Young Americans' Financial Struggles Compared to Boomers Revealed

[ZLoth]

From Newsweek:

Young Americans' Financial Struggles Compared to Boomers Revealed

America's younger generations think they face more difficulty in their efforts to build financial wealth than their parents, who at their age could count on a more favorable economic situation in the country, according to a new Bankrate survey shared with Newsweek.

The New York-based consumer financial services company found that nearly two in five (38 percent) Gen Z-ers and millennials (aged between 18 and 43) believe that it was easier for their parents to build up wealth than it is for them now—yet another sign of the generational divide that has marked these two age cohorts in opposition to their elders. Seventeen percent think they now have it easier than their parents.

By comparison, the number of Gen X-ers and baby boomers (aged between 44 and 78) who believe their parents had it easier to build up wealth was significantly lower at 24 percent. The survey was conducted between December 18 and 20.

FULL ARTICLE HERE

[kalvado]

From Newsweek:

Young Americans' Financial Struggles Compared to Boomers Revealed

America's younger generations think they face more difficulty in their efforts to build financial wealth than their parents, who at their age could count on a more favorable economic situation in the country, according to a new Bankrate survey shared with Newsweek.

The New York-based consumer financial services company found that nearly two in five (38 percent) Gen Z-ers and millennials (aged between 18 and 43) believe that it was easier for their parents to build up wealth than it is for them now—yet another sign of the generational divide that has marked these two age cohorts in opposition to their elders. Seventeen percent think they now have it easier than their parents.

By comparison, the number of Gen X-ers and baby boomers (aged between 44 and 78) who believe their parents had it easier to build up wealth was significantly lower at 24 percent. The survey was conducted between December 18 and 20.

FULL ARTICLE HERE

Glass half full version:
More than 3 out of 5 millennials believe opportunities are there for those willing to move their ass

[Rothman]

Wonder what the responses would look like if Gen X and Boomers were separated.

[Rothman]

From Newsweek:

Young Americans' Financial Struggles Compared to Boomers Revealed

America's younger generations think they face more difficulty in their efforts to build financial wealth than their parents, who at their age could count on a more favorable economic situation in the country, according to a new Bankrate survey shared with Newsweek.

The New York-based consumer financial services company found that nearly two in five (38 percent) Gen Z-ers and millennials (aged between 18 and 43) believe that it was easier for their parents to build up wealth than it is for them now—yet another sign of the generational divide that has marked these two age cohorts in opposition to their elders. Seventeen percent think they now have it easier than their parents.

By comparison, the number of Gen X-ers and baby boomers (aged between 44 and 78) who believe their parents had it easier to build up wealth was significantly lower at 24 percent. The survey was conducted between December 18 and 20.

FULL ARTICLE HERE

Glass half full version:
More than 3 out of 5 millennials believe opportunities are there for those willing to move their ass

What's interesting there is that they believe the opportunities exist, but, as the article points out, those opportunities may actually be out of reach.

It's a Newsweek article, so it's an incomplete summary of the survey findings with a conservative slant.

[Max Rockatansky]

My wife and I probably had an easier time accumulating savings than our parents did.  My dad was horrible with money and would burn through what he made (which was higher than me factoring inflation).  I don't recall him ever saving a dime in his entire life.  My mom stopped her accounting career to have kids and had a really hard time getting back in job market in the late 1990s.  My wife's father was a migrant ag worker who eventually found a solid footing as a trucking dispatcher.  My wife's mother ended up on disability early on and apparently never had a stable work history. 

I moved a lot for work and saved money when I could.  The career equity and sticking to savings eventually started to build over time.  My wife worked at her degree at Fresno State over eight years as she could afford to take classes (never had student loans).  She made a really wise decision purchasing a four year old short sale home in 2011 (where we still reside).

[Rothman]

My Boomer parents had it much, much easier than their Silent Generation parents, but my siblings and I are a mixed bag.  Definitely was harder for me and my sister than our parents (Sister eventually just married into mo' money); Brother jumped through all the hoops to get a top-dollar job and is now working himself to death to keep it.  It just took me a longer time to achieve the same level of comfort my parents enjoyed than it took my parents to get there.

[Scott5114]

I'm the only person I know my age that owns a house. That's mostly because of a grant my wife was able to get from her tribe. Buying a house was a goal for me, so it was something I had been working toward for a while, and with the grant money we were finally able to make it happen. All of my peers are unable to scrape up much liquidity at all (if their net worth is even a positive number; most of them have credit card and/or medical debt), much less enough to sink into a down payment.

It's only because I have a house that's been building equity that I can afford to move. Many of those friends would rather live somewhere besides Oklahoma but they're trapped here because they don't have the resources to get out.

It's a Newsweek article, so it's an incomplete summary of the survey findings with a conservative slant.

Today's Newsweek is basically the old Newsweek's brand cut off and stapled to a BuzzFeed-esque clickbait site. In five years all of the articles will be written by AI. It definitely coasts off of its reputation.

[vdeane]

It's only because I have a house that's been building equity that I can afford to move. Many of those friends would rather live somewhere besides Oklahoma but they're trapped here because they don't have the resources to get out.

Interesting.  I would have assumed that moving would be easier for people who rent, because then you don't have to time a job offer with a house sale.

[Max Rockatansky]

It's only because I have a house that's been building equity that I can afford to move. Many of those friends would rather live somewhere besides Oklahoma but they're trapped here because they don't have the resources to get out.

Interesting.  I would have assumed that moving would be easier for people who rent, because then you don't have to time a job offer with a house sale.

That was the issue I had when I owned a house.  I had a couple really good transfer options come but I had to turn them down because I would have taken too large of a hit on the house due to a recession.  I'd argue though that my timing for purchasing my house was poor given I thought the economy had bottomed out (it didn't).

[Scott5114]

It's only because I have a house that's been building equity that I can afford to move. Many of those friends would rather live somewhere besides Oklahoma but they're trapped here because they don't have the resources to get out.

Interesting.  I would have assumed that moving would be easier for people who rent, because then you don't have to time a job offer with a house sale.

Logistically, it's easier to move when renting, but financially, having the equity from owning is a lot nicer, especially if you plan to continue owning and the market you're moving to is more expensive. The equity I have from the house in Oklahoma should be juuuust enough to be a down payment on a house in Nevada.

I've never sold a house before, but...the realtor I'm working with has said that the easiest thing to do is to basically just move out and turn the keys over to him. Then his people can go in and do any fixes (replacing carpet, touching up paint, etc.) they think will have a positive ROI, without having to work around us trying to live in the place. Then they bring in temporary furniture and such and stage it to look like someone still lives there. The house sells and they pull all that stuff back out and put it in the next house they're selling. We don't have to be involved in the process until it comes time to approve or decline an offer.

[Rothman]

Getting out of my house was an issue with promotions in my career.  Being able to move around increases your opportunities.  Getting out of a house, especially in areas where values are stagnate, is an obstacle.

Having kids and worrying about school districts, doubly so.

[Max Rockatansky]

Anything that weighs you down enough that makes you inflexible to moving likely is going to hurt career development.  No doubt getting married has likely hurt mine as my wife is very connected to her family her in Central California.  The upside is the equity we have in our home and her own career field being on the upswing are valuable enough to more than offset.  I have enough career equity that if it came down to really needing to move it could be done. 

[jeffandnicole]

I'm the only person I know my age that owns a house. That's mostly because of a grant my wife was able to get from her tribe. Buying a house was a goal for me, so it was something I had been working toward for a while, and with the grant money we were finally able to make it happen. All of my peers are unable to scrape up much liquidity at all (if their net worth is even a positive number; most of them have credit card and/or medical debt), much less enough to sink into a down payment.

That's great you could make that happen.

I bought my house when I was 26.  It was on the lower-end of the pricing scale for decent houses.  It was on the maximum of what we could afford at the time.  It was in a neighborhood with small lots, so nowhere close to what we wanted, but we succumbed to the realization we couldn't afford the property we did.  Yet, ultimately, I always felt we got lucky - the house had an addition that enlarged the living space by about 50%, yet was priced similarly to other recent sales in the neighborhood.  Granted, they did a bad job with the HVAC in the addition, but it's doable.  Also had a pool that took up most of the backyard, which is often a big minus for many but it was a plus for us.  And it's just off the highway for the job I had at the time.  23 years later, neither have changed.

I've never sold a house before, but...the realtor I'm working with has said that the easiest thing to do is to basically just move out and turn the keys over to him. Then his people can go in and do any fixes (replacing carpet, touching up paint, etc.) they think will have a positive ROI, without having to work around us trying to live in the place. Then they bring in temporary furniture and such and stage it to look like someone still lives there. The house sells and they pull all that stuff back out and put it in the next house they're selling. We don't have to be involved in the process until it comes time to approve or decline an offer.

I would be against this personally, if not needed. 

In my opinion, her statement of I *think* this will result in a positive ROI is putting all the risk on you.  If she estimates the maintenance will be $5k but turns out there's various cost-overruns (they would show you, but you've already out of the house and moved away) increasing the cost to $10k, you're stuck with a realtor that has you under contract and stuck with the overruns.

Buyers often get new carpets anyway.  They're going to repaint rooms to colors they want.  Unless the walls need significant repairs or the paint is a putrid color for the room or looks really faded after removing things away from the wall, buyers aren't going to be overly concerned of the paint.

If you're fully moved out, they'll make money on stocking the house for show.  If you leave some things behind, it'll be just as good as what they can do.  The relator should be talking to you about these ideas, not finding ways to make additional money off you.

And that said, it's debatable between real estate agents if you even need to stage the house.  A lot of buyers are picturing their own furniture in the room.  They don't want to see someone's old stuff in there. 

Obviously, if you have to move before the house is sold, then you have to do what is needed.  But I would think a house with people wanting to move will put more pressure on the real estate agent, rather than a house that is empty that the agent can spend more time on.

[bandit957]

Things are harder than they used to be, and it's by design.

[Max Rockatansky]

I don't know about that.  The further you go back in time the worse things likely were for the average person on the whole.  Being born in 1882 instead of 1982 sure seems at a brief glance like it would be introducing a massive list of potential life problems. 

[Scott5114]

I'm the only person I know my age that owns a house. That's mostly because of a grant my wife was able to get from her tribe. Buying a house was a goal for me, so it was something I had been working toward for a while, and with the grant money we were finally able to make it happen. All of my peers are unable to scrape up much liquidity at all (if their net worth is even a positive number; most of them have credit card and/or medical debt), much less enough to sink into a down payment.

That's great you could make that happen.

I bought my house when I was 26.  It was on the lower-end of the pricing scale for decent houses.  It was on the maximum of what we could afford at the time.  It was in a neighborhood with small lots, so nowhere close to what we wanted, but we succumbed to the realization we couldn't afford the property we did.  Yet, ultimately, I always felt we got lucky - the house had an addition that enlarged the living space by about 50%, yet was priced similarly to other recent sales in the neighborhood.  Granted, they did a bad job with the HVAC in the addition, but it's doable.  Also had a pool that took up most of the backyard, which is often a big minus for many but it was a plus for us.  And it's just off the highway for the job I had at the time.  23 years later, neither have changed.

A lot of potential first-time homeowners don't seem to understand the concept of buying a smaller/crappier house and using the equity built up in that one as a means to afford one closer to their desired dream home. We all want to live in our dream house in our favorite part of our favorite city but...if you can't afford it, it's much easier to achieve that if your housing payment is going toward a serviceable-but-not-perfect house rather than a landlord. My wife didn't seem to understand this until we started talking about moving and she was freaking out about the cost of housing. Then I showed her how much money we were probably going to have from selling the house. She seems to get it now.

Of course, this theory does you no good if you can't afford even the down payment on the starter home. My friends in California have just written off the idea of homeownership for good. They can't see any way they'll ever be able to do anything but rent in CA, but they're not interested enough in buying to make it worth it to leave CA to do so.

I've never sold a house before, but...

I would be against this personally, if not needed.
[snip]

Well, we are wanting to get moved first before we have a buyer for the property. Reason being that my wife needs a new job (she was fired from her last one for reasons neither of us feel were fair; she was told in writing by her supervisor that it would be okay for her to miss work on a certain date and then was terminated for doing so, and HR apparently sees no problem with this), and her prospects are much better in the new city than the old one. While she's been applying for jobs out there from here and gotten a few interviews, it turns out some employers are still kind of squeamish about interviewing people with an out-of-state address.

We worked with this realtor before, when we were buying this house, and many of the things he did during that process make me trust his judgement as to what is and is not worth doing. There were a number of ways he could have made money off of us during that transaction that he declined to do. (He was certainly not shy about pointing out flaws in, or even outright making fun of, poorly-built or strangely-remodeled houses that we toured, even if he would have gotten paid for selling them to us.) When we met with him most recently, I mentioned a few things that I thought would help (like replacing the fence), and on many of them, he shook his head and said it would be better to leave that to the buyer since it wouldn't have an ROI.

As for the carpets, they are definitely in need of replacement because our idiot cats have torn holes through them in a few places. While a buyer may have different tastes and want to replace the new carpet anyway, the realtor's rationale for replacing them is that leaving the damaged carpets runs the risk of setting off a buyer's alarm bells that the property has not been well-maintained and may be in need of more costly maintenance for other reasons.

In any event, I have little patience for the game of calling a bunch of places trying to get a quote to do some sort of work, having half of them never bother to get back to you, scheduling time for people to come out and look at the job, having half of the people who came out never quote you, ending up getting a quote from two or three people, selecting one, being told their next available opening should be sometime in the late 2150s, calling a bunch more places, etc., and even less patience for (and competence in) doing it myself. If the realtor is willing to do all that for a reasonable fee I am not going to begrudge him that.

[jeffandnicole]

Gotcha. All valid reasons. 

[Rothman]

I learned the hard way to never go with a realtor's recommendation for inspectors or contractors.

[vdeane]

(she was fired from her last one for reasons neither of us feel were fair; she was told in writing by her supervisor that it would be okay for her to miss work on a certain date and then was terminated for doing so, and HR apparently sees no problem with this)

Wow.  That would seem to be an open and shut wrongful termination case to me.

[Rothman]

(she was fired from her last one for reasons neither of us feel were fair; she was told in writing by her supervisor that it would be okay for her to miss work on a certain date and then was terminated for doing so, and HR apparently sees no problem with this)

Wow.  That would seem to be an open and shut wrongful termination case to me.

Right to Work State?

[Big John]

(she was fired from her last one for reasons neither of us feel were fair; she was told in writing by her supervisor that it would be okay for her to miss work on a certain date and then was terminated for doing so, and HR apparently sees no problem with this)

Wow.  That would seem to be an open and shut wrongful termination case to me.

Right to Work State?

right to work means no union.  Most states are "at will".

[hbelkins]

(she was fired from her last one for reasons neither of us feel were fair; she was told in writing by her supervisor that it would be okay for her to miss work on a certain date and then was terminated for doing so, and HR apparently sees no problem with this)

Wow.  That would seem to be an open and shut wrongful termination case to me.

Right to Work State?

You mean "at-will employment" state. Right to work has nothing to do with that. Right to work means that you don't have to join a union to take employment with a specific employer or in a specific field.

[tmoore952]

I'm the only person I know my age that owns a house. That's mostly because of a grant my wife was able to get from her tribe. Buying a house was a goal for me, so it was something I had been working toward for a while, and with the grant money we were finally able to make it happen. All of my peers are unable to scrape up much liquidity at all (if their net worth is even a positive number; most of them have credit card and/or medical debt), much less enough to sink into a down payment.

That's great you could make that happen.

I bought my house when I was 26.  It was on the lower-end of the pricing scale for decent houses.  It was on the maximum of what we could afford at the time.  It was in a neighborhood with small lots, so nowhere close to what we wanted, but we succumbed to the realization we couldn't afford the property we did.  Yet, ultimately, I always felt we got lucky - the house had an addition that enlarged the living space by about 50%, yet was priced similarly to other recent sales in the neighborhood.  Granted, they did a bad job with the HVAC in the addition, but it's doable.  Also had a pool that took up most of the backyard, which is often a big minus for many but it was a plus for us.  And it's just off the highway for the job I had at the time.  23 years later, neither have changed.

A lot of potential first-time homeowners don't seem to understand the concept of buying a smaller/crappier house and using the equity built up in that one as a means to afford one closer to their desired dream home. We all want to live in our dream house in our favorite part of our favorite city but...if you can't afford it, it's much easier to achieve that if your housing payment is going toward a serviceable-but-not-perfect house rather than a landlord. My wife didn't seem to understand this until we started talking about moving and she was freaking out about the cost of housing. Then I showed her how much money we were probably going to have from selling the house. She seems to get it now.

I wound up moving 7 times in 7 years between ages 28 and 35, due to job changes, and the death of a spouse in there too.

As a result of remarrying at age 36 --- with both me and my wife having worked for 10+ years, the first home we bought was our forever home at least for the remainder of the working stage of our lives.

I won't go into the gory details, I'll just say it was good that things worked out the way they did, despite the rent money I paid.

[bing101]

Also how much is it related to a certain portion of  Gen Z not old enough to get credit and for people like me I have to pay the rest of my parents mortgage on a home I live in.

[bandit957]

Part of the problem began when the credit scoring system was invented in 1989.