Anonymous wrote:Lol what hardships have boomers ever faced. Except not knowing how to use PDFs.

LOL!!! This comment sums it up.

I’m a millennial. We eat out too much. We had no problems racking up student loans in college. It felt like free money. Seriously. Some of us took out more to eat out too much. And rents are only sky high because we have become accustomed to a certain standard. I don’t like what I can actually afford.

Luckily, I’ve come around, and I wasn’t affected as much as my friends. I’m an older millennial so maybe that’s why.

But, yeah, we eat out too much. The stereotype is valid.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also if you can't afford the rent, move somewhere cheaper! If you can't find a job in a cheaper place, keep your DC job and move just a little further out. No, you won't get an Uber pass to your new place, you may need to take the bus or get a car, but at you won't have "sky high!!!" rent. Or get a cheap house with multiple roommates. Honestly in your 20s with no family responsibilities you can live ANYWHERE - this isn't hard. But you might have to give up the game room and rooftop pool.

And if your job doesn't cover most of your insurance, you doing something wrong. Also you can stay on your parents medical until 26 - so... really you're doing something wrong if that is what is bankrupting you.

Try again with some personal responsibility.

Yup, move further out to a less-popular neighborhood and get roommates. I lived in seven corners when I was in my 20's making $35k/year. Had a roommate. Ate a lot of black beans and quesadillas for dinner. Canned tuna for lunch.

OP: "This system is broken and rigged against me and a large corporate keeps telling me that my situation would be different if I avoided spending $10/day on food out, which I don't do anyway"
All Other Posters: "BUT BOOTSTRAPS... TRY HARDER" ... "IT WAS EVEN HARDER FOR ME" ... "STOP WHINING" ... "GET FINANCIAL COUNSELING" ... "GET ON YOUR PARENTS' INSURANCE"

Lol. Y'all don't get it with your responses.

That's just typical DCUM responses for ya. When someone points out something bad, our out-of-touch DCUM residents who, mind you, typically boast about their $500k-$3M a year HHI, will immediately start singing the bootstrap song. It's their only way to reconcile the differences between what they have that others don't - after all, few people ever wanna admit they deserve criticism.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nah. I am a millenial. A lot of my friends blow $400+ a month on eating out (8-10x of eating out). It's a huge budget buster.

Okay, let's say that people can save $400/month not eating out. $400 x 12 months = $4,800. That's going to help someone buy a $500k-1m house... how, exactly?

x10 years - 48000... 10% down get a 80/10/10 loan.

Also, get a job on the weekends like waiting tables or catering or tutor kids for $50/hr.

Also, hon... you don't start in a $1M home..... you buy a starter home which is a piece of crap and you move when your kids start K.

Jeez, you guys are like... stupid AF.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate those self serving ads by WF showcasing a millennial couple eating out several times a week (once at a food cart), and that being the prime reason they can’t afford downpayment on a house.

Such BS. It’s sky high rent, student loans, and medical insurance — not avacado today du jour

Maybe instead of offering sham financial counseling, they offer low fixed rate student consolidation loans.

I totally get what you're saying. Sky high rents and student loans are a problem for so many. But I also feel like a lot of millennials just do not know how to save. They are a generation who has never had to endure hardship. I'm not talking personal (family divorce, low income). I'm talking generationally (war, really bad economy). I think people who have been comfortable their entire life just don't know how to prepare for the worst. Eating out three or four times a week can mean a difference between an ok place to live and a nice one.

Who was the last generation to actually endure hardship as you define it? The boomers maybe? Definitely not Gen X; if anything Millennials have had it much harder (try graduating college in 2008 and competing with 40 year olds for entry level jobs).

Lol you silly millennials, acting like the only economic downturn was in 2008. Gen Xer here graduating in 2001, one of the few lucky ones to have a job offer in the fall, with a start date of Sept. 12 2001 in NYC. How do you think that went?

Yep! I moved to DC right after 9/11 and tried to break into journalism; 9/11 accelerated an already-declining industry. I was lucky to make a path in a kind of roundabout way, but let's just say I worked a second retail job for a long time in addition to my "rea" job.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nah. I am a millenial. A lot of my friends blow $400+ a month on eating out (8-10x of eating out). It's a huge budget buster.

Okay, let's say that people can save $400/month not eating out. $400 x 12 months = $4,800. That's going to help someone buy a $500k-1m house... how, exactly?

You forgot to substract that 4,800 by the cheaper alternative cost of cooking or beans and rice.

OP here. This was my point of posting, you need an order of magnitude difference to afford housing without hellish commute.

The other WF commercial about forgotten subscriptions is at least less condescending

lol wah wah wah

look you live with roommates and save for a downpayment

and gasp maybe you cant afford to live in this area no shame in that 95% of the country can't afford to live comfortably in DC anymore but guess what you can move to 95% of the country and be fine including many other major metro areas besides SF, Seattle, Denver, NYC and Boston.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nah. I am a millenial. A lot of my friends blow $400+ a month on eating out (8-10x of eating out). It's a huge budget buster.

Okay, let's say that people can save $400/month not eating out. $400 x 12 months = $4,800. That's going to help someone buy a $500k-1m house... how, exactly?

Why do they need to buy a $500k-$1m home? Why not look for a cheaper place further out?

Because that's all part of the "complaint" from millennials... Let's say they move further out, and commute what, 90 mins - 2 hrs a day? And then what is that life going to look like? You're gone from 6:30-7:30 (give or take) 4-5 days a week? And no one is gonna think that sucks either?

The cost of commuting from farther out is real. If I lived on Capitol Hill, I could either walk or take the bus for $2 (or $4 round trip), but I live in Alexandria, and my commute costs me $7.50 if I take the Metro, or $23 + gas to drive and park (which is relatively rare). My DH also commutes, so double that. Even if we just take Metro, it’s a pretty big difference, and we don’t even live far out.

Eh, from a pure cash flow perspective, living further out will be cheaper, if you discount the time spent.

So IRS reimburses mileage at $0.58/mile. Let's say you live an exurb and commute 50 miles a day (but you get a nice big newish house for $400k, which would cost $800k in someplace close like Burke, and over $1M in Arlington).

That works out to a hefty commute cost of 0.58 * 50 miles * 2xday * 22 work days = $1276. But $250 for parking -> $1500. Which is huge expense and would cover the mortgage increase from $400k to $800k. But a lot of that cost is depreciation on a vehicle you already own, parking you would pay for anyways if you lived in Burke and even likely Arlington.

But you don't have to pay the higher property tax on this expense, nor qualify for the more expensive mortgage, so in the end it is definitely cheaper but a much worse value proposition. But many people have to focus on the cash flow not the final value b/c of circumstance.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nah. I am a millenial. A lot of my friends blow $400+ a month on eating out (8-10x of eating out). It's a huge budget buster.

Okay, let's say that people can save $400/month not eating out. $400 x 12 months = $4,800. That's going to help someone buy a $500k-1m house... how, exactly?

Why do they need to buy a $500k-$1m home? Why not look for a cheaper place further out?

Because that's all part of the "complaint" from millennials... Let's say they move further out, and commute what, 90 mins - 2 hrs a day? And then what is that life going to look like? You're gone from 6:30-7:30 (give or take) 4-5 days a week? And no one is gonna think that sucks either?

The cost of commuting from farther out is real. If I lived on Capitol Hill, I could either walk or take the bus for $2 (or $4 round trip), but I live in Alexandria, and my commute costs me $7.50 if I take the Metro, or $23 + gas to drive and park (which is relatively rare). My DH also commutes, so double that. Even if we just take Metro, it’s a pretty big difference, and we don’t even live far out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nah. I am a millenial. A lot of my friends blow $400+ a month on eating out (8-10x of eating out). It's a huge budget buster.

Okay, let's say that people can save $400/month not eating out. $400 x 12 months = $4,800. That's going to help someone buy a $500k-1m house... how, exactly?

You forgot to substract that 4,800 by the cheaper alternative cost of cooking or beans and rice.

OP here. This was my point of posting, you need an order of magnitude difference to afford housing without hellish commute.

The other WF commercial about forgotten subscriptions is at least less condescending

This thread is hilarious.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nah. I am a millenial. A lot of my friends blow $400+ a month on eating out (8-10x of eating out). It's a huge budget buster.

Okay, let's say that people can save $400/month not eating out. $400 x 12 months = $4,800. That's going to help someone buy a $500k-1m house... how, exactly?

Why do they need to buy a $500k-$1m home? Why not look for a cheaper place further out?

Because that's all part of the "complaint" from millennials... Let's say they move further out, and commute what, 90 mins - 2 hrs a day? And then what is that life going to look like? You're gone from 6:30-7:30 (give or take) 4-5 days a week? And no one is gonna think that sucks either?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nah. I am a millenial. A lot of my friends blow $400+ a month on eating out (8-10x of eating out). It's a huge budget buster.

Okay, let's say that people can save $400/month not eating out. $400 x 12 months = $4,800. That's going to help someone buy a $500k-1m house... how, exactly?

Why do they need to buy a $500k-$1m home? Why not look for a cheaper place further out?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nah. I am a millenial. A lot of my friends blow $400+ a month on eating out (8-10x of eating out). It's a huge budget buster.

Okay, let's say that people can save $400/month not eating out. $400 x 12 months = $4,800. That's going to help someone buy a $500k-1m house... how, exactly?

You forgot to substract that 4,800 by the cheaper alternative cost of cooking or beans and rice.

Anonymous wrote:Nah. I am a millenial. A lot of my friends blow $400+ a month on eating out (8-10x of eating out). It's a huge budget buster.

Okay, let's say that people can save $400/month not eating out. $400 x 12 months = $4,800. That's going to help someone buy a $500k-1m house... how, exactly?

Anonymous wrote:Nah. I am a millenial. A lot of my friends blow $400+ a month on eating out (8-10x of eating out). It's a huge budget buster.

Millennial women don't want to learn to cook because that's misogynistic! Oh wait, now nobody knows how to cook and so we gotta Uber Eats every night. But student loans are the problem!