Honestly the complete disregard for GenX financial strain is getting old

[Anonymous]

^^^This is us too. We don’t have or need a mortgage but it still doesn’t save me much to downsize unless I go to a tiny condo which I don’t want to do. My kids are still young adults and in apartments - none have a house yet.

[Anonymous]

Could you help them buy a house? Sell and give the money needed

[Anonymous]

Gen X was not old enough to barely impacted at all by 2000 stock market crash or 2008 Financial crisis.

I am a younger Boomer and I was too young to be impacted. I am not yet 65 yet so no taking anyones job. 2001-2003 2008-2018 were just buying opportunities for stocks for me an all of Gen X.

Generation X generally includes individuals born between 1965 and 1980.

Homes were priced pretty good between 2009 and 2019 so that would be 29 to 54 peak home buying years for both starter and trade up homes.

If anything older Boomers had it worse. Many bought trade up homes or newly retired from 2005-2007 and saw home prices collaspe along with their 401ks at a time they were doing RMDs, so selling at the bottom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Gen X was not old enough to barely impacted at all by 2000 stock market crash or 2008 Financial crisis.

I am a younger Boomer and I was too young to be impacted. I am not yet 65 yet so no taking anyones job. 2001-2003 2008-2018 were just buying opportunities for stocks for me an all of Gen X.

Generation X generally includes individuals born between 1965 and 1980.

Homes were priced pretty good between 2009 and 2019 so that would be 29 to 54 peak home buying years for both starter and trade up homes.

If anything older Boomers had it worse. Many bought trade up homes or newly retired from 2005-2007 and saw home prices collaspe along with their 401ks at a time they were doing RMDs, so selling at the bottom.

What are you even talking about??? We are young GenX and we were definitely impacted by the 2005-2007 housing bubble/bust and the 2008 financial crisis. We got stuck in our starter home (underwater) for a very long time and spouse lost his job in 2008, taking almost a year to find another one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in a highly desirable suburb with top schools, and half my street of large homes with property is occupied by Boomers or older Gen X with grown and flown kids.

My theory? We are just stuck. Many people in their late 60s and early 70s are still caring for elderly parents who had them so darn young. Coming up behind these Boomers are Gen X and Millennials who aren't having kids, or having them late. So there's no incentive to move to be nearer to grandchildren because they don't exist. Instead, everyone's visiting the nursing home.

It's depressing.

That's not exactly why. As older GenX I want to downsize, but all the "downsize" houses are more expensive than my current "large" house we purchased at a lower interest rate and are still payoff the mortgage.

A lot of older boomers have paid off mortgage. Most of us who are younger than that have had to move multiple times for job hunting. As an older gen xer, each time I moved, the next house cost double my previous house. I would love to move once we can afford to retire at age 70, but we will have to see if it's affordable for us

I also live on a street filled with older boomers, and know they are staying put because their current house is the most affordable option for them, not because they necessarily want to continue to live there.

Both posts are true from what I’m seeing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Boomers have very good social security benefits with no means testing. They do not NEED to keep working and delaying retirement. They also won’t give up their family sized homes that younger people need to start families.

Meanwhile they complain that they don’t have many grandchildren. And that it’s expensive to hire people to cut their grass, repair their spare 2 bathrooms, snowblower their long driveways. It’s ridiculous. Poor them.

I don’t really hear them complaining. They are too busy with Viking cruises and pickleball and golf. Living their best lives.

Isn’t that what retirees do?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Politically it’s the Boomers that won’t leave.

How old are GenX, millennials and GenZ anyway?

A full 59% of Gen Xers are staring down the barrel of retirement age without adequate preparation, and a shocking 60% of all boomers not yet retired may still be working because they don’t have enough savings on which to comfortably retire.

They look pretty equal although I don’t know what age group they’re talking about.


https://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-gen-z-may-retire-120850724.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Boomers have very good social security benefits with no means testing. They do not NEED to keep working and delaying retirement. They also won’t give up their family sized homes that younger people need to start families.

Meanwhile they complain that they don’t have many grandchildren. And that it’s expensive to hire people to cut their grass, repair their spare 2 bathrooms, snowblower their long driveways. It’s ridiculous. Poor them.

I don’t really hear them complaining. They are too busy with Viking cruises and pickleball and golf. Living their best lives.

Isn’t that what retirees do?

Yes and they aren’t complaining about their lack of grandchildren as PP asserted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gen X was not old enough to barely impacted at all by 2000 stock market crash or 2008 Financial crisis.

I am a younger Boomer and I was too young to be impacted. I am not yet 65 yet so no taking anyones job. 2001-2003 2008-2018 were just buying opportunities for stocks for me an all of Gen X.

Generation X generally includes individuals born between 1965 and 1980.

Homes were priced pretty good between 2009 and 2019 so that would be 29 to 54 peak home buying years for both starter and trade up homes.

If anything older Boomers had it worse. Many bought trade up homes or newly retired from 2005-2007 and saw home prices collaspe along with their 401ks at a time they were doing RMDs, so selling at the bottom.

What are you even talking about??? We are young GenX and we were definitely impacted by the 2005-2007 housing bubble/bust and the 2008 financial crisis. We got stuck in our starter home (underwater) for a very long time and spouse lost his job in 2008, taking almost a year to find another one.

A child bride is on the thread. I am a boomer and I was only 46 in 2008. Had my little starter home, small 401k, my paid off Ford Taurus and GMC SUV. I was way too young to be impacted. And you are way younger. I was a child almost. Now I knew guys older than me around 55-62 and they were in kids in college phase, had a mortgage, leased cars and some even two mortgages, main home and a beach place. And they were high income at places like Bear Sterns, Lehman Brothers. etc. These folks were killed in Financial crisis. And some had a lot of company stock that went belly up. And many never worked again as by time economy recovered the age discrimination hit them. I was young back then even as a Boomer. And my networth not that much a fall in value did not matter.

Gen X at my company in financial crisis were young, educated, and mostly unimpacted by 2008. My direct reports back then were only 24-36. Someone born 1980 was only 28 in 2008 and most likely was partying at the Jersey Shore or going to Spring Break in 2008. And they are GenX

Now if we had another 2008 this time GenX would get killed. A 40 percent drop in stocks when you have five million hurts a lot more than a 40 percent drop when you have $50,000.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Politically it’s the Boomers that won’t leave.

How old are GenX, millennials and GenZ anyway?

A full 59% of Gen Xers are staring down the barrel of retirement age without adequate preparation, and a shocking 60% of all boomers not yet retired may still be working because they don’t have enough savings on which to comfortably retire.

They look pretty equal although I don’t know what age group they’re talking about.


https://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-gen-z-may-retire-120850724.html

Boomers are not leaving partially at my company Genx are all FIRE or not qualified to take our jobs. At home our Millennial and GenZ kids are getting married later and later. My three kids none are close to marriage yet. I have no grandkids to visit, no weddings to plan. etc. Ironically, when I was young work was brutal. five days a week in the office, we work from 8am to around 630 pm then we had up to a three hour round trip commute. I would leave for work at 650am and get home at 730 pm most days. We had hardly anyone over 50-55 as it was such stress they could not keep up.

Gen Z and Milennials the laziest generation and to me now the greatest generation created Work Life Balance, dress down, Work from Home, Remote work. It made work so easy. My job it is two days a week in person, dress down. can make it flex time to avoid traffic, then remote the other three days. I have a 68 year old guy at work. He bought his retirement home by Chesapeake Bay. Guess what he gets paid $250,000 he drives in Wed morning, stays over Wed evening in a hotel by office one night, then starts work earlier as at hotel by office and leaves for day at 3 pm. Since 2020 hardly anyone is retiring. We were remote a few years now only back two days a week. I may do it till 70 at least. If my work said 5 days back in office, suit and tie and pantyhouse and high heels for ladies. we all work 8am to 6pm 5 days a week the older boomers would drop like flies and younger people would have job opportunities.

But no one has the balls to do it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Boomers have very good social security benefits with no means testing. They do not NEED to keep working and delaying retirement. They also won’t give up their family sized homes that younger people need to start families.

Meanwhile they complain that they don’t have many grandchildren. And that it’s expensive to hire people to cut their grass, repair their spare 2 bathrooms, snowblower their long driveways. It’s ridiculous. Poor them.

They just care A LOT about their peers’ opinions.
My parents had an enormous house on 2 acres of land. I convinced them to downsize and when they saw houses that would be an appropriate size (no stairs, 2 bedrooms) they were appalled. My mom said “I need to be PROUD of my home! My friends wouldn’t be impressed by this.” They ended up in a huge “luxury” townhouse with two flights of stairs. But at least they got rid of the yardwork problem.

Your mom is right. Those tiny 2br "retirement" homes are depressing. Most of them don't even have enough space for a proper dining table that would seat 8-10 people. Tiny closets, no storage. We are not ready to downsize yet (youngest still at home) but what I have seen is not very encouraging. We will likely either stay put and remodel or do a partial downsize to something like a large townhome for 10 or so years before downsizing again.

Why do you need a dining room to host 10 people? Isn’t it time for the next generation to get to own a home with space to raise their kids and be the one entertaining?

Also I don’t think rattling around in a 5 BR house in your 70s is something to be proud of, especially if you’re in generic suburbia. If I didn’t have kids I’d be in a smaller luxury home in an upscale city. No one is fawning over Barbara’s 80s track built home in Loudoun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Boomers have very good social security benefits with no means testing. They do not NEED to keep working and delaying retirement. They also won’t give up their family sized homes that younger people need to start families.

Meanwhile they complain that they don’t have many grandchildren. And that it’s expensive to hire people to cut their grass, repair their spare 2 bathrooms, snowblower their long driveways. It’s ridiculous. Poor them.

They just care A LOT about their peers’ opinions.
My parents had an enormous house on 2 acres of land. I convinced them to downsize and when they saw houses that would be an appropriate size (no stairs, 2 bedrooms) they were appalled. My mom said “I need to be PROUD of my home! My friends wouldn’t be impressed by this.” They ended up in a huge “luxury” townhouse with two flights of stairs. But at least they got rid of the yardwork problem.

Your mom is right. Those tiny 2br "retirement" homes are depressing. Most of them don't even have enough space for a proper dining table that would seat 8-10 people. Tiny closets, no storage. We are not ready to downsize yet (youngest still at home) but what I have seen is not very encouraging. We will likely either stay put and remodel or do a partial downsize to something like a large townhome for 10 or so years before downsizing again.

Why do you need a dining room to host 10 people? Isn’t it time for the next generation to get to own a home with space to raise their kids and be the one entertaining?

Also I don’t think rattling around in a 5 BR house in your 70s is something to be proud of, especially if you’re in generic suburbia. If I didn’t have kids I’d be in a smaller luxury home in an upscale city. No one is fawning over Barbara’s 80s track built home in Loudoun.

But if you are so poor, how will you afford to buy their very nice home?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If the Boomers are so wealthy, won't Gen X inherit their massive wealth? And ditto for Gen Z.

Being poor is really normal when you're just starting your career and I think it's normal to be envious. I remember wondering how so many adults from my parents generation could have money, yet most were extremely unimpressive. I think most made their money by simply investing in their 401k. Compounding returns is an amazing thing!

Some Boomers are out spending it all. Others are just a long way from being dead. My parents and in-laws are only early 70’s. They could have a long ways to go yet.

Snort. Some of our parents are spending their last time, gleefully, since they "raised their kids" and now it's "me time."
Fine.

But our boomer parents have never given us one cent. Ever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Gen X was not old enough to barely impacted at all by 2000 stock market crash or 2008 Financial crisis.

I am a younger Boomer and I was too young to be impacted. I am not yet 65 yet so no taking anyones job. 2001-2003 2008-2018 were just buying opportunities for stocks for me an all of Gen X.

Generation X generally includes individuals born between 1965 and 1980.

Homes were priced pretty good between 2009 and 2019 so that would be 29 to 54 peak home buying years for both starter and trade up homes.

If anything older Boomers had it worse. Many bought trade up homes or newly retired from 2005-2007 and saw home prices collaspe along with their 401ks at a time they were doing RMDs, so selling at the bottom.

We bought in 2002 for $350K. By 2009, my house (still in in) would have gone for double. Prices went up bigly almost immediately after we bought, at least in the part of NOVA I'm in. My house now would go for almost a million.

So, even if we wanted to move (we are only early 50's) we couldn't due to housing costs and interest rates.

[Anonymous]

Everyone was impacted by all those ups and downs. This isn’t a generational specific thing and it’s also not bad overall. I’m Gen X and this whining is just whining.