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.

In 1996 I was 20 years old, kind of sort of going to community college. I answered an ad in the jobs section for temp work. I got a job at a telecommunications company doing admin work. Within 3 months I was offered a FT position as an entry level troubleshooter because I was a quick learner. Before the end of the year I was making 60k and had modest RSUs. I eventually switched jobs and moved up. By 2000 I owned my own home in Vienna woods, at age 23. Then shortly the bubble came crashing down , but it didnt matter, I had 5 years work experience in technology and a network of contacts. My peers who had spent time in college or grad school and now needed jobs weren't so lucky. Some opted to stay in school and are probably still paying down debt.

18 years later I still have no college degree, I'm a VP at a technology company, and recently sold that Vienna Woods house for a 550k profit.

No it is certainly not the 1990s. Those were the good old days. Things are very different. Though I will say tech is the one area that college can't keep up and if you are bright, you most definitely can navigate your way without a degree and I can say without hesitation that nobody is impressed that you went to an ivy or some expensive SLAC. If my company is looking for entry level new hires we often partner with George Mason.

Move to a less expensive part of town. There are still affordable townhouses for the taking in Congress Heights, Deanwood, etc. Buy one then get a roommate or two. It’s awesome being able to afford a home in DC. Heck there’s a bunch of houses in Oxon Hill that look pretty good too.

Also DC is a very expensive place to live. If you really want to get ahead, you need to be open to moving somewhere else

I am a Gen Xer and turned 30 in the last decade and admit the best thing that ever happened to me is that I graduated college with no debt and I jumped into the housing market before the boom and bust. I have friends my age who are still paying back school loans and it has had an impact on the choices they have been able to make over the years. I don't know what the answer is for millennials or xennials. I'm sorry.

Anonymous wrote:So is everyone supposed to live with roommates until they are 30 or married (which is really just another version of having a roommate/multiple income household).

If necessary. I lived with a roommate until I was 28, saving for a downpayment for my first purchase - a teeny one-bedroom condo.

This was in the 80s.

*The reason young people and Gen X aren’t as well ofc as their parents...

Since you brought up the Republicans, I’ll say that you should vote against them every time and encourage your friends in a similar position to do the same. The Dems aren’t perfect, but they are better at providing reasonable healthcare, regulating employers, providing for retirement savings, creating consumer protections, etc.

Read the Two Income Trap by Elizabeth Warren. The reason young people (and even middle/aged Gen X) is because health costs, taxes, and mortgages have risen faster than wages. The Boomers spent the majority of their HHI on consumer goods, so when they lost a job, they could cut out a washing machine purchase and be fine. Now, it has flipped, so when people lose a job, they are forced with not paying for health insurance, taxes, of their mortgage to get by.

Last week it was reported that Trump lowered or forgave penalties on corporate wrongdoers. He gave a more sizable tax break to the wealthy. He hires foreign workers for his companies. This isn’t just Trump it’s the Republican way. Their large defecit means that they will be cutting important programs for Americans, rather than taxing the wealthy (who have enough $$ to be fine with US policy because they can send kids to private, hire doctors in boutique practices, helicopter to meetings, etc). Kavanaugh consistently votes for the employers over the employees. If you are going to be an employee and care about workplace safety, this matters. Your choice.

Anonymous wrote:As you can see OP, there is no plan. It's all our fault. They had nothing to do with it. Every man for himself. Oh and the cherry on top is that we'll also get to clean up the environmental dump they took on us too. Fun stuff!

You do know that the Boomers have been working on cleaning up the environment since the sixties? Who do you think was behind the push for much of the environmental legislation passed beginning in the early seventies? The Boomers began what was then called the Ecology Movement.

As you can see OP, there is no plan. It's all our fault. They had nothing to do with it. Every man for himself. Oh and the cherry on top is that we'll also get to clean up the environmental dump they took on us too. Fun stuff!

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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.

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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.

+1 And, yes, degrees are more expensive now but there are ways to get a good degree that is more financially responsible with minimal debt (merit aid from a less-highly-ranked schools, community college + transfer to public U, etc.)

People talk about the good old days when you could support a family with a single middle-class wage earner. You still can if you are willing to live the same way -- small house (avg. size in the 50s was a bit under 1K sq ft), one car, very rarely eat out, small wardrobe (there's a reason the closets in those old houses are so small), no extracurricular activities for kids - just send them out to play or maybe piano lessons with the lady down the street, limit travel to an annual camping trip and maybe a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Disney. DIY everything - no housecleaners, mow your own lawn, do your own nails, change your own oil etc. Stay in your hometown so the grandparents can help with babysitting, or when they aren't available hire the 14 yr old girl down the street.

The "FIRE" (financial independence/retire early) community is full of people who are living that way with a goal of super-high savings to reach early retirement.

But most people seem expect 2500+ sq ft houses, at least two cars, buying new clothes regularly, eat out daily for lunch + several times a week for other meals, air travel multiple times a year, and, when you have kids, couldn't possibly trust your kids with a young teen babysitter and must put them in lots of extracurricular activities.

Yes, a lot of those things are nice to have, but you can't expect to have that lifestyle in your 20s and build a solid financial foundation. Buckle down in your 20s so you can have more of those nice-to-haves in your 40s and not be destitute in your 70s.

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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.

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.

I suspect that folks will finally get it in their head that they can’t have the upper class standard of living depicted by Hollywood or social media. The average person won’t live in HGTV-nice homes or live in high-rent neighborhoods, they won’t have 1000+ cell phones that they’ll replace every couple of years, they won’t travel internationally, they won’t eat out, they won’t have expensive hobbies, they won’t go to fancy colleges if they do go, etc. They will recognize more of these things as luxuries, and will decide accordingly where they splurge.

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.