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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, they've had a lifetime to build that wealth. I mean, what do you expect at 25? To be as wealthy as someone who's put in 40+ year of work and financial planning?

A lot of millennials are 40/41 now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, they've had a lifetime to build that wealth. I mean, what do you expect at 25? To be as wealthy as someone who's put in 40+ year of work and financial planning?

A lot of millennials are 40/41 now.

So it’s impossible that they’ve put in 40+ years of work and financial planning.

[Anonymous]

Boomers are terrible looking at the senators

[Anonymous]

Here's the dirty secret. The upper end of millennials and even younger, those in their late 20s, are doing extremely well, with salaries and HHI that would have been staggering by boomer standards at the same ages. The professional jobs especially law pays significantly more. And there's big tech, which didn't exist in the past. And the range of senior management roles in corporate America is much bigger now. And these people make money. There are people graduating from college today who will never make less than 100k for their entire lives while plenty of people in their 40s and 50s languish at upper five figures.

There are winners and losers in every generation.

[Anonymous]

My boomer parents bought their first home in the late 70s with an 18% interest rate, after paying the mortgage for 30 years they sold it for about the same price. Their midwestern city went way downhill during their lifetimes. Thank god they are savers and can have a decent retirement with no home equity, but these millennial complaints about the boomers aren’t accurate for the vast majority of that generation. One big difference I see is the boomers learned from their depression era parents to be frugal and all of the millennials o know can’t stop spending on everything they see.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s all luck and timing. Gen X couple who bought in 06 in a hot gentrifying neighborhood for $600k. Had an interest only loan. Refinanced to 2.5 percent. It’s worth $1.1.

That's around 4% appreciation. Given the risk you undertook, not at all a great return.

DP. It’s more than just appreciation. It’s the investment into a level of financial freedom at retirement due to being mortgage free.

Oh, I see. You're one of those people who doesn't believe in . . . math.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s all luck and timing. Gen X couple who bought in 06 in a hot gentrifying neighborhood for $600k. Had an interest only loan. Refinanced to 2.5 percent. It’s worth $1.1.

This is the crucial point. Timing = luck

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here's the dirty secret. The upper end of millennials and even younger, those in their late 20s, are doing extremely well, with salaries and HHI that would have been staggering by boomer standards at the same ages. The professional jobs especially law pays significantly more. And there's big tech, which didn't exist in the past. And the range of senior management roles in corporate America is much bigger now. And these people make money. There are people graduating from college today who will never make less than 100k for their entire lives while plenty of people in their 40s and 50s languish at upper five figures.

There are winners and losers in every generation.

yes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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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.

I’m a Gen X’er with a history degree and DH has a political science degree. We both work in business. He makes 400k and I make 175k. It was definitely easier to get a job with a useless degree in the early 90’’s but man the pay was so low when we started out. He lived in an actual closet in NYC and I lived in a den on the west coast.

[Anonymous]

I think OP made some bad decisions, didn’t plan well, has ridiculous expectations or just had some bad luck. Millennials in my family are doin better than the previous generations.

[Anonymous]

Boomer have more money because they’re old and there are more of them. Gen X are richer now per capita than Boomers were at their age, and Millenials are about the same.

https://qz.com/millennials-are-just-as-wealthy-as-their-parents-1850149896

If that seems like a big disparity, you’re forgetting a larger one: There were a lot more Baby Boomers than Millennials, and they made up a much larger share of the population when they were in their early 30s. Even today, Millennials only overtook Baby Boomers as the largest American generation in 2019. When Horpedahl controlled for population size by measuring wealth in per capita terms, a different picture emerged: Millennials are as wealthy as Boomers were at their age, and Gen X (born between 1965 and 1981) is wealthier now than Boomers at the same age.

[Anonymous]

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

Millennial: Boomers are evil, greedy people who are purposefully making life hard for Millenials

Boomer: (rebuts argument with facts)

MILLENIAL: See! Boomers are so mean!

[Anonymous]

No generation is a monolith. In my family, millennials have done well professionally but did no receive much of any help with school or early finances, and thus carry a lot more debt than their parents did at the same age. They've also received less help with childcare. Meanwhile the boomers have enjoyed very nice retirements, travel extensively, don't help out much or at all with grandkids. And now those boomers are hitting their 80s and expect their kids to take care of them, to bring the grandkids around all the time, to drop everything for them.

It has produced resentment.

But I know from paying attention that not every family is like this. I think in my family it stems from the experiences and finances of prior generations. Boomers were the first in the family to have disposable incomes of any kind. They viewed their kids as so lucky to grow up middle or UMC, but didn't adopt the practices of other UMC families in terms of supporting the next generation. They just didn't know because they didn't receive that help. They don't understand how economic pressures shift over time but also as you move up in SES.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Ofc they’re grateful for all the gifts you’re giving them. The point is - OP and her generation don’t have the same parameters to make all that money on their own, which you did have when you were younger. That’s the whole point. Unless you inherit, you’re screwed.

This is such a deeply stupid point of view.

My dad is a boomer. He worked full time all through college because his parents were poor and he was the first in his family to go to college. Then he went to Viet Nam. The.n he worked for 49 years without a significant break, usually 60 or more hours per week. Weekends when he wasn’t working, he fixed his house and his cars, did enhancements that increased his property value, and taught his kids to fix houses and cars. He’s rich, but he and my mom paid someone to clean their house. They cooked at home. They didn’t buy Starbucks. They never owned an expensive car until my dad bought a vintage Jag in his sixties, fixed it up and sold it for more than he paid for it.

This wealth came from work OP. You should try it.

[Anonymous]

* never paid someone to clean their house.