Plan for future citizens of this country regarding money?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So is everyone supposed to live with roommates until they are 30 or married (which is really just another version of having a roommate/multiple income household).

I lived with roommates after college, during law school and for 4 years after law school so I could pay down my loans as fast as possible. Almost everyone I know did too - and I was working in Big Law. I never ate out until I started working in Big Law, and then only occasionally. Of course, it helped I was working insane hours usually well after 9 pm, so dinner was on the law firm or client. I didn’t get my own place until I was 32. It’s the nature of living in the DC area. This was all in the ‘90’s so not recent either.

The one thing I will say is that college was more affordable back in the day. I did get scholarships and came out of undergraduate with only $25k in loans (top 15 private university), but I worked for 2 years to pay it off before going to law school. Also had partial scholarship to law school, so only had $93k loan upon graduation. It’s crazy people are coming out of law school with $150k-200k worth of loans on top of their undergraduate loans. It’s basically a mortgage payment these days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: I’m not sure if this is a economical problem or what. I just find that it was a bit ridiculous that I have gone to school for four years got a degree and a good field and still can’t afford the cost of living. Even getting a job is difficult. Like I said, I’m in a good field but all jobs wanted at least two years of experience which I didn’t have coming out of college. All I had were debts. Even now it’s very hard to make ends meet so I clean houses on the side and I also donate my blood for extra money.

I know that the Republicans want to go back to what they considered ideal times. But fiscally speaking, and those times it was a lot easier to support yourself an even a family on one salary. What do you see as the future for youth in this country who are going to need to support themselves one day?

What "good" field are you in?

The "good old times" are a myth. Those were different times when expectations were different. Kids worked after school. Most people did not waste time in college and therefore no debt. People lived within their means, etc. It was also way before the same Republicans you talk about exported all those jobs to foreign countries.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Climb that ladder

I’m 32 making over 100k with no college education

On the pole, huh.

[Anonymous]

Quality of school matters. If you went to a top tier with excellent grades or a crappy school with low gpa. Any college degree is like an equivalent of a high school diploma.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Quality of school matters. If you went to a top tier with excellent grades or a crappy school with low gpa. Any college degree is like an equivalent of a high school diploma.

33.4% of Americans over 25 have a college degrees. About 90% have a high school diploma. Also, in most fields, no one cares about you college or grades 5 years into your career (except in law, where they are strangly obessesed with it).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I'm pretty sure there are things I we can all do differently. I'm employed (Associates degree RN) but it is still hard to make ends meet. People who work 40 hrs a week should be able to eat out. On top of not eating out, you're suggesting pressure cooker beans as if that is some sort of panacea to our issues?

Dining out, as in having someone prep your meal and serve it to you? Hate to break it to you, that's a luxury, not a right. No one is saying it's a panacea to life's problems. The OP gave a practical suggestion. At some point people who whine about these things need to realize that at the end of the day, whining gets you nowhere. Keeping your head down and being pragmatic about your situation is what help.

+1

$250K HHI here and eating out is a rare treat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Quality of school matters. If you went to a top tier with excellent grades or a crappy school with low gpa. Any college degree is like an equivalent of a high school diploma.

The data don't support this.

The quality of the person including their experience matters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So is everyone supposed to live with roommates until they are 30 or married (which is really just another version of having a roommate/multiple income household).

Yes! This is exactly right. When have young people had homes to themselves? All my grandparents lived with their parents or in rooming houses or with roommates until they got married. Same with my parents and ILs. Childhood homes, then dorms, then they had roommates or got married. And same for me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: I’m not sure if this is a economical problem or what. I just find that it was a bit ridiculous that I have gone to school for four years got a degree and a good field and still can’t afford the cost of living. Even getting a job is difficult. Like I said, I’m in a good field but all jobs wanted at least two years of experience which I didn’t have coming out of college. All I had were debts. Even now it’s very hard to make ends meet so I clean houses on the side and I also donate my blood for extra money.

I know that the Republicans want to go back to what they considered ideal times. But fiscally speaking, and those times it was a lot easier to support yourself an even a family on one salary. What do you see as the future for youth in this country who are going to need to support themselves one day?

What "good" field are you in?

The "good old times" are a myth. Those were different times when expectations were different. Kids worked after school. Most people did not waste time in college and therefore no debt. People lived within their means, etc. It was also way before the same Republicans you talk about exported all those jobs to foreign countries.

Ssshhhh!! Lets divert attention of the suffering non-college educated WHITES back to the caravan!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: I’m not sure if this is a economical problem or what. I just find that it was a bit ridiculous that I have gone to school for four years got a degree and a good field and still can’t afford the cost of living. Even getting a job is difficult. Like I said, I’m in a good field but all jobs wanted at least two years of experience which I didn’t have coming out of college. All I had were debts. Even now it’s very hard to make ends meet so I clean houses on the side and I also donate my blood for extra money.

I know that the Republicans want to go back to what they considered ideal times. But fiscally speaking, and those times it was a lot easier to support yourself an even a family on one salary. What do you see as the future for youth in this country who are going to need to support themselves one day?

Labor market is tight right now. What field did you study? I know a lot of junior level positions require 1-2 years of experience, but the larger companies all have entry-level recruitment programs that hire directly out of school.

I see the future of youth in this country as any previous generation: realizing that it takes hard work, dedication, and planning to be a successful adult, instead of thinking that you deserve something just for going through the motions and expecting others to hand you something out of "fairness". You get out of the world what you put in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The stats seems to say that the current generation of young people will NOT do better (financially) than their parents. No eating out for you!

There is no reason for people to be compensated at comfortable or reasonable level. It would be nice, but why would employers pay one penny more than they absolutely have to? Seriously.

Exactly. Capitalism doesn’t mean fare wages. It means max profits are king. Companies bough back stock and increased ceo compensation in the last decade instead of increasing wages. And also got a lot more efficiency from their employees at the same time who worked harder to keep their jobs.

No... capitalism absolutely means fair wages - you get paid what you contribute in terms of productivity. Productivity is not how long or hard you work, but the value of your work output on the open market. 1 hour of a doctor's work has more value than an hour of a cook's work, therefore the doctor is more productive and gets paid higher for his productivity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had a degree, roommates and cooked at home when I was in my 20s. That was the 1990s. Not sure things are so very different now.

Housing and degrees are more expensive now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had a degree, roommates and cooked at home when I was in my 20s. That was the 1990s. Not sure things are so very different now.

+1 same here

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had a degree, roommates and cooked at home when I was in my 20s. That was the 1990s. Not sure things are so very different now.

Housing and degrees are more expensive now.

You missed the point, which is that it's normal to have room mates and cook at home in your 20's. Why do young people now expect own housing and going out to eat to be the norm?

I also had room mates until I was about 28 - I got my own apartment after finding a well paying job in a low cost of living area and it just didn't make sense to share housing anymore - even had a den in my apartment for my hobbies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I'm pretty sure there are things I we can all do differently. I'm employed (Associates degree RN) but it is still hard to make ends meet. People who work 40 hrs a week should be able to eat out. On top of not eating out, you're suggesting pressure cooker beans as if that is some sort of panacea to our issues?

Dining out, as in having someone prep your meal and serve it to you? Hate to break it to you, that's a luxury, not a right. No one is saying it's a panacea to life's problems. The OP gave a practical suggestion. At some point people who whine about these things need to realize that at the end of the day, whining gets you nowhere. Keeping your head down and being pragmatic about your situation is what help.

+1

$250K HHI here and eating out is a rare treat.

I make over $500k and bring my own lunch everyday and drink the free coffee at work. We eat out once a week at a dim sum place! Other than that I. Ok at home - we find it healthier, less salty and fat