There are lots of 30 year old “kids” in our neighborhood still living at home. They drive nice cars, spend weekends at the beach, and otherwise have plenty of fun with no responsibilities. Its going to catch up to them someday.
I’m 31 and I have to pay all the friggin’ bills myself because no one else will. But that’s part of being an adult.
In some ways I agree with you. In others, well...
My parents formative years were the 1940s. By the 1950s my dad had returned home from the war, was working, and seeing his salary grow.
There was inflation in prices, but there was inflation in salaries too. Today we see inflation in many things, but not in salaries. Those remain static.
My dad stuck his neck way out to purchase a home. Within a decade the home had gone up in value by 50 to 100%. Equity was an almost instant reality. By the time that decade was up, his salary had also gone up by 25 to 50%.
Generally speaking, it’s tough for those who grew up during the 1940s and 1950 to understand what the youth of today face.
Yes, a kid today can scrape and save and get themselves into a home. And five years later that home may be worth 50 to 80% of what he financed on it. His salary, if he has the same job, will be a little more than what he was being paid five years earlier, but not all that much. And if he’s already been there seven years or so, the yearly increases may have ceased.
While it may look like a kid is blowing a lot of money, buying a home at $500k will keep that kid’s nose barely above water for decades today. It won’t be like it was in the last century, where you stuck out your nose, and were handsomely rewarded a decade or so later.
In the last century you could expect to hold your same job for ten twenty, perhaps 40 years. Today you’re lucky if it last six.
In some ways I agree with your take, but this generation faces some problems we haven’t seen in 100 years.
We have 22.8% of our workforce out of work. We have another 25% working for far less than they are qualified to be making.
We have a flood of foreign nationals being brought into the nation. We also have regions across this nation being turned into foreign soil, they have been so saturated with people who do not speak English.
We have areas where only Korean, Chinese, Spanish, Armenian, Tolog, and other languages are spoken.
I wish any kid luck trying to start out today.
In the 1970s, I would have agreed with your post a lot more. Today, not so much.
They're going to be really surprised when the inheritance they expected goes to pay off the reverse mortgage Mom & Dad bought, courtesy of Fred Thompson and/or The Fonz.
It has already caught up to them. They are irresponsible losers living off of their parents. Responsibility will be required when they least expect it; by then it is too late. The money will run out quickly after their parents die. Things are already collapsing. Within the next 10-15 years the trend will accelerate.
My brother didn't move out of our parents' house until he was 30. By that point he was an 8 year veteran of the NYPD and had been paying rent to our parents for 12 years. He also paid half the grocery,electric and gas bills, all of the phone bill, and his own car payments and insurance. He spent his vacations in places like Cancun and Jamaica and had lots of fun. I had been out of the house 8 years at that point.
We both bought our first homes within a year of each other. I had a $42,000 mortgage on my $47,000 townhouse. He had a $50,000 mortgage on his $150,000 townhouse.
Its going to catch up to them someday.
It sure has caught up with him. He's retired from NYPD, owns 3 apartment buildings, a bar (where he works 7days a week,) and is a partner in 3 or 4 other businesses.
Not all 30 year old "kids" are irresponsible.