Boomers' Billion-Dollar Bonanza: The Unseen Hoarding Behind Millennial Struggles

[Anonymous]

Millennials are always complaining that they will never have the wealth of their parents. Think about this:
M’s will spend $1000 on a cell phone plus $100/mos for service. We didn’t have cell phones when we were in our 30’s.
M’s will spend $5+ a day at Starbucks. We didn’t spend the money because there wasn’t a Starbucks.
M’s will spend hundred a month on all types of streaming services. We had CBS, NBC and ABC. They were free.
M’s love Door Dash, Uber Eats and Instacart. We shopped at Safeway and cooked at home.
Boomers money went to cover 7-10% mortgage rates.

The one very big advantage that boomers had was much lower education debt. But our colleges didn’t have food courts, climbing walls, incredible athletic facilities etc etc. And most boomers were smart enough not to take out huge loans to major in something that employers don’t care about.

[Anonymous]

The boomers all over this thread crapping on millennials are lame.

[Anonymous]

My greatest generation parents did better than their parents. My boomer siblings have done better than our parents. And my millennial children are on a path where they could do better than their boomer parents. I believe the differentiators are better education opportunities and dual income households. Hard work has always been part of success for all the generations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The boomers all over this thread crapping on millennials are lame.

Reread the OP thread start.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not only were mortgage rates extremely low until recently, some of us boomers were at home buying age when mortgages were at 18%. I remember being ecstatic to refinance at 7%.

This my parents bought a house in 1979 at something like 18% interest. Falling interest rates were what caused home prices to soar.

And from 1973 to 1981 annual inflation ranged from 7% to 13%. That’s eight years of 7-13%. Yeah, boomers had it easy.

[Anonymous]

I’m not a boomer but I recognize that the boomers were heavily impacted by the 2008 crash. Many lost 25-40% of savings in a signed year just as they were getting ready for retirement. Many went underwater on their houses after having taken home equity loans to put their kids through college and right at the time frame when they wanted to sell and downsize or divorce. I have boomer family members that live in areas of the country where the real estate market did not recover for over a decade. We were pretty lucky out here,,/although PG county took a real hit and took longer to recover. Our house in PG dropped about 50% in value almost overnight and didn’t come back up to that price for over a decade. We could “afford” to take that loss because we were near the start of our working career for had another 20 years to work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Millennials are always complaining that they will never have the wealth of their parents. Think about this:
M’s will spend $1000 on a cell phone plus $100/mos for service. We didn’t have cell phones when we were in our 30’s.
M’s will spend $5+ a day at Starbucks. We didn’t spend the money because there wasn’t a Starbucks.
M’s will spend hundred a month on all types of streaming services. We had CBS, NBC and ABC. They were free.
M’s love Door Dash, Uber Eats and Instacart. We shopped at Safeway and cooked at home.
Boomers money went to cover 7-10% mortgage rates.

The one very big advantage that boomers had was much lower education debt. But our colleges didn’t have food courts, climbing walls, incredible athletic facilities etc etc. And most boomers were smart enough not to take out huge loans to major in something that employers don’t care about.

I had a cell phone when I was in my 20s/30s, but it was never the latest or greatest. Still isn't. I remember being teased about my old phone when the flip phone motorola was the thing. I have an older android phone now.
I went out to eat, but certainly wasn't paying $5 for coffee.
I paid for cable tv, but it was just one service, not the multitude.
Amazon shopping wasn't a thing when I was 30, so I didn't go online shopping all that often.
The prevalence of the delivery and online services make it much more easier to spend.
My first mortgage was 6.75% interest rate.
I went to a no name commuter state u, and worked my way through college. That college certainly didn't have the great entertainment and dining halls that my kid has now. My college was bare bones.

Agree that housing is more expensive now because of the lower interest rates, but also because there are just more people who make more today, relatively speaking, than 30 years ago. The middle class may have shrunk, but the UMC has grown. That means more people with more money.


-genxer

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My greatest generation parents did better than their parents. My boomer siblings have done better than our parents. And my millennial children are on a path where they could do better than their boomer parents. I believe the differentiators are better education opportunities and dual income households. Hard work has always been part of success for all the generations.

I agree. Pick a more lucrative career. The days of majoring in whatever you want and getting a good paying job is over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My greatest generation parents did better than their parents. My boomer siblings have done better than our parents. And my millennial children are on a path where they could do better than their boomer parents. I believe the differentiators are better education opportunities and dual income households. Hard work has always been part of success for all the generations.

I agree. Pick a more lucrative career. The days of majoring in whatever you want and getting a good paying job is over.

The bolder alone is worth much more than anything else others have complained about.

[Anonymous]

I bought my first home in 1986. My interest rate was 11%. The gov wasn't helping me out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, they can't take it with them...

Right? Where is all that wealth going to go?

To the nursing homes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m not a boomer but I recognize that the boomers were heavily impacted by the 2008 crash. Many lost 25-40% of savings in a signed year just as they were getting ready for retirement. Many went underwater on their houses after having taken home equity loans to put their kids through college and right at the time frame when they wanted to sell and downsize or divorce. I have boomer family members that live in areas of the country where the real estate market did not recover for over a decade. We were pretty lucky out here,,/although PG county took a real hit and took longer to recover. Our house in PG dropped about 50% in value almost overnight and didn’t come back up to that price for over a decade. We could “afford” to take that loss because we were near the start of our working career for had another 20 years to work.

My parents live north of Chicago and bought their home around 1998. Their home may be worth 10%-20% more today if they are lucky. If you bought in 2005 you might be losing money. There was a Covid bump but not enough to recover from 2008. They were badly hurt in the market crash but they have recovered but they were in their mid 50s at the time and that pushed their retirement out around five years. Thankfully things have worked out and they are now retired and fine but if people don’t think boomers faced challenges you can call my dad!

[Anonymous]

In the Carter years interest rates were closing in on 20% for mortgages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This boomer once had a 17.25% mortgage and never had one in the 3% area. My husband also got drafted and had to fight and get wounded in Vietnam. He didn’t want to go but he didn’t have an option and he did his duty. We have set up very well funded 529 plans for all of our grandchildren. We gift our kids a lot of money every year at Christmas and they will inherit a great amount of money. I inherited very little from my parents and my husband deferred his inheritance and it went to our children. Yes, our children and grandchildren are very lucky and unlike OPs crowd they are very grateful.

So incredibly tone deaf and sanctimonious!!!! Of course your kids and grandkids are grateful. They are not in the position that many of their peers are in - they are benefitting from the boomers wealth. What about all their peers who don't have boomer wealth in their families? You are completely missing the point, either intentionally or you don't have the ability to think on a more nuanced level....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Millennials are always complaining that they will never have the wealth of their parents. Think about this:
M’s will spend $1000 on a cell phone plus $100/mos for service. We didn’t have cell phones when we were in our 30’s.
M’s will spend $5+ a day at Starbucks. We didn’t spend the money because there wasn’t a Starbucks.
M’s will spend hundred a month on all types of streaming services. We had CBS, NBC and ABC. They were free.
M’s love Door Dash, Uber Eats and Instacart. We shopped at Safeway and cooked at home.
Boomers money went to cover 7-10% mortgage rates.

The one very big advantage that boomers had was much lower education debt. But our colleges didn’t have food courts, climbing walls, incredible athletic facilities etc etc. And most boomers were smart enough not to take out huge loans to major in something that employers don’t care about.

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Make coffee at home.
Get an HD antenna.
Cook at home. It's better for your health anyway.