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Percentage of Young Americans Living with Parents Rises to 75-Year High

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Re: Percentage of Young Americans Living with Parents Rises to 75-Year High

#271

Post by eropple »

lucker wrote: post #152
eropple wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me, it would need to not be rural or a suburb to provide what I desire out of life. I want to be near things. There is a life to urban communities that does not exist in rural or suburban places (and I grew up in both) that I don't think I would want to live without. Being in places where it's a half-mile walk to things I want to do is an unmitigated good for me and there is nothing a suburb or rural area can do…

I have the opposite dream right now: I've spent almost my entire life in large cities and now that I'm in my thirties, finally have a career going, and am no longer obsessed with my sex life, I'm longing to move out of the city and somewhere a bit more suburban. I don't want kids or a wife — I just want space to be able to walk around half naked if I want to, sing at 4 in the morning if I feel like it, and indulge my…

> I just want space to be able to walk around half naked if I want to, sing at 4 in the morning if I feel like it, and indulge my own weird rhythms.

What you're describing in terms of collapsibility, zero space, and cultural lifelessness is why I have avoided San Francisco like the plague, but San Francisco isn't like most urban areas--when asked why I refused a job with a startup out there I responded with something very similar to what you're saying here. =) I live in the Boston area; the city I live in is on the subway line, but isn't Boston proper.

I live on the top floor of an apartment building; my place is about 1200 square feet. I regularly sleep an off-kilter schedule. My neighbors like me, and me being up at 3AM doesn't seem to bother the downstairs neighbors seeing as how we hang out once a week or so.

Rural areas are fine if that's your thing, don't get me wrong. But there's a lot that you can't get in those areas (and I've spent plenty of time in them) at all.

Re: Percentage of Young Americans Living with Parents Rises to 75-Year High

#272

Post by cableshaft »

cryoshon wrote: post #162

it's the economy, stupid. americans of generations X and Y got raped out of their money by the looter economy comprised of high-interest big-sum debt, decreasing wages, increasing rent, increasing cost of living, and few jobs. this story gets rehashed every few months (starting from around 2010) as though it's new. it's not new that capitalism has scarred the young. it took me a while to leave my parents after colleg…

"When the people shall have nothing more to eat, they will eat the rich." ~Jean-Jacques Rousseau

"Eat the rich, there's only one thing that they're good for, eat the rich, take one bite now, come back for more." ~Aerosmith

Re: Percentage of Young Americans Living with Parents Rises to 75-Year High

#273

Post by epalmer »

gravypod wrote: post #254
rm_-rf_slash wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Our society is simply misguided in conflating education with employment. It is good for society as a whole to be educated, to understand history and science and literature, let alone practical skills such as cooking, filing taxes, and applying for a mortgage. The problem is that we treat colleges as "skill mills," where we expect to go in, like raw materials into a machine, and emerge as an employable middle-class wo…

When employers stop treating degrees being a better worker then the public will change it's perception. Sadly neither of those will happen soon and I don't think universities will go out of this without a fight. I mean, who the hell has 200k to spend "for fun" at a liberal arts college?

You would be surprised at how many private liberal arts schools are north of $40,000 / year and how many people pay full pay.

Even schools that are mid to low tier are charging a lot for a 4 year education. I suspect that many of the low tier and some mid tier schools will go out of business in the next 5 to ten years. Some schools have gone under already. Getting alumni to donate is getting harder for raising money and schools rely on not just the fees they charge but also donations[0].

This site will allow you to see private versus public schools and has estimates for fees and room and board (living expenses). Just page through a few pages and you will see that for private schools most schools add up to more than $30,000 / year and many more than $40,000. Many the schools you will not recognize their names. The cost of college is out-of-control.

Some private schools many are "need based". What that means is that if your effective family contribution (FASFA Calculation [1]) is less than the estimated cost of attendance [2,3,4] then the school will provide financial aid for the difference.

The financial aid may be in the form of tax credits, student debt, grants (like a scholarship), scholarships, exchange for student employment and more. Many aid packages are a mix. Schools that load up students with debt are doing a very bad service to the student, their families and society.

0: http://www.collegetuitioncompare.com/compare/tables/?state=M...

1: https://fafsa.ed.gov/

2: http://www.olin.edu/admission/costs/cost-of-attendance/

3: http://financialaid.richmond.edu/prospective/cost.html

4: https://www.elon.edu/e/admissions/undergraduate/financial-ai...

Re: Percentage of Young Americans Living with Parents Rises to 75-Year High

#274

Post by rhapsodic »

rebootthesystem wrote: post #132

The most natural state is to remain with your family until you form your own family. I have never understood the stigma attached to adult children living at home. Admittedly, this might very well be because I have lived in multiple cultures, most of which don't have this antagonistic "kick them out of the house" relationship between parents and adult kids. The other side of that story is that, yes, if an adult kid ha…

> personally believe that the family connection is crucially important and it must remain as intact as possible until the adult children are ready to form their own families. There is no better incubator for future good people than a good family life.

I think there's something to be said for living on your own, cooking your own meals, doing your own laundry and housework, paying your own living expenses, and managing your own finances, before taking the plunge into a situation where it's non-optional. (E.g. a marriage.)

Re: Percentage of Young Americans Living with Parents Rises to 75-Year High

#275

Post by uptown »

jdminhbg wrote: post #231
uptown wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just in time for people's 401k/retirement contributions. Where to invest that cash when markets are frothy?

Same index funds as always. Don't try to time the market, especially a quarter century before you retire and start withdrawing.

Which funds do you buy?

Re: Percentage of Young Americans Living with Parents Rises to 75-Year High

#276

Post by e40 »

ChicagoBoy11 wrote: post #221

As a foreigner living in the U.S., I have to admit this obsession with leaving your parents house kinda baffles me. I'm from Brazil, and despite nearing my thirties, back home the majority of my friends live with their parents and it is hardly seen as a big deal. I think a big driver of this shift is the fact that in the U.S. it is extremely common for one to leave for college, whereas in Brazil literally 100% of my…

The level of independence of children after they get out of primary school is largely a function of wealth and cost of living (for university). In places like Brazil, I would expect more people to live at home with their parents. In the US now, as compared to the 70's, say, it's also true. In the 70's, when you graduated from HS, it was very rare for kids to stay at home. There were usually enough opportunities for them to get jobs and be independent.

For me, university was cheap enough that I was able to work and pay my own tuition. My parents helped a little with housing in the first 2-3 years, but everything else I provided. Almost everyone I knew back then was in the same boat.

Unless you're talking an affluent area, where kids can come out of university with no debt and very useful degrees, what I experienced in the 70's is much rarer now.

So, Brazil and the US, with the middle class both hit pretty hard in the recent decade, is entering a different phase.

Re: Percentage of Young Americans Living with Parents Rises to 75-Year High

#277

Post by FussyZeus »

jogjayr wrote: post #238
gravypod wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are the selling points on a societal level. Why is the government, and by extention you and me, supporting liberal arts degrees that will do little to support economic growth? I've never head an argument made against this question.

> Why is the government, and by extention you and me, supporting liberal arts degrees that will do little to support economic growth? As a taxpayer, I'm happy to support liberal arts even if it doesn't lead to economic growth. But you can't convince me that it should cost $200k to get a degree in it; that's just bananas. There's no way it costs that much to provide that service (even with a healthy profit margin on t…

The biggest contributor to the cost of college rising are the regular cuts to the public schools' budgets, which in turn is caused because boomers vote politicians in who promise to lower taxes.

Re: Percentage of Young Americans Living with Parents Rises to 75-Year High

#278

Post by madaxe_again »

sadface4004 wrote: post #267
jliptzin wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know, it seems to have worked for his family. Maybe his parents realized early on that they were too career focused to be good parents.

Perhaps. But why did they then chose to have a second child?

Both of us were accidents - hence the seven year gap - kids had never really been part of the plan. To say we were unloved would be wrong - but we were inconvenient, and never allowed to forget it.

I'm glad to say that my dad seems to be getting it right the second time around, with wife 2.0, which underscores my upbringing being culturally rather than idiopathically driven - in the culture in which they lived, kids were there to convey status, and not much else.

Honestly, my family dynamic is all sorts of weird to most, but not unfamiliar to many who shared a parallel experience with me.

Re: Percentage of Young Americans Living with Parents Rises to 75-Year High

#279

Post by flukus »

gamegoblin wrote: post #109
flukus wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At 4 hours a day it's time to look at what else you can cut, like house/apartment size.

I feel like it's maybe doable if you use that 4 hours for your "entertainment" time-budget for the day. Listen to audiobooks or podcasts. Then don't watch TV or Netflix or whatever when you actually are home. That said, this is purely speculation. I have a 10 minute commute by subway+walking.

Can people listen to audio books while driving? I find if I'm doing anything more complicated than washing the dishes I lose track of the book.

Re: Percentage of Young Americans Living with Parents Rises to 75-Year High

#280

Post by flukus »

ryandrake wrote: post #249
flukus wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At 4 hours a day it's time to look at what else you can cut, like house/apartment size.

It's a tradeoff I gladly make in order to not have to live in a shoebox.

Fair enough, we're very different people. The only down side to the shoe box for me is that I can't have a real sized dog.
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