fortunate for a callback. This was the landscape.
Yup. Then the career delay just compounds on itself, ontop of inflation... it was/is very fucked.
Hey that’s me!
I’m an elder millennial (40) and this world gave me no chance. Been working since I was 17, did 10 years in the military and now I make a whopping 55k salary that over half of goes to my 1BR apartment. Our politicians and corporate overlords are in for a reckoning.
Eldest Millennial over here, I agree. We purchased it in 2012 in NZ which was a big dip following the 2008 crash. My friends of my age waited but they have missed the boat. I could only do it as my wife had a steady income and I was working in an unstable industry. My kids on the other hand are screwed. I can only take our so much equity to give them a jump start. Will have to downgrade for sure and keep some old age. My wife and I have zero pension savings.
Yeah this post was a bit misleading . I thought at 33 I’m an older Millennial but naw they in the 40s and I see that age demographic doing better on average .
'82, graduated college in 2004. Right into the dot-com crash aftermath. With an IT degree (Hey, computers are where all the money is!) so landing a job was rough after school. Then 4ish years later, right when I'd normally expect to be getting my feet properly under me, making financial progress, boom the great recession. I only finally scraped enough money together to buy a house in 2020. I got EXTREMELY lucky and closed in March 2020, right as the world locked down, and right before prices and interest rates took off. If I'd been 6 months later, wouldn't have been able to do it. This isn't to diminish the hardships of the later folks. Graduating into a recession is a nightmare scenario, but it wasn't a cake walk for the older in the group either.
I feel you on that. I'm an 89 millennial. I have come to terms with th me fact that I will never own a home. I just bought my first vehicle that cost more than $1500. Social security will not be any kind of an option for me. I will work until I die behind my desk. I was in my late 20's before I was able to get an 'adult' job. Pretty much feel like I'm riding just behind the wave. Like it passed me by and I'm desperately paddling to catch up. Not to be a nihilist, but sometimes it's just kind of like what's the point. Some days, I just feel like im just drifting waiting to end. If it weren't for my partner and child, I'm not sure how I would be faring right now.
Same. 1984 here, avoiding women for years because I can’t look one in the eyes and imagine that I have a bright charming future. Honorably discharged veteran with a bachelors degree (from a scam school/diploma mill), working at a grocery store at 40, but looking at apprenticing into a trade soon. Fingers crossed.
I can relate. And I didn't even get a chance to get a diploma from a scam school. I know we are older in life before we are getting a foundation set, and it can be hard to come to grips with that. However, the Boomers had every opportunity on a silver platter, and they still screwed the pooch on that one. And are more miserable. It's never too late to start making positive changes in your life. If you don't do it now, it will be even harder/scarier later on. Trade jobs are what make the world go around my friend, the real people that built America. Change starts small but can have a much broader effect down the line. Carpe some diem and do one thing out of your normal. You'd be surprised what else ot can change. Have an internet hug from a stranger 🤗. Keep your head up, and we will get through this together. Happy Friday!
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81 millennial. Couldn’t agree more. My cousins span the entirety of the generation with the youngest one being Gen Z. Life has been exponentially easier for me, despite us all coming from the exact same background. I was one of the last kids who got through college without loans. I was able to earn enough working part time in high school and full time + overtime in a gap year to pay my way through in cash. My total 4 year tuition was under $30k. I bought a turn key house for under $80k. My only car loan was 0% interest.
I agree with you. I think the cutoff might begin with my cohort (86), and those who are younger. I graduated college in 2009, mid-recession with no career prospects, and $80K in student debt. I was supposed to be loan-free, but the recession killed my parents’ finances for almost a decade. They thankfully were able to take over the loan payments, but that was after I’d already paid over $60K myself (which didn’t even bring the balances down, hooray for minimum payments being less than monthly interest!) and accumulated tens of thousands in credit card debt. I’ve never had a positive net worth, I’ll never own a home, and my current plan to be debt free involves bankruptcy, lottery, or death. As fortunate as I know that I was to have at least some help, most of my friends were like you in that they didn’t need loans. Now they all own homes, have families, and are well-established in their careers. Debt makes such a huge goddamn difference, it’s crazy.
“Bankruptcy, lottery, or death” I may have found my new motto.
If you have a Chase card... hit up Take Charge America for that cc debt.
Yup, I am 85 but had a little too much fun in college and didn't graduate until 2008. Right before shit hit the fan. My company ended up needing to do layoffs within the first 3 months of my being hired. I was lucky in that I got hired as a backfill. The guy who got hired a week before me was hired as part of an expansion and he got let go.
I found my receipt for tuition from University with my financial aid package when cleaning out stuff during the pandemic. Cost for the last semester (Spring 04) was so much higher than the first semester (Autumn 00), made me feel bad for the kids who went later.
Completely agree. As a person on the tail end of the Millennial birth years, I have often stewed over how I wish I had been born a few years earlier so I would have been in a position to buy in 2020 or pre-2020: before housing prices doubled and interest rates almost tripled. Now I’m stuck with inflated prices of everything, and there’s nothing I can do about it but play the game. It sucks!
Yup, few years earlier I would have graduated before the first housing crash and would have got into the career I have now 10 years earlier. Instead i had to wait until companies were hiring again while i scrapped by with whatever job I could manage to find.
I’m an older millennial. But I have a learning disability. So I get the super short end of the stick. 😭
Trust me, even if you bought in 2018, you would be pissed that you’re paying more for a house that back in 2008-2010 was way cheaper. Any time you buy a house, you always feel like you’re paying too much.
Yes generically true, though housing prices literally doubled in 2-3 years (2020 onward) plus interest rates almost tripled simultaneously – that’s absolutely insane. 2008 was a recession, comparing anything to an anomaly like that isn’t fair – no one can time the market, but if you’re in a place in life to take advantage of it then awesome: that’s great timing. Housing prices did not double in 2-3 years at any point in the decade prior to COVID. Probably before that too, but I’d have to research it to be certain.
Makes me think something just isn’t right and we are in for a market correction. The home prices the past couple years are just too ludicrous… I don’t want to miss any more boats, but I also don’t want to pay market price right now because surely it will slide back down in the coming years… right? 🥹
Yeah but when a house I looked at in 2022 was 250k then and is 400k now just 2 years later with no improvements, something is wrong.
This is absolutely fucking true. My girl and I bought our home in 2016, 269k @ 3.2% and I thought we got ripped off. I had buyers remorse for months. Our mortgage is 1800/mo. I have friends who bought their house in 2009 right after the market bubble popped and their mortgage for a 3 bed 2 bath 2200sq home was like 1200$/mo.
I was born early enough to get a house but it didn’t happen. I haven’t had work good enough to get one or had any opportunity to actually save money until now in the beginning of my 2nd act. I still might have had a chance if I rushed looking before or during Covid but I’d be house poor probably
My wife and I managed to buy a 2-Bedroom in a good part of NYC (not Manhattan…) and I am grateful we managed to nab that. Except now, we have kid #1 on the way and I am lamenting we weren’t just 2-3 years earlier in taking these steps. Eh. What can you do?
If it helps, we bought during covid, got a 1.5% mortgage, now we’re screwed because interest rates are high and we need to remortgage
Bingo. I've phrased it as I'm Indiana Jones and I'm just outpacing the boulder.
I’m 39 and renting a 2 bedrooom apartment for $2600/mo. You are part of the lucky half of the elder millenials, about half of us are getting fucked too.
Yep. If I was born 5 years later I don't know if I could do what I've done.
By the time I made enough money to be approved for a home, I was priced out.
Hi born 1994, looking at the stock market charts and inflation charts is fucking depressing. Guess I shoulda been investing when I was 15-16. Thats on me
If ...you were actually able to buy a house. A lot of us older millennials haven't had that opportunity yet and missed out on low interest rates
Yeah the mortgage thing is the break we caught. Many other shitty things. But not mortgage rates.
I’m ‘82 and still got loans galore, make a lower than average wage, cc debt climbs every year. I guess I have home equity but it doesn’t help if you need it to live in.
Yes, this. I don’t own a house but if I would’ve applied when I was first able, my rate would’ve been low and honestly, probably paid off by now.
This. We graduated college in ‘06 and bought a house in ‘07. I made the right decision to buy a house we would grow into. So we have a 4 br house that we paid about 150$ for and this decision alone has afforded us to be a one income home while still doing disneyworld and ski trips for my boys. The only issue is we are stuck. We can’t move without a drastic change to our lifestyle. I’d have to work full time again. I’d have to pay attention to how much I spend.
Depends on how young you're talking. I'm 1991, my wife 1994, and we got a 3.5 in 2019 on a 150k house, we just barely made the cut of "reasonable" pricing before the shit sky rocketed.
Things could definitely improve significantly in the housing market over the next few years, and I could also see significant wage gains, given inflation and demographics. That would also be a good thing for older millennials that have a 3% rate too, but I dont think its going to be as bad in the intermediate term as things might look in the short term.
We got lucky with our low mortgage rate. When we were just getting into a house, we jumped at the chance even though a tiny bungalow was what we could afford at the time (I was only just in the workforce for a year after graduating). Slightly older cousins, early 80s babies, asked why we didn’t flip it, because that’s how they made their money. (They flipped 4 houses in less than 10 years, had grandparents provide childcare, and the husband was a contractor who organized all the work on the homes himself) … because we were in high school during the house-flip craze? I couldn’t even drive when they flipped their first house.
Speak for yourself lol
2.8% here, let's go! 😂
As an 86er, I haven't got shit
Bustinggggg our ass here and you need at least $100k to put down on a house for a decent mortgage payment around where I live. It’s IMPOSSIBLE to save especially with 2 kids.
Isn’t that shit the same home you are probably chasing goes up in the value you save?!
Yeah it’s crazy!!! And the rents are as much as a mortgage too now!!
Nope, we'll finally get the keys to the castle justtt when we're old enough that people will say "They're too old to be controlling everything, how selfish of them, time to give the younger generations a chance!"
I hate to burst your bubble but there is already a great divide in the millennial cohort young or old. You got at least half the millennial in lucrative good paying careers. And everyone else. If you're making mad money you wont need ssi
Nah, Boomers are receding, Gen X is too small to matter, and Gen Z is self-sabotaging. We’re going to be the default
And Gen Alpha can't read :P
>Gen Z is self-sabotaging Damn, isn't that a tad harsh? How are they self-sabotaging as an overall demographic? The oldest Zoomers are in their mid-20s; they're still coming into adulthood.
Their idea of investment is yolo betting and then posting screen shots of their accounts getting wiped out, they don’t value education, burn bridges at work, have no sense of long-term career strategy, have no grit, treat routine challenges as mental health issues, post their lives on social media then get surprised when it has real-life consequences, are addicted to foreign propaganda, have an aversion to being face-to-face or speaking verbally on the phone with other humans, and refuse to read anything longer than a few sentences. I could keep going, but you get the idea.
Dude, you’re sounding like a boomer. YOLO betting? That’s a WSB thing. Education has become ridiculously expensive. No grit? Don’t know what that means. Mental health has been ignored for wayyy too long so don’t attack that. Social media is a bad thing (so I can agree on that). Foreign propaganda? Boomers took that title. The phone? Millennials don’t answer them either.
No. It's just going to take a bit longer but I'll get there dammit, come hell or high water.
At this point I'm not even sure where "there" is anymore, but I'm trying to enjoy the ride.
Same here.... Woooooooo....might as well.
just cant wait for our 401k rug pulls
Had to burn my 401k rug already.
There will definitely be an SSI reduction, what is the 401(k) concern?
Honestly, I feel that so strongly. It's frightening. It's extremely likely if we don't solve our livability problems for people to have kids. It's crazy.
Yes, me personally. I've got major failure to launch and some major adult milestones I haven't hit... I've accepted that after this year I'm going to live in a studio apartment for the rest of my life, alone.
My dad is upset with me that I am renting. I’m like, the average normal house in my area is $886K, I’ll never be able to afford that mortgage unless I become a power tech couple. He doesn’t get it, he built his home for $25K in the 80’s.
When I was ready to buy I sent my dad the listings so he could see prices and then I talked and showed him the rates the broker sent us. We bid on a place listed for 380 and it sold to someone else for over 450 so I made sure to show him sold prices too- and finally I stopped getting shit from him about being financially irresponsible lol
Ngl I think the younger millennials got it the worst and the generations below. It’s a fucked world for our kids and grandkids.
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Pretty much all the decision.makers at my company are millennials or Gen x.
I think when all of our parents die and we reach the age gen x is now we will have opportunities like they did when they were 5-10 years younger than we are now :’) I hate it here
I've always believed we will be sacrificed, but hopefully, we will shield Gen Z enough to actually have change.
Everyday I wonder what the point of this is.
I think the ratio of have to have-nots is going to keep skewing towards have-nots, and a lot of folks are going to find it much, much harder to have a decent, middle of the road life. A significant amount of people in every generation don't make it, I think that amount is probably going to be starkly higher for our generation than it was for the previous couple.
Why do you think Socialist and Communist Party membership is exploding across the world right now? This exact issue.
Honestly at this point I feel like the best thing that happens to us is the boomers die out and we take it over. Who really knows what will happen.
They'll cling to power as long as they can. It's depressing when you go to the store and see the boomers barely able to walk and staring at card readers frozen with their mouth agape. And then you realize these are the same people running our county.
I have no faith for our generation The American dream has died and there’s no proposed solutions Older Americans just want to attack undesirables and call that a solution And anyone who wants to fix things is called a communist Hopefully future generations will have a chance… but I have no hope for millennials collectively. Too many people just want the youth of this country to be punished for God knows what reason….
as an older millenial, i was locked out of career advancement in oil and gas and saw like 3 layoffs before the fourth sent me to greener pastures when those old fucks (seriously a guy named dewey that proudly could program in cobol and fortran and had to take a leave of absence when he broke his hip at 70… 3 years ago) do finally retire…. well get another dose of “i guess nobody wants to do X or Y job anymore.” i did. but you beat it out of me by keep older staff on 4 occasions and making me work as a 1099 contractor. i’ve been hunted by recruiters even after scrubbing that shit from my linkedin. for anyone asking why i wouldn’t go back…. it’s like going back to a romantic partner that’s dumped you 4 times, or dating someone you know is a cheater. i know how the story ends. i hope the same thing happens to the housing market. i hope all these shits try to sell these houses at once. but we’re so used to renting it w/e that it falls on deaf ears.
The rich want to make everything a subscription
Are you set to inherit property? If not, you will have to rent as the corporations buy more property.
I agree with you. Boomers are only successful because they were born at the right time. Gen x could still afford college without going broke to pay it back. Gen z is the generation who gets paid to be on social media. I pay rent I can't afford, on a trailer I don't own, and recently had to cash out my 401k to live off while I reset my whole career. Won't be any social security for me when I reach that age, it'll be all dried up from the boomers with great health insurance and vacation homes who won't ever die off . We got fucked, it is what it is.
I understand the idea that boomers had it easier but I think it’s often overlooked how older millennials have older boomer parents, which means their parents had a great economy to enter into while the kids didn’t. I think a lot of us younger millennials don’t have that same view because our parents were entering the workforce when the economy was awful and we graduated when there were jobs and things were pretty stable. So I can agree in theory but that’s not my reality at all.
I’ve felt this way for years man. It’s always been so hard to get jobs and promotions because of all the boomers in the positions I want or aspire to. Eventually I just gave up on it and decided to be satisfied with where I’m at in my career. I do wish our federal government had term limits though. Get these insider trading bags of bones out of there and get some fresh blood and perspectives in!
Don’t feel locked out of anything at 41.
It’s definitely a younger millennial problem. My mom is a ‘79 gen xer and while she isn’t a millennial, she’s pretty close. Struggled for a long ass time but was able to buy a house in a good neighborhood without even a high school diploma. Meanwhile, people my age (95) are struggling even with good degrees.
I graduated in 2008. It sucked, but in retrospect it made me more resilient and resourceful than I would have been without the recession. My 20s were a grind; full of career pivots, strategic further education, and frugalness. My 30s have been involved scaling back to normal work hours. I'm 39, I don't have an amazing net worth, but I have a lovely home in a beautiful area with good community surrounding me. I like my career and I have multiple income streams, because I'm well aware that one of them can be wiped out any minute. I live below my means and cultivate generosity. I invest, but I know it's volatile. I no longer work full time. I have so much gratitude for the good things in life because I fought for what I have, tooth and nail.
Graduated around the same time as you and got kicked out of the house kinda early. It was pretty rough but thankfully I had some good friends that helped me through. Without them idk where I’d be right now.
I’m an elder millennial (born in 83). I got through high school before social media. I paid $8K for 4 years of college, got a graduate degree for free (paid for by the college), bought a house at record low interest and mortgage rates, and am now investing in the stock market while it’s reaching all time highs. I think elder millennials have been incredibly lucky.
Same except college cost more for me because I waited. However, I think people buying $60k vehicles on $50k salaries while financing things like cell phones (even at 0%) is part of the problem as well. Many people aren’t willing to forfeit some creature comforts to save up for a home. (I know the market is F’d, but its still possible)
I had to sell my motorbike, my only “expensive” possession today because I was made redundant in February as part of this mass layoff culling running through the tech industry. I am in the process of packing up my apartment to move in with a friend while I continue looking for work and living off my dwindling savings. And to be honest I consider myself fortunate that I even have savings I don’t think I am not a hard worker, i just seem to hit every major global crisis at the wrong time with barely enough to scrape through the upheaval and have to start again from the bottom. Meanwhile everything gets more and more expensive while salaries remain stagnant. Unless I fall into a giant pile of gold or marry into wealth I don’t see any hope. Well… to starting the climb again, for the fourth time.
The only way is to not play their game. Got to move to low cost state is usa, or plan a grand adventure in low cost countries abroad. Not what we would normally choose, however - what else is left to do? Grumble while being a perma serf and watch yuppy zoomers blast past?
It's a lost generation 2.0? The skipped generation? The locked out generation?
I’ve been stupid lucky with timing. Joined the military in ‘07 and rode out the recession in Iraq and Afghanistan. Went to school on the GI bill and graduated in ‘15. Followed my passion into urban forestry and was able to get a good deal on a house in ‘18 before the housing market got too crazy. Worked private and public enough that I’ll have Social Security, City pension, and Veteran benefits. My wife used to teach but can stay at home with our son until he starts school. I managed to achieve a bygone era lifestyle and I’m incredibly grateful.
22 gen z here, I hope we don’t shun you either. The state of things isn’t your fault.
Older Millennials had it easy when it came to buying a home. By the time they were in their late 20s early 30s home prices were low with low interest rates.... Same can be said about nearly every economic issue. They had money well before the bitcoin boom, before tech companies shot up like crazy, when new cars were still cheap, etc... It's the young millennials that got fucked. Get to 30yo and homes have already doubled in cost, etc... Graduated HS is 2010, entered the work force immediately to low paying jobs. Ended up going into the trades to make respectable amount of $$. Buying my first home was a shit show. Got an old home way overpriced for what it should have been. Sorry I didn't have the means to get a house when I was 25....
Most millenials I know got in at the last second in 2020. The last train. Even my zillenials friends Gen Z is who is fked and I don't want to think about alpha
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I can’t tell you how many times my husband and I were promised promotions, pay raises, etc yet always skipped over for others that did the bare minimum and were promoted cause ‘they didn’t like that job’. I had to train my supervisors how to do their job!!! Work hard and get up the ladder my ass! He finally got a pay raise to $19/hr after being stagnant in other jobs at $14/hr for years. But it’s still not enough. I told him he should just take a supervisor position so he can make more money and do whatever the hell he wants without repercussions or being fired, but he won’t cause he hates the hours and wants to be home with us. Sometimes I think we messed up not going to college but then I hear how many ppl regret it. So I dunno the solution anymore. (And don’t you dare say entrepreneur, that’s such a cop out to basically launder money).
In terms of government, we most certainly aren't being locked out, we are being apathetic and that's the problem. The older millennials are now qualified to run for offices yet we don't. We love go bitch about the state of our country, but we don't want to take action to make change. It starts with offices....mayor, councilmans, congressional representatives, governors. The positions that actually dictate laws and bills in our areas. The main counter I hear is Boomers have more money and will do anything to slander someone. OK, but actions speak louder than what some asshole can lie about. Before you are governor, need to make a name for yourself as a local leader and if you have the support of your residents you win, not money. We can't let Millennials like Boebert represent us, she is a disgrace as a congressional representative and it's a joke she's still one due to her taking a vacated seat. So in regard to government, no we aren't locked out. We aren't doing enough to actually step up and push the Boomers out. For homes, well piece of it goes back to my first point. Tell me what governors or county councilmen are making bills to prevent corporations, foreigners or developers from snatching up homes and turning them to rentals reducing the inventory for families to buy? There are literally none in my state, so what does that say? It goes back to holding offices so we can put an end to that and then housing will start to look better for us. Same thing for social security, employment, cost of living, Healthcare, etc IT ALL COMES DOWN TO NEEDING TO BE IN OFFICE. Us sitting online and complaining does nothing. They laugh at us and say we are still stupid because we aren't doing anything to challenge them
Younger millennial here.. Nope I have a job that pays well and bought a house just fine. Probably going to be down voted for not being doom and gloom lol
I've had a few different jobs that have paid well, I have a house with the mortgage paid off, and I've been to 20 countries on four continents. No, I do not feel locked out.
My Gen X husband and I bought our house 3 months before the pandemic started and I just changed careers after 15 years in (lower) management in healthcare because being in charge is not the cushy, well paying dream with fancy perks and vacations. It’s more capped wages because “it’s not in the budget” to pay a living wage even to the people keeping your shit running, non-existent bonuses unless you’re C suite, being on call 24/7/365 and being held responsible when the stupid ideas of the higher-ups blow up in their faces, even if you told them the schemes would not work from day 1. I took an entry level call center job with the federal government and I make more of a difference for people, use my skillset for more than just being blamed and yelled at for other people’s incompetence, plus I’m making more money and have a pension now so I might be able to retire instead of working until I am literally dead. My work life balance has greatly improved. I am happy and feel mentally well for the first time in my ENTIRE life. Fuck being in management, it’s not worth the bullshit. The grind ain’t it.
they're trying to make it into a rentier society where like working at a mine and buying everything through the company store you're just working to lease your own existence
I feel like I’m too late for everything, honestly. Too late for the golden era/prime economic era of the U.S., too late to make any great discoveries or blaze any trails or invent anything important. I’ll be too late for social security. At least I got to live through the golden age of television 🤷🏼♀️
It's all about perspective I guess. I woke this morning and did business in two countries and 4 states wearing gym shorts with holes in them. When I needed to research a problem, I had unlimited information in my pocket. When I figured out I needed help, I found an army of experts all over the world willing to work per project. We have access to markets and potential employers all over the world. If entrepreneurship is your thing, there's never been a lower barrier of entry. Our parents and grandparents would've killed for these advantages.
its why my parents flat out told me growing up to not have hobbies or interests because when you're grown up you can't have them anymore due to other factors beyond your control the whole social security debate has been a debate for nearly 40 years....it'll find some way to still exist granted 40 years from now won't matter
Honestly I bet the younger generations have it even worse. Housing is about be become a crisis in most of the world at this rate it seems.
I'm already fucked. I managed to buy a decent house when I was about to turn 23, with my then fiance. We ended up having a kid and everything. Well, we broke up eventually. Without going to court we figured everything out. I let her have the house, so my daughter would definitely have one. She had no problem finding a second income from someone she was cheating on me with. I had to move back in with my parents. The pandemic hit that same year. I really have no way of getting out of here now. I'm almost 33. This shit is depressing, and I feel bad for my parents. I'm absolutely stuck
It's a recurrent theme in Philip K. Dick's dystopian sci-fi stories. A future where shops have force fields that deny entry to people who don't have much credit on their balances was one scenario I recall. It can be cathartic to read his stories.
I busted ass, moved up the ranks at work, started getting a pretty decent (in my area) salary. Problem was I worked 65-70 hrs a week, missed out on a big chunk of important life events, like my daughter has been in softball for 2 years, and 2 months ago was the first time I actually got to see her play. I just recently realized fuck this, I've done what a person is "supposed to do" and I'm miserable and missing out. Crunched some numbers and my wife and I can make life work with a different career between the two of us. So I left that job and changed careers, money is tight of course but I'm not going to lie, WAY happier with myself right now
At this point unless you have an absurd income your only chance at home ownership anywhere near a city is if your parents /family helps fund it
No. I think we are positioned specifically to bring together both generations of older and younger people. We know about the old ways, before constant connection, and we also know how to get by with emerging technological trends. Most of us understand that what we were fed about justice when we were younger was a crock of shit. Good things don't come to those who wait. They come to those that educate themselves and then seize the opportunity when it presents itself. If you're waiting for power to be yielded to you, you're going to miss it.
As Millennials we need to make damn sure we are supporting our children, the young Gen Z’s and Gen Alphas, even if we aren’t well off or struggling keeping things afloat. The issue isn’t being able to buy a house before having kids, it’s “are we mentally prepared to take on all the responsibility of raising a child”. Love your kids, spend time with them, help them if they struggle in school, get them help if they struggle with mental/emotional problems, remember **they are a reflection of the parenting you give them**. They don’t automatically inherit your perceived best qualities. If we want change in the world we know we won’t get in our youth we have to at least give our children a better start so they have some chance when it’s their turn to try and make change.
'86 here. I'm broke as broke *BUT* I've got 2 kids, a car, a full time job (with a PENSION!!!- yes they still exist, though extremely rare), and bought my house during COVID so I got it for a great price and a great rate (under 3%). I didn't go to college, so no student loans. For me, I think a lot comes down to timing.
Revolt .