Millennials Own Just 3% of the National Wealth.

[riverwed070707]

I don't feel bad for millennials at all. Throughout history, the Greatest generation dealt with the great depression, the silent generation was in a world War, the boomers had Korean War, Vietnam, and social unrest from social justice reform...millennial have what...the financial crisis..kind of?. I mean the event just happened to bring home prices down to more than affordable.

Millennial have access to the most powerful and fastest information generation's ago thought was science fiction.. All this during the longest period of peace time.

The barrier to entry if you want sell your goods or talent used to be a grind, but now you have access to millions of customers at your finger tip with Amazon, eBay, etsy, and fiverr. Content creators used to be broke Hollywood waitresses, but now can make millions from YouTube or tic tock without much of a talent.

Millenials need to get with the time and utilize all the tools at their disposal, and these are very powerful tools. Those who took the time made a living very fast, while many cling on to a past that no longer exist and point fingers at how it's so difficult today.

I took the time to learn about stock investing.. it was a long grind but I know for a fact if this was 1950s, I wouldn't have made it. It was having access to online message boards in which there were people doing pretty complex discount cash flow analysis, technological deep dives, and access to all sorts of unique data that made this endeavor successful. It's all there, one just need to have patience and put in the work. But unlike the 1950s, I don't have to know everything myself as you can just read other people's conclusions with a mouse click.

Are you joking? Is this sarcasm?
Let's for some reason assume we're going to exclude the war in Afghanistan which is - for the record - the longest war we've ever fought and impacted multiple generations of service members. Millennials were in school during Columbine. We learned what terrorism was by watching 9/11 happen in real time. We were just getting our financial footing during the 08 housing crash/the great recession. Oh and by the way college was at a record high tuition rate, degrees were required for more jobs than ever and the salaries were ...and still are... stagnant.

And while I can appreciate your seize the opportunity mindset regarding access to information and the ability to sell goods and services online, lets not pretend like gig work is a way to build wealth for the majority - largely because we don't have access to affordable healthcare or retirement and competition drives the value of those goods and services down so while 60 years ago every town needed a shoe maker, now small business is being snuffed out by big business and the inability to compete with retail giants who can mass produce and outsource labor. I'm not here to say Millennials have it the worst but if you can't see the difference in financial opportunity across generations, you've got blinders on.

[james.hendrickson]

Why does every generation find it necessary to criticize and insult those that come after them?

Life is hard. We all face numerous challenges and struggles. Comparing what my generation or your generation faced to what some other generation has faced serves absolutely no purpose.

I also think there is a tendency for older folks to be at least a little out of touch with what current young people are dealing with. We all view things through the lens of what we experienced and may simply be unaware of how dramatically things have changed in 10 or 20 or 30 years since we went through it.

People need a stake on conformity. Younger people with no investment in their country's well being or their own finances tend to cause problems. For example, terrorism is almost always committed by men under 34 and crime is heavily concentrated among low socio-economic status younger men. Real estate, stocks, etc. - all give people buy in and help improve social cohesion.

[riverwed070707]

Why does every generation find it necessary to criticize and insult those that come after them?

Life is hard. We all face numerous challenges and struggles. Comparing what my generation or your generation faced to what some other generation has faced serves absolutely no purpose.

I also think there is a tendency for older folks to be at least a little out of touch with what current young people are dealing with. We all view things through the lens of what we experienced and may simply be unaware of how dramatically things have changed in 10 or 20 or 30 years since we went through it.

I tend to think some of it is in the nature of always wanting to do things differently than our parents did which creates cycles of personality/generation trends. Example: the men in the greatest gen were reserved, detached, not affectionate - therefore their children tend to be much more affectionate toward their own children. Gen X grew up as latch key kids and in turn became helicopter parents. We operate in cycles of extremes and overcorrection. The other perspective is that people react when attacked - boomers have always been hard on millennials while gen x flew under the radar. So millennials point out boomers flaws back. Don't see a whole lot of other generations with a specific generational rival quite like boomers and millenials

[Singuy]

Are you joking? Is this sarcasm?
Let's for some reason assume we're going to exclude the war in Afghanistan which is - for the record - the longest war we've ever fought and impacted multiple generations of service members. Millennials were in school during Columbine. We learned what terrorism was by watching 9/11 happen in real time. We were just getting our financial footing during the 08 housing crash/the great recession. Oh and by the way college was at a record high tuition rate, degrees were required for more jobs than ever and the salaries were ...and still are... stagnant.

And while I can appreciate your seize the opportunity mindset regarding access to information and the ability to sell goods and services online, lets not pretend like gig work is a way to build wealth for the majority - largely because we don't have access to affordable healthcare or retirement and competition drives the value of those goods and services down so while 60 years ago every town needed a shoe maker, now small business is being snuffed out by big business and the inability to compete with retail giants who can mass produce and outsource labor. I'm not here to say Millennials have it the worst but if you can't see the difference in financial opportunity across generations, you've got blinders on.

Things are more expensive like healthcare but it's also better health care. Every new regulation added is not free. Having higher standards for medicine means bringing drugs and procedures to market cost more money( and time). Back in the days people were just guessing or using correlation to evaluate how effective treatments are. Double blind random clinical trials now being the gold standard is also very expensive to perform over years to establish efficacy and safety. Same can be said with cars and houses. New safety standards add weight and complexity, new codes require more robust infrastructure. The only thing inflation truly hit is food product which is not any better than yesteryear. Everything else is better..but more expensive(except tech). Education however is more and I'm not sure if people are getting more out of them. That's an issue of supply and demand as jobs require higher education due to globalization. That I can stand behind as worst off for Millennials by a long shot.

[riverwed070707]

Things are more expensive like healthcare but it's also better health care. Every new regulation added is not free. Having higher standards for medicine means bringing drugs and procedures to market cost more money( and time). Back in the days people were just guessing or using correlation to evaluate how effective treatments are. Double blind random clinical trials now being the gold standard is also very expensive to perform over years to establish efficacy and safety. Same can be said with cars and houses. New safety standards add weight and complexity, new codes require more robust infrastructure. The only thing inflation truly hit is food product which is not any better than yesteryear. Everything else is better..but more expensive(except tech). Education however is more and I'm not sure if people are getting more out of them. That's an issue of supply and demand as jobs require higher education due to globalization. That I can stand behind as worst off for Millennials by a long shot.

what a privileged perspective. If your logic is true, why is the US the only first world country that people are regularly filing bankruptcy due to medical debt? Why do we have the most expensive healthcare in the world? It's not because its the best healthcare - its because we allow pharmaceutical companies to advertise and have a stake in our political environment and because the liability costs are high because people are always suing medical professionals.

Also... the only thing impacted by inflation is food?! Why does my house that was build in 1976 cost 5x what it cost when it was brand new? As noted in another thread today a house that I rented in 2007 for $600/mo now rents for $1,400. The house doesn't cost more to own since its the same owner as when I lived there (although the taxes, cost of water, trash, etc have all gone up some). When I lived there I split the expenses 50/50 with my boyfriend - how does an 18 year old today afford to move out of their house when the cost is double and the min wage is the same??

[Singuy]

what a privileged perspective. If your logic is true, why is the US the only first world country that people are regularly filing bankruptcy due to medical debt? Why do we have the most expensive healthcare in the world?
Also... the only thing impacted by inflation is food?! Why does my house that was build in 1976 cost 5x what it cost when it was brand new? As noted in another thread today a house that I rented in 2007 for $600/mo now rents for $1,400. The house doesn't cost more to own since its the same owner as when I lived there (although the taxes, cost of water, trash, etc have all gone up some). When I lived there I split the expenses 50/50 with my boyfriend - how does an 18 year old today afford to move out of their house when the cost is double and the min wage is the same??

Probably the same reason my job used to pay 20k/year in 1976 and now pays over 100k/year.
Btw house prices have peaked just recently. There's always some kind of hysteria when a sector becomes heated due to external factors like lumber shortages. And if you read my original post about how the chart is misleading, I have acknowledged that it's harder for millennials to build wealth if real estate is out of their reach.

As for people filing for bankruptcy due to a medical expense....probably has to do with them filing for bankruptcy due to not saving enough when regular debt mounts. Most Americans are 3 jobless months away from bankruptcy. It's not medical debt that pushes them over the edge. In fact you can get a lot of medical debt discharged by the hospital after working with a social worker and then pay it off over 30 years interest free. My dad just claimed he had no money and the ER visit by a person who was bitten by our dog who had no insurance with a 7000 medical bill ends up being about 650 bucks. He used to have to pay 20% for all his medical bill under medicare, and he gets some really expensive treatment and is a kidney transplant recipient. Then he went and looked for every social program that exist for every drug treatment which reduced his medical expenses of about 15k a year down to zero. It's not spoon fed to you, everything needs an application and a screening process but it's out there.

The point is people need to be more resourceful than just key warrior their way through life blaming x, y, and z. I mean if someone didn't tell my dad "hey you know you can apply to get your drug cost reduced", he would still be paying 15k/year until end of life. The information age is powerful, use it to get ahead...don't use it to feed your confirmation bias

[riverwed070707]

Probably the same reason my job used to pay 20k/year in 1976 and now pays over 100k/year.
Btw house prices have peaked just recently. There's always some kind of hysteria when a sector becomes heated due to external factors like lumber shortages. And if you read my original post about how the chart is misleading, I have acknowledged that it's harder for millennials to build wealth if real estate is out of their reach.

As for people filing for bankruptcy due to a medical expense....probably has to do with them filing for bankruptcy due to not saving enough when regular debt mounts. Most Americans are 3 jobless months away from bankruptcy. It's not medical debt that pushes them over the edge. In fact you can get a lot of medical debt discharged by the hospital after working with a social worker and then pay it off over 30 years interest free. My dad just claimed he had no money and the ER visit by a person who was bitten by our dog who had no insurance with a 7000 medical bill ends up being about 650 bucks. He used to have to pay 20% for all his medical bill under medicare, and he gets some really expensive treatment and is a kidney transplant recipient. Then he went and looked for every social program that exist for every drug treatment which reduced his medical expenses of about 15k a year down to zero. It's not spoon fed to you, everything needs an application and a screening process but it's out there.

The point is people need to be more resourceful than just key warrior their way through life blaming x, y, and z. I mean if someone didn't tell my dad "hey you know you can apply to get your drug cost reduced", he would still be paying 15k/year until end of life. The information age is powerful, use it to get ahead...don't use it to feed your confirmation bias

You're completely missing the point. Lets blame the poor for their own oppression. But I'm sure glad you and your dad have figured out the system and path to success.

[Singuy]

You're completely missing the point. Lets blame the poor for their own oppression. But I'm sure glad you and your dad have figured out the system and path to success.

It's hard for someone who comes from a third world country with an authoritarian regime to fully appreciate the harshness of American life, sorry. But don't worry. I'll always vote blue despite all the whining from both sides. The amount of taxes I pay is nothing compared to the infrastructure, opportunity, freedom, and security the U.S provide for me and would gladly pay more.

[Petunia 100]

So if you're a millennial living in an urban area where you can either rent or go into a lifetime of debt with your spouse in order to "afford" a $2M house (and the associated taxes) what should you do?

My daughter and son, both millennials, both solved this problem with good old geo-arbitrage.

[Fishindude77]

The point is people need to be more resourceful than just key warrior their way through life blaming x, y, and z.

Truth spoken here.
I see tons of opportunity to make a bunch of $$ every day, but see very few willing to put in the effort to get that $$.
You don't need a fancy, expensive education either, you just need to work.

Everywhere around here I see entry level jobs starting at $20 / hr plus benefits. That's almost $42k per year. Work a little OT and you can pretty easily push your income to $50-60k. Put in a few years being reliable and you may be able to advance to a much higher paying position.
That's not big time money by any means, but it will keep a roof over your head, feed you and pay enough so you can have something to drive.

Todays interest rates are at all time lows (sub 3%) and you can buy homes with almost no down payment. There are tons of in town homes in my area that can be purchased for $50-60k. Do a little work on the place, fix it up on your own and you'll be able to sell it and make yourself a nice little nest egg of $$ to step up to something nicer in a few years.

Some of the HCOL areas are ridiculous. If you are not a top tier earner, you simply can't afford to live there. You can stay and be miserable, or you can make a move to try and improve your situation.


The dude that has cut my grass for the last ten years recently got sick and is closing up his business. Charged me $50, and mowed about ten lawns in a row on this block, so $500, took him about 4 hours to knock them all out.
I assume he was mowing a bunch more lawns on the days he wasn't here, so I could easily see him pulling in $2-3k per week with a pickup truck, zero turn mower, weed eater and a blower as his primary investment, maybe $10k in tools total?
There is an opportunity now for someone to jump in and get that business and even charge a bit more, but I bet we struggle to find a new lawn guy. Point being, there are lots of very low tech, low cost entry money making opportunities out there.

[Singuy]

Truth spoken here.
I see tons of opportunity to make a bunch of $$ every day, but see very few willing to put in the effort to get that $$.
You don't need a fancy, expensive education either, you just need to work.

Everywhere around here I see entry level jobs starting at $20 / hr plus benefits. That's almost $42k per year. Work a little OT and you can pretty easily push your income to $50-60k. Put in a few years being reliable and you may be able to advance to a much higher paying position.
That's not big time money by any means, but it will keep a roof over your head, feed you and pay enough so you can have something to drive.

Todays interest rates are at all time lows (sub 3%) and you can buy homes with almost no down payment. There are tons of in town homes in my area that can be purchased for $50-60k. Do a little work on the place, fix it up on your own and you'll be able to sell it and make yourself a nice little nest egg of $$ to step up to something nicer in a few years.

Some of the HCOL areas are ridiculous. If you are not a top tier earner, you simply can't afford to live there. You can stay and be miserable, or you can make a move to try and improve your situation.


The dude that has cut my grass for the last ten years recently got sick and is closing up his business. Charged me $50, and mowed about ten lawns in a row on this block, so $500, took him about 4 hours to knock them all out.
I assume he was mowing a bunch more lawns on the days he wasn't here, so I could easily see him pulling in $2-3k per week with a pickup truck, zero turn mower, weed eater and a blower as his primary investment, maybe $10k in tools total?
There is an opportunity now for someone to jump in and get that business and even charge a bit more, but I bet we struggle to find a new lawn guy. Point being, there are lots of very low tech, low cost entry money making opportunities out there.

People here thinks I speak from privileged and just writes me off. I literally tried my best to steer these young 20-30 year olds on a better and more lucrative path and it's like pulling teeth. For example:

1. I am surrounded by pharmacy technicians in their young 20s or late 20s. I have been advertising other paths like becoming an optician which requires no schooling, two tests after 2 years of PAID apprenticeship, and it'll double your pay. So far I have ZERO takers. These youngsters are not thinking about bettering their lives at all. I catch them either talking about how they couldn't afford anything, or where's the best spot for the most delicious drinks.

2. We hire optical technicians for my wife which pays 14 dollars/hr. During the interview, we literally say "and if you would like to take advantage of one day becoming an optometrist or an optician, we would gladly be your sponsor and write your recommendation letter. In fact it's something we encourage here as we want you to establish a career in this field when possible". So far, NO TAKERS. I understand not everyone is met to be an optometrist and the schooling is not cheap, but the optician route is FREE and their pay instantly becomes 28 dollars/hour + 20k/year worth of commission once they pass the exams.

Before I was in the camp of..oh their parents were not attentive...they don't know better...they didn't have good people who can guide them..etc etc. Now I'm in the camp of..yeah these kids are contempt with their lives in their 20s and then become victim of being poor the rest of their lives blaming "the system". I provide these guys with best possible guidance and it just goes in one ear, out the other. So yeah I went from feeling bad for them to ..this is the way.

[ua_guy]

People here thinks I speak from privileged and just writes me off. I literally tried my best to steer these young 20-30 year olds on a better and more lucrative path and it's like pulling teeth. For example:

1. I am surrounded by pharmacy technicians in their young 20s or late 20s. I have been advertising other paths like becoming an optician which requires no schooling, two tests after 2 years of PAID apprenticeship, and it'll double your pay. So far I have ZERO takers. These youngsters are not thinking about bettering their lives at all. I catch them either talking about how they couldn't afford anything, or where's the best spot for the most delicious drinks.

2. We hire optical technicians for my wife which pays 14 dollars/hr. During the interview, we literally say "and if you would like to take advantage of one day becoming an optometrist or an optician, we would gladly be your sponsor and write your recommendation letter. In fact it's something we encourage here as we want you to establish a career in this field when possible". So far, NO TAKERS. I understand not everyone is met to be an optometrist and the schooling is not cheap, but the optician route is FREE and their pay instantly becomes 28 dollars/hour + 20k/year worth of commission once they pass the exams.

Before I was in the camp of..oh their parents were not attentive...they don't know better...they didn't have good people who can guide them..etc etc. Now I'm in the camp of..yeah these kids are contempt with their lives in their 20s and then become victim of being poor the rest of their lives blaming "the system". I provide these guys with best possible guidance and it just goes in one ear, out the other. So yeah I went from feeling bad for them to ..this is the way.

I'm not sure how someone not following your recommendations for bettering themselves means they aren't trying to improve their lives. That's a totally false assumption, bordering on arrogance.

$14/hour is literally almost nothing these days in any developed part of our nation. I was making that at my first job washing cars and mopping floors at a local car dealership ....in 2001.

I'm a millennial who has done fine, but I'm here to defend the fact that the path to relative middle-class wealth and success is significantly more challenging, significantly different, than anything our parents dealt with.

Like "geoarbitrage". So, if a young person lives in a desirable (expensive) part of the country with their parents these days, they can't afford a home of their own there until they spend 20 years in labor camp for their jobs, living away from their families, just to afford a house?? How is this benefiting anyone? Or I guess the alternative is mowing lawns for a living and buying a $60k home in flyover country.


This place...

[Fishindude77]

Like "geoarbitrage". So, if a young person lives in a desirable (expensive) part of the country with their parents these days, they can't afford a home of their own there until they spend 20 years in labor camp for their jobs, living away from their families, just to afford a house?? How is this benefiting anyone?

Or I guess the alternative is mowing lawns for a living and buying a $60k home in flyover country.


This place...

Unfortunately, this is probably reality. Nobody suggested it benefitted anyone, that's just the way it is. Unless you're super high income, it aint gonna work.
The good news is, those $60k homes in flyover areas are often equal to what people pay $4-500k or more for in HCOL areas, and mowing lawns or other forms of labor deemed uncool or beneath many are still legit ways to make a living.

[myrdale]

I'd be curious to see what the discretionary spending (weighted for inflation) for each of these groups is. Cell phones, restaurants, and the endless supply of stuff, I suspect people are far more frivolous today than they were 30 years ago.

[Singuy]

I'm not sure how someone not following your recommendations for bettering themselves means they aren't trying to improve their lives. That's a totally false assumption, bordering on arrogance.

$14/hour is literally almost nothing these days in any developed part of our nation. I was making that at my first job washing cars and mopping floors at a local car dealership ....in 2001.

I'm a millennial who has done fine, but I'm here to defend the fact that the path to relative middle-class wealth and success is significantly more challenging, significantly different, than anything our parents dealt with.

Like "geoarbitrage". So, if a young person lives in a desirable (expensive) part of the country with their parents these days, they can't afford a home of their own there until they spend 20 years in labor camp for their jobs, living away from their families, just to afford a house?? How is this benefiting anyone? Or I guess the alternative is mowing lawns for a living and buying a $60k home in flyover country.


This place...

Different yes, challenging..yes only if you apply what you thought worked when your parents were at their prime and refuse to roll with the times.

And as for people not improving their lives..yeah its like watching a train wreck in slow motion. if I get a nickel for every technicial who complain about their 45 cent raise every year...or complain about their car payments, rent, and how they know they need to move on from a 14 dollar entry level job before its too late, I wouldn't need to invest into the stock market. They complain, I provide them with ideas, they ignore them, and the cycle repeat next year.

Got a tech who literally said when he was 22.."I need to get out of here before becoming one of those who are still here at 45"...well he is still with us..at 31. I remember helping this guy reaching out with my contacts on jobs he said he will like. I put in more leg work for him than he has and it's his life..at the end he didn't do a thing.