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Compared to Previous Generations, How Bad Are Millennials' Finances?
The Atlantic ^ | 01/02/2015 | GILLIAN B. WHITE

Posted on 01/02/2015 5:45:24 PM PST by SeekAndFind

Much has been made about the shaky financial footing of Millennials. And it’s true; young adults today have high rates of unemployment and student-loan debt, which can keep them in a holding pattern when it comes to starting their adult lives.

But a recent study by the St. Louis Fed took a look at Millennials who had managed to take the first step in creating independent households—getting a job and finding their own place—in order to see how the financial health of young Americans today stacks up to that of previous generations.

"Financial well-being early in life... has important implications for lifetime wealth accumulation; recent evidence suggests that today’s young adults may have accumulated less wealth than their parents had at the same age. However, because they are still in the beginning of the life cycle, today’s young adults may be better equipped to weather economic upheaval than older generations, especially in the long run," the study found.

The research looked at adults aged 18 to 34 and compared their finances in a variety of categories, like overall net worth, total debt, and assets, to young adults of the same age as far back as 1989, when Generation X was just entering adulthood. The study found that though their overall net worth was less, many employed Millennials weren’t doing that much worse when compared to their predecessors.

(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: finances; generation; millennials
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1 posted on 01/02/2015 5:45:24 PM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

So the unemployed millenials don’t count. And the employed millenials have lower net worth.

But if you project with rose colored glasses into the future they aren’t that much worse off. And if you click your heals three times you’ll get a job in Kansas.


2 posted on 01/02/2015 5:51:32 PM PST by DannyTN
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To: SeekAndFind

Student loan forgiveness will be a cornerstone of Liz Warren’s POTUS run.


3 posted on 01/02/2015 5:53:39 PM PST by nascarnation (....)
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To: SeekAndFind

My own experience as a Baby Boomer working side-by-side with millenials is that they don’t know how to work hard, have no desire to work hard, do not take their careers seriously, think that they can get away with anything, are intellectually lazy, and are deserving whatever unpleasant things happen to them. They think that they deserve respect because of WHO they are, not because of WHAT they do. So much for years of “education” in the practice of self-esteem instead of self-accomplishment.

But then that’s just me...


4 posted on 01/02/2015 5:59:54 PM PST by 43north (BHO: 50% black, 50% white, 100% RED.)
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To: 43north

My Baby Boomer mom says the same thing. She and another co-worker are often shocked at what their younger co-workers’ attitude and sheer laziness. The younger ones do, however, know the latest lingo and catch phrases so they present themselves as knowledgeable and superior to their supervisors.


5 posted on 01/02/2015 6:04:27 PM PST by NorthstarMom
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To: NorthstarMom

I was raised differently. I share nothing in common with this generation but for the time period that I was birthed in.

Do I have to apologise on behalf of my generation?

(I apologise in advance if this sounds arrogant—even I cannot stand the attitudes and behaviour of my peers. Working with them is a nightmare; I’m about to start another job!)


6 posted on 01/02/2015 6:32:12 PM PST by __rvx86 (A non-trivial fear: Government by my peers. Double points if you can figure out when I was born.)
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To: 43north

You should remember that a large percentage of the baby boomers “dropped out” altogether. Between drugs, dying in Vietnam, and alternative lifestyles that were incompatible with regular employment, a goodly percentage of your age-group cohort simply disappeared from the scene between 1965 and 1975. The rest of them just went ahead and destroyed our country.


7 posted on 01/02/2015 6:32:16 PM PST by babble-on
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To: SeekAndFind

“who had managed to take the first step in creating independent households—getting a job and finding their own place”

So this is the qualifier statement.

What they fail to state is that this amounts to about 1000.


8 posted on 01/02/2015 6:43:51 PM PST by ForYourChildren (Christian Education [ RomanRoadsMedia.com - a Classical Christian Approach to Homeschool ])
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To: 43north
They think that they deserve respect because of WHO they are, not because of WHAT they do.

Really off topic from the generational thing, but I have to mention Col John Boyd, USAF (great biography: "Boyd" by Robert Coram). Boyd was a real maverick and a very important military strategist with a big influence on aircraft design and much else.

Boyd used to take promising young officers under his wing and say: "You can be BE somebody, or you can DO something. You have to choose."

What Boyd meant was, you can kiss ass, and rise up and get big promotions -- but those people often don't make any sort of lasting contribution; but they can say,"Do you know who I am??". But the mavericks -- the people who don't care about the promotion -- the people who just want to really make a difference: those people DO things. They may not often become colonels or generals, but they make everything work.

Young people who just want respect because of WHO they are (and they aren't anybody), those people have already missed the boat in a big way.

9 posted on 01/02/2015 6:49:42 PM PST by ClearCase_guy (Democrats have a lynch mob mentality. They always have.)
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To: babble-on

I disagree. Most Baby Boomers did not disappear
“from the scene”. There are plenty of them who are drug-addled losers and have degraded education and government to get us into this mess but I believe the majority are working and trying to make up for the deficits created by the millenials who are mostly self-absorbed narcissistic crybabies. I’ve never encountered a group of people who spend more time trying to figure out how to get out of work than it would have taken to actually DO the work.

When all of the productive Baby Boomers retire society is going to be in trouble. And I’m supposed to rely on millenials and illegal aliens for my Social Security? Not going to happen. I will retire two days after I’m dead.

But then that’s just my opinion.


10 posted on 01/02/2015 6:50:33 PM PST by 43north (BHO: 50% black, 50% white, 100% RED.)
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To: ClearCase_guy

“You can be BE somebody, or you can DO something.”

Those who CAN do. Those who can’t strive to “be somebody”. The latter overwhelmingly populate the political class.


11 posted on 01/02/2015 6:53:19 PM PST by 43north (BHO: 50% black, 50% white, 100% RED.)
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To: SeekAndFind

The real problem is the concept of ‘presentation,’ and the idiots who are younger, are more interested in image rather than substance. These days, it’s all about the perfect job interview, or the perfect image or outfit, not whether or not someone knows how to do the job effectively. Throw in the fact that the idiots prefer to join clubs and network rather than get out and work at something, anything to show that they are trained to do as they’re told and respect hierarchy.


12 posted on 01/02/2015 6:55:10 PM PST by CorporateStepsister (I am NOT going to force a man to make my dreams come true)
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To: SeekAndFind

There is no going back.

It’s not only their finances, it’s their mindset.
The way they have been brainwashed and inculcated with leftist dogma...

They are less self reliant and less well equipped to survive hard times without a government teat to cling to.


13 posted on 01/02/2015 7:36:17 PM PST by Iron Munro (Conservative Epitaph: Don't Cry For Me , You Still Have Two More Years Of Obama)
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To: NorthstarMom

“The younger ones do, however, know the latest lingo and catch phrases so they present themselves as knowledgeable and superior to their supervisors.”

And when that doesn’t work, they lie through their teeth with complete confidence that everyone else but themselves are complete idiots and will have no idea they’re simply making up everything they say. I’ve seen this over and over again.


14 posted on 01/02/2015 8:36:48 PM PST by catnipman (Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!)
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To: 43north

“And I’m supposed to rely on millenials and illegal aliens for my Social Security?”

And for your doctors and nurses, and to keep your gas, electricity, water, internet, and sewers running, etc.


15 posted on 01/02/2015 8:39:55 PM PST by catnipman (Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!)
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To: babble-on

Generalize much? This boomer and many like myself went to college, served my country in time of war, got a well paying job, got married, paid my taxes, voted Republican and retired early and comfortably.


16 posted on 01/02/2015 8:59:55 PM PST by SVTCobra03 (You can never have enough friends, horsepower or ammunition.)
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To: nascarnation

“Student loan forgiveness will be a cornerstone of Liz Warren’s POTUS run.”

You are probably right, and the Republicans should counter with “Higher Education Reform” and “Tuition Reform”. Shine a spot light on how much tuition has risen, and how little time tenured faculty actually spend teaching. Highlight that as tuition continues to rise, many academic institutions are accumulating more and more endowment money, while also get taxpayer money through grants etc., and then point out that student loan forgiveness is just another way in which taxpayers are sending money to universities. Ask that any loan forgiveness money come out of money that was earmarked for higher education institutions. I guarantee that Warren’s peers from the academic community will tell her to back off.

I


17 posted on 01/02/2015 10:14:49 PM PST by pieceofthepuzzle
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To: DannyTN

I am glad you saw the same glaringly obvious flaws in this “study”... Next they will “study” crime in Ferguson, MO... but won’t include colored males from 15 to 30.


18 posted on 01/03/2015 12:09:19 AM PST by Rodamala
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To: ClearCase_guy
"You can be BE somebody, or you can DO something. You have to choose."


19 posted on 01/03/2015 12:13:16 AM PST by dfwgator
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To: pieceofthepuzzle; nascarnation

This is precisely why we need a presidential candidate in 2016 that started out as a “ditchdigger”, perhaps growing a business... leading by example, had to make a payroll. Not some GD silverspooned country clubber brought up like a millennial. Coddled. Accountable to nobody. Liars. Lazy.


20 posted on 01/03/2015 12:19:03 AM PST by Rodamala
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