Put man on the moon with people educated on a blackboard, paper, and pencil in school.

I blame the change in pay for productivity on the widespread adoption of CAD software. One designer or engineer could suddenly do the work of a room full, processes to make tooling, parts etc. we’re eliminated etc.

Step 1: cut out the Starbucks and brew yore own

...or did we...? Attached File

we did

I’m an older Millennial.  Born in 1983 (40yo now)

Very comfortable.  Married 13 years, house is half paid off, no vehicle debt.   ~$320k in retirement savings between my wife and I (she recently stopped working to stay at home full time with 3 kids).  

I think I could be doing better if I wanted to.  But, I’m not as motivated to “climb the ladder” at work because it would take away from things I enjoy doing now - coaching youth sports teams, summer adult soccer league, hunting, rv’ing, etc etc

I want to enjoy all that shit NOW while I’m young and able to do those things.  Also my kids are only children once.  I know that I won’t be as far ahead later, but who the cares about having massive wealth if you are too old to truly enjoy it.  

I think the attitude I have is one that separates my generation from that of my parents (boomers).  

Maybe

What if I'm brewing Starbucks at home?

Did I just divide by zero?

I'm doing well for myself now, high paying job, own my home, no debt etc. But as an "elder" millennial I do regret that my engineering career started during the major recession of 2008. That meant they could pay starting engineers peanuts compared to nowadays. Moved around and got a couple large promotions with raise since 2020, but those lower salary years right after college will affect my retirement. Wish I had the income to max all my accounts when I was 23 like I do now in my upper 30s.

It might be a maybe for people who also think the earth is flat lol

You've done well for yourself.  My daughter turns 30 today and she lives a much better life than I did at 30.  This generation has plenty of opportunities to make good money.

#winning

*snort*

I think most generations get this way, but maybe not. By the time you’re closer to 40 than 35 you realize life is where you’re at. You decide the career is set and you’re probably not going anywhere up unless you really sacrifice even more. Millennials seem to be saying ‘fuck it. I’m 40. I’m done working that hard’ a lot and I think Covid lock downs and working from home helped push us into it. Maybe it’s just you and me though. Enjoy the money while planning for retirement instead of saving it up to give to our grandkids, and not regret NOT spending it to a point.

It’s like I’ve got career apathy.   I just got a substantial raise at work too.   I’ve almost replaced my wife’s take home income a this point, which we sacrificed a few years ago so she could stay home with the kids.

I’m glad my employer appreciates what I am doing, but I really hope they don’t expect me to jump into things more than I’m already doing.  

Sometimes I feel like the guy from office space where he just acts like he doesn’t give a fuck and gets promoted.

The freedom to see my kids grow up and hit the woods at 3pm on a Tuesday is worth A LOT to me, personally.  

Sacrificing all that now so I can have a couple million when I’m old and decrepit sounds like a recipe for major regret later in life.  Yay, my wrinkled ass will be sitting on a pile of money I can’t truly enjoy beyond looking at the balance.  

Useful for shit for brains and the globalists? Nahh. Joining the military isn't the character building backup plan it once was, hasn't been for quite a while.

ha!

literally sent this to a couple work buddies yesterday after bonuses were announced.

Peter Gibbons: The thing is, Bob, it's not that I'm lazy, it's that I just don't care.
Bob Porter: Don't... don't care?
Peter Gibbons: It's a problem of motivation, all right? Now if I work my ass off and Initech ships a few extra units, I don't see another dime, so where's the motivation? And here's something else, Bob: I have eight different bosses right now.
Bob Slydell: I beg your pardon?
Peter Gibbons: Eight bosses.
Bob Slydell: Eight?
Peter Gibbons: Eight, Bob. So that means that when I make a mistake, I have eight different people coming by to tell me about it. That's my only real motivation is not to be hassled, that and the fear of losing my job. But you know, Bob, that will only make someone work just hard enough not to get fired.

You know the older I get the more that movie just hits home.

I'll admit I'm stirring the pot with that one, but given what we know about our government shenanigans from Kennedy through now I don't think it's outlandish to state that I don't trust a single fucking thing I'm told unless it comes from the mouth of someone I trust or is seen with my own eyes. IOW, I'm not a denier, but I'm not going to kiss ass at our country's dick measuring accomplishments from 60 years ago when NASA says they can't even land a man on the moon now until 2026 or something like that (heard on the radio the other day, can't recall exact date, don't care).

Anyways, we should blame and rape all future generations for our own prosperity, keep a firm grasp on government until the day we die, and completely fuck the country with our bone headed decisions. That will show those got-damn millenyuls who is in charge!

I do the work, overachieve, etc, but the second a "Hey do you think you can do _______?" comes out I'm Peter. Current job interview was me saying I don't work extra unless you pay extra, if you want more pay me. Funny thing is, if you're good, they'll break even their own dumb bureaucratic rules to pay you. Icing on the cake: if they want me to keep doing extra they also need to pay me to take cakewalk shit too. I got paid 6x normal rate for a couple things this week where all the work I did consisted of walking a hallway.

Damn it feels good to be a gangster.

ETA: not that gangster, I'm actually very undercompensated but know how to work the system and am valuable enough for multiple people to violate rules to pay me, so maybe like slumlord status? King of the favela?

Reparations for Gen-X now!

You owe us!

Where’s my inheritance?!?

We were promised global thermonuclear war, too! What a lie that turned out to be.

This. I've been with UPRR since I was 18. Currently very high in seniority with lots of PTO. Got screwed over by my first wife and got set back about 6 years financially. My second wife is amazing and started her own business, we'll be almost debt free in 11 months except for about $5,000. We live in a high housing cost area so we're renting. My railroad retirement will between $7,000 and $9,000 a month when I turn 60, it will be for the reat of my spouse and my life. We spend money on travel and doing stuff with our 5 kids,as that'smore important to enjoy with good health than old and crippled. I'm trying to decide if a house is worth the doubling of living expenses or dump $20,000 a year into investments and retire at 50-55.

I identify as junior Gen X.

How are you going to maintain your RRB current connection if you retire at 50-55? How about healthcare?

I’m ok

We still did

AND LET YOUR HOMIES KNOW WHO DONNN IT

Cool, we're the top dog over communist Russia? Proved a lot there. Hindsight being 20/20, our leaders spent a lot of time, effort and funds trying to one-up people with objectively lower IQs AND convince our citizens it was in our best interest, profiting all the while and fucking you over.

But we proverbially pissed on the moon to assert dominance over people that still use AKs and Yugos so hey, it's an easy win, right?

In other words I don't give a fuck if we did, what did it do for us?

Who pissed in your cheerios? It was a major scientific accomplishment and the beginning of the exploration of the solar system.

Those funds were spent to employ a shit ton of people and further science and show the world we're #1 even if the government sucks.

If that does nothing for you then I don't know what to tell you. You're not edgy or cool for denigrating this accomplishment.

As long as you have at least 30 years you can leave whenever you want. You just can't take pension until 60. My wife and I will purchase private insurance.

Hell yea!  Boomer thread!

While not as dire as the article makes it out to be, being almost 40 sucks.  I went back to school when the economy went to shit in 2008ish.  Coming out of school in 2012 was hell finding a professional job.  I remember class mates working as “interns” in full time positions.  

I started my first engineering position for “The lowest we offer, and we’ll see how you do”.  There was no negotiating when a dude I was interviewing against had 10 years of experience and only wanted $10k more a year.  Glad I’m no longer there.

Thankfully I have a solid wife and we bought our house at the lowest point in the market.  Sucks we’ll be in our “starter home” forever now.  

I’m interested to see how this next once in a lifetime financial crisis plays out.  I’m really ready to jump to the next employer, but I feel like I should hang tight for another year.

It was a great accomplishment, to be sure. The program is embarrassing now, we learn more from unmanned probes and private companies run by brilliant autists do it better. Anyways, enough thread derailing.

Seen any millenials up and at it yet this mornin'?

Great time to come out of school, wasn't it? Was working a full time and two part time jobs to make ends meet and getting yelled at by boomers to pull myself by the bootstraps. Anyone else remember college grads with fighting over jobs at Mickey D's because there were no professional jobs open?

Born in 1981-1996. Previously "Generation Y". Called millennial because they would be "coming of age" (reaching adulthood for you millennials reading this) in the new millennium. Millennials are living in the economy they voted for. Do you really think Obamacare and healthcare mandates have no effect on your take-home income?

So many rules about Obamacare and healthcare mandates have changed it wouldn’t impact anything at this point.   It has more of an impact on what I pay for healthcare services than what I pay for insurance.    Cheap insurance will always exist. Nice insurance will always be ridiculous expensive.

Also, lots of millennials didn’t vote early on. MTV did what it could to encourage us, but no way were we going to outvote the boomers in 2002. Heck, Al Gore could have kicked off the climate change/green energy wave 20 years ago. Bush took us to war for oil to protect his buddies instead.  Think we aren’t still paying for 9/11 and the increased security now required to fly?

If everyone had it what are you bragging about? I’d brag about my high school diploma since people here don’t have theirs. They were still given $2,000 from Uncle Joe and Brother Trump.

Yes. Stopped by Lowes this morning for more concrete and a ladder. Made it home as it got light enough out to work.
Attached File

Gen X is going to hurt for retirement. Millennials are going to hear their older siblings bitch like the middle children they never were about how it isn’t fair they do t get to pull social security at 62 because it isn’t enough money. Good things you guys got to ditch school and have you license at 16. Should have used it to save money for retirement according to the boomers.

An avocado is less than $1. Bread is cheap too. Maybe you could appreciate how rich you are for being able to afford SPAM.

I am Gen X, born in 1970 in chicago to two democrat parents.  I have been working since I was 11.  Paper route, worked at the church rectory, cleaned classrooms after school in HS, p/t job, then f/t.

Wife and I moved in w/ each other 6 months after we started dating.  A few months later we combined our money, paid off my car, her car, her student loans and started saving money.  I had a f/t and two p/t jobs, she had a f/t and p/t.

Saved up 10K, bought a house, sold it a year later because of the HOA from hell.  When we approached the bank for a preapproval letter they approved us for 300K back in 2000, we had a limit of 150K. Bank said "But look what you can buy for 300!!!!!"  Me: "Yeah, twice the mortgage, no thanks"

We bought our current mid 70's tri-level on a 1/2 acre in 2001 for 164K.  We got married in 2003, first child was born in May 2004, wife stayed home for 12 years, then back p/t and then f/t about two years ago.  Clerk at the HS, monthly net is about 1K but we have health insurance, contribute to an HSA, and put money into ROTH's and other investments.

We drive our cars until they cannot be fixed.  I fix everything I can at home and I had to learn it on my own, my dad was no teacher.  I show my kids how to fix something at every opportunity and they of course have little interest.  I tell them you have to be rich enough to pay someone to fix everything or you have to learn how to do for yourself.  Maybe one day my lessons will strike oil.

We saw friends who had the big house, two newer cars, etc come close to losing their home when he was unemployed for THREE months.  When they divorced due to drinking problems on both sides they each walked away with a few grand after paying off their debt.  

Being a self employed electrician for 18 years has been rough at times but we live frugal and hopefully our kids pay attention.  My oldest is paying his own way thru junior college.  We warned him for years that we would not sign for student loans because heaven forbid something happens to him or he simply cannot pay the loans the lender will simply tell us where to start sending payments and I am too old to take on that risk.  When he looked into the cost of college he started whining and crying and I had no mercy.  So he figured it out.  

We rarely eat out, might buy McD's once a year, wife cooks meals.  We are fully stocked on food stuffs.  We have two freezers, one for meat, one for vegetables and other items.  Three pantries with canned goods, pastas, chicken stock, Mountain House, coffee, etc.  We could survive on our own for a while if need be.  We have cash available.

Our retirement if we ever get there will be modest.  I would be content with a small property in rural TN but that fantasy is fading due to so many people flooding into TN.  We would have been further ahead if we just hired a babysitter and my wife stayed working f/t but her being home was a top priority.  

Anyway, if anyone is still reading I am impressed as I can be very long winded.

This is why millennials are causing the housing crisis.  You’re not upgrading to a bigger home and more unmanageable debt so the Zoomers can enjoy the life you’re currently living.

Did you know they could have put the money into a college/educational fund for you and your siblings instead of pocketing the money?


October is Bonus Month for lots of parents in Alaska. Every kid they have is a bonus check.

Psssh. Nobody needs to know how to manage money. They just need to know how the system is racist, sexist, white supremacist and evil, and how to vote for Democrats to fix it all!

got dayum millennials.

Also, if you owned a business and had employees you know what their hourly employees got?
They got to keep their jobs.
I had a business. I was about to let all my guys go because gov COVID regs crushed my business. I got money to keep my guys on payroll which only served to delay the inevitable.

I don't believe you. Cali is expensive .

If he's lived in his house a long time, his property taxes are probably extremely low.

Hell, I was talking to a co-worker yesterday who makes way less then me and his property taxes are around 6K a year. While my house is small, I have lived there almost 30 years, mine is right at a bit over a grand a year. Take the cap off and it would skyrocket. I can buy a lot of stuff in retirement for 5 grand.

Born in 82, very similar situation.

I graduated college in 2009, into a job market flooded with people who had a master's degree and 20 years' experience that had been laid off, all fighting for entry-level jobs.