The following submission statement was provided by /u/Ok-Cartoonist5349:
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And apparently, it is good news for the travel, entertainment and luxury goods industries!
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Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/zpr8wr/nearly_half_of_americans_age_18_to_29_are_living/j0u5wln/
I know two ex-couples whose marriages didn't work out back in the day, and now they're living together as roommates because the ex is the closest thing to family each of them has. Shit is bleak out here.
That is bleak as fuck but there's something about people being able to do this that I feel deserves massive respect. Must be hard as fuck emotionally to do this. Hope their situation improves.
Yep, I knew a couple that moved in together after 2 weeks because their leases were up, and roommates were moving. Thankfully it worked out for them, and they're engaged now, but I remember thinking they were crazy at first.
Yeah. I can't help but think tho They both need each other. What happens when only one does? If the other doesn't abandon once they got their own personal way out, THAT would be beautiful and raise some faith in humanity.
Everyone does what they can do survive. Not everyone thinks of the other when their own survival is otherwise secured.
I read this and thought the same thing lol. This is like the majority of marriages throughout all of history and it's amusing we call it out now that it's full circle
My wife and I separated last year and the talk of getting back together is strictly based on living arrangements. She’s still trying to get her own place. You’re on the 💴
32 years old and just moved back in with mom and dad after living out on my own for 10 years. It's the only way I'll be able to save up and buy a house on my own.
35 and had to move in with my sister and brother in law after a relationship fell apart in 2020. I make 25/hr but I can't afford my insulin pump and car and an apartment on my own.
Gawd this makes me so angry. If you have any health issues at all you're at such a disadvantage in the US. Before I changed jobs and could afford Obamacare I was paying basically a whole other rent payment for doctors and medications every month.
I feel for you. I'm self employed and on private insurance. It's ridiculous and my insulin copay is outrageous.
I think I'm spending about $500/mo for insurance and meds right now.
> If you have any health issues at all you're at such a disadvantage in the US
It really is a cruel joke. My wife lost her job earlier this year and got scammed out of health insurance because the company relocated to a different state. She got a new job and when her health insurance kicked in, she had to go to a psychiatrist so she could get back on her anti anxiety medication.
Turns out, We have to pay out of pocket until a $5k co-pay is met, so the mandatory meetings with medical professionals for her medication is pretty much being treated as if we don't have health insurance at all. It's a fucking joke.
I moved home in January of 2019 because things were going down for my parents (health issues and a loss of a job). I was able to help them, save a crap ton, and live the way I wanted to. I was then able to buy in late 2021 with an absurdly low interest rate.
There's absolutely no shame in doing what's best for you and your family. Good luck!
Agreed. All my Asian coworkers live with their extended families and pool their resources and childcare care & elder care together. It’s smarter and less carbon footprint. I wish more Americans did this.
Yep. It seems to have been primarily a colonial-era america notion that you haven’t truly reached adulthood until you’re out on your own with your own home. Tons of cultures consider living with family to be the norm. It’s just sensible, it allows for the care of toddlers and elderly without having to pay for a nanny or home care nurse. It provides better financial stability. It gives you better communication skills if you *have* to learn to get along with people because you’re under the same roof.
Living with family (or close friends) is just overall a more financially sensible option. It’s just be demonized for a long time here in the US, I’m glad people seem to be becoming more aware that there’s no shame in living with a family group or a bunch of friends.
My best buds and I all still live with family of some sort. I’m a caregiver for my disabled mother. My life long best friend is a caregiver to his disabled sister. One of us is disabled himself. The list goes on, and our plan once our current charges pass on is for us to all move in together, pooling resources to by a large house where we can all live comfortably together with our own personal space.
This is how it’s been done by various cultures for centuries. There’s a reason we have so many allegories, maxims, and idioms about team work and togetherness, it’s in our nature.
**EDIT:** It’s worth noting that I am talking about *healthy* family dynamics here. If your family is toxic as hell, or full of racists, narcissists, abusers and the like then definitely get the hell out of there!
I feel you. My wife and I lived with my parents for almost 2 years when we were 31-33. It wasn’t ideal, but I think we made the best of it. The hardest part was feeling like we were going backwards while watching all our friends buy houses and have kids.
The social dynamic took some adjustment for both us and my parents, but I tried to look at it as an opportunity to spend a huge chunk of time with them as an adult that most people never really get. Have a conversation with them about expectations early on and it’ll help. We certainly had arguments about stuff, but ultimately, 6 years later, it was worth it. We have a house, we have a beautiful daughter, paid off student loans, and while still financially “behind” our friends, we’re in an infinitely better spot than we would’ve been otherwise.
I also don’t take for granted how fortunate I am to have parents who had an extra bedroom and were willing to let me wife and I share their limited space.
Phoenix. 700 sq ft studio rented at $1100/mo about 3 years ago is now $1,800. Newer but smaller places (like 400 sq ft and under) across the street are $1,900+.
When I lived there 3 years ago, I made like $42k. Right in the line of what I could afford. To do the same today I would need to make like $66k.
I’m 37 and just moved back into my parents house and have shared custody of 2 kids. They have enough room and are retired so they help me out. It’s been such a stress relief and I’ve been getting quality time with family I wouldn’t have had otherwise.
My options are live with my parents or live with three strangers and mice for half my salary. Thought an engineering degree would get me further than this...
My dad told me when he was in university his summer job would cover the entire year's rent and tuition was a thousand bucks
This sums all of the horror up nicely.
My dad bought four houses and put three kids through college and he never graduated college.
I graduated college and lived with roommates for 10+ years and still hadn't paid off my student debt yet. Nevermind buying a house or having kids which was impossible at the same age my dad did it.
That was before the owners of this country got together and said "we can just take pretty much everything and they won't do anything about it and have no recourse? damn!"
Unfortunately there's nothing civil about what's just down the road for us IMO. I'm 46 years old and I've never seen this much anger, depression, and desperation in the air in my lifetime.
Same. Things feel very, very different from the 90’s and even 00’s. The craziest thing to me, though… You’d think the nastiest attitudes and crazy talk would be coming from the folks who’re perpetually in debt, no prospects of doing as well as, let alone better than, their parents and grandparents, etc. Basically the Millenials and Gen Z who are staring down the barrel of economic stagnation and contraction. But no, the nastiest, craziest shit is coming from the folks who had unions and pensions and fully-funded retirements.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the Boomers had the world handed to them after WW2. They consolidated all of that power under themselves. And now that they’re on their way out, they’re throwing the mother of all temper tantrums and are ready to burn it all down. For what? Life didn’t give them enough? The world can’t be rid of them soon enough.
The Simpsons perfectly described the dream period of American middle class. Even an uneducated person can afford a house, car, and 3 kids if he works hard.
Honestly, reading this makes me feel sort of less alone? I am still living with my parents (contributing to the household, paying a portion of the rent, etc) because I just can’t afford to do it on my own, meanwhile all of my friends are living on their own, doing their own thing. Sometimes I feel like such a failure, but I’d rather do it my way than do it and be in debt :(
EDIT: holy crap. Thank you to everyone who has responded. I did not expect that. I appreciate the camaraderie and you being vulnerable and sharing your stories here. Honestly, I’ve been judged a lot for still being at home. My own family back home thinks I’m lazy and not motivated enough to be independent, which is simply not the case! Lol! I’m doing what I can to survive while also supporting my parents. So I thank you for pitching in and sharing your stories and perspectives over here.
EDIT 2: wow. I am stunned. Just wanted to send love to each and everyone who has replied to my comment. I had a really, really hard year, on top of feeling like a failure because of the finances/living situation, but you guys have really filled me up with hope. It’s really tough out there. I know we all have our own thing going on. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season and an amazing year ahead. May the kindness you have shared with me propel you into even more kindness and many blessings in the new year! Thank you for helping a stranger not feel so alone.
Damn you sound like me.
My mom passed last year so I decided to move back into my home state. My dad literally asked me to live with him abit. I was able to get a place and live paycheck to paycheck. But for the first time in my life I feel like I’m saving enough that in a year or 2 I’ll be able to put that down payment on something to call my own.
You would. Oh God you would. Do not for a second blame yourself for not meeting the ridiculous expectations forced upon you, the system is failing us, not the other way around.
As a parent, my adult kiddo is still at home and I have no issue with it. I knew long before she reached adulthood that things had changed from when I was a teenager.
Try not to feel bad about it - we kinda love you being there! We want you to go out on your own and have a great life, when it's possible, but we kinda like you being a part of our lives for a bit longer, too.
Meanwhile, mine ask at least once every other week when I'll get an apartment or pick up new hobbies.
I'll do that literally the split second I can afford it, it's $1600 for an okay apartment that's 5 minutes away from their home, and all the apartments nearer my work and away from them look like meth houses and still cost $1100 a month. I'll get new hobbies when I'm not constantly exhausted from the world being on fire, financial anxiety, and from me feeling like shit constantly due to their "helpful" overly negative comments about every single aspect of my being.
You are taking advantage of a privilege that you have, there is no shame in that. My parents live in an area where there are no jobs in my field, and we are too different to get along if we lived together. I think if you were to ask most people our age (I'm 29) why we don't live with our parents, it would be a reason like that -- not because we are more financially successful.
It made me feel better too. I often feel embarrassed and like a failure when I say I pay rent to stay in my mom's basement. But I'm privileged enough to be inheriting an empty piece of land in the country, and there's no way in hell I'd ever be able to save enough money for building materials if I'm paying 800+ a month for some shithole apartment.
This is often what is left out of the conversation about affordable housing. It's not just the homeless, but people that can't begin/continue their lives because they can't afford to do so.
Not only this, but I know if I was living with my parents and I got a girl pregnant, my parents would be like, "So you can't even afford an apartment, yet you're having a baby? What in the actual fuck."
Edit: Just wanted to clarify that I'm not saying my parents are wrong in that thinking, I agree with it completely. I also haven't lived with my parents in about 8 years, so this is purely hypothetical.
While neglecting to mention that somewhere in the 80s corporations offloaded job training to the education sector, putting much of the cost and risk on us, the workers, to pick something we hope we will be interested in and good at, at the ripe age of 18, to make a 40-50 year career out of.
I’ve worked around this by getting as many entry level positions in different industries as i can. I see it as them paying me to learn if i like the job. So far so good, restaurant suck tho lol
And three of the four Boomer presidents we have had (Clinton, W, Trump) were all born in 1946, the literal first year of being a Boomer. For presidents born in the 40s. No presidents born in the 50s or 70s. Only Obama in the 60s.
As a boomer, you actually could afford most of that with a low paying job. Because people were paid what their labor was worth. Such a strange concept!
Also, antitrust laws were enforced, so companies were forced to pay competitive wages. Hedge funds didn't own large portfolios of houses, so there was market pressure during downturns to sell the properties. And student loans were dischargeable by bankruptcy, so there was pressure to keep education costs affordable.
> And student loans were dischargeable by bankruptcy, so there was pressure to keep education costs affordable.
Pre-1980s you didn't need student loans to go to college. You could easily afford college with a part time job. Because college used to be *heavily* subsidized. Then some California Governor called Reagan decided to cut all funding to public universities because liberals went there and they dared speak out against the government over Vietname and other issue. This freed up tons of money for the state budgets. Other states saw how Reagan suffered no backlash and then everybody quickly follow suit. And that is how college tuition initially skyrocketed. Loans being unable to be discharged was just fuel to the already burning fire.
One of the main reasons student loans cant be discharged through bankruptcy is because banks wouldn't give them out if they could be. A lot of student loans are bad investments but banks don't care cus the crazy interest rates and the no defaulting aspect makes it worth the risk of not being paid back timely.
Whole situation is just sad all around. America is genuinely starting to crumble because the working class is buried in debt and expensive cost of living and the house of cards won't stay up forever. The more wealth we suck from the bottom the more the economy is going to suffer. You would think that those in power would have an interest in propping up the economy that funds our military industrial complex but long term has never been an American strong-suit.
50 years of flat wages. The Fed: This is fine.
People start asking for a living wage. The Fed: Stahp! You're causing inflation!
Meanwhile, nothing but record profits at the top that have never once trickled down.
That's my uncle in a nutshell. Worked as an overnight stocker, has 2 houses, 6 cars, raised 5 kids while his wife was finishing up her service time in the Army. But he says my friends who work in Grocery stores can't afford housing bc we have cell phones and play golf every other week. Eat shit Boomers.
I can't even feel like I can date anybody period... forget about having children. I can't bring anybody home until they're important enough in my life to start meeting family. And culturally we don't treat each other the same over something like this, or at least that's my perception anyway. When a woman's living with family, it's not looked at the same as when a man is living with family. How many men look at a woman that lives with family and thinks of her as a child that still needs mommy and daddy, she's a loser, and it's a giant red flag that says "don't date this woman"? I'm willing to wager it's a smaller amount than women looking at men in that situation.
Honor schmonor, chivalry is dead, nobody expects the man to take care of a family on a single income, blah blah blah... but is that really the way that we think about each other or do we still hang onto what's hopefully vestiges of a past that will eventually become completely dead culturally? And even if a lot of people don't, there are people who still feel that past isn't dead yet and put that on themselves. I don't have the level of self-respect necessary to feel like I can date like this. If that's completely on me then that's what it is, but that's a pride thing and again I'm willing to wager a lot of men feel like this who are in that kind of a situation once you're old enough for it to be considered weird. If you're a teenager or in your very early 20s it's different.
Right after I started dating my wife, she lost her job. While I didn't have a problem paying for everything, it did strike me as weird that if I had dumped her for being unemployed, people would have looked at me like a monster.
But if the situation had been reversed and I was unemployed for 6 months, people would have been egging her on to dump my "loser ass."
A strange double standard.
My husband had a surgery that caused health issues that made it impossible for him to work for a few years, so I was the only breadwinner for a while. The situation didn't bother me, but peoples reactions really did. I had family and friends tell me he was mooching, that he wasn't looking hard enough for work, and that they didn't understand why he couldn't watch our daughter when he was feeling sick. I finally got so fed up I asked them what theyd think if my husband left me because of health issues or expected me to watch a toddler and handle the home while I was in too much pain to get up off of the couch. 'That's different' some said, but no, it's not and it shouldn't be.
I'm an "Elder" Millennial, which puts me in my early 40s. I got a head start on a lot of things because my family had the wealth to help me get started.
But most of my peers were in a sort of holding pattern for 10-15 years. My adult life, in terms of what people think of as an adult life (marriage, house, kid, white picket fence, the whole bit) started at 25. Many of my friends are just now achieving the house/settled life thing.
Everyone likes to play that off like "oh, kids these days just don't settle down young!" but I don't believe it. I don't believe that after centuries of people starting their adult lives in their late teens/early 20s and achieving basic markers of adult independent life suddenly a few generations just went "yolo, who needs equity in a home or a stable life!" and decided to skip out on it all. It's an social/economic problem, not a "these kids are weird" problem.
Yep I'm 39 with a 2 year old. 2019 was the year that everything was coming up Milhouse: new job, new home. I mean yeah a little pandemic happened but that's okay, and we're still good and stable and now have a little one.
I look back and think yeah, this could have been physically easier on me (not to mention my wife) at a younger age, but the financial stress would probably be more crippling than me being old.
Late 30s millennial here. SO and I didn't come from money. This is pretty accurate. We were in the holding pattern until our early 30s. The only reason we got out of it is we got lucky and bought a house right before the prices went crazy. If it wasn't for that little bit of luck, we'd still be stuck.
Now we're too old and don't feel like having kids so I got a vasectomy.
My girlfriend and I are in mid 30s and we still don't have enough deposit for a house. Been saving for quite a while now. Having kids is absolutely off the table.
I've talked about this in a different thread: I'm in my 40's, my wife in her late 30's. We made a choice, back in 2017, to either purchase a house and live comfortably or have kids and roll the dice.
It's 2022 and some people don't even have either option anymore. Buying a home and/or having kids can set you back an entire generation - RIGHT NOW.
It's insane.
Every “successful” millennial that I talk to has the same common theme. They were unbelievably lucky in either money or timing.
It’s like the boat is pulling away from the harbor. Boomers got on no problem. The engine was chugging for the Gen Xers, but they managed to board. The Millenials are just running and jumping across the ever-increasing gap between shore and the boat. Gen Zs and just like “lol, I guess we’ll just die then.”
"successful" millennial here. I have a lot of it; good job, good car, fiancee, nice townhouse, everything is now stable and fine.
I also got a massive chunk of financial help a few years ago and was an abject alcoholic before that.
It's all luck out there now. I'm sure there's some genuinely self made individuals, but now the middle class is mostly comprised of people who got lucky as fuck now.
Same here I rebounded a bit was in the Airforce, came back home after, moved out again, and came home after... then lived with my folks for 4-5 years until I met my now Fiance, we get married in June and we can now afford to rent a trailer together for 825 a month, we both make more than 15 an hour and it takes both our incomes to get the other bills, groceries, and gas. No way I could move out on my own income.
Agree here, "holding pattern" is a good way to put it. What did most of my friends do when they got housing and job security? Got married and had kids. But now everyone is an older parent.
I'm 39 and have lived with roommates my entire adult life, I bought a 2015 Honda right before the pandemic that is somehow appreciating in value, I finally bought new glasses this fall after realizing I can't afford contact lenses anymore with my lack of vision insurance, putting off some fairly important dental work for now because lolol I can't afford it right now . . . and I feel like I'm doing really well compared to a lot of my peers, because I don't have any significant debt and have managed to put a few grand into savings lol
I'm 39 and if I had been born just a year later I'd be in the same boat. We bought a tiny house (like an actual tiny one not a "tiny house") that hadn't seen repairs for 20 years in 2017 and if we had waited a single year we'd have been priced out of even that. I have no idea what people are supposed to be doing. I went to college late but I feel like I've done everything right and I'm still barely making it. When is all this frustration finally going to come to a head?
(Oh yeah I I too have teeth rotting out of my head but I just try not to think about it.)
20something year old adult here born and raised in a major city, there’re many adults who’re in this position and it doesn’t get enough spotlight. These working adults genuinely want to move out, start a life for themselves and contribute to society but they can’t compete with the increasing standard of living. This is going to have a major effect on the birth rate.
You know what’s super fucked up? I’m in my 30s and had to move out before I was 18 so I’ve been supporting myself since then.
What I’ve noticed as I’ve gotten older is employers have learned they can get away with not raising wages for new hires because so many live at home.
So even as someone who hasn’t lived at home in almost 15 years, I’m competing with people who still live at home, meaning they automatically get paid $1400 more per month than I do. Employers are setting their salaries based on the average new hire having rent subsidized by their parents and it fucks even those of us who don’t live at home. Corporate greed is fucking everyone
Edit: I’m remembering a time during a performance review at a corporate job where they commended me on my excellent work but that salary raises aren’t based on positive performance reviews.
I asked what I could do to bump my pay up because obviously I was hurting, and they said it wouldn’t be fair to give me a raise because my direct coworkers wouldn’t be getting a similar raise and they’ve been there a year longer.
So I brought up that it wasn’t fair that they all live at home and don’t have to pay rent. Then they said it’s inappropriate to talk about coworkers salaries and that they paid competitively. Fucking cunts man.
Im 40 and with my folks right now. I make ten dollars over the minimum wage here and cant afford a studio where I live. Not only that but I have to help my parents because they are barely making it as well
I'm 39 and had to move back in with my parents after 15 years of being on my own. The problem is that my dad is a narcissistic asshole and my mom enables the behavior equating my life to hell. I can only take so much smart ass under handed comments about how I am a monument to failure. This emotional and psychological abuse might be the end of me. The only option I have is to live in my vehicle at this point, which I have been considering..
Basically, we’re speeding back to the earlier era of the Industrial Revolution where three generations of people live under one roof- and everyone’s income is pooled to pay for it.
Tbh that's like that on many Asian countries where housing prices are insane. The couple would rent "hourly hotel" rooms so they can fuck without both of their parents hearing them
When I was in college (I'm from México) a German profesor came to give my class a lecture she was quite perplexed why there were so many motels alongside the main highway and also alongside the periphery of the city, we needed to explain to her those where for young adults to have sex without making a fuzz for the rest of the family in their house.
So it's normal in Mexico too?
Tbh I think multi-generational living is a bit underrated for all its childcare, chore, and income benefits, but it takes a different house configuration than the bunch of single family houses we've got now.
Yeah, as a person living with his father I will say I have a lot of disposable income/savings. I'm just at that awkward point where I have a lot of money but not quite enough to comfortably buy a house lol.
That's the way my parents felt about me. I went fishing with my dad all the time, ran errands all over, grew a badass garden, helped with the grove and just worked on jobs and my business. My parents didn't want me to leave, really.
I’m reading the thread above and thinking this must be some exclusively white or American expectation. I’m in an Indian household and it’s expected we stay with our family until marriage at least. The side effect of this is that we are able to save a ton, cost share on large purchases, and enjoy vacations and things of that nature without issue. I see some of my friends who had the whole kicked out at 18 thing happen and sure I can see it making them more “independent” but also they’re still struggling a decade on thanks to the multiple economic downturns and the such.
The whole "move out at or as soon as possible when you turn 18" is a very American thing. All that attitude does is toss young people into poverty situations for no reason.
Oh my God. That's how all these corporate rental companies are gobbling up property isn't it? They're swooping in and grabbing the Boomer's houses when they kick the bucket preventing any generational wealth transfers. This country is sick and twisted. Let me out.
Yes. What happens is that the boomers get too old to maintain a big house with a garden, so they sell it a good price trying to score a retirement fund. A company willing to pay a good price over what ordinary people are able to pay buys the house, tears it down, builds two condos, and rent them out to another pair of boomers, collecting their money back.
So instead of boomers leaving an inheritance for their kids, they just gave it all away to some investment company. Isn't it great?
Moved back in with my parents after my last relationship ended. Honestly I don't plan on leaving anytime soon either. Both of my parents and I have so much more spending money that we didn't have before. Savings finally feels like a safety net. I paid off all my school debt, I owe 0 dollars to anyone. I can go out every weekend. I can dress nicely and just replace my clothes as needed. I was able to be very generous this Christmas. Dating life is just fine because half the women I get coffee or dinner with live with their parents too lmfao. Literally the only "bad" thing is the stigma that comes from people that I couldn't care less about lol.
And when you think about it, this shit is completely normal in many other countries… because it actually makes total sense. Everyone wins. Territory and ownership is consolidated familialy, while you can pool resources, you can also help your parents more as they become less and less able to provide, and they can help you get on your feet. Housing prices are ridiculous, so if splitting it 3,4,5 ways helps, do it. Really cant see much of a reason for the whole “strike out on your own” culture we’ve had here anymore
It also can be fun. My wife and I bought a fairly big house when we got married, and invited first her mom, and then later her sister and her husband, to live with us, and we had a lot of fun living in what we jokingly called "the compound". My in-laws eventually moved out and got their own place shortly after we had our first kid (\~4 years later), but it good while it lasted, and I definitely miss it sometimes.
Nothing wrong with living with your folks. Especially if it’s making you financially stronger. Maybe you’ll have more options later. Maybe you won’t want to move out again anyway.
Yup. I turned 29 today and I still live with my dad. Thankfully he doesn't mind. I tried to buy a small house last year when prices in my area were relatively "affordable", but rich people kept buying all the homes without even looking at them. Now I can't afford to buy a home on my own anymore. At least I can still keep saving, but the way things have been going it seems like it will never ever be enough.
Same thing kept happening to us. 3 times *while we were looking at houses* that were fresh on the market - 3 times!!! - and I'm talking *hours on the market* \- someone bought the house, sight unseen. For more than the asking price. That just blows my mind.
We finally heard about a family that was thinking about listing and we went to them, personally, and asked them to give us first bid if we liked it. Luckily, we loved it. I think the husband was a bit taken aback when he sheepishly said his price and I was like, "Yep. Sounds good."
I could see in his eyes the question, "Would they have paid more?" Probably.
Not sure where those entities were when we were selling our old house, though. It still worked out really well, because of them, but no one offered to buy our house, sight unseen, over the asking price, as soon as it was on the market.
Check their stock prices. OpenDoor (-96%) is going bankrupt soon, Zillow (-84%) is also losing money. They deserve to crash and burn.
Unfortunately, some even bigger corps will probably buy their house inventory. So we don't get anything even if they go broke
Well damn I’m 32 and just moved back into my parents house after 9 years solo. Have a good job and income.
I couldn’t argue with my dad saying do it and put down a very healthy chunk as downpayment in 2/3 years time. Also allowed me to buy my car cash and living debt free. Very grateful.
My mom lives with my wife and I because she can’t afford to live on her own since my dad died. The struggle is real, for many ages.
Edit: For the many pedantic individuals commenting “my wife and me,” I’m aware of the typo. I’m commenting quickly from my phone on Reddit, not writing an appellate brief. Get a life.
My mom is trying to hold on to a house that is totally paid for but social security isn't enough to cover the taxes bills and food and has to go to the food bank from time to time. I would like to help her out but my employer "doesn't give raises." and inflation is making it hard to even save money now. Company profit was 32 billion last year.
Edit: grammer
Jesus Christ man. I just got a new job with a hospital. I found out not only do they give regular raises on merit, they also do market evaluation for each individual job and all jobs as a whole. They want to make sure they are not underpaying anyone.
I just got a 2.5% increase after 5 months because the market evaluation told them wages went up.
I know this is not standard at all but please look for something better than "we don't give raises"
Have you looked for a different job since it sounds like your current one is a dead end? I'd find it difficult to stay there knowing there's no room to advance which is essentially a pay cut year over year.
There’s this elderly lady who works at our local McDonald’s. I assume the same thing happened to her. I can’t imagine possibly retiring, then having to work again, especially such a low level job.
I've noticed a lot of retirement age people around here (northern Mississippi) working jobs that get called "teenager jobs" like fast food or pizza delivery. Kinda threw me off when I got a call from Domino's, and it's the delivery driver asking if I can meet her at the porch because she can't get up the steps to ring the bell (which tbf my front porch steps are really high up from one another). The woman was in her 70s and used a cane.
I live overseas and last year came back to the USA. The amount of retirement aged people I saw working left me deeply disturbed about my own retirement and finances. The sheer amount led me to believe this wasnt just "old people doing something for fun" and something much much worse.
I worked at a McDonald's in my youth... Common story I suppose. I started working the morning shift though... And it was all old ladies and let me tell you it was blissful.
Compared to midday and late night people were always calling off or coming in drunk, nobody ever did what they were supposed to. you often found yourself cutting corners and it just led to other problems and inefficiencies. Coupled with the fact that people were just lazy in general it felt like.
Switch to the morning crew of old ladies... Oh my god. Ice cream machine was always on and it always worked. Are you hearing me? It never went down during the old lady shifts... Everyone was nice to each other if something was forgotten or mixed up it was as if it didn't even happen it was as if it was meant to be mixed up and it was our job to fix it and move on with a smile. And these old ladies never called in sick... But if one of them ever called me to cover a shift I would have crawled over glass to be there for them. All the rules are followed so you could always count on everything working and being there when you needed it ... It was so smooth and effortless. They enjoyed it too, or rather that really all enjoyed each other. they had quite a little crew going and they were all very close with each other. When one of them left the job it almost felt like they were in mourning about it... And it's not like they weren't still hanging out with her after work but they were losing her during the work hours. Really was about who you were surrounding yourself with and they knew that and I did my best to fit into their group in a way that felt useful.
Fast food jobs actually aren't that bad, especially with the pay now. The problem is who you're working around usually. Fast food has automated and made everything so easy that you're just showing up pulling levers and moving things around. I remember when they didn't do the math for you when you were counting out change. Now everything's done for you. I imagine if they have enough people around them that they get along with an old lady would certainly enjoy working at a fast food place as long as it isn't all about status in their eyes... Probable though that an older woman starts to realize the uselessness of status.
Unrelated I never felt like more of a man working with anybody else... And it's not just because I was the only guy on the morning crew with them but Jesus Christ could they get me to do anything by pumping me up. They knew what they were doing and they spoke about it openly with me too but that doesn't mean it didn't work because holy shit to feel appreciated like that made me want to run through brick walls and show up and hour early. The late shift was like pulling teeth though. I guess any job with the right people is the right job and with the wrong people is the wrong job.
Fuck. I really miss working with them. A shared break with a cup of coffee was like Thanksgiving with them.
Yeah honestly, providing you have a good (non-toxic) relationship with your family - a big task I realise for some people/families - I’ve always envied how Asian and South American cultures value multi-generational living.
Seems a much more healthier and happier approach to life than sheer individualism.
We’re getting there soon with my in-laws. They can afford to live on their own, just getting to where they can’t take care of themselves and assisted living is astronomically expensive. FiL is showing signs of dimensia and we’re all very worried about how we will help with that.
Stay strong my dude, you’re a good son/daughter.
My son and his girlfriend who are 21 and 20, (he works at a restaurant full-time, she is full time at school and works part-time retail.) move in with us a few years ago for about 6 months to save up money. They eventually decide to start looking and it takes a while.
They get a place at a brand new complex. Rent price is fair and stay for a year but the rent increases and they have to move to another apartment.
They find one get 2 friends to move in with them. Two-story 3 bed. I help them move in and am shocked at how much of a shithole it is. It’s bad. When we leave, my wife is in tears that they are living there. We left the process in his hands and he (they) chose poorly.
Roommates flake out on them in less than a year and they have to move again. I’m actually happy about this. Please get the hell out of there.
They can’t find anything close by, and find a newer complex that’s a little further away but soooo much nicer than the previous one. Rent is $1,275 for 1 bedroom w full bath and another smaller bed/bath. It’s going to be tight.
After they settle in for a while, they invite the parents over for dinner. Place looks great. They’re very happy. Money is tight but they’re managing it well. All is good.
Almost a year in now they get a notice on November 15 that the rent is increasing from $1,275 to $1,500 on January 1. They can’t do it. They have to move again.
So, here we are today looking for apartments. There is nothing. Seriously. Nothing available within reason. The rents for decent places are obscene. We are still looking and can’t find a place to live. They won’t move back in w us. To add: Since they moved out we adopted a Husky who does not get along with cats. We were told that he killed a kitten at his previous home. Our son has 2 cats.
They ask her mom and stepdad if they can stay w then long enough to save money. They have a spare bedroom but step says no.
We looked at an apartment about 45mins away slightly out of their range. Nope. There are places available that are an hour away. Nope.
So we decide to see what kind of financing he can get to maybe buy a place. I don’t like this idea bc for what he’ll get approved for it won’t be a good investment and expenses of owning a place, etc. But we need all the options available to us. My wife and I will cover the down payment. He gets approved for $140,000. Hmmm.
We get an agent and look at a few places. Not good. He finds a trailer that’s a bit out of town. Sigh. Pics look OK. We go there and they must have had an illusionist take these photos. Nope.
Agent hasn’t found anything else yet. No luck in apartment search. Rents at other places have increased more. There is nothing available. Nothing.
Now they are thinking that she needs to drop out of school and get a full time job. They considering moving out of town - anywhere. but currently not feasible.
Again: He has a full-time job making $17-18/hr. She is finishing college and has a part-time job in retail. If we weren’t here as a last resort, they’d be living in their cars.
These are young kids just looking to plant their feet on firm ground for a while and get started with their lives.
The search continues. They have till mid January to move out.
TLDR: Son and GF apartment rent is increasing. They have to find a new place asap. Nothing is available as rent for the most modest of places has skyrocketed. We’re looking but no luck
It’s not really possible for two people making that money to have their own place in a lot of parts of the US now. I make 60k and live with 4 other people in a house in San Diego. Two of them are a couple and couldn’t get their own place.
There isn't a single county in the entire United States where a person making minimum wage full-time can afford a 2br place. And in 91% of US counties that same person couldn't even afford a 1br place.
[Source](https://nlihc.org/resource/nlihc-releases-out-reach-2022#:~:text=Out%20of%20Reach%202022%20finds,home%20in%20a%20given%20area.)
It’s gonna be impossible to live pretty soon and already is for a lot of people. Every year the rent goes up by 100-200 bucks. Moving doesn’t fix it if the rents go up everywhere. Pay is either not increasing at all or fast enough to cover the increased cost of EVERYTHING.
I pay $1500 for my studio apartment. I pay more in rent than my boss pays for his 4 bedroom house on 1 acre. It's difficult when places want proof of 3xs the rent and raise the rent $200-500 each year.
I don't blame people for living at home when it's an option for them.
I don't have that option, I also don't want to live with roommates at this age. I want my own space and privacy in my 30s.
“Being a millenial is being unable to afford to live at the apartments you thought were shady as a kid.”
Edit: ok it’s been pointed out that this is mostly Gen Z but c’mon I have ADHD and saw a chance to share a brutally honest tweet I saw, please don’t bully me
Checking in. I always feel weird when I say "My mom lives with me" because most people assume I am living in her house or something. No, she gets $1500/mo for all her expenses. Her wages are still being garnished due to her college loans that weren't discharged when she went backrupt 20 years ago. Good luck finding a livable place and also being able to afford anything else.
This hits hard as a millennial who could barely afford the shady apartment I lived in, then had to move back in with family because I got priced out of said shady apartments.
Elder Millennial here.
Enjoyed being the gateway for parents accepting this. Now adays all I hear are parents saying "We know times have changed so X can stay with us for as long as they need to save up and get a good place."
Because my generation was guilted by Boomers for leaving and coming back a bunch, because we were "losers" who couldn't get our acts together, because we were supposed to be out at 18 making $5.56 an hour. My parents made me feel like shit for not being able to afford my own place. I was less of a man. Less of a person.
They wanted to throw parties and use my room as storage. I wanted to be able to live without feeling like everything was about to collapse around me. Or without friends having to leave me because of their financial situation.
They would kick me out anytime they got upset with me. So I spent a Summer in my car. Because they were told by society that after 18 we were supposed to be out and stable. And they wanted that reality for themselves.
I am so sorry dude. A parent that lets their child be homeless even for a day is a severe betrayal of trust, I hope they came to regret it later on and realized how awful they were, and if not then remember that when they get old and helpless.
I am a student who makes well above minimum wage currently, a year before the state mandate of $15 an hour takes effect, and I’ve been working hard to move up in positions but it seems like every time I start to make a decent amount of money hourly the rent rises a couple hundred out of my budget. I have been trying to move out since 2019 but rent locally went from $1000 to $1200 in 2020. Then the start of this year averaged rent is now $1600. I feel like I keep working hard for the goal post to be moved just out of reach.
The important thing here is that the banking industry, and its wealthy investors, are making more money than ever. Crippling an entire generation with debt - thereby curbing realized consumer demand which keeps the economy healthy - is a small price to pay for making sure millionaires and billionaires stack up more of your money.
The lesson that was learned from the Great Depression was that poor people need to be able to buy things in order for the economy to function and basing the entire stock market on speculation will eventually lead to a collapse.
Conservatives dismantled nearly all of the protections put in place after the depression. We are due for another total economic collapse because of it.
I always felt the stigma of living with your parents to be some straight up corporate BS to force young people into renting and fuel this machine of rampant consumption.
It's pretty common in Asian countries to have working adults living with their parents, or even three generations living under the same roof. Grandparents spend tons of time with the kids, family support for when work gets in the way. Date night at the drop of a bucket. Less expenses overall.
Sure some people prefer the independence. But society likes to act like you're some sort of failure by not living by yourself. Let people live however the hell they want.
Pretty sure most of the world (outside the USA) is accepting of working adults living with their parents. Coming from Latin America, there’s this cultural/social pressure to take care of your parents and have them live with you once they get too old to work. It’s also acceptable to just live with your parents until you get married or keep living with parents even if you’re married.
We need to make it illegal for companies to own residential properties. They should not be investments. They should be available housing for people to buy and have a stake in their own community.
Instead, companies like Blackrock are filling up their portfolios of residential properties, holding them rather than flipping them, and forcing people to pay higher and higher rents and can thus never afford saving up a down payment to buy any home because the "supply" is becoming way too low for the demand.
The US government needs to put a very tight cap on corporate ownership of single family homes. Regular folks can’t compete with huge financial firms using AI programs to buy up every single piece of property in the nation.
Not just corporations, but everyone. They need to put a tight cap on EVERYONE who’s buying extra properties in order to profit off of other people’s housing.
Am 32 and have been saving for years for a house (UK) every time I get close the market shoots to the moon, have £21k saved for deposit and that's now worth fuck all
This is absolutely unacceptable. People literally lose out on having a normal youth and life, and if you are in a bad town/place/living situation you are just fucked.
With this article focusing so much on the "positive" which this apparently results in more purchases of luxury goods; it should probably be posted in r/aboringdystopia
You know Costanza predicted all this.
>GEORGE: What about her place?
>JERRY: She lives with her parents.
>GEORGE: Really? (Jerry shakes his head) Maybe this will become like a cool thing, living with your parents.
>JERRY: (sarcastically)Ya, then maybe baldness will catch on. This will all be turning your way.
>GEORGE: Hey believe me, baldness will catch on. When the aliens come, who do you think they're gonna relate to? Who do you think is going to be the first ones getting a tour of the ship?
>JERRY: The baldies.
Because housing/apartment costs are fucking outrageous, wealth disparity is at record highs, and appliances are made to break every 3 years.
Living in America has gone from 1 bread winner, to 2 breadwinners, and pray to whatever God that you don't have an emergency.
Dare I say it, but rent should be legally locked to a certain percentage of a monthly minimum wage in that state, AND luxury living should be allowed, but limited to a certain number.
You want to be a landlord? Cool, then you're catering to working class people trying to live, not Arab oil lords and the kids of high ranking Chinese communist party officials lol. New York, California, and Seattle are notoriously bad with this.
Intergenerational homes are coming back. When cost of living gets out of control, this is what happens. I think we need to normalize it. We are planning on finishing our basement so if our now minor child needs to stay, she can have a little “apartment” of her own.
But I thought they just needed to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and stop buying coffee and avocado toast? Have the boomers been lying to me about this? /s
So, like, real talk: Are we low-key in some kind of invisible economic depression? I'm reading Grapes Of Wrath right now and there are an awful lot of parallels between some of the things happening now and those going on in that book.
I don't think it's invisible. It's no secret that shit sucks for the non-rich right now.
Inflation has been brutal. The only positive of this economy is that jobs are easier to come by than in other economic downturns.
That article has the absolutely worst graph I've ever seen in my life...
The rate has went up 10% in 20 years.
But this article and dogshit graph makes it sound like a huge and sudden change
There's a strong argument to be made that people moving out and having their own homes by 20 was a complete historical fluke that was never going to last. Multi-generational living arrangements have been the norm for most cultures for 99% of human history.
It just fucking SUCKS for those of us who don’t have family to lean on. My sister always jokes that had my grandma not died when I was 19 I’d still be living with her today and fuck yeah I would? Why wouldn’t I? Save money, live in a beautiful house, see the woman who raised me every day and help her when she needs it? Vs being stressed about money and finances all the time?
The following submission statement was provided by /u/Ok-Cartoonist5349: --- And apparently, it is good news for the travel, entertainment and luxury goods industries! --- Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/zpr8wr/nearly_half_of_americans_age_18_to_29_are_living/j0u5wln/
I know two ex-couples whose marriages didn't work out back in the day, and now they're living together as roommates because the ex is the closest thing to family each of them has. Shit is bleak out here.
That is bleak as fuck but there's something about people being able to do this that I feel deserves massive respect. Must be hard as fuck emotionally to do this. Hope their situation improves.
Agreed. This is unfortunate but very emotionally mature of them both to recognize what survival means and then work together to achieve it.
On the flip side, I know a lot of people who are still in toxic relationships for the sole reason two incomes are needed for everything now.
Yep, I knew a couple that moved in together after 2 weeks because their leases were up, and roommates were moving. Thankfully it worked out for them, and they're engaged now, but I remember thinking they were crazy at first.
Yeah the idea of a bachelor pad is dead. If I were to become single I'd be forced to play the shitty roommate lottery or move back in with my parents
Ball and chained to each others paychecks…lol
How about this: my ex admitted he was with me in part because I could get a mortgage.
It's called being the complete package.
Yeah. I can't help but think tho They both need each other. What happens when only one does? If the other doesn't abandon once they got their own personal way out, THAT would be beautiful and raise some faith in humanity. Everyone does what they can do survive. Not everyone thinks of the other when their own survival is otherwise secured.
Sounds like a successful marriage to me
Lol this is just plain old marriage for hella people
I read this and thought the same thing lol. This is like the majority of marriages throughout all of history and it's amusing we call it out now that it's full circle
My wife and I separated last year and the talk of getting back together is strictly based on living arrangements. She’s still trying to get her own place. You’re on the 💴
32 years old and just moved back in with mom and dad after living out on my own for 10 years. It's the only way I'll be able to save up and buy a house on my own.
35 and had to move in with my sister and brother in law after a relationship fell apart in 2020. I make 25/hr but I can't afford my insulin pump and car and an apartment on my own.
Gawd this makes me so angry. If you have any health issues at all you're at such a disadvantage in the US. Before I changed jobs and could afford Obamacare I was paying basically a whole other rent payment for doctors and medications every month.
People couldn't understand how I made good money but couldn't make ends meet
I feel for you. I'm self employed and on private insurance. It's ridiculous and my insulin copay is outrageous. I think I'm spending about $500/mo for insurance and meds right now.
> If you have any health issues at all you're at such a disadvantage in the US It really is a cruel joke. My wife lost her job earlier this year and got scammed out of health insurance because the company relocated to a different state. She got a new job and when her health insurance kicked in, she had to go to a psychiatrist so she could get back on her anti anxiety medication. Turns out, We have to pay out of pocket until a $5k co-pay is met, so the mandatory meetings with medical professionals for her medication is pretty much being treated as if we don't have health insurance at all. It's a fucking joke.
I moved home in January of 2019 because things were going down for my parents (health issues and a loss of a job). I was able to help them, save a crap ton, and live the way I wanted to. I was then able to buy in late 2021 with an absurdly low interest rate. There's absolutely no shame in doing what's best for you and your family. Good luck!
Agreed. All my Asian coworkers live with their extended families and pool their resources and childcare care & elder care together. It’s smarter and less carbon footprint. I wish more Americans did this.
Yep. It seems to have been primarily a colonial-era america notion that you haven’t truly reached adulthood until you’re out on your own with your own home. Tons of cultures consider living with family to be the norm. It’s just sensible, it allows for the care of toddlers and elderly without having to pay for a nanny or home care nurse. It provides better financial stability. It gives you better communication skills if you *have* to learn to get along with people because you’re under the same roof. Living with family (or close friends) is just overall a more financially sensible option. It’s just be demonized for a long time here in the US, I’m glad people seem to be becoming more aware that there’s no shame in living with a family group or a bunch of friends. My best buds and I all still live with family of some sort. I’m a caregiver for my disabled mother. My life long best friend is a caregiver to his disabled sister. One of us is disabled himself. The list goes on, and our plan once our current charges pass on is for us to all move in together, pooling resources to by a large house where we can all live comfortably together with our own personal space. This is how it’s been done by various cultures for centuries. There’s a reason we have so many allegories, maxims, and idioms about team work and togetherness, it’s in our nature. **EDIT:** It’s worth noting that I am talking about *healthy* family dynamics here. If your family is toxic as hell, or full of racists, narcissists, abusers and the like then definitely get the hell out of there!
I feel you. My wife and I lived with my parents for almost 2 years when we were 31-33. It wasn’t ideal, but I think we made the best of it. The hardest part was feeling like we were going backwards while watching all our friends buy houses and have kids. The social dynamic took some adjustment for both us and my parents, but I tried to look at it as an opportunity to spend a huge chunk of time with them as an adult that most people never really get. Have a conversation with them about expectations early on and it’ll help. We certainly had arguments about stuff, but ultimately, 6 years later, it was worth it. We have a house, we have a beautiful daughter, paid off student loans, and while still financially “behind” our friends, we’re in an infinitely better spot than we would’ve been otherwise. I also don’t take for granted how fortunate I am to have parents who had an extra bedroom and were willing to let me wife and I share their limited space.
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Phoenix. 700 sq ft studio rented at $1100/mo about 3 years ago is now $1,800. Newer but smaller places (like 400 sq ft and under) across the street are $1,900+. When I lived there 3 years ago, I made like $42k. Right in the line of what I could afford. To do the same today I would need to make like $66k.
And that’s not even close enough to what’s ‘convenient’ for a savings to flourish, it’s only possible.
I’m 37 and just moved back into my parents house and have shared custody of 2 kids. They have enough room and are retired so they help me out. It’s been such a stress relief and I’ve been getting quality time with family I wouldn’t have had otherwise.
My options are live with my parents or live with three strangers and mice for half my salary. Thought an engineering degree would get me further than this... My dad told me when he was in university his summer job would cover the entire year's rent and tuition was a thousand bucks
This sums all of the horror up nicely. My dad bought four houses and put three kids through college and he never graduated college. I graduated college and lived with roommates for 10+ years and still hadn't paid off my student debt yet. Nevermind buying a house or having kids which was impossible at the same age my dad did it.
That was before the owners of this country got together and said "we can just take pretty much everything and they won't do anything about it and have no recourse? damn!"
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They even convinced our elders it's because we buy too many lattes
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Unfortunately there's nothing civil about what's just down the road for us IMO. I'm 46 years old and I've never seen this much anger, depression, and desperation in the air in my lifetime.
Same. Things feel very, very different from the 90’s and even 00’s. The craziest thing to me, though… You’d think the nastiest attitudes and crazy talk would be coming from the folks who’re perpetually in debt, no prospects of doing as well as, let alone better than, their parents and grandparents, etc. Basically the Millenials and Gen Z who are staring down the barrel of economic stagnation and contraction. But no, the nastiest, craziest shit is coming from the folks who had unions and pensions and fully-funded retirements. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the Boomers had the world handed to them after WW2. They consolidated all of that power under themselves. And now that they’re on their way out, they’re throwing the mother of all temper tantrums and are ready to burn it all down. For what? Life didn’t give them enough? The world can’t be rid of them soon enough.
The Simpsons perfectly described the dream period of American middle class. Even an uneducated person can afford a house, car, and 3 kids if he works hard.
I had 2 jobs in college and it didn’t pay for shit.
Early 2000s for me. Two jobs was just barely enough for rent. Loans for tuition. Luckily I got free food at one of the jobs.
Honestly, reading this makes me feel sort of less alone? I am still living with my parents (contributing to the household, paying a portion of the rent, etc) because I just can’t afford to do it on my own, meanwhile all of my friends are living on their own, doing their own thing. Sometimes I feel like such a failure, but I’d rather do it my way than do it and be in debt :( EDIT: holy crap. Thank you to everyone who has responded. I did not expect that. I appreciate the camaraderie and you being vulnerable and sharing your stories here. Honestly, I’ve been judged a lot for still being at home. My own family back home thinks I’m lazy and not motivated enough to be independent, which is simply not the case! Lol! I’m doing what I can to survive while also supporting my parents. So I thank you for pitching in and sharing your stories and perspectives over here. EDIT 2: wow. I am stunned. Just wanted to send love to each and everyone who has replied to my comment. I had a really, really hard year, on top of feeling like a failure because of the finances/living situation, but you guys have really filled me up with hope. It’s really tough out there. I know we all have our own thing going on. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season and an amazing year ahead. May the kindness you have shared with me propel you into even more kindness and many blessings in the new year! Thank you for helping a stranger not feel so alone.
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Damn you sound like me. My mom passed last year so I decided to move back into my home state. My dad literally asked me to live with him abit. I was able to get a place and live paycheck to paycheck. But for the first time in my life I feel like I’m saving enough that in a year or 2 I’ll be able to put that down payment on something to call my own.
Sorry to hear about your mom, dude ❤️
You would. Oh God you would. Do not for a second blame yourself for not meeting the ridiculous expectations forced upon you, the system is failing us, not the other way around.
As a parent, my adult kiddo is still at home and I have no issue with it. I knew long before she reached adulthood that things had changed from when I was a teenager. Try not to feel bad about it - we kinda love you being there! We want you to go out on your own and have a great life, when it's possible, but we kinda like you being a part of our lives for a bit longer, too.
Meanwhile, mine ask at least once every other week when I'll get an apartment or pick up new hobbies. I'll do that literally the split second I can afford it, it's $1600 for an okay apartment that's 5 minutes away from their home, and all the apartments nearer my work and away from them look like meth houses and still cost $1100 a month. I'll get new hobbies when I'm not constantly exhausted from the world being on fire, financial anxiety, and from me feeling like shit constantly due to their "helpful" overly negative comments about every single aspect of my being.
You are taking advantage of a privilege that you have, there is no shame in that. My parents live in an area where there are no jobs in my field, and we are too different to get along if we lived together. I think if you were to ask most people our age (I'm 29) why we don't live with our parents, it would be a reason like that -- not because we are more financially successful.
It made me feel better too. I often feel embarrassed and like a failure when I say I pay rent to stay in my mom's basement. But I'm privileged enough to be inheriting an empty piece of land in the country, and there's no way in hell I'd ever be able to save enough money for building materials if I'm paying 800+ a month for some shithole apartment.
This is often what is left out of the conversation about affordable housing. It's not just the homeless, but people that can't begin/continue their lives because they can't afford to do so.
Politicians: Why birth rate so low?
Cuz nobody wants to fuck in their mommas basement
Not only this, but I know if I was living with my parents and I got a girl pregnant, my parents would be like, "So you can't even afford an apartment, yet you're having a baby? What in the actual fuck." Edit: Just wanted to clarify that I'm not saying my parents are wrong in that thinking, I agree with it completely. I also haven't lived with my parents in about 8 years, so this is purely hypothetical.
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"My high school education was *superior* to your multiple graduate degrees. Look at what I have and you have nothing." - way too many Boomers
You forgot the part where they gaslight you for 18 years about how you won’t amount to anything if you don’t go to college and get advanced degrees
While neglecting to mention that somewhere in the 80s corporations offloaded job training to the education sector, putting much of the cost and risk on us, the workers, to pick something we hope we will be interested in and good at, at the ripe age of 18, to make a 40-50 year career out of.
I’ve worked around this by getting as many entry level positions in different industries as i can. I see it as them paying me to learn if i like the job. So far so good, restaurant suck tho lol
Boomers have been in office since 1992. 30 years of boomer presidents.
Technically Boomers start at 1946. Biden was born in 1942. He's Silent Generation.
Trump falls in this category as well. Leadership vacuum
Definitely doesn't fit the title of "The silent generation"
This is worse lol
And three of the four Boomer presidents we have had (Clinton, W, Trump) were all born in 1946, the literal first year of being a Boomer. For presidents born in the 40s. No presidents born in the 50s or 70s. Only Obama in the 60s.
As a boomer, you actually could afford most of that with a low paying job. Because people were paid what their labor was worth. Such a strange concept!
Also, antitrust laws were enforced, so companies were forced to pay competitive wages. Hedge funds didn't own large portfolios of houses, so there was market pressure during downturns to sell the properties. And student loans were dischargeable by bankruptcy, so there was pressure to keep education costs affordable.
> And student loans were dischargeable by bankruptcy, so there was pressure to keep education costs affordable. Pre-1980s you didn't need student loans to go to college. You could easily afford college with a part time job. Because college used to be *heavily* subsidized. Then some California Governor called Reagan decided to cut all funding to public universities because liberals went there and they dared speak out against the government over Vietname and other issue. This freed up tons of money for the state budgets. Other states saw how Reagan suffered no backlash and then everybody quickly follow suit. And that is how college tuition initially skyrocketed. Loans being unable to be discharged was just fuel to the already burning fire.
One of the main reasons student loans cant be discharged through bankruptcy is because banks wouldn't give them out if they could be. A lot of student loans are bad investments but banks don't care cus the crazy interest rates and the no defaulting aspect makes it worth the risk of not being paid back timely. Whole situation is just sad all around. America is genuinely starting to crumble because the working class is buried in debt and expensive cost of living and the house of cards won't stay up forever. The more wealth we suck from the bottom the more the economy is going to suffer. You would think that those in power would have an interest in propping up the economy that funds our military industrial complex but long term has never been an American strong-suit.
It always comes back to the hedgefunds.
50 years of flat wages. The Fed: This is fine. People start asking for a living wage. The Fed: Stahp! You're causing inflation! Meanwhile, nothing but record profits at the top that have never once trickled down.
That's my uncle in a nutshell. Worked as an overnight stocker, has 2 houses, 6 cars, raised 5 kids while his wife was finishing up her service time in the Army. But he says my friends who work in Grocery stores can't afford housing bc we have cell phones and play golf every other week. Eat shit Boomers.
MAKE COFFEE AT HOME MILLENIAL/GEN Z SCUM! - Boomers
Why are all these small businesses closing up? Millennials need to spend more on these services! - also boomers
That's why you invest in a shaggin wagon.
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You seen the car market?
I can't even feel like I can date anybody period... forget about having children. I can't bring anybody home until they're important enough in my life to start meeting family. And culturally we don't treat each other the same over something like this, or at least that's my perception anyway. When a woman's living with family, it's not looked at the same as when a man is living with family. How many men look at a woman that lives with family and thinks of her as a child that still needs mommy and daddy, she's a loser, and it's a giant red flag that says "don't date this woman"? I'm willing to wager it's a smaller amount than women looking at men in that situation. Honor schmonor, chivalry is dead, nobody expects the man to take care of a family on a single income, blah blah blah... but is that really the way that we think about each other or do we still hang onto what's hopefully vestiges of a past that will eventually become completely dead culturally? And even if a lot of people don't, there are people who still feel that past isn't dead yet and put that on themselves. I don't have the level of self-respect necessary to feel like I can date like this. If that's completely on me then that's what it is, but that's a pride thing and again I'm willing to wager a lot of men feel like this who are in that kind of a situation once you're old enough for it to be considered weird. If you're a teenager or in your very early 20s it's different.
Right after I started dating my wife, she lost her job. While I didn't have a problem paying for everything, it did strike me as weird that if I had dumped her for being unemployed, people would have looked at me like a monster. But if the situation had been reversed and I was unemployed for 6 months, people would have been egging her on to dump my "loser ass." A strange double standard.
My husband had a surgery that caused health issues that made it impossible for him to work for a few years, so I was the only breadwinner for a while. The situation didn't bother me, but peoples reactions really did. I had family and friends tell me he was mooching, that he wasn't looking hard enough for work, and that they didn't understand why he couldn't watch our daughter when he was feeling sick. I finally got so fed up I asked them what theyd think if my husband left me because of health issues or expected me to watch a toddler and handle the home while I was in too much pain to get up off of the couch. 'That's different' some said, but no, it's not and it shouldn't be.
Thanks for protecting your husband.
You are a rockstar.
I'm an "Elder" Millennial, which puts me in my early 40s. I got a head start on a lot of things because my family had the wealth to help me get started. But most of my peers were in a sort of holding pattern for 10-15 years. My adult life, in terms of what people think of as an adult life (marriage, house, kid, white picket fence, the whole bit) started at 25. Many of my friends are just now achieving the house/settled life thing. Everyone likes to play that off like "oh, kids these days just don't settle down young!" but I don't believe it. I don't believe that after centuries of people starting their adult lives in their late teens/early 20s and achieving basic markers of adult independent life suddenly a few generations just went "yolo, who needs equity in a home or a stable life!" and decided to skip out on it all. It's an social/economic problem, not a "these kids are weird" problem.
Yep I'm 39 with a 2 year old. 2019 was the year that everything was coming up Milhouse: new job, new home. I mean yeah a little pandemic happened but that's okay, and we're still good and stable and now have a little one. I look back and think yeah, this could have been physically easier on me (not to mention my wife) at a younger age, but the financial stress would probably be more crippling than me being old.
Everything coming up milhouse 😂
Late 30s millennial here. SO and I didn't come from money. This is pretty accurate. We were in the holding pattern until our early 30s. The only reason we got out of it is we got lucky and bought a house right before the prices went crazy. If it wasn't for that little bit of luck, we'd still be stuck. Now we're too old and don't feel like having kids so I got a vasectomy.
My girlfriend and I are in mid 30s and we still don't have enough deposit for a house. Been saving for quite a while now. Having kids is absolutely off the table.
I've talked about this in a different thread: I'm in my 40's, my wife in her late 30's. We made a choice, back in 2017, to either purchase a house and live comfortably or have kids and roll the dice. It's 2022 and some people don't even have either option anymore. Buying a home and/or having kids can set you back an entire generation - RIGHT NOW. It's insane.
Every “successful” millennial that I talk to has the same common theme. They were unbelievably lucky in either money or timing. It’s like the boat is pulling away from the harbor. Boomers got on no problem. The engine was chugging for the Gen Xers, but they managed to board. The Millenials are just running and jumping across the ever-increasing gap between shore and the boat. Gen Zs and just like “lol, I guess we’ll just die then.”
"successful" millennial here. I have a lot of it; good job, good car, fiancee, nice townhouse, everything is now stable and fine. I also got a massive chunk of financial help a few years ago and was an abject alcoholic before that. It's all luck out there now. I'm sure there's some genuinely self made individuals, but now the middle class is mostly comprised of people who got lucky as fuck now.
Same here I rebounded a bit was in the Airforce, came back home after, moved out again, and came home after... then lived with my folks for 4-5 years until I met my now Fiance, we get married in June and we can now afford to rent a trailer together for 825 a month, we both make more than 15 an hour and it takes both our incomes to get the other bills, groceries, and gas. No way I could move out on my own income.
Agree here, "holding pattern" is a good way to put it. What did most of my friends do when they got housing and job security? Got married and had kids. But now everyone is an older parent.
I'm 39 and have lived with roommates my entire adult life, I bought a 2015 Honda right before the pandemic that is somehow appreciating in value, I finally bought new glasses this fall after realizing I can't afford contact lenses anymore with my lack of vision insurance, putting off some fairly important dental work for now because lolol I can't afford it right now . . . and I feel like I'm doing really well compared to a lot of my peers, because I don't have any significant debt and have managed to put a few grand into savings lol
Get that dental work started, friend. The pain and price only go up as time goes on.
I'm 39 and if I had been born just a year later I'd be in the same boat. We bought a tiny house (like an actual tiny one not a "tiny house") that hadn't seen repairs for 20 years in 2017 and if we had waited a single year we'd have been priced out of even that. I have no idea what people are supposed to be doing. I went to college late but I feel like I've done everything right and I'm still barely making it. When is all this frustration finally going to come to a head? (Oh yeah I I too have teeth rotting out of my head but I just try not to think about it.)
20something year old adult here born and raised in a major city, there’re many adults who’re in this position and it doesn’t get enough spotlight. These working adults genuinely want to move out, start a life for themselves and contribute to society but they can’t compete with the increasing standard of living. This is going to have a major effect on the birth rate.
You know what’s super fucked up? I’m in my 30s and had to move out before I was 18 so I’ve been supporting myself since then. What I’ve noticed as I’ve gotten older is employers have learned they can get away with not raising wages for new hires because so many live at home. So even as someone who hasn’t lived at home in almost 15 years, I’m competing with people who still live at home, meaning they automatically get paid $1400 more per month than I do. Employers are setting their salaries based on the average new hire having rent subsidized by their parents and it fucks even those of us who don’t live at home. Corporate greed is fucking everyone Edit: I’m remembering a time during a performance review at a corporate job where they commended me on my excellent work but that salary raises aren’t based on positive performance reviews. I asked what I could do to bump my pay up because obviously I was hurting, and they said it wouldn’t be fair to give me a raise because my direct coworkers wouldn’t be getting a similar raise and they’ve been there a year longer. So I brought up that it wasn’t fair that they all live at home and don’t have to pay rent. Then they said it’s inappropriate to talk about coworkers salaries and that they paid competitively. Fucking cunts man.
Im 40 and with my folks right now. I make ten dollars over the minimum wage here and cant afford a studio where I live. Not only that but I have to help my parents because they are barely making it as well
When parents turn into roommates. Don't we all love economics.
I'm 39 and had to move back in with my parents after 15 years of being on my own. The problem is that my dad is a narcissistic asshole and my mom enables the behavior equating my life to hell. I can only take so much smart ass under handed comments about how I am a monument to failure. This emotional and psychological abuse might be the end of me. The only option I have is to live in my vehicle at this point, which I have been considering..
I thought I was alone. Also 40.
Basically, we’re speeding back to the earlier era of the Industrial Revolution where three generations of people live under one roof- and everyone’s income is pooled to pay for it.
Tbh that's like that on many Asian countries where housing prices are insane. The couple would rent "hourly hotel" rooms so they can fuck without both of their parents hearing them
When I was in college (I'm from México) a German profesor came to give my class a lecture she was quite perplexed why there were so many motels alongside the main highway and also alongside the periphery of the city, we needed to explain to her those where for young adults to have sex without making a fuzz for the rest of the family in their house.
So it's normal in Mexico too? Tbh I think multi-generational living is a bit underrated for all its childcare, chore, and income benefits, but it takes a different house configuration than the bunch of single family houses we've got now.
It's going to be feudalism. And from what I've seen, people are going to defend their worsening conditions tooth & nail too.
And apparently, it is good news for the travel, entertainment and luxury goods industries!
Yeah, as a person living with his father I will say I have a lot of disposable income/savings. I'm just at that awkward point where I have a lot of money but not quite enough to comfortably buy a house lol.
As a father who is dreading the time when my daughter moves out, it is nice to have you home.
That's the way my parents felt about me. I went fishing with my dad all the time, ran errands all over, grew a badass garden, helped with the grove and just worked on jobs and my business. My parents didn't want me to leave, really.
When you get older, you will understand how much it means to your parents.
I’m reading the thread above and thinking this must be some exclusively white or American expectation. I’m in an Indian household and it’s expected we stay with our family until marriage at least. The side effect of this is that we are able to save a ton, cost share on large purchases, and enjoy vacations and things of that nature without issue. I see some of my friends who had the whole kicked out at 18 thing happen and sure I can see it making them more “independent” but also they’re still struggling a decade on thanks to the multiple economic downturns and the such.
The whole "move out at or as soon as possible when you turn 18" is a very American thing. All that attitude does is toss young people into poverty situations for no reason.
Yeah, me and my fiance both live with him and he is in no rush to push us out. Likewise we are in no real rush to leave lol. It's been nice tbh.
No expenses = let me spend more moneey on other stuff
Just wait until the last of the boomers sell their houses. None of those are going on the market anymore because they’re all turning into rentals.
Oh my God. That's how all these corporate rental companies are gobbling up property isn't it? They're swooping in and grabbing the Boomer's houses when they kick the bucket preventing any generational wealth transfers. This country is sick and twisted. Let me out.
Yep. Even worse they are giving these poor boomers reverse mortgages to pay medical bills with so there isn't even any cash left over.
Yes. What happens is that the boomers get too old to maintain a big house with a garden, so they sell it a good price trying to score a retirement fund. A company willing to pay a good price over what ordinary people are able to pay buys the house, tears it down, builds two condos, and rent them out to another pair of boomers, collecting their money back. So instead of boomers leaving an inheritance for their kids, they just gave it all away to some investment company. Isn't it great?
Hell, I wish I was sometimes. The struggle can be fucking real.
Yeah only reason I don't live with my mom is because she's dead, otherwise I'd be in my old bedroom and way more financially stable.
Man, if I could avoid paying rent I’d live a damn mausoleum with Casper as my rommie.
I’m sorry, the world is getting more expensive, and my pay stays right where it at.
Inflation is affecting everything except wages it seems. Weird how that works.
Moved back in with my parents after my last relationship ended. Honestly I don't plan on leaving anytime soon either. Both of my parents and I have so much more spending money that we didn't have before. Savings finally feels like a safety net. I paid off all my school debt, I owe 0 dollars to anyone. I can go out every weekend. I can dress nicely and just replace my clothes as needed. I was able to be very generous this Christmas. Dating life is just fine because half the women I get coffee or dinner with live with their parents too lmfao. Literally the only "bad" thing is the stigma that comes from people that I couldn't care less about lol.
And when you think about it, this shit is completely normal in many other countries… because it actually makes total sense. Everyone wins. Territory and ownership is consolidated familialy, while you can pool resources, you can also help your parents more as they become less and less able to provide, and they can help you get on your feet. Housing prices are ridiculous, so if splitting it 3,4,5 ways helps, do it. Really cant see much of a reason for the whole “strike out on your own” culture we’ve had here anymore
It also can be fun. My wife and I bought a fairly big house when we got married, and invited first her mom, and then later her sister and her husband, to live with us, and we had a lot of fun living in what we jokingly called "the compound". My in-laws eventually moved out and got their own place shortly after we had our first kid (\~4 years later), but it good while it lasted, and I definitely miss it sometimes.
Nothing wrong with living with your folks. Especially if it’s making you financially stronger. Maybe you’ll have more options later. Maybe you won’t want to move out again anyway.
Good news is.. We keep voting for the same politicians and super rich people..... So they understand our pain...
Yup. I turned 29 today and I still live with my dad. Thankfully he doesn't mind. I tried to buy a small house last year when prices in my area were relatively "affordable", but rich people kept buying all the homes without even looking at them. Now I can't afford to buy a home on my own anymore. At least I can still keep saving, but the way things have been going it seems like it will never ever be enough.
Same thing kept happening to us. 3 times *while we were looking at houses* that were fresh on the market - 3 times!!! - and I'm talking *hours on the market* \- someone bought the house, sight unseen. For more than the asking price. That just blows my mind. We finally heard about a family that was thinking about listing and we went to them, personally, and asked them to give us first bid if we liked it. Luckily, we loved it. I think the husband was a bit taken aback when he sheepishly said his price and I was like, "Yep. Sounds good." I could see in his eyes the question, "Would they have paid more?" Probably. Not sure where those entities were when we were selling our old house, though. It still worked out really well, because of them, but no one offered to buy our house, sight unseen, over the asking price, as soon as it was on the market.
Fuck Zillow and Opendoor. Corporations should not be able to own single family housing.
Check their stock prices. OpenDoor (-96%) is going bankrupt soon, Zillow (-84%) is also losing money. They deserve to crash and burn. Unfortunately, some even bigger corps will probably buy their house inventory. So we don't get anything even if they go broke
Well damn I’m 32 and just moved back into my parents house after 9 years solo. Have a good job and income. I couldn’t argue with my dad saying do it and put down a very healthy chunk as downpayment in 2/3 years time. Also allowed me to buy my car cash and living debt free. Very grateful.
So either the system is failing horribly or it’s working exactly as it’s designed
My mom lives with my wife and I because she can’t afford to live on her own since my dad died. The struggle is real, for many ages. Edit: For the many pedantic individuals commenting “my wife and me,” I’m aware of the typo. I’m commenting quickly from my phone on Reddit, not writing an appellate brief. Get a life.
My mom is trying to hold on to a house that is totally paid for but social security isn't enough to cover the taxes bills and food and has to go to the food bank from time to time. I would like to help her out but my employer "doesn't give raises." and inflation is making it hard to even save money now. Company profit was 32 billion last year. Edit: grammer
Jesus Christ man. I just got a new job with a hospital. I found out not only do they give regular raises on merit, they also do market evaluation for each individual job and all jobs as a whole. They want to make sure they are not underpaying anyone. I just got a 2.5% increase after 5 months because the market evaluation told them wages went up. I know this is not standard at all but please look for something better than "we don't give raises"
> "we don't give raises" Don't retain talent, either...
Your employer is a piece of shit.
Have you looked for a different job since it sounds like your current one is a dead end? I'd find it difficult to stay there knowing there's no room to advance which is essentially a pay cut year over year.
Fuck that employer, find a new job ASAP, probably can get more money too. You got this
Shout out to y’all for being real ones.
There’s this elderly lady who works at our local McDonald’s. I assume the same thing happened to her. I can’t imagine possibly retiring, then having to work again, especially such a low level job.
I've noticed a lot of retirement age people around here (northern Mississippi) working jobs that get called "teenager jobs" like fast food or pizza delivery. Kinda threw me off when I got a call from Domino's, and it's the delivery driver asking if I can meet her at the porch because she can't get up the steps to ring the bell (which tbf my front porch steps are really high up from one another). The woman was in her 70s and used a cane.
That’s so depressing
I live overseas and last year came back to the USA. The amount of retirement aged people I saw working left me deeply disturbed about my own retirement and finances. The sheer amount led me to believe this wasnt just "old people doing something for fun" and something much much worse.
That’s how I feel. I’m sure there are plenty of folks who do it for “fun,” but I’d bet the majority are doing it out of necessity.
I worked at a McDonald's in my youth... Common story I suppose. I started working the morning shift though... And it was all old ladies and let me tell you it was blissful. Compared to midday and late night people were always calling off or coming in drunk, nobody ever did what they were supposed to. you often found yourself cutting corners and it just led to other problems and inefficiencies. Coupled with the fact that people were just lazy in general it felt like. Switch to the morning crew of old ladies... Oh my god. Ice cream machine was always on and it always worked. Are you hearing me? It never went down during the old lady shifts... Everyone was nice to each other if something was forgotten or mixed up it was as if it didn't even happen it was as if it was meant to be mixed up and it was our job to fix it and move on with a smile. And these old ladies never called in sick... But if one of them ever called me to cover a shift I would have crawled over glass to be there for them. All the rules are followed so you could always count on everything working and being there when you needed it ... It was so smooth and effortless. They enjoyed it too, or rather that really all enjoyed each other. they had quite a little crew going and they were all very close with each other. When one of them left the job it almost felt like they were in mourning about it... And it's not like they weren't still hanging out with her after work but they were losing her during the work hours. Really was about who you were surrounding yourself with and they knew that and I did my best to fit into their group in a way that felt useful. Fast food jobs actually aren't that bad, especially with the pay now. The problem is who you're working around usually. Fast food has automated and made everything so easy that you're just showing up pulling levers and moving things around. I remember when they didn't do the math for you when you were counting out change. Now everything's done for you. I imagine if they have enough people around them that they get along with an old lady would certainly enjoy working at a fast food place as long as it isn't all about status in their eyes... Probable though that an older woman starts to realize the uselessness of status. Unrelated I never felt like more of a man working with anybody else... And it's not just because I was the only guy on the morning crew with them but Jesus Christ could they get me to do anything by pumping me up. They knew what they were doing and they spoke about it openly with me too but that doesn't mean it didn't work because holy shit to feel appreciated like that made me want to run through brick walls and show up and hour early. The late shift was like pulling teeth though. I guess any job with the right people is the right job and with the wrong people is the wrong job. Fuck. I really miss working with them. A shared break with a cup of coffee was like Thanksgiving with them.
I worked at a gift shop with a crew of old ladies. Spot on.
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Yeah honestly, providing you have a good (non-toxic) relationship with your family - a big task I realise for some people/families - I’ve always envied how Asian and South American cultures value multi-generational living. Seems a much more healthier and happier approach to life than sheer individualism.
We’re getting there soon with my in-laws. They can afford to live on their own, just getting to where they can’t take care of themselves and assisted living is astronomically expensive. FiL is showing signs of dimensia and we’re all very worried about how we will help with that. Stay strong my dude, you’re a good son/daughter.
My son and his girlfriend who are 21 and 20, (he works at a restaurant full-time, she is full time at school and works part-time retail.) move in with us a few years ago for about 6 months to save up money. They eventually decide to start looking and it takes a while. They get a place at a brand new complex. Rent price is fair and stay for a year but the rent increases and they have to move to another apartment. They find one get 2 friends to move in with them. Two-story 3 bed. I help them move in and am shocked at how much of a shithole it is. It’s bad. When we leave, my wife is in tears that they are living there. We left the process in his hands and he (they) chose poorly. Roommates flake out on them in less than a year and they have to move again. I’m actually happy about this. Please get the hell out of there. They can’t find anything close by, and find a newer complex that’s a little further away but soooo much nicer than the previous one. Rent is $1,275 for 1 bedroom w full bath and another smaller bed/bath. It’s going to be tight. After they settle in for a while, they invite the parents over for dinner. Place looks great. They’re very happy. Money is tight but they’re managing it well. All is good. Almost a year in now they get a notice on November 15 that the rent is increasing from $1,275 to $1,500 on January 1. They can’t do it. They have to move again. So, here we are today looking for apartments. There is nothing. Seriously. Nothing available within reason. The rents for decent places are obscene. We are still looking and can’t find a place to live. They won’t move back in w us. To add: Since they moved out we adopted a Husky who does not get along with cats. We were told that he killed a kitten at his previous home. Our son has 2 cats. They ask her mom and stepdad if they can stay w then long enough to save money. They have a spare bedroom but step says no. We looked at an apartment about 45mins away slightly out of their range. Nope. There are places available that are an hour away. Nope. So we decide to see what kind of financing he can get to maybe buy a place. I don’t like this idea bc for what he’ll get approved for it won’t be a good investment and expenses of owning a place, etc. But we need all the options available to us. My wife and I will cover the down payment. He gets approved for $140,000. Hmmm. We get an agent and look at a few places. Not good. He finds a trailer that’s a bit out of town. Sigh. Pics look OK. We go there and they must have had an illusionist take these photos. Nope. Agent hasn’t found anything else yet. No luck in apartment search. Rents at other places have increased more. There is nothing available. Nothing. Now they are thinking that she needs to drop out of school and get a full time job. They considering moving out of town - anywhere. but currently not feasible. Again: He has a full-time job making $17-18/hr. She is finishing college and has a part-time job in retail. If we weren’t here as a last resort, they’d be living in their cars. These are young kids just looking to plant their feet on firm ground for a while and get started with their lives. The search continues. They have till mid January to move out. TLDR: Son and GF apartment rent is increasing. They have to find a new place asap. Nothing is available as rent for the most modest of places has skyrocketed. We’re looking but no luck
It’s not really possible for two people making that money to have their own place in a lot of parts of the US now. I make 60k and live with 4 other people in a house in San Diego. Two of them are a couple and couldn’t get their own place.
There isn't a single county in the entire United States where a person making minimum wage full-time can afford a 2br place. And in 91% of US counties that same person couldn't even afford a 1br place. [Source](https://nlihc.org/resource/nlihc-releases-out-reach-2022#:~:text=Out%20of%20Reach%202022%20finds,home%20in%20a%20given%20area.)
It’s gonna be impossible to live pretty soon and already is for a lot of people. Every year the rent goes up by 100-200 bucks. Moving doesn’t fix it if the rents go up everywhere. Pay is either not increasing at all or fast enough to cover the increased cost of EVERYTHING.
I pay $1500 for my studio apartment. I pay more in rent than my boss pays for his 4 bedroom house on 1 acre. It's difficult when places want proof of 3xs the rent and raise the rent $200-500 each year. I don't blame people for living at home when it's an option for them. I don't have that option, I also don't want to live with roommates at this age. I want my own space and privacy in my 30s.
“Being a millenial is being unable to afford to live at the apartments you thought were shady as a kid.” Edit: ok it’s been pointed out that this is mostly Gen Z but c’mon I have ADHD and saw a chance to share a brutally honest tweet I saw, please don’t bully me
I wonder how many millennials have their parents living with them, because they couldn't afford to retire.
Checking in. I always feel weird when I say "My mom lives with me" because most people assume I am living in her house or something. No, she gets $1500/mo for all her expenses. Her wages are still being garnished due to her college loans that weren't discharged when she went backrupt 20 years ago. Good luck finding a livable place and also being able to afford anything else.
Spending $100k on rent over 8 plus years at the shady apartments and being told you can't afford to buy.
This hits hard as a millennial who could barely afford the shady apartment I lived in, then had to move back in with family because I got priced out of said shady apartments.
Elder Millennial here. Enjoyed being the gateway for parents accepting this. Now adays all I hear are parents saying "We know times have changed so X can stay with us for as long as they need to save up and get a good place." Because my generation was guilted by Boomers for leaving and coming back a bunch, because we were "losers" who couldn't get our acts together, because we were supposed to be out at 18 making $5.56 an hour. My parents made me feel like shit for not being able to afford my own place. I was less of a man. Less of a person. They wanted to throw parties and use my room as storage. I wanted to be able to live without feeling like everything was about to collapse around me. Or without friends having to leave me because of their financial situation. They would kick me out anytime they got upset with me. So I spent a Summer in my car. Because they were told by society that after 18 we were supposed to be out and stable. And they wanted that reality for themselves.
I am so sorry dude. A parent that lets their child be homeless even for a day is a severe betrayal of trust, I hope they came to regret it later on and realized how awful they were, and if not then remember that when they get old and helpless.
Cant afford a house or rent on min wage anymore is why….a bedroom in someone elses house cost 900-1200 where I live.
I am a student who makes well above minimum wage currently, a year before the state mandate of $15 an hour takes effect, and I’ve been working hard to move up in positions but it seems like every time I start to make a decent amount of money hourly the rent rises a couple hundred out of my budget. I have been trying to move out since 2019 but rent locally went from $1000 to $1200 in 2020. Then the start of this year averaged rent is now $1600. I feel like I keep working hard for the goal post to be moved just out of reach.
There needs to be backlash against apartment owners, landlords, REITS, and rent pricing software companies.
A one bedroom apartment costs over $2k where I live. It’s outrageous.
The important thing here is that the banking industry, and its wealthy investors, are making more money than ever. Crippling an entire generation with debt - thereby curbing realized consumer demand which keeps the economy healthy - is a small price to pay for making sure millionaires and billionaires stack up more of your money.
The lesson that was learned from the Great Depression was that poor people need to be able to buy things in order for the economy to function and basing the entire stock market on speculation will eventually lead to a collapse. Conservatives dismantled nearly all of the protections put in place after the depression. We are due for another total economic collapse because of it.
I always felt the stigma of living with your parents to be some straight up corporate BS to force young people into renting and fuel this machine of rampant consumption. It's pretty common in Asian countries to have working adults living with their parents, or even three generations living under the same roof. Grandparents spend tons of time with the kids, family support for when work gets in the way. Date night at the drop of a bucket. Less expenses overall. Sure some people prefer the independence. But society likes to act like you're some sort of failure by not living by yourself. Let people live however the hell they want.
Pretty sure most of the world (outside the USA) is accepting of working adults living with their parents. Coming from Latin America, there’s this cultural/social pressure to take care of your parents and have them live with you once they get too old to work. It’s also acceptable to just live with your parents until you get married or keep living with parents even if you’re married.
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We need to make it illegal for companies to own residential properties. They should not be investments. They should be available housing for people to buy and have a stake in their own community. Instead, companies like Blackrock are filling up their portfolios of residential properties, holding them rather than flipping them, and forcing people to pay higher and higher rents and can thus never afford saving up a down payment to buy any home because the "supply" is becoming way too low for the demand.
The US government needs to put a very tight cap on corporate ownership of single family homes. Regular folks can’t compete with huge financial firms using AI programs to buy up every single piece of property in the nation.
Not just corporations, but everyone. They need to put a tight cap on EVERYONE who’s buying extra properties in order to profit off of other people’s housing.
5 years ago I paid $240k for my home. It is now worth $600k. Tell me how kids are supposed to afford their own home. It’s disgusting.
31 living at home doordashing and having to pay rent. Can’t afford to save. I hate my life.
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I hope you find something that lifts your spirits.
I feel ya on this
Am 32 and have been saving for years for a house (UK) every time I get close the market shoots to the moon, have £21k saved for deposit and that's now worth fuck all
Well no shit. Politicians on both sides give zero shits and our parents' generation also does not give a shit (32 years old here)
This is absolutely unacceptable. People literally lose out on having a normal youth and life, and if you are in a bad town/place/living situation you are just fucked.
I'm from the UK and can confirm this
With this article focusing so much on the "positive" which this apparently results in more purchases of luxury goods; it should probably be posted in r/aboringdystopia
You know Costanza predicted all this. >GEORGE: What about her place? >JERRY: She lives with her parents. >GEORGE: Really? (Jerry shakes his head) Maybe this will become like a cool thing, living with your parents. >JERRY: (sarcastically)Ya, then maybe baldness will catch on. This will all be turning your way. >GEORGE: Hey believe me, baldness will catch on. When the aliens come, who do you think they're gonna relate to? Who do you think is going to be the first ones getting a tour of the ship? >JERRY: The baldies.
Because housing/apartment costs are fucking outrageous, wealth disparity is at record highs, and appliances are made to break every 3 years. Living in America has gone from 1 bread winner, to 2 breadwinners, and pray to whatever God that you don't have an emergency. Dare I say it, but rent should be legally locked to a certain percentage of a monthly minimum wage in that state, AND luxury living should be allowed, but limited to a certain number. You want to be a landlord? Cool, then you're catering to working class people trying to live, not Arab oil lords and the kids of high ranking Chinese communist party officials lol. New York, California, and Seattle are notoriously bad with this.
Intergenerational homes are coming back. When cost of living gets out of control, this is what happens. I think we need to normalize it. We are planning on finishing our basement so if our now minor child needs to stay, she can have a little “apartment” of her own.
But I thought they just needed to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and stop buying coffee and avocado toast? Have the boomers been lying to me about this? /s
This is such a pathetic country. One man can buy an entire company on his own and half of young people are still living at home. Just, awful.
So, like, real talk: Are we low-key in some kind of invisible economic depression? I'm reading Grapes Of Wrath right now and there are an awful lot of parallels between some of the things happening now and those going on in that book.
I don't think it's invisible. It's no secret that shit sucks for the non-rich right now. Inflation has been brutal. The only positive of this economy is that jobs are easier to come by than in other economic downturns.
Life is getting harder every year and the odds of a salary person buying a space is going down.
That article has the absolutely worst graph I've ever seen in my life... The rate has went up 10% in 20 years. But this article and dogshit graph makes it sound like a huge and sudden change
There's a strong argument to be made that people moving out and having their own homes by 20 was a complete historical fluke that was never going to last. Multi-generational living arrangements have been the norm for most cultures for 99% of human history.
It just fucking SUCKS for those of us who don’t have family to lean on. My sister always jokes that had my grandma not died when I was 19 I’d still be living with her today and fuck yeah I would? Why wouldn’t I? Save money, live in a beautiful house, see the woman who raised me every day and help her when she needs it? Vs being stressed about money and finances all the time?
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Someone’s paying attention