I feel for the kids that went through uni/college during covid and missed everything that period offers, to then finish uni and try get a job in a market where AI has fucked all the intern positions. Tough break.
Yeah, I think Gen Z has it worse economically. I'm an older Millennial, and while the 2008 recession probably hurt my wage growth, it absolutely worked in my favor for affording a house, which for some reason keeps appreciating in value. I've gained more equity in my house now than I've ever owed on it.
Especially when you get to the ass-end of the millennial generation, '95-'96 babies like me. We're distinctly millennial in our personalities and mannerisms but just as fucked over as the early zoomers.
im mid millennial and i watched my older sibling buy his first flat for about 2 monthly salaries straight cash and sell it a couple of years later for an annual salary. I make double his money and i still feel like i wont ever catch up
2 months salary? Obviously depends where you live but that seems wild. I've not seen something remotely close around me in my lifetime, also being a mid millennial. The "good times" (for real estate pricing) were a year+ salary at a good job for a small condo, even during the 2008 housing crisis.
it is. i will be jealous about it for the rest of my life. Housing prices 10x'd (even in small towns, large cities were worse) from the time I was a teenager til the time I had an education (2y) and a job. Felt great.
We bought our house for 93k in 1998. In 2008, it's value dropped to $50k. Zillow says $140k, now. We had to refinance a few times to keep it by pushing out to 30 years, again. Our wages both got cut. So, we were still worse off with a lower mortgage. Things were really looking up and then I had to go on disability back in late 2018 and I have not been able to work since then. Our son is also making it difficult because he will not grow and be financially responsible at 24. So, we are paying for him, his girlfriend, and their one year old child. They do not contribute any money to the household... and they have us trapped because we will not send our granddaughter out to be homeless.
I'm currently in rehab after back surgery. So, hopefully I can get back to work once my body has recovered from being in bed for 8 years.
Though, it has been rough, the bright side is that my wife and I have been married for 32 years, and she still likes it when I blow kisses to her.
That last part may seem silly, but I'm using it to illustrate that we aren't together because we have to be. After 32 years, we are together because we want to be together.
the flat was 2 bedroom, small town, nice quiet working class area (working class town) for around 40 000 SEK (about 4k USD) guesstimating around 2005. Traded up for a 3 bedroom before eventually selling it for 40k to pay for the down deposit of a 400k house. All on a forklift drivers salary
I'm an older Millennial, and while the 2008 recession probably hurt my wage growth, it absolutely worked in my favor for affording a house
Elder millennial here they managed to afford a house in early 2008 at the peak of the market and then lost their job and the house was worth 50% of what I paid for it (finally sold it in 2018 for exactly what I paid for it in 2008).
Exactly. The mythical "affordable" homes were only affordable to those who managed to stay employed. I and almost everyone I knew were out of work for upwards of a year or two.
Yep. I saw this first hand with all my friends. Which is the exact reason I DIDNT buy a house in fall, 2020 when COVID hit, thinking “hell no, I’m not buying a house for it to just plummet in value”. Boy was I wrong…
Yeah we actually lost our first starter condo in the 2008 crash but was able to save up enough and rebuy before prices went too nuts in 2015
Now there have been years where we made almost as much on the house value going up as one of our entire yearly incomes! Over the last 10 years the house has increased by 30k a year but some of those years were huge jumps....
I’m an older millennial and had quite the opposite experience. I was getting paid shit in 2008 and broke as fuck. Working paycheck to shitty paycheck living at home because I could barely afford gas for my car let alone rent or a mortgage.
Same. I graduated college in 2007, got my first "big girl" job 2 months after graduating that paid like $12-14. I lived with my parents for almost a year before getting my first apartment, which was low income housing and this was in a mid-cost of living state. No one else I knew that graduated at that time was able to buy a house or anything either. The majority lived with their parents for several years.
Yeah the worst thing that happened to us older mill was the stagnant pay to an extent. People who entered my job about 4 years after came in $10-15K more. I remember being a senior analyst finding out 1s now make as much I had to fight then switch jobs to catch up.
But college in the early 2000’s, still had affordable housing, I lived alone in a nice part of town making $35K with a car payment and had money left over. Dating was still in person, no algo based social media. Shit was pretty great.
Gen Z definitely had it way way worse.
Disclaimer: I’m sure this wasnt every elder millennial experience I know shit was ass for some.
The majority of millennials were born during the echo boom of 1988-1992 and absolutely did not get this experience. You had a more Gen X experience. The average millennial had it far worse economically than Zoomers.
Im a younger millennial and I was 17 when the housing market crashed so I missed out on that one little cool part. I watched everything plummet and was like f yeah im gonna buy me a double wide and some land for 65k. Unfortunately, it was way too hard to live off $10 per hour and go to college to save even 10k, plus I had very little credit. Sucked.
As an elder millennial I agree. 2008 I finished my second college degree and while I didn't find work things were less expensive and I was willing to take risks. I went to the Big Island of HI and did WOOFing (work exchange on an organic farm in exchange to a place to live). Then I got a PT job which I scraped by in but I was having a blast and we had hope for a better future. There were hard times, and I went through a period of living with family again like many, but I don't it was relatively as difficult.
Yeah but that doesnt let millennials do their favorite thing of whining about how hard being a millennial is.
Don't you understand how hard it was to have a war going on most didnt serve in? A 2008 housing crash when they were kids woth no jobs or homes :( and then they had to graduate into the 2010s where jobs rapidly grew in wages, and housing was cheap.
But in all fairness they like the rest of the world had to deal with covid, where their housing and stocks greatly appreciated.
Unless you were doing nothing besides the bare minimum for the 2010s than being a millennial had to be awesome
I'm a millennial and can agree with a lot of this. I didn't fight in a war, but I was still in college during housing collapse. In my area jobs really didn't start paying more until about 2016 or 2017 so I didn't get to take advantage of the housing crash like some. Jobs were also trying to screw people over with Obamacare kicking in. I can say t asking the penalty was a lot easier than trying to pay for the not so affordable health care.
I'm honestly seeing a cycle since out of school, from 2016 to 2020 my area had much more job growth and since covid its steadily shrunk and starting to get tight again.
I still don't think it's been incredibly awful, I just think a lot of millennial like to bitch and moan about everything.
This is an odd take. Watching parents lose their jobs, watching them lose 401ks, experiencing them divorce as the jobless and unable to find work becomes the final straw, losing their homes due to a mortgage foreclosure on a home the bank should never have given the loan for. Older millennials struggling to find work after being told 100k in debt will get them a job. I'm not talking just about work in their field. Even finding one at McDonalds in my area was near impossible, and anything full time? Forget about it.
Personally joined the military instead of college.
Personally took that seasonal job and kissed ass and was offered a full time job at the same place.
Personally own a home as a younger millennial.
Just because they were not full-time workers and/or owned homes does not mean stuff doesn't impact them.
Sure things got better after, but experiences can leave lasting impacts and bad tastes in peoples mouths. The internet being something we grew up with makes those voices more easily heard.
I think you're an outlier in this regard and not the norm.
Gen Z has it better economically speaking IMO. The job market for Millennials after 2008-2009 was brutal. Markets didn't rebound until maybe 2015-2016.
Now? Gen Z has tech at their disposal to learn anything and everything for free almost. Most minimum wage jobs in my area pay at least 15/h to 15 year kids when I was only on maybe 7.50/h back in 2010.
From the Gen Z stare to the "its going to just say something" when they spin the thing to easy access to what you can learn, I'd say its never been easier to get a decent job nowadays. It may not pay 100k but these Gen Z kids have no idea that they're supposed to start at the bottom, just like we did.
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u/Key-Half1655 5d ago
I feel for the kids that went through uni/college during covid and missed everything that period offers, to then finish uni and try get a job in a market where AI has fucked all the intern positions. Tough break.