70% of millennials live paycheck to paycheck

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rent costs $2500-3000 per mo. A modest Honda is gonna set you back $400-500 per mo. We aren’t even covering childcare, health expenses, and utilities that keep going up. Food prices keep going up and up and up. You will feel poor on a $120k salary these days.

Not everyone can afford to live in a trendy, desirable major city. Some people will have to move. They’ll survive.

If you have a portable career like teacher or nurse you can get a job anywhere, and if you have a corporate desk job you have WFH so you might only need to come in once a week. You commute from Baltimore County once a week. No big deal.

I never quite understood some of these arguments. First, teachers and nurses make crap in LCOL areas. And second, HCOL needs nurses and teachers. Are you saying they should just suck it up and commute 2 hours to HCOL areas so people like you won't go without essential workers?

Housing, gas & food are DRAMATICALLY cheaper in LCOL areas. So is private schooling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you’re a millennial (27-41 years old) and aren’t making at least $80k you did something very, very wrong.

Well since the median income for a 35-year-old is $57,500, it looks like a lot of them screwed up in your eyes.

They did. 21 y/o dental hygienists who went to NoVa CC & truck drivers make far more than that.

Dental hygienists have to be near saliva everyday and have a high risk of covid. I've met truck drivers at one of my past jobs and they'd drive for hours without stopping to meet quota and come in injured or bleeding. Crap quality of life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm 48 and don't make that much. I am a teacher. I must have done something very wrong then.

Teaching is generally a job for trust funders and those with rich spouses.

Wow I didn't know only the rich were allowed to teach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m gen x and same. Passion job and still renting.

Were you a white person who grew up in a LCOL area in the Midwest or South? Everyone else (except for people in this demographic I think) knows that “passion jobs” are only for trust funders or those with a rich spouse.

Immigrants, Latinos, blacks, Asians and those from other third world countries who live in Virginia DC or Maryland tell their children to go with their passion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm 48 and don't make that much. I am a teacher. I must have done something very wrong then.

Teaching is generally a job for trust funders and those with rich spouses.

Wow I didn't know only the rich were allowed to teach.

Only the rich would think teaching is a good idea from a lifestyle standpoint

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My millennials make 100K and 175K.

I guess they are the exception to the rule.

They chased the money and you supported them or guided them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you’re a millennial (27-41 years old) and aren’t making at least $80k you did something very, very wrong.

Well since the median income for a 35-year-old is $57,500, it looks like a lot of them screwed up in your eyes.

They did. 21 y/o dental hygienists who went to NoVa CC & truck drivers make far more than that.

Dental hygienists have to be near saliva everyday and have a high risk of covid. I've met truck drivers at one of my past jobs and they'd drive for hours without stopping to meet quota and come in injured or bleeding. Crap quality of life.

Don’t be an entitled princess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you’re a millennial (27-41 years old) and aren’t making at least $80k you did something very, very wrong.

Well since the median income for a 35-year-old is $57,500, it looks like a lot of them screwed up in your eyes.

They did. 21 y/o dental hygienists who went to NoVa CC & truck drivers make far more than that.

Dental hygienists have to be near saliva everyday and have a high risk of covid. I've met truck drivers at one of my past jobs and they'd drive for hours without stopping to meet quota and come in injured or bleeding. Crap quality of life.

Don’t be an entitled princess.

Obviously you've never been a truck driver or dental hygienist during covid which is still going on btw.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm 48 and don't make that much. I am a teacher. I must have done something very wrong then.

Teaching is generally a job for trust funders and those with rich spouses.

Maybe in Potomac. Most teachers have blue collar roots and see it as a decent paying job with state gov benefits. Usually the benefits support a spouse working a private sector job or running a small business. Passion jobs for trust funders are all the non-profits in NYC/DC or anything you do with a degree in Fine Arts.

+1

DCUM is so weird - why would someone consider a very stable $70K+ middle-class job with a pension worth north of $1M a "trust fund" job??

Most people on DCUM refuse to live anywhere in a condo, townhousBTW.

in a school zone that isn’t a 8/10 on Greatschools.

Why they always posting Takoma Park with its shi tty schools then or silver spring?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow. So many out of touch wealthy people on this thread.

They've got large accounts in Swiss Bank accounts. Chuck Norris and Eastwood in their vacation house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread is bizarre. So many wealthy people not really getting it. Usually if you are making $100k as a single then you are likely living in a high cost of living area and indeed probably living paycheck to paycheck.

It takes two decent salaries to afford housing and daycare costs now.

However, we are going to see one of the greatest wealth transfers in history soon as boomers pass on their wealth to fend and millenials. Boomers control about 70% of the wealth in the country.

You're saying the boomers will die soon?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m gen x and same. Passion job and still renting.

Were you a white person who grew up in a LCOL area in the Midwest or South? Everyone else (except for people in this demographic I think) knows that “passion jobs” are only for trust funders or those with a rich spouse.

Wow, how did you know my background? I’m GenX, white LMC from very rural LCOL in South, and I totally followed my passion to my peril — and by the time I tried to pivot to make real money, I’ve made zero headway despite hundreds of job applications and job training certificates over a decade

Why do you point out that combo so distinctly?

I guess my prediction was accurate. You should read this:

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/210/791426.page

Here's how this happens. It's not ultra common, but it does happen, and it's not so simple as "make better choices". Because many of the choices are made before the person has the necessary info, and often they are working on information that is bad or very misleading:

- Larla grows up in rural or remote part of the country. Low cost of living, middle or working class parents who don't struggle a ton to make ends meet because low COL. Larla has pleasant childhood without a lot of class strife thanks to this.

- Larla is very good at school, and opportunities in this area are limited. It's not near a larger city. The area doesn't have a ton of arts, culture, or commerce. Larla very quickly develops interest in leaving area because of these limitations and because they are very successful academically, this starts to feel like a real possibility.

- Larla goes to college far away, a "good school" likely with some or a lot of merit aid. Larla's grades and test scores qualified her for school, but her admission probably has a lot to do with her - background too -- these schools like diversity and being from some remote place stands out.

- Maybe the school is in a big city, but maybe in little college town, but either way, winds up in a student population with people from much more cosmopolitan backgrounds. Some are wealthy, some are UMC, some might be MC or WC but from places with greater diversity (of people and experiences). This means everyone understands a lot more about how the world works than Larla, even the other kids on financial aid and who have to work. Larla is straight up naive.

- Larla makes friends, and her friends educate her a bit about the world. The problem is, they are naive too, because they don't even understand what they know. They explain stuff to Larla, but it overemphasizes the fairness of the system. They gloss over stuff like the value of family connections or the fact that they are from families that really, really support and emphasize higher education (something Larla's family probably doesn't value to the same degree because of very different environments and circumstances). Larla starts to think she's figuring things out, but she's only getting a very small part of the picture.

- Larla makes career choices, decides where to move after school, based on her naive assumptions coupled with a pretty incomplete explanation of the world gleaned from young people who are really still just figuring it out. What Larla could really use at this point is a parent or relative who can say "Whoa, wait -- some of these kids have trust funds. Some of them can live in their aunt's apartment while they intern. Some of them have parents who will will do anything to cover the cost of a graduate degree because it's important to them. You need to make different choices based on your specific situation. How about Philly instead of NYC? How about marketing instead of publishing? Maybe what you really want is to write -- get an ed degree, teach high school English, and write! Or pursue an academic degree but get used to living in midwestern college towns, which are at least cheap."

- So instead, Larla figures this out on her own over the course of a decade or so. It's revealed in fits and starts, and often she only learns a key piece of information after it's too late to do much with it (like that an MFA is treated as required in publishing, but has no actual value in terms of earning, something that should actually be a required release of info before anyone enrolls in an MFA program). She also gets deeper into a career and social circle that will simply reinforce her value system, making it harder and harder to pull herself out. She might contemplate moving to Chicago or Portland or Denver, but her NY friends will say "OMG no, I could never" and she's only 28 and her family doesn't understand her anymore either, so she holds onto those values even though they don't serve her.

It's a sucky thing. Yes, she was naive and stupid and made bad choices. But it's also kind of hard to blame her because she's kind of been thrown to the wolves. Her university probably should have offered her some kind of practical economic education, but that would require being honest about their student body and their funding and the value of their degree, so: no. Same with the MFA. Her friends are self-interested in believing that they earned their way (to a degree they may have, in other ways not). Also, Larla doesn't have a stereotypical hard luck upbringing. She's not from poverty, her parents have steady jobs, she had a nice childhood. The fact that it in no way prepared her for the life she is now leading doesn't concern anyone because she is a [almost certainly white] middle class lady with a fancy college degree. It's just that none of those things are really helping her right now and she'd have to go back in time, or totally upend her entire values system, to change it. It's what she should do, but it's understandable that she is struggling.

I feel really bad for people in this situation. This is why it helps to have savvy parents who get how the world works, why you are lucky to find mentors or honest friends who tell it like it is. It can save you. Some people never get that and they get stuck.

+100000

This not only applies to poor white people but many other Black, Hispanic, Asian, etc. Especially those whose first language isn't English. It also applies to a lot of codependent women and older people who didn't save for old age.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you’re a millennial (27-41 years old) and aren’t making at least $80k you did something very, very wrong.

I have two siblings that are on the low end of the millennial age range, both making under $80,000 per year. They went to top private schools and colleges, got good grades, and our parents are fairly well-off.

One makes about $75K at an NGO but is able to work remotely and saves money by living in an LCOL area.

The other makes a few thousand dollars part-time now back in grad school. They’ve bounced around from one thing to another, and there’s some slight depression involved there. Hopefully, they’ll get on track soon.

Bottom line, there are a lot of different factors that go into it. Not everyone wants to do law or cybersecurity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you’re a millennial (27-41 years old) and aren’t making at least $80k you did something very, very wrong.

Well since the median income for a 35-year-old is $57,500, it looks like a lot of them screwed up in your eyes.

They did. 21 y/o dental hygienists who went to NoVa CC & truck drivers make far more than that.

Dental hygienists have to be near saliva everyday and have a high risk of covid. I've met truck drivers at one of my past jobs and they'd drive for hours without stopping to meet quota and come in injured or bleeding. Crap quality of life.

Don’t be an entitled princess.

Obviously you've never been a truck driver or dental hygienist during covid which is still going on btw.

Amazing most of us didn't die of COVID, isn't it?

[Anonymous]

I'm not unsympathetic to Larla but that's a story as old as time. Nothing new there. And for every Larla and her bad mistakes, there's multiples who went to the state flagship or local state school and figured things out quickly and ended up in much better places, financially. And for every Larla there's also the UMC kid with the supportive parents who languished and descended into mediocrity.