Why millennials are facing the scariest financial future

originally posted by: o0oTOPCATo0o
a reply to: Xcalibur254

I'm not saying the boomers were successful from planning.
I am arguing millennials are struggling from lack of planning.

I'm also not denying that is harder for them, either. It is.
Nor am I denying attitudes of boomers were selfish.
They were pretty money hungry, and worked hard to earn it.
Seems to be the opposite approach from millennials.
A good chunk feel like they are owed something.
Times change, you either change with them, or get left behind.

There's just very little opportunities. Even people I know with good degrees have 2 jobs or Uber because the traditional job just doesn't have the same purchasing power it did even ten years ago.

It's really easy for you to sit there and blame young people for the state of the economy when there is 42 million poor people in the US and they are all fighting for fewer and fewer opportunities, even the salaries in Security have been taking hits.

originally posted by: Metallicus
If whining paid money Millenials would all be rich. Seriously, I have never seen people so willing to roll over and die because life is tough like this generation.

Life is ACTUALLY tough in other countries around the world where they don’t have clean water or food. In the U.S. Millenials think life is tough if they don’t have the latest Xbox or Play Station.

Maybe stop paying $5 bucks for your fancy coffee and grow a pair.

Says the guy who's riding high on his stock market winnings (ya know, stocks, the kind of things everyone, even poors have access too so why are y'all complaining, MAGA!)

a reply to: eNumbra Unions are just about dead in the corporate world. And I am going to pull a Trump card. Believe I know. If one of my underlings even says the word union I have to report them. Unions are not liked anymore and in most cases are looked down on these days. The youth has been given a world of hurt to try to fix.

Reading this thread leads me to ask why is college so expensive these days? An education shouldn't cost as much as a house. What's being done with the money? Perhaps professors are over paid, I don't know. Maybe someone can enlighten me about where the money ends up.

a reply to: LogicalGraphitti

I know I've been working on and off on college projects for years. The grow and expand and build and buy and the students pay for it with an entire lifetime of purchasing power sucked right out of their incomes.

a reply to: toysforadults

I know, I did it with two kids, it was exhausting. I was also in a technology program and worked full time in corporate IT. The good news it doesn't last forever. I know now it is even harder.

You answered your own question, It is very hard to get a degree while working, but it is not impossible.

It's a choice, debt later, or a really tough time now. You still have a choice, pretty soon it will be impossible. I chose not to go the debt route, and I can tell you without a doubt I do not regret it. I did give up any semblance of a personal life for around six years. I come from an Asian background where education is put first, I think the mindset is different. There are no excuses, it is expected to be hard, study first sleep later.

a reply to: fiverx313

Agreed. I feel bad for people that have to work multiple jobs to deal with student debt.
I used to regret not going to college.
After seeing all my friends come back in debt, with no job in sight, I felt lucky that I joined the workforce instead.
Mind you, this was during the recession.. and most of them now have pretty good jobs. Not all in the field that they went to school for, but the degree helped them get good jobs nonetheless.

I lucked out and have worked for a good company since high school. I'm being promoted next month into a job, where if successful, will be able to provide for myself and a family, if my fiance and I choose to have children.
All without a college degree.

a reply to: LogicalGraphitti

It is the same question as Healthcare, is education a right, or a privilege?

After high school it is obviously a privilege and you are going to pay for it. They started raising the cost slowly in the 1990's, then after 2000 something really changed and it started going up exponentially. It reminds me a lot of the housing boom, except the price of college never crashed.

a reply to: toysforadults

I am a young person.
A millennial, in fact.

originally posted by: Willtell
We were progressing until Reagan got in office and started the lies of trickle down and union busting and cutting taxes for the rich


Now were doing it again as the GOP cuts taxes for the rich again and things will get worse again.

That's not the way I remember things. We were in pretty bad shape by the end of the 70's. The stock market was in the tank and interest rates were something like 15% for a new mortgage. My wife and I bought our first home in 1980 and had to come up with a giant down-payment and still couldn't get a decent rate. That's what Reagan had to start with. By the end of his term, life for most Americans was a lot better and that kept going all the way through Clinton's term.

You're completely mistaken to think Reagan is responsible for the shape of things now. A lot of today's problems have to do with globalism. You can thank Clinton for that. He was the one that gave away the farm to China. Since then, neither Bush or Obama helped this country. Like it or not, Trump is our best hope. Give him a decent chance to fix things.

originally posted by: LogicalGraphitti
Reading this thread leads me to ask why is college so expensive these days? An education shouldn't cost as much as a house. What's being done with the money? Perhaps professors are over paid, I don't know. Maybe someone can enlighten me about where the money ends up.

Because education like health care has become a for profit enterprise. It's capitalism....

The money ends up in funds usually administered by the state board of education. more capitalism....

There are few tenured professors left and their salary's have been capped. Contractors teach classes now....I'm one of em.

originally posted by: JAGStorm
a reply to: LogicalGraphitti

It is the same question as Healthcare, is education a right, or a privilege?

After high school it is obviously a privilege and you are going to pay for it. They started raising the cost slowly in the 1990's, then after 2000 something really changed and it started going up exponentially. It reminds me a lot of the housing boom, except the price of college never crashed.

Maybe that's what needs to happen... a reset of some sort or leadership in education that can make trade skills as desirable as degrees. Not everyone is cut out to earn a college degree. It's more about a desire to work and succeed at what you do.

a reply to: LogicalGraphitti

I don't know if it's the same everywhere, but I know that in the California University system there is something of a pension crisis. The professors that retire still draw on a large pension so every time one retires they're still getting paid, plus you have to hire a new professor and the cost has just been ballooning for some time now. I know there are dozens of retired UC professors who get over 300,000 dollars a year in pension. Doesn't seem like a huge number, dozens, right? Well that's just the people getting over 300,000. Many, many more get less, but still in the six figure range. I remember seeing a list that was released not that long ago that was showing how much each university paid in pensions. The numbers were staggering. That HAS to increase the cost of things.

That's not the only thing though, many times these retired professors go back and teach at the university... this means they are getting paid their salary for teaching... plus that pension as well. Some people considering something of a 'double dip' because if you're going to retire and get your pension... you shouldn't be going back working there and getting paid over again. Whether or not that should be allowed... I don't know. Seems like you have to pay them if they're going to work.

"Lewis surpasses previous pension champion, Dr. Fawzy I. Fawzy, a UCLA Psychiatry Professor who retired in 2014 on a $354,469 annual pension. Assuming annual cost of living increases of 2%, Dr. Fawzy is now estimated to be receiving around $369,000 annually. But Fawzy also draws a UC salary, one of several hundred UC retirees brought back to teach after retiring. “Recalled” retirees, such as Fawzy, are eligible to draw both a salary and a pension. Fawzy’s total university income exceeded $650,000 in 2015." - californiapolicycenter.org...

So that site shows the 25 making over 300,000... but like I said, there's a lot more that make less. Like that blurb above says, there are several hundred getting salary and pension.

a reply to: Metallicus

What kind of millennials do you know?

Life is ACTUALLY tough in other countries around the world where they don’t have clean water or food.

Fair point... Nah not really, it's a cop out point considering the thread is about future prospects of millennials in a western world. But with that being said, homelessness, use of food banks and genuine poverty is a sobering fact amongst under 30's here in the UK. If you like I could easily find some statistics for the US?

 In the U.S. Millenials think life is tough if they don’t have the latest Xbox or Play Station. 

I'll refer to my first question, I'll also note that I believe (my opinion) that you're living in a bubble that ill reflects reality.

I mean honestly, comparing issues with 3rd world nations to a 1st world one is stupid anyways, it says nothing about housing bubbles that make it extremely hard for first time buyers on an average wage, it says nothing about ghettos and a genuine lack of housing. I'm guessing you'd think they should be grateful for a house right? Environment never effects a child does it?

But yeah man, many people don't have access to clean water... Nothing to do with resource exploitation or imperialism, I'm guessing it's their own fault anyways. Just like them pesky millennials

Ahhh, what am I saying? All is well if I get mine, I should eat today for tomorrow. I'm sure tomorrow's generation will be greedy ungrateful sods too

, I have never seen people so willing to roll over and die because life is tough like this generation

Not dead nor rolled over, I understand that so many things are easy these days, I dare say I'm grateful. But some aspects of our reality are daunting and with time it'll get worse.

I urge you to open your eyes to genuine suffering around you, not just millennials but all groups. Because not everyone can afford $5 coffee. Such generalisations are ignorant at best.

originally posted by: o0oTOPCATo0o
a reply to: toysforadults

I am a young person.
A millennial, in fact.

Just to expand on this real quick..
I graduated in 2005.
The first millennials had it worse than the ones coming of age now.
Imagine getting out of college in 2007-2009.
They had a very hard time when they got home. A lot of bankruptcies, unpaid debts, ect.

a reply to: o0oTOPCATo0o

That's my age group and we got screwed royally, the first few years after the crash were fricken brutal, before the crash I was working sales floors selling IPO and other investment related affairs and after BOOM nadda. Nothing, and what was left was low wage.

One reason things went bad was the deliberate destruction of labor unions

While gutting the American middle-class, conservatives also launched a well-funded propaganda campaign, using right-wing "think tanks" and talk radio to convince workers that their growing economic woes were the fault of minorities ("affirmative action") and the poor ("welfare queens").
At the same time, they began stacking federal benches with conservative judges, and passing thousands of federal, state, and local laws, ordinances, and regulations that further weakened the powers of organized labor and their ability to unionize.

It's just fine, they said, for capital to organize in the form of a corporation. It's great when corporations organize into trade associations, chambers of commerce, industry groups, and lobbying consortiums. But to have workers organize to level the playing field? Inconceivable.
The result has been an explosion in CEO and executive pay, a rush of wealth to the conservative elite (the top 10 percent of Americans now own 75 percent of the nation’s wealth), and preferential capital gains taxes continue to consolidate wealth for those who "earn their living" by sitting around the pool waiting for their dividend checks to arrive.
Last term, the conservatives on the Supreme Court sent a warning shot that they are prepared to deal another massive blow to unions in their Harris v. Quinn ruling, authored by Associate Justice Samuel Alito.

You young folks BETTER get hip fast!

I don't normally like I give out info on what I do for a living, but hell I might as well since I always see people complaining about no jobs or whatever.

I own a Lawn and Landscape company that I managed to grow over 5 years from nothing. At first I was hardly making sh# but by next year I should be making record profits.

I'm also in the process of growing a second business with Dumpster Rental / Junk Removal Service. These 2 career paths aren't glorious, they damn sure aren't fun, but it has allowed me to start making good money.

I can clear between 30-100$ an hour depending on the type of work I have to do.

So to all the millennials crying about not having money/work, well its time you get out and find it yourself. I did, and despite the high levels of stress and abuse on my body, I wouldn't change it for the world because I'm free.. no boss hanging over my shoulder, no middle management to ruin my life, just me being the boss making the decisions. I'm to a point now in my business where I can pick and choose higher paying work vs cheap low paying work. Not a luxury I had for a few years as I was broke, but now I can choose what to do.

a reply to: Willtell


I am 52. I argue with my sister all the time about Millennials.

She thinks they are spoiled and lazy. That may be for some; but I believe they have very little hope, which makes me sad to think about.

I had my first apt at 17; I worked in a factory putting the Redball stamp on firemans’ boots. It was a long shift to stand all day, but I didn’t mind. Back then “80s”, you could quit your job, and find a higher paying one within a week with good health insurance. Rent was reasonable.

I still have those paychecks, and I know people now who earn about the same I earned in that factory, and they have Bachelors degrees. It is mind boggling.

I would see teens and 20 year olds walking thru my neighborhood in the middle of the day with nothing to do; yet there is a closed down factory right around the corner.

I feel for the younger generation; how many miss out on getting their own apts because rents are ridiculous. Student debts that are astronomical, wages are extremely low, cost of living out of control.

You see it everywhere, on the pissed off dude in traffic raging over something that should normally prompt a middle finger. Mothers with babies and kids in grocery stores with very little food in their carts, and the look of worry and stress in society.

The problems are caused by the older generations imo, who are living a lot longer. Then you have the drug addicted SSI fraudsters. The plain old greedy corporations, the irresponsible people popping out kids like pez dispensers while on welfare?? WHY! The outsourcing of jobs. The loss of morals.

My attitude is: If you were lucky enough to afford you a house, ability to provide for your families with one member of the household working, and no college debt, and now all you do is go out to eat everyday and plan your next cruise; then you have no idea how overwhelming it is for our youth of today. I bet most didn’t even have to pay for for daycare.

When my son was born, I worked 12 hour days, and paid $220.00 a week for 4 days of daycare. I was lucky to work Saturday’s and I had someone to watch him then or it would have been more. That was over 15 years ago.

When I hear the older than me generation complain about poor women not working, I can’t believe how ignorant and insensitive they are.

This is getting too long so here’s my advice to Millenials: Military is a great way to go, town jobs, utilities, major telecom companies usually offer tuition reimbursement. Don’t have kids unless one parent can afford to stay home, or you have good family members who can really help you; and whatever you do, save at least (bare minimum) 10% of your pay not matter what. Avoid the rent TRAP. BUY as soon as you can.

Most importantly avoid vices! Hoping for a better future for all.

a reply to: eXia7

I did the same thing and made good money until I hurt myself, I started mowing lawns, went to school at night, got a diploma in horticulture and structural landscaping, the till it takes on your body over the years is not pretty, my back is stuffed and I can no longer work in the industry, I'm now learning something new that involves no digging.

What you are saying is technically correct, although if that's your only plan you like me may run into trouble, if I were to offer you advice it would be diversify as your time doing what you do is limited.