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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just don't see millennials + Gen Z being as frugal and focused on saving as previous generations. My parents were just visiting and I got so much criticism for things they perceived as food waste, overconsumption, etc. My and DH's parents are both in the late 40s/early 50s and all grew up pretty poor and have always been very frugal, and both sets of them have managed to build up a lot of wealth over the past 20 years in particular.

DH and I rented until our late 30s because we could not afford to buy a home. When we did, we bought a small townhouse, knowing it would be our "starter home" and hoping that we could build up some equity and buy a larger home later - which we did just this year at ages 46 and 47. So, nope, not buying into millennial whining. You have to start small.

Heh I am now "parents of DCUM posters" years old - but growing up in the 80s, this was a time of excess, not frugality. You may have frugal parents but that's not because they grew up in a time that valued modesty and saving. You're thinking of the generations above us - they are the people and kids of people who grew up during the depression. We're the kids of boomers who learned to enjoy capitalism.

[Anonymous]

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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.

+1 I have to believe the number of useless majors being offered today is significantly greater than 40 years ago. Back then we thought that sociology and philosophy were of questionable economic value but the list today is much longer.

I think back then you could major in some liberal arts degree and find a good paying office job because there were less people going to college. Not so today. We have way more college grads competing for the good paying jobs. Back then you could go to vocational school and get a job and live a middle class life. It's getting harder to do that.

You’re right about the college degree. It mattered some. A Master’s even less. I have one and no one ever cared what it was in. But it increased my salary by 50%. But you’re wrong about todays value for vocational training. Right out of school my kid was making $60k and same for my friend’s kid.

The problem is that the $60K paying job out of vocational school won't pay that much more in 20 years. Also, with automation and offshoring jobs, there are less and less vocational type jobs. My dad was a machinist, and my mom was a seamstress.

Even so, vocational training has a much better ROI than paying for a college degree in something useless and getting a job that pays the same $60k that a vocational trained person gets paid.

I was just reading about certification job training programs in the semiconductor industry. This guy had a psych degree and was working at Taco Bell because he couldn't find a job. So, he signed up for the vocational training program. Technician in semiconductor starting pay is $20 to $25/hour. What a waste of a college degree.

You can major in liberal arts if you are smart enough. Intelligent and capable people will always get ahead in their careers no matter what they major in. I’m a hiring manager who looks for intelligence and the ability to write and think critically, together with a collegial personality and drive. That’s what makes for a great employee in certain professions, way more important than specific major. I usually find those qualities in people with “useless” majors from decent schools. Then again I’m not hiring for accounting or IT positions or scientific research.

Society needs all sorts of professions and careers to function well. If everyone goes into finance, who will teach our kids, who will take care of the sick, who will sell us groceries and put out fires and keep law and order, fox our roads, build our houses, create our entertainment? And yes we need psychologists, therapists, and social workers.

My Cadillac dealer is paying $100 an hour for master mechanics. They will even train you.

Specialty mechanics make great salaries. Masters at anything really.

And my big Cadillac Dealer in Bethesda mechanics work business hours and spotless. Not junky cars. Medical, 401ks discounts on GM cars

high end cars are going electric which are much more simple than ICE cars, so don't expect this job to be around for a while.

[Anonymous]

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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%.

Gen-X immigrant here. Yes, our home too was purchased at 18%. We were in our early-30s, living in an apartment. We delayed having a child for 6 years after we got married because we could not afford a kid. The cost of the house was 4x our HHI. This was 26 yrs ago. We did for years without a fully furnished home.

Our wealth today is a result of years of frugal living and sound economic practices. Tell the millennial to do the same and they will have a nervous breakdown. Yes, you can have our kind of wealth if you are willing to live our kind of life. No Starbucks, no processed food, no eating out, no travel, no concerts, no designer anything, no vaping, no pets, no therapy, no electronics, no Netflix, no smartphones.

Poor babies!!

Honestly, many of them were raised poorly by entitled boomers. There is a huge difference in the frugalness practices of the Greatest Generation, who lived through the depression and WW!!, compared to the boomers who were raised during a time of relative opulence. That mentality gets passed down to the next generation.

FWIW, no one forced you to buy a home you couldn't afford at 18% interest. Some people would be better off continuing to rent than become house poor.

We moved close to relatives once we had a baby. No cheap apartments to rent around there. Thankfully, because of lack of an extensive credit history, we put in 40% down. In a few years, we refinanced at 8%, then 5% etc. We bought a house because that was a good location for our family.

That's fine, but you made a CHOICE to live in an expensive area. Stop whining.

Yeah, OP should stop whining, too.

[Anonymous]

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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%.

Gen-X immigrant here. Yes, our home too was purchased at 18%. We were in our early-30s, living in an apartment. We delayed having a child for 6 years after we got married because we could not afford a kid. The cost of the house was 4x our HHI. This was 26 yrs ago. We did for years without a fully furnished home.

Our wealth today is a result of years of frugal living and sound economic practices. Tell the millennial to do the same and they will have a nervous breakdown. Yes, you can have our kind of wealth if you are willing to live our kind of life. No Starbucks, no processed food, no eating out, no travel, no concerts, no designer anything, no vaping, no pets, no therapy, no electronics, no Netflix, no smartphones.

Poor babies!!

Not everyone is cut out for such an extreme ascetic existence. Sounds awful.

+1 I'm Gen X too and I just don't see how that life brings any pleasure. What's it for?

[Anonymous]

From the latest in housing the market will shift to more buyer friendly by 2030. Combination demographics, new housing construction, lower rates and boomers selling or dying.

For Gen Z timing works

[Anonymous]

Gen Xer here who inherited nothing from my remarried father (he passed away this year) and my divorced mother doesn't have much in terms of assets. I made my own way. Really sick of all these whining millennials. No way I'd hire one.