The Gen X Career Meltdown

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Identifying as a latchkey kid in your 50s is weird

Not if you grew up as a latchkey kid, are Gen X so in your 50's are taking care of your own kids who aren't in college yet or are just starting, and on the other end are taking care of your own parents who are aging. Why do you think Gen X runs around trying to have it all - career, kids, money, etc. Because our parents let us raise ourselves while they had a second round of kids when older, went back to college, women went to work, got divorced, etc. (watch any 80's sitcom). And, we wanted to have our act together, not divorce, and not let our kids raise themselves.

+100 yup.

This is me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My friend was a graphic designer. She’s now a bartender.

I was a graphic designer, started my first job in 1999 making $48,000. I'm now a lawyer.

That was a great salary for a graphic designed starting out in 1999.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My friend was a graphic designer. She’s now a bartender.

I was a graphic designer, started my first job in 1999 making $48,000. I'm now a lawyer.

That was a great salary for a graphic designed starting out in 1999.

I studied graphic design in college in the late-1980s, but then changed majors and went to law school after I realized how little graphic designers actually made. Turned out to be a much more lucrative and in many ways more creative, than had I stuck with graphic design. Clients pay me to come up with creative solutions to their problems, or I need to be a "storyteller" when persuading other people to see my client's point of view. Unlike graphic design, how I do things is up to me - my clients simply expect results.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My friend was a graphic designer. She’s now a bartender.

I was a graphic designer, started my first job in 1999 making $48,000. I'm now a lawyer.

That was a great salary for a graphic designed starting out in 1999.

Right? My first "real" job out of college (after spending two years doing shift and gig work because I graduated in 2008) paid $34,000. In DC. In 2010.

Not that it's a suffering contest or anything but Gen X also got the last of the cheap houses in good locations. Most of my Gen X coworkers were able to grab rowhouses for $300-$400K in places like Shaw or Petworth.

By the time my generation could afford to buy homes the ones at that price point were all either EOTR or in the far-flung suburbs. Honestly I'm thankful we were even able to get those (sorry Gen Z) but they'll never have the same appreciation or walkable development that Gen X got.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My friend was a graphic designer. She’s now a bartender.

I was a graphic designer, started my first job in 1999 making $48,000. I'm now a lawyer.

That was a great salary for a graphic designed starting out in 1999.

By the time I left in 2001, I was making $75,000 and I knew the bubble popped. Clients were paying for my hotels, apartments, and all my food in LA, SF and NY. Completely unsustainable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The article was so depressing, with points that could be extrapolated to so many other industries. Gen X is stuck behind intransigent Boomers and squeezed by entitled, performative Millennials on the other end. We're all exhausted because most of us have been working since age 14, if not earlier (under the table) but we can't retire yet, if ever.

You not be able to retire at your age is your fault with the explosive market growth. Leave it to a Gen X to sit with their thumb up their hiney on the sidelines then whine when the world passes them by.

NP. Are you the same Millennial being defensive about not getting money from your parents? Why so unpleasant so early in the morning?

First poster in this chain calling millennial entitled and performative at 3 am didn't get your goat?

[Anonymous]

I started my career in 1991 in a recession, and looks like I'll be ending it in one too, with a stock market crash to boot. So par for the course as an X.

Shit. But I keep telling myself it I've always managed. And I have. I'll still manage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I started my career in 1991 in a recession, and looks like I'll be ending it in one too, with a stock market crash to boot. So par for the course as an X.

Shit. But I keep telling myself it I've always managed. And I have. I'll still manage.

Lol, are you me? Hugs from a fellow X-er!

[Anonymous]

I made $16k plus lunch in 1989 in NYC. Rent was $400/month. Creative field. I don’t know how I managed, to be honest. I suppose I hadn’t ever made money before so it didn’t seem like so bad.

[Anonymous]

seem so bad….

[Anonymous]

I'm older Gen X (57) and I think our generation is traumatized after so much upheaval in our lives. We started out with the rotary phone and now we have AI. We have seen so much technological and social change, too. I remember in the 1970s when my PT working mom's name tag had her name on it as Mrs. [My dad's first name] and [My dad's last name/her married name]. I mean, think about that! We have experienced so much. It is no surprise people our age are melting down. It's been a long road.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The thing I thought was odd about the article is that while it was discussing careers/jobs “disappearing” today, many of the examples made it clear that the fields were already reducing in scope when the Gen-X subjects were in their mid-late 20’s/early 30’s.

E.g., the guy who was working for Spin in the early 2000’s in NYC making $31K a year. Which would have been quite challenging to live on by then and he was in his early 30’s. My first real job in 1990 in the Midwest paid $22,500 and that was considered a pretty low salary.

The article content seemed relevant in, say 2005-2010, not 2025.

An editor at Spin making $31k in early 2000s NYC would have been able to make an additional $10-15k in freelance income from other publications and gotten enormous perks, would have likely never paid for drinks or concert tickets and gotten flown all over on press junkets. Brooklyn was affordable then and it was the epicenter of the music scene. This guy would not have felt like he was struggling.

+1 I made $30k in 2001-2003 in NYC, paid $600 rent in Brooklyn.

+2 my first salaried job in 2000 in NYC paid $26,000. My boyfriend and I split the rent in Brooklyn, we didn’t need a car, we ate in (really good food) most of the time. Life was good.

+3. In 1997, I bought a 1bdr in Brooklyn. For cash. All $22.5K of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The article was so depressing, with points that could be extrapolated to so many other industries. Gen X is stuck behind intransigent Boomers and squeezed by entitled, performative Millennials on the other end. We're all exhausted because most of us have been working since age 14, if not earlier (under the table) but we can't retire yet, if ever.

You not be able to retire at your age is your fault with the explosive market growth. Leave it to a Gen X to sit with their thumb up their hiney on the sidelines then whine when the world passes them by.

NP. Are you the same Millennial being defensive about not getting money from your parents? Why so unpleasant so early in the morning?

First poster in this chain calling millennial entitled and performative at 3 am didn't get your goat?

The direct quote was:

We also dealt with rapidly rising house prices (as did Millenials but they had much much richer parents who could help them out).

and it’s true for all the UMC-born millennials I know. We all got college paid for, and many of us got help on our first downpayment.

I’m not ashamed of it, it’s called paying it forward and we all work hard to provide that and more for our children. What is money for?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most Gen Xers have Boomer parents and even fewer, Silent Generationers.

I’m one. Born 1970 to parents born in 1934 and 1937.

DH has parents a full decade younger.

Boomers were born 1946 to 1964

GenX 1965 to 1980.

Most GenX have silent generation parents.

GenX here.. (born in 1971) parents are boomers born in 1948 and 1952

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most Gen Xers have Boomer parents and even fewer, Silent Generationers.

I’m one. Born 1970 to parents born in 1934 and 1937.

DH has parents a full decade younger.

Boomers were born 1946 to 1964

GenX 1965 to 1980.

Most GenX have silent generation parents.

GenX here.. (born in 1971) parents are boomers born in 1948 and 1952

A 19 year old parent even in the 50s is pretty exceptional.