Jobs are hard to come by and I heard yesterday that rent is at an all-time high. How much did your first car cost? How much was gas, insurance, etc. How much did medical and dental cost? The cost of living is exponentially higher now than when many of us were branching out. The reality today is that many young people, despite their best efforts, simply cannot earn enough dollars to sustain an independent lifestyle.
I was making about $6/hr. in 1983 after I got out of the service. This article is squarely aimed at college graduates. If they’re making under $15/hr. they’re doing something wrong. And I lived in a crappy 1/1 apartment below the ground level and drove old cars I bought for cash. Nobody promised you a mansion and a BMW immediately after getting out of school.
Worst thing I ever did starting out was to buy my cars new and to rent housing, stupid, stupid, STUPID! But you can’t go back, you can only pass on what you’ve learned — unless the kids take to the road from job to job, til 20 years have passed, age discrimination creeps in (sure as the tides) and they have zip (like some of my old friends).