even at today’s BS grocery prices  making your coffee at home makes economic sense.  $11/pound. yields 30 cups at $0.37 each.   McD’s went from 1$ to $2 for a large coffee.  (granted I get a 21 oz large which is bigger than an 8-12 oz house made cup/mug. )

This.  Victimhood is the new superhero costume of millenials.

A generational pattern of ever-increasing spending, ballooning debt, SS consuming the whole of the fed budget by ~2030, piles of insolvent state retirement plans, & on & on...I'm not seeing how that isn't going to fuck ev-ery-one. I'm feeling like all my savings & investments are being sabotaged.

Been that way as long as I can remember.  That doesn't make it right, but it voids the Millenials exceptionalism.  


I made $9/hour out of college.  Buying a home felt impossible.  Paying for basic utilities was a struggle.  

I didnt eat out.  I didn't order in.  I drove a 20yr old, shitty yet reliable car.  I saved money for a cheap house downpayment.  I took a slightly better job.  It took years.

What Millenials don't understand are the concepts of sacrifice and compromise. You can buy that dream home, but not right out of the gate.  You can have that new truck/car/etc, but you'll have give up other things and work hard to improve your job prospects.

Starting out is fucking hard.

Millennial here.

I eat a lot, but I only spend around $200-220 per month on groceries. That's 60lbs of chicken, 120 eggs, rice, and frozen veggies. Sometimes I splurge and buy a loaf of bread for toast in the morning. Buy in bulk. Saves so much money.

When my wife had our kid she stopped working. Dropped $50k off our income right then and there. Yet, because of good financial decisions and cutting unnecessary costs, we were able to pay for the house, cars, and all bills on my $78k job.

In fact, because we actually looked at how much money were were spending frivolously, I have more money in the bank right now than when were were both working. It was kind of shocking. She spent $150-$180 a month just at Starbucks!

I was much better and only spent about $110 on average.  

help for OP and other Millennials

The 30 year loan even with extra payments just didn't move the principal at all. The single year we've had the 15 year loan has done more good than 9 of the 30 even when we paid $180 a month extra

Starting out is supposed to be hard.

And you’re not supposed to be at, on day one, where you are after a decade of two of hard work and sacrifice.

But there is something far more basic than that going on.

This, and other posts like it- are full of people that refuse to acknowledge or believe it, or will go through ridiculous mental gymnastics to avoid grasping it- because it upsets their worldview, etc.


And the basic issue is- that for a huge portion of young adults in much of the country-

There have been massive proportional increases in core costs.

Then the mouth breathers chime in about how cheap you can get a microwave or big color TV for now.

I didn’t grow up with a microwave or big color TV.
I didn’t have one in my first apartment.
But it was in a safe, clean, neighborhood 3 miles from where I went to college.  
And it cost me 1/3 in today’s dollars what it does now.

Then the anti-education types chime in about those damn basket weaving degrees and not needing any of that there college lurnin’.

But my first degree- the basic root of what gives me a one percenter household income on my salary alone - cost me 1/2 in today’s dollars what it does now.

Then they chip in about these damn kids buying those fancy cars and stuff and not knowing how to budget, or they should be working.

I worked about 100 days a year while going to college.  And I needed reliable transportation to do it.  I bought a three year old 4x4 Toyota for 18K in todays dollars.  But today it cost over 30K to do that.

Then when home costs are mentioning, it’s those damn millenials’ fault for buying big fancy houses.  

Yet the exact same 1500sf on a quarter acre home 15 miles from work with no crime and great schools that cost me, say the equivalent of 350K in today’s dollars- but at 7.87% interest - in rough math with no down payment and just P&I - about $2500 a month- about 2750 a month counting property taxes.
Is now, at he absolute least possible expensive home to find in the same subdivision- 700K.  Even at half the interest rate making it by the same math $3200 a month.  3700 a month with property taxes.  

And then they chime in with- well- you can have the nice stuff later after your save and sacrifice.

OK then, what about that big nice house to raise your family in a decade later- with a big yard- maybe on a lake or with a pool.  Again in a safe, low crime area with great public schools?  Say half an hour from work?  Even in an area without the high real estate appreciation as my starter home-
Using the same math- for about 430K in today’s dollars at 5.5%.  About 2400 bucks a month P&I. 2700 with property taxes.  
At 650K right now at 3.5% we’re looking at another 500 bucks a month for 2900 in P&I.  3300 with property taxes.

And then, what about really making it?  Like, you have twice the annual median household income coming in passively, a million or two in retirement account,

So, the bottom line is- for a huge percentage of the population in significant areas of the country-
For someone with the exact same training, job, education, etc.

Fifty years ago their cost of college, a reliable used car, and an apartment was significantly less proportionally.  As was a starter home.  And a later nice house.  Maybe their son could have pulled off the same.  But it was essentially unaffordable for their grandson.

There is a noose tightening on the American dream.  

The social, financial, and political elite- say the top 0.01 or even 0.1 percent of the population-
Are accumulating wealth and power -
They ass rape the rest of the top 1% who are often first generation success and not near wealthy enough to be protected by trusts, foundations, off shores, and laws.  And they squeeze almost 40% of the nation’s tax revenue out of them. All while doing other things to narrow the options for reaching this level of success to more and more finance/services/sales/etc. aspects which require money printing and making the pie smaller or thinner because there are no real world increase in actual objects / items of intrinsic value.  

They hammer the shit out of the next 9% as well.  Because you also produce more than you consume and are a net gain on the tax revenue.  And you contribute as a whole about 35% of the tax revenue.  So we have about 9.9% of the population contributing around 75% of the tax revenue.

The next 40% or so of the population contributes about the other 25% of the tax revenue.  They break even on you as a whole.  They don’t really care what happens to you - but will propagandize and indoctrinate you to no end to get your vote.

The other half of the population is a net drain of tax revenue as they need resources to support them.  But they vote.  And they vote for who gives them shit.

We essentially have about 0.1 % of the population, that needs a disproportionately productive small percent of the population to skim off of and keep things running.

They want the productive portion of the population to get as little of what they earn as possible, the same for the portion keeping things running, and the bulk to be happy with as little as possible to get their vote.

They absolutely don’t want our current young adults to have as much success and material trappings for their work, efforts, sweat, etc. As their parents did.  Let alone their grandparents.  They could not reap near the benefits of providing nothing new if core, important things did not cost proportionally more.  And they have weaponized school, media, social mores, etc. to fucking re-Peasantize the masses.  Just get yours, get it now, and sell-or your kids and grand-kids for getting fucked- while mocking them for it- and hurry up and die off without doing anything about it. Preferably just after they figure out how to get their claws in any assets you have left instead of it being inherited.

If you refuse to believe this, won’t accept this, you’re just one of the useful idiots.

Vaginitis,OP.  You gots it.

My $9/hour with undergraduate degree is worth $14.53/hr today.

The shoebox I bought in 2001 cost $70,000.  Today that same shoebox is $90k (actually $88k according to most recent appraisal).  It's a tiny house with a decent yard in a lower-middle income neighborhood.


I personally don't mind having my worldview changed, but the bitching and crying about life being unfair is ridiculous.  

Can't afford to buy a home?  Get in line.  Save up and over time you can buy a home.  Sacrifice to get what you want...Or don't.  I don't give a fuck.  

You did it wrong.  

<gen Xer

Could you be more specific.
Details matter.
Are you using today’s dollars?

You were making 9$ an hour in 2001 with an undergrad degree?  18K a year for 40 hour weeks?  Roughly a 30K a year job in today’s dollars?
The average starting salary for a college graduate in 2001 was about 42K.  Around 65K or so in todays dollars,



What degree?  What job?  What did a year of tuition cost there in 1971, 1981, 1991, 2001 vs today.

If you paid 70K for a home in 2001, that’s about 110K in today’s dollars.  Only appraising at 90K has a typical explanation.

At the exact same time you bought that home, I was living in a home.
As a renter.  I knew I was only going to be in town for two years.

The population of the town at the time was about 120K. The current population is about 215K.   It was experiencing a shift in demographics.  The affluent and productive were being squeezed into little gated communities and paying for private school and started moving out to neighboring counties disproportionately.  The non-productive were moving in disproportionately.  There has been a 7% increase in the African American population.  The public high school the home fed into has a graduation rate in the 70s, less than a third of students take the SATs, and the average is 900.  This is about 25th percentile.  Less than 1% of students do any AP math or science tests.  Because everyone successful has moved out or pays for private schools, it is 70% Black, 12% Hispanic, and under 10% White.  The town my starter home was in was 90% White / Asian.  The graduation rate 97%.  AP participation 70%. The average SAT score 90th percentile at just over 1350.

Anyways, this big nice 2400+ sf home in a gated community with a nice big yard, 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, on a quiet little cul de sac was a
150K home in 1990.  About 320K in today’s dollars.

173K home in 2001.  About 275K in today’s dollars.

Just pre-COVID, it was about 250K in today’s dollars.

With the current housing madness going on, it is currently about 280K.

So yes, some homes have depreciated.
But the Boomer that bought it new in 1990 has vastly different demographics, surrounding crime, and public schools.
It only became proportionally less for an X-ER to buy it 20+ years ago or a Millenial to buy it now if they would tolerate horrendous public schools, the costs of private schools, increased homeowners fees for increased security, gating, fences, etc.

Millennials’ inability and unwillingness to do their part to fix things is really not helping.

How the fuck did Xers suddenly get lumped in with Boomers?  

How do Gen X'ers get lumped in with Boomers?

We're nothing like the Boomers.  

Gen X's time is coming when we finally take the reigns of power from the liver spotted hands of the Boomers.  So, my advice to the Millennials is to relax, come as you are, as you were, as I want you to be as a friend and let us lead you to the promised land that is free of Boomer rule!

Join with us Millennials.  No more votes for Boomer politicians, regardless of party.  No more Boomers in power! Only together can we defeat the Emperor.

I lived in a rural area.  Still do.  My undergraduate degree was in English.  $9/hour doing the marketing for a service company that had a multi-year contract with a small university. When I left, I was making $9.25/hour.  

My first home was $70k because it was a shoebox.  It's only $90k today because it's an even older shoebox.  Youngsters today wouldn't be caught dead living in a house as small as my starter home...it doesn't have appeal on "the gram" or Facebook. It won't impress their friends and perhaps more importantly, they'd think it was beneath them.  


So I'll repeat myself.  Starting out is hard; it is for the majority of young adults.  We all have grandiose dreams of our entry into the real world, but reality is a harsh mistress.  The difference between GenX and younger generations is that we accepted our reality.  

I moved to a couple metro areas, but found that the increased pay was swallowed up by increased COL.  Plenty of ammenities nearby, but I was still poor.  The struggle forced me to make improvements which paid off over time.

Now I live in a rural area and make excellent money.  It took time and a lot of effort.  I don't have any sympathy for those that want the good stuff, but don't have the time or inclination to put in the work.  

Where is the OP?

Did he fart in the room then leave and see what it stirs up?

He baited you all.

Lol, Boomers control the federal government, most of the wealth in the country, and until the past election were the largest voting block in the country.  What exactly were you looking for from later generations?

How’d that last election turn out for you?

Lol millenials think anyone older than them is a boomer.  The world must change based on their perceptions, just like everything else (otherwise they’re the victim)…

Oh fantastic!  The adults are back in charge.  

Thats cool and all but what boomers dont understand is that starting out is a LOT more difficult now.

Attached File

In most places there has been a much bigger increase in housing from 2001 then approximately 25%.

Wages are not keeping up with increased costs. Many people do not have the same opportunity today.

We are doing well and making it, so it's our legs that get cut off also.

I still can't figure out what these millennials were doing in 2016 when shit was priced well, and it was a good time to get in a home.

I know one of them in this thread was wasting money on surplus hummvs, but is complaining things cost to much. Classic millennial move. Buy toys, complain life sucks I guess.... I don't get it.

I don’t know, let’s start with what Gen X is doing. We’re keeping all the plates spinning while young shits are slap fighting boomers. Forgive us if we kind of expected the later generations to pitch in when they were old enough.

All the young ones are doing is bitching about how money isn’t falling from the sky, the way they think we got our money.

Yeah.

You’re not really someone the world punched in the dick and kept from getting a toehold.
You kind of kept yourself from getting a toehold for a while.

But, regardless, you still would have had more options and an easier time with that English degree in 1970, even 1990- than you did in 2000.  Let alone now.


I’m talking more about the guys with a little more juice and potential coming out of the gate and getting dick punched compared to my generation and the Boomer generation before me.

If I template my exact career path -

But move it further ahead by two decades-

It would have cost me twice as much to go to college.
That is real world debt and a ball and chain around your ankle.

I could not have afforded my apartment.  I see to frequently walk or bike to school.  And my work study.  The increased costs of housing, transportation, longer wasted time- would have been a significant hiccup.

My other Job- it required reliable, all weather transportation.  The same three year old similar mileage vehicle would have been twice as much and I could not afford it.  Would I have built the same great rep and got as much done without reliable transportation?

Then, my starter home.
I could not remotely have afforded it.  The only thing there right now for the equivalent price a similar commute would be a shitty falling apart condo in a shitty high crime area feeding into really shitty schools.  I would have had to have lived, for the same price, double or triple the miles away resulting in a dozen hours wasted commuting that I needed for crushing it at work, and doubling my vehicle wear and gas mileage, to live in a place with crappier schools and more crime.

And I could not have afforded the nice home in a great area to raise my family in with the sweet yard and fantastic schools either.

Anyone busting their ass as hard doing the exact same things and totally crushing it following the exact same path as I did with the exact same potential -RFN-
Instead of when I did it might not make it to where I am right now,
And be doing it under shittier conditions in crappier areas in a shittier place for their family and shittier schools for their kids.

This is a hint- a very obvious hint- as if half the other shit going on is not obvious enough-
That things have gone very, very wrong.

The oldest millennial was 36 in 2016.  Many had their careers and finances derailed by the dot com crash, the sub prime mortgage crisis, and the great recession.  There has also been a trend to urbanization because that’s where the higher paying jobs are.  However, urbanization also brings with it higher home prices or long commutes for affordable homes.  The TLDR is that Millennials are renting in urban areas that are out of their price range for the most part.

. What plates do you imagine Gen-X is spinning?  Boomers are the most represented generation in government.  Boomers are the most represented generation in fortune 100 CEOs.  Millennials are the most represented generation in the workforce.  Gen-X gets a pass because it was the smallest generation in 100 years.

Next time just post a video of you weeping, it'll save wear and tear on your delicate tootsies.

Gen X is spinning their own plates instead of worrying about someone else's plate I think.

It's an interesting subject on drive between generations I think. Most of my GenX friends including myself would sacrifice everything and start over if need be, and would find a way to stay happy in spirit doing it. I WILL go after what I want and do my best to succeed.

From what I have seen that looks to be not the case for younger generations.  The "I can't" generation I guess.

There is so many ways a person can improve their situation, just being proactive I have found tends to be the biggest decider from those that succeed, and those that spend life waiting to be told.

I don't know...  Pick your direction, and claw after it!

What a pussy ass thread.

Always so much easier to blame than to put in any effort.

Why would I be crying?  By all measures, I’m doing much better than most people in this country on an individual and household level.  That doesn’t mean I can’t look at macro economic and social trends and say, “Gee, this doesn’t look good.”

Cry me a river Nancy.
Just because your old man pissed your free inheritance away on having a great time doesn't make him bad.
Try pulling your own weight from this point on.
You'll feel a lot better about yourself.

OK

OP, I had my fellow Boomers and Gen Xers keep telling me I was doing it all wrong.

You gotta get a job! You gotta buy a house! You can't go through life living in tipis, campers and sailboats!

The big thing was, "You're not gonna get anywhere if you keep that up!" (Where the fuck was I going? Probably Hell but we all are.)

So here I am. I didn't get started until I was 40.

I did it MY way.

At 70 I'm damned glad I did it my way!

WHen I get buried at sea it's going to be "Non, je regrette rein", Edith Piaf on the way out to the burial ground. "Always look on the Brighter Side of Life" Monty Python (of course) as I get horsed over the side. For the ride home, Sinatra's "My way."

Do it YOUR way.

I’m a millennial, and agree. Some of them give up in 5 or 7 years because they aren’t executives with supermodel wives so the system must be rigged against them

You’ll get your chance.  We’re on the precipice of an economic implosion the likes of which America hasn’t seen in 100 years.  Give it another 5 years or so for China to outpace the US’s economy and the government to run out of runway on the debt.  When it all comes back home, it’s going to be biblical.

On this we can agree.

Oh we know it's coming. I'm preparing as best I can for sure. Time is running out, but if I can do as planned, I should be setup decently to survive, and possibly do some backwoods thrive as well.

I "bought" my military time to add to my retirement (fed) and I made $77K as an E-4 in 1989-1995.  That's $77K total for my whole 6 years in the Navy.

And vote your fucking pocketbook!! Democrats tax and spend money we don’t have and piss it all away every single fuckng time they get elected and YOU will be covering that bill through increasing taxes. A good majority disappears through grants to “non-profits” that funnels it back into their pockets. In the last 65 years it has never been this bad. Vote them out or be poor forever. The middle class is getting wiped out

Im an early millenial. I own my home (mortgaged) have a decent car, 2 young kids, and my wife will be done working for good come June. I make less than 100k and live in CT and doing just fine.

You not having what the last 2 generations had is no ones fault but your own. No more participation trophies Sally.

youre right but you could easily jackoff on onlyfans and become a millionaire if you used enough humus for lube and could write your name with it

.
Your excuses are just that....excuses.

I want to live in the city, but can't afford a house.

I can't buy the "right" first home in the bucolic neighborhood I want.

Jobs don't pay what I think I'm worth.

It wasn't this hard for everyone else.



It's all bullshit at its roots.  It is possible to adjust expectations, to accept reality as it is, and adapt.  Millennials want the world to adapt around them.  That's called entitlement mentality.

The younger generations are too goddamn concerned about their status on social media and how their peers will perceive their place on the social ladder.  

You're correct in your assessment that I was slow out of the gate due to choices I made.  You're incorrect that there was no resultant "gut punch" when I entered the real world.  I had to scrape and scrounge for years.  The difference is, I didn't blame anyone but myself for my situation and I didn't expect anyone else to pick up the pieces for me.  I worked harder, educated myself, made contacts, and excelled professionally.

Millenials and genZ don't want to work in high-school.  The thought of slinging burgers, delivering furniture, mowing lawns, etc is beneath them.  Starting at the bottom and working your way up is a foreign concept.  Consequently, they all think that fresh out of school they are ready for upper management...except they have poor interpersonal skills, are generally poor leaders, and can't relate to others.

It is better to be, than to appear.  Younger gens are preoccupied with appearing to be, rather then putting their noses to the grindstone.  Not my problem.  They need to figure it out...or not, IDGAF.

I’m not defending the purple haired, safe space, won’t delay gratification, entitled, lazy fuktards,

I’m not making excuses.

I’m a genXer in the middle of my 50s typing this from a 1.2 million dollar couple dozen acre equestrian estate with a couple of million in retirement funds plus 10K a month pre-tax indexed to inflation passive income coming in with full medical coverage.  That has been cutting back on hours and seeking a new position to lessen the portion of my income getting max taxes.

And this is after essentially putting my earning potential on hold for over a decade because there was a war on and ran around with guys half my age on objectives at night pumping lead into savages.  Basically not netting another five million or so.

With a handful of STEM degree kids out of or in college.

One that graduated college at 20 and took a Cush starting 90K a year job working from home, with insane benefits.

And I grew up poor as shit.
Like watching an indoor bathtub and toilet be installed instead of a tub in the shed and an outhouse when I was about five years old.

If I am saying shit is fuky and things are wrong, and a huge proportion of our young adults are being screwed-

They are getting screwed.

And do I really need to go into details of how fucky shit is right now?

Wake up.

10 years behind you and on a similar same path and I agree.  Very fucky.