Plan for future citizens of this country regarding money?

[Anonymous]

19:00, you can have some nice things, just not right out of school. My friends and I graduated from law school and none of them- including the ones in Biglaw- were living large when we graduated. Everyone was in savings or debt payoff mode. When we graduated almost everyone had roommates and cooked at home. Most of us had roommates until we got married. Small luxuries are totally fine, but the vast majority of grads in history have not been able to afford to live alone, eat at nice restaurants regularly, and buy nice things.

10 years out of grad school we can afford a lot, but almost nobody could at first.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
What proof do you have of this? I see people keep saying this over and over again and it makes me think you're either gaslighting us or really dont get what we're dealing with.

My friend group is pushing 30. Everyone has at least a master's degree or higher. I am married and own a home and I recognize that I am blessed and unique in that way. Most of my friends are still living in group housing, literally scraping by. We have potlucks and game nights as entertainment rather than going out for drinks or to restaurants. We all have student loan debt up to our eyeballs. Many of us have been stuck in the same $30-40k pay band since we began our careers because we are competing with cheap Indian labor in the tech sector. We've all basically accepted the fact that we will work until we die, and a serious illness will likely bankrupt us.

No one is complaining because we can't have all the luxuries our parents can afford. We're miserable because we were told that a good education meant eventually getting to the middle class lifestyle they had. But everything has changed so much that none of the prosperity they enjoyed looks like it will ever be attainable for us. And instead of recognizing that we were legitimately f*cked over by the choices your generations have made, you're gaslighting us into believing we just need to eat more beans and be happy.

Do you live in DC area? And work in tech? Something doesn't add up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:19:00, you can have some nice things, just not right out of school. My friends and I graduated from law school and none of them- including the ones in Biglaw- were living large when we graduated. Everyone was in savings or debt payoff mode. When we graduated almost everyone had roommates and cooked at home. Most of us had roommates until we got married. Small luxuries are totally fine, but the vast majority of grads in history have not been able to afford to live alone, eat at nice restaurants regularly, and buy nice things.

10 years out of grad school we can afford a lot, but almost nobody could at first.

You are living in a parallel universe. The fact of the matter is wages have not kept up with inflation and people are not being paid fairly for honest work.

www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/08/07/for-most-us-workers-real-wages-have-barely-budged-for-decades/%3famp=1

[Anonymous]

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/08/07/for-most-us-workers-real-wages-have-barely-budged-for-decades/

[Anonymous]

Parents should pay for college and let children stay with them once the adult children start working so that they can save money. Once they are married they can move to their own house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parents should pay for college and let children stay with them once the adult children start working so that they can save money. Once they are married they can move to their own house.

Yup. It is why we use our large income to invest in the future rather live in a close in expensive home. Not only will we 100% pay for our kids education, we also have a separate account that will eventually be a hefty down payment for their first home. The benefit of a high income today is to create generational wealth. Hopefully my kids will also hold the same values for their kids.

[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.

+1 - group house until I got married.

Same! At age 30, I was working in Big Law (making $90,000 per year in 1998) and I still lived with a roommate (who was also in Big Law). Then I got married at 31 and my DH and I have lived together ever since. It would have been a huge waste of money in my 20's to have the luxury of living in my own apartment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

+1 - group house until I got married.

Same! At age 30, I was working in Big Law (making $90,000 per year in 1998) and I still lived with a roommate (who was also in Big Law). Then I got married at 31 and my DH and I have lived together ever since. It would have been a huge waste of money in my 20's to have the luxury of living in my own apartment.

Newsflash: no one is living alone or saying they want to live alone. Also you made 90k at 30 years old!! Most 30 year olds with degrees don't make half that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

+1 - group house until I got married.

Same! At age 30, I was working in Big Law (making $90,000 per year in 1998) and I still lived with a roommate (who was also in Big Law). Then I got married at 31 and my DH and I have lived together ever since. It would have been a huge waste of money in my 20's to have the luxury of living in my own apartment.

Newsflash: no one is living alone or saying they want to live alone. Also you made 90k at 30 years old!! Most 30 year olds with degrees don't make half that.

If you think it's a lot to make $90,000 per year today (much less in 1998), you probably need to switch into a better career path.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

+1 - group house until I got married.

Same! At age 30, I was working in Big Law (making $90,000 per year in 1998) and I still lived with a roommate (who was also in Big Law). Then I got married at 31 and my DH and I have lived together ever since. It would have been a huge waste of money in my 20's to have the luxury of living in my own apartment.

Newsflash: no one is living alone or saying they want to live alone. Also you made 90k at 30 years old!! Most 30 year olds with degrees don't make half that.

If you think it's a lot to make $90,000 per year today (much less in 1998), you probably need to switch into a better career path.

Very few places are paying those types of wages. I have multiple grad degrees which I did not pay for and I don't make that much. You are out of touch with the majority of the US and what people earn.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

The poster on the first page suggesting that we cook beans in a crock pot is so insulting. I did that as a struggling college student. Why should I have to struggle as a young professional. We as a generation are being told to keep our heads down and hustle till we are in our 40s by a generation that had it made fresh out of high school/college. We are all wondering what was the point of going to college if we graduate and can't find a job. I just did the job hunt and it was pretty quick by normal standards. 3 weeks from the time I interviewed until my first day but things are pretty tight. Everyone says "save money and don't eat out!". If I make just enough to cover bills and I have $15 left over every pay check, you can bet your ass I'm gonna get a bottle of wine with that, it isn't going in savings.

Your problem is that you feel entitled to everything and you're too blind to see it. Just look at your last sentence: I work hard enough so gosh darn I deserve that wine! It's all about rewards and not necessity for you. You will never get ahead with his victim mentality.

If you're only making just enough to cover your bills, you need to make changes so your bills are smaller. Move to a cheaper place, buy a cheaper car, carpool, whatever. You seem to have no desire to adjust your lifestyle to your salary because you think you deserve something just for existing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Another person who doesn't get it. Not having a car might work in Manhattan but in most of the country, if you don't have a car you're going to waste time and money on public transport/uber. I'm a college student and I live 15 miles from campus, and 10 miles from work. Going on job interviews after class would have been a PITA if I had to do it on the bus and I wouldn't have been able to go to class and then get to an interview in 20 mins. Same for the days when my class ends at noon and my shift begins at 12:30. Also a lot of jobs ask if you have transportation and they don't count public transport as "reliable" so they completely cross you off for the position. My car costs about $30 every 10 days or so in gas, ubers or even metro fare would add up to $30 much faster.

You have zero idea about finances if you think that's all your car is costing you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Actually living in an expensive place really helps you save money if you live at home for a few years.

My kids can live in my house after graduation for free. I am in close in MoCo. Yet they will get paid more to account for high cost of housing with no housing expense.

I grew up near manhattan, I did not move out on my own till 29. I had a share situation and bounced back and forth between that and home till I got my own place at 29 for good. Yet I got paid more to offset Manhattan prices.



Live at home, dont buy a car

Another person who doesn't get it. Not having a car might work in Manhattan but in most of the country, if you don't have a car you're going to waste time and money on public transport/uber. I'm a college student and I live 15 miles from campus, and 10 miles from work. Going on job interviews after class would have been a PITA if I had to do it on the bus and I wouldn't have been able to go to class and then get to an interview in 20 mins. Same for the days when my class ends at noon and my shift begins at 12:30. Also a lot of jobs ask if you have transportation and they don't count public transport as "reliable" so they completely cross you off for the position. My car costs about $30 every 10 days or so in gas, ubers or even metro fare would add up to $30 much faster.

Between insurance, parking, gas and maintenance, cars can be a total money suck. If you live in a place like DC where the jobs and housing can be focused, then you don't need to own a car. Just rent one for the weekend you need it to go away or for errands. It is a much better way to save money.

But to the PP, sure, if you choose to live in a place which requires a car, then it is a sunk cost that is offset by cheaper housing. There is a reason a house in Clarksburg is less than a house in Bethesda.

[Anonymous]

So no car. check. Use public transport subsidized by work. check
Live with roommates. check. Don't go on any vacations. check
Dont eat out. check. Buy work clothes deeply discounted. check. In fact I wore the same winter coat I got for 30US for a decade.

So explain to me how between my 30k and climbing to 50k salary over a decade coupled with two masters I didnt pay for, does not entitle me to anything in my 30s and 40s? Obviously I didnt work hard enough or save enough to do whatever magic you think is necessary to have the dignity of a living wage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Having roommates and cooking at home in your 20's doesn't get you as far ahead as it used to because degrees and housing are more expensive.

But we also didn’t have home WiFi, Netflix, Spotify, and goodness knows what other subscriptions. We had a landline and antenna. No cable. Drive beater cars and fixed them ourselves (or traded services like cooking and cleaning with someone who could).

Kids now think they should have all the stuff their parents have as soon as they move out. That is not and never has been feasible. Toughen up, cupcakes.

What proof do you have of this? I see people keep saying this over and over again and it makes me think you're either gaslighting us or really dont get what we're dealing with.

My friend group is pushing 30. Everyone has at least a master's degree or higher. I am married and own a home and I recognize that I am blessed and unique in that way. Most of my friends are still living in group housing, literally scraping by. We have potlucks and game nights as entertainment rather than going out for drinks or to restaurants. We all have student loan debt up to our eyeballs. Many of us have been stuck in the same $30-40k pay band since we began our careers because we are competing with cheap Indian labor in the tech sector. We've all basically accepted the fact that we will work until we die, and a serious illness will likely bankrupt us.

No one is complaining because we can't have all the luxuries our parents can afford. We're miserable because we were told that a good education meant eventually getting to the middle class lifestyle they had. But everything has changed so much that none of the prosperity they enjoyed looks like it will ever be attainable for us. And instead of recognizing that we were legitimately f*cked over by the choices your generations have made, you're gaslighting us into believing we just need to eat more beans and be happy.

NP here. I think the problem clearly and simple is the price of college and houses has way outpaced what people earn. I was actually in your shoes because I grew up poor. I didn't live without a roommate until I was 31, and that was in a crumbling rent stabilized apartment. I had student loans for undergrad until I was in my early 30s. It seems that now everyone leaves with tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands in college. And then, saving up tens of thousands for a home seems almost impossible. I didn't own a house until I was 39, and that was with my DH and at the bottom of the last housing bust. So, OP, I empathize. We need a system change, not rice and beans. No gaslighting from me.