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The majority of 18- to 29-year-olds in the US are now living with their parents

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211–220 of 974 posts

Re: The majority of 18- to 29-year-olds in the US are now living with their parents

#211

I'm my early 20s and in the UK. I earn more than my Dad who is in his 50s. He managed to get a house, have money left over for an expensive hobby, decent car, the odd holiday etc. I'm a 90th percentile earner. Will 95+ percentile earner in a few years time. Yet it feels like I am not as well off as I should be. I don't live in an expensive area either. Yet I need to save so much money to even have the opportunity to…

High tax rates are what causes this. You are effectively giving away half your wage to sustain a completely unknown person leeching off the government.

This statement is flat out false. Tax rates are significantly lower than they were in the past.

Re: The majority of 18- to 29-year-olds in the US are now living with their parents

#212
post #107
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Unless we just forgive rent until a vaccine is out, many people will never catch up. If 'we' forgive rent owed landlords, will 'we' also forgive the mortgages those landlords owe the banks? Will 'we' also forgive the obligations the banks which owe to other banks and their investors? Will 'we' also forgive the obligations those investors owe, for example to pensioners? Will 'we' then step up and pay for those pensi…

The fact that it's impossible to make good decisions doesn't change the fact that a decision has to be made, nonetheless. This isn't a computer game where there's an answer to the puzzle from the designer, where the COVID-19 monster shows up but it has a weak spot on the back of its tail where you can land a critical hit. There is no good solution. Our job is to find the least-bad one. I think there's a good argument…

The reason retired people can’t live off of cash is simple - inflation. In many countries, governments provide and guarantee retirement. US has largely shifted to saved retirements in the form of IRA/401Ks. These are investment accounts, which means your principle is not protected, but you earn interest to, hopefully, protect you from inflation and build returns. In practice, those retired end up bearing the same market risk as normal investors, whereas a government insured pension is only as risky as the government itself (which differs by country).

Re: The majority of 18- to 29-year-olds in the US are now living with their parents

#213

Millennials face a very real risk of being a lost generation financially. They have endured 2 major, years long recessions, and now the Covid pandemic coupled with social isolation and massive unemployment that does not appear to have an end date in sight. Housing is more expensive for them than prior generations, wages are stagnant, school is expensive and social conflict is also currently on deck. WW2 was of course…

There's always this kind of narrative floating around that's simply not true. Sure things are getting bad right now but times have been good for a decade. Also people always say this kind of thing and extrapolate current trends into the future. After the 2008 crisis which many thought would take a long time to recover from we've had unbelievable growth for a decade.

We privileged few may have experienced unbelievable growth, but most of my generation has not.

Re: The majority of 18- to 29-year-olds in the US are now living with their parents

#214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean healthcare, roads, education and social security for when I lose my job due to COVID? Taxes are nothing new and have always been like that.

Don’t forget military spending

That’s not an argument against taxes, that’s an argument for redistributing where our taxes go. I would suspect that a reduction in the tax rate would mean a less-than-proportional decrease in military spending, anyways, so it’s not clear lowering the tax rate would even help.

Re: The majority of 18- to 29-year-olds in the US are now living with their parents

#215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I chalk it up to things simply costing more. I make more than my dad did. I dont take any major vacations, go out much, or live in a McMansion, yet we struggle to save.As a kid we took lots of vacations, they saved a good amount of money (stock market was good for them) and are doing well for themselves. I imagine it's only going to be worse for my kids.

My problem with "life" is all the... nickle and dimes... $10 for Nextflix, $90 for Amazon, etc. On top of Gas, Electric, Phone, Internet, Car, Insurance, Gas, etc. It's easy to watch the money flow in... and right back out.

pretty sure my problem is >50% of my pay goes on rent :P

Re: The majority of 18- to 29-year-olds in the US are now living with their parents

#216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Give it a few months and I think house prices will fall!

House prices will never fall significantly. As soon as a house enters the market at anything below the going rate it's bought by a landlord or a rental company. This will keep house prices high forever.

What's your model?

Re: The majority of 18- to 29-year-olds in the US are now living with their parents

#217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly and by not locking down properly we have managed to extend the pandemic in the US and its associated quasi lock down leading to our current situation. I agree with your response.

I agree with your response- the BLM protests need to be more aggressively dispelled.

Perhaps we should fix the thing that they’re protesting about?

Re: The majority of 18- to 29-year-olds in the US are now living with their parents

#218

Millennials face a very real risk of being a lost generation financially. They have endured 2 major, years long recessions, and now the Covid pandemic coupled with social isolation and massive unemployment that does not appear to have an end date in sight. Housing is more expensive for them than prior generations, wages are stagnant, school is expensive and social conflict is also currently on deck. WW2 was of course…

>> WW2 was of course a much more trying time Really? Lives were lost, but WWII came and went rather quickly, a handful of years. Millenials are dealing with multi-decade problems, potential solutions to which are discussed in terms of generations, decades rather than years. For perspective: US WWII deaths: 407k over ~6 years. US COVID Deaths: 196k and counting over ONE year. So, even adjusted for population growth, t…

For perspective, the Soviet Union lost something in the region of TWENTY MILLION people. Exact numbers are disputed in the range of millions; the Soviet state lacked the capacity to track accurately, having convulsively emerged from feudalism only twenty years previously. It also, frankly, displayed a spectacular disregard for human life even of its own troops and civilians.

> The US is losing people to covid faster than it did during WWII.

This is a huge tragedy; the US responded to the war by trying to win it, deploying huge scientific and technical resources to that purpose. The US (and the UK) has responded to COVID largely by wishing it would go away, leaving the public to their own devices, locking down too late and too incoherently, and waiting for the private sector to develop a cure.

Re: The majority of 18- to 29-year-olds in the US are now living with their parents

#219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I chalk it up to things simply costing more. I make more than my dad did. I dont take any major vacations, go out much, or live in a McMansion, yet we struggle to save.As a kid we took lots of vacations, they saved a good amount of money (stock market was good for them) and are doing well for themselves. I imagine it's only going to be worse for my kids.

My problem with "life" is all the... nickle and dimes... $10 for Nextflix, $90 for Amazon, etc. On top of Gas, Electric, Phone, Internet, Car, Insurance, Gas, etc. It's easy to watch the money flow in... and right back out.

But the thing is, nobody said you have to pay for Netflix or Amazon. Each person is responsible for making good choices with his or her money. Lack of financial discipline is not society's fault.

Yes, managing finances takes some level of skill when there are many different expenses in a modern personal budget. But there are ways to live frugally and get ahead. They just aren't flashy or fun.

On two very small incomes my wife and I made big financial strides early in our marriage. We were very frugal but we made it work. We had the lowest tier Internet. We had a very conservative budget for eating out and groceries. We didn't have Netflix or Amazon. Once we paid off a number of debts, our spending was able to increase responsibly.

Edit: More tactful wording.

Re: The majority of 18- to 29-year-olds in the US are now living with their parents

#220
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rents were already way above wage growth prior to the pandemic: https://www.cbpp.org/blog/census-income-rent-gap-grew-in-201... While I’m sure they’ve gone down a little in certain urban cores, like SF, they remain absurdly high in the midsize, Midwestern city where I grew up and now live. When I moved back, apartments here were going for only a bit less than what I paid in Los Angeles and seem to have not gone down…

In general rent doesn't appear to be dropping. Most landlords have mortgages and many would default if they lowered rent.

Wouldn't they also default if they cannot find anyone willing to rent at those prices ?
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