70% of millennials live paycheck to paycheck

[Anonymous]

It’s America. 70% of all people are paycheck to paycheck not just millennials. This isn’t Japan where the household savings rate is 20-30%.

[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.

I was like Larla (non-White though). The silver lining is that I have become a savvy parent for my own children and guided them well. The stroke of good luck for me was that I married a clued-in and connected decent earner who I could have never married if I had not gone to college and met him there. I transitioned to a sahm role once my kids came along. Since I had made all the mistakes in my career and learned from them, I was able to guide my kids in the way of the connected and clued in people. My kids are not trustfund babies, so they will need to earn a living, but they have significant leg-up in many ways.

[Anonymous]

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

No, you haven’t. The PP who said that is just an idiot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I feel quite disgusted reading this. You should NOT feel bad for lower-middle class people. They made it, in that they have secure lives, despite having no luxuries.

You should feel bad for people with mental disorders who struggle more than most to make good choices and may end up homeless or imprisoned. You can feel bad for the very poor and those who are victims of crime or terrible diseases, and who die before their time. You can feel bad for people around the world who are killed, injured and traumatized by war and forced displacement.

Why are you wringing your hands over the middle class?!?

My husband was a war refugee and suffered hunger as a child. His family clawed their way up to the middle class - the lower-income one. Yet his parents were relieved and happy to get there. They would be terribly offended if you felt bad for them! He has two terminal degree and has progressed further, and if all goes well, our children will have even greater advantages in life. One generation at a time, PP.

So out of touch.

Your reading comprehension is terrible.

Oh, and this isn’t the Trauma Olympics.

[Anonymous]

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

Isn’t 95% of gen x living paycheck to paycheck?

[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.

Please say that this is a joke!

These are the last ones teaching. Why would one endure an underpaid job riddled with political divide, Stress, no appreciation , risk of death, being overworked, etc….. if they didn’t need to. Volunteering or working at a non otofit would provide a rich person with time on their hands more fulfillment.

[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.

Please say that this is a joke!

These are the last ones teaching. Why would one endure an underpaid job riddled with political divide, Stress, no appreciation , risk of death, being overworked, etc….. if they didn’t need to. Volunteering or working at a non otofit would provide a rich person with time on their hands more fulfillment.

This. Or writing for some online travel blog

[Anonymous]

Can you share a few anecdotes of what you’ve taught to your kids?

[Anonymous]

It’s sad but true. I know too many people who make really good money, but they blow their money on things like a giant house they don’t even need or expensive cars just to keep up with the Jones’s. It’s really sad. Nobody cares what you have or what you drive.

[Anonymous]

Videos like this is why people live paycheck to paycheck

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s sad but true. I know too many people who make really good money, but they blow their money on things like a giant house they don’t even need or expensive cars just to keep up with the Jones’s. It’s really sad. Nobody cares what you have or what you drive.

Oh yes they do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s sad but true. I know too many people who make really good money, but they blow their money on things like a giant house they don’t even need or expensive cars just to keep up with the Jones’s. It’s really sad. Nobody cares what you have or what you drive.

Oh yes they do.

I guess I'm in trouble with my 15 year old beatup Honda!

[Anonymous]

Both my kids lived for free with us after college and grad school for a few years to save as much money as they could. No student debt either. There was no way I was letting my kids leave the nest without a significant leg-up. They got merit scholarships in in-state so we did not have to pay for them. The money we had saved for their college was repurposed for grad school.

Living paycheck to paycheck is also happening due to lack of planning, overspending, poor choices and a shocking sense of entitlement.

[Anonymous]

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.

I am a white person who grew up in a LCOL in the northeast, and I know plenty of other people outside this demographic who didn't think passion jobs were for rich people (non-white, from urban areas, etc). That's because our families were poor or middle class and a teacher or nonprofit worker's salary was often as good or better than what our parents made. People on this site are obsessed with saying "only for trust funders" but 99% of Americans are NOT trust funders, even in those jobs. There just aren't THAT many rich people in this country. The PP who said teaching is for trust funders or rich spouses...I mean that's just objectively, empirically wrong, where do you live?

That said, I think these articles use "paycheck to paycheck" pretty sloppily, so I take it with a huge grain of salt.

OMG so this. Teachers in the DMV make WAY more than my LMC parents COMBINED ever made. When you come from the sticks, with poor or LMC parents, being offered a teachers salary or some high 5-figure salary, you THINK YOU MADE IT. It seems like so much money, more than anyone you ever knew made even as a family (unless you were friends with the town doctor). The idea that people make $200k+ seems like something made up, like becoming an oscar winning actor or owning a tiger.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Both my kids lived for free with us after college and grad school for a few years to save as much money as they could. No student debt either. There was no way I was letting my kids leave the nest without a significant leg-up. They got merit scholarships in in-state so we did not have to pay for them. The money we had saved for their college was repurposed for grad school.

Living paycheck to paycheck is also happening due to lack of planning, overspending, poor choices and a shocking sense of entitlement.

This works well if your parents (ie you) live in an employment center with lots of well paying jobs (though I guess remote will allow some greater flexibility if that remains). Many recent grads migrated from small rural towns without any jobs (there was a huge urbanization trend over the last decade). But with COVID etc, we are reversing that trend and people are moving to the country so wlll be interesting to see what happens.

https://carolinapublicpress.org/58982/is-rural-america-growing-again-recent-data-suggests-yes/