Am 58 retiring next year but the thought of retirement gives me weakness. My apologies to everyone who have retired and filing social security during this time after putting in all those years of work just to lose everything to a problem you never imagined to happen. It’s so difficult for people who are retired and have no savings or loved ones to fall back on.

"Having a family has gone from being a foundation of our economic model to a luxury item. Yay, we did it!" Loved that line.

My boomer dad is a hard worker but he left at 9am, came home for lunch, and was home again by 5pm most days. You used to be able to work the actual hours you were paid for and get enough to buy a house, raise kids, save for retirement, etc.

My 71 year old dad actually apologized for pushing me to go to college. I think he even said, "Dude I don't know what to tell you, it's fucked up out there"

A boomer relative of mine is quite condescending yet he got a degree in religion and got to work at a bank in technology right out of college. I got a degree in technology with a minor in accounting and it’s so competitive I can’t get into the industry. I won all sort of competitions and awards and did tech part time jobs in college and he worked as a lifeguard. Times have changed

Regarding the whole "work your way up" myth: A former employer of mine recently laid off a bunch of people, including senior folks and people that had been there for many years...and then literally a month later listed many of their jobs on LinkedIn at lower ranks so they could pay them less. That sort of thing is happening all over tech these days it seems. So getting good enough at your job is almost a BAD thing now because if you're not in a mission critical role, then even if you're a rockstar they may not hesitate to kick you out the door and replace you with someone cheaper. How is anyone supposed to believe in the idea of long term job security when stuff like that is happening?

Boomer here. To my parents' credit, they understood the toll on the body of a blue collar job. Most people's bodies wear down. I believe their motivation in encouraging college was to get an easier-on-the-body white collar managerial job. Actually, we need people in the trades! Plumbers, carpenters, etc. But many of these jobs are injury prone. We might treat these folks more like professional athletes: higher wages knowing career tenure in that profession is likely going to be short, and the best long term financial outcome may be for a trades person to work for themselves. But my point is that I have not really heard folks talking about health impacts of blue or green collar jobs. I know it's something my depression era parents thought about.

This was sobering. I (an 18 year old) recently had an argument with my aunt (a 70 year old) about how difficult it is to live nowadays. She went on a spiel about how kids my age want everything handed to us. How we don't want to have to work to get the things we need, we just want to get them. She kept talking about unemployment money and how no one wants to work. All I said was that I didn't think it's fair that I'm expected to go to college when I could never pay that loan off. Even if I worked every single day a week for 9-10 hours every day for 10 YEARS. I would still be in debt. She got mad at *me* for that being my reality. Why are you angry at the victims of the system for being "lazy" instead of the system for being unfair ?

I once had a co-worker who was a late Boomer and was having a rough day. She complained that she and her husband were still in their "starter home" and couldn't afford to get a "nicer" (maybe larger?) house. I as a millennial looked at her and honestly asked because I did not know, "what's a starter home?" 🙃

omg my mother's boyfriend is currently going through this, he's had the same job for 13 years raised one kid during that time but only makes 13.00 an hour while I work at another factory making 21.00 it's sad that he thinks he will be rewarded for his dedication when clearly they don't.

Re College: Don't discount Trade Schools. My husband went trade school and got a job with a *much* higher starting salary than my 4 year degree got me, and much less debt as well.

Older millenial here - I definitely took almost all of this terrible advice at some point. Fully admit I am "thriving" (in the loosest sense of the word) despite myself, not because I listened to my parents who weren't even good with money. I'm still tens of thousands of dollars in debt for a bachelors and a masters that I never used. I stuck with one company, at first doing a job for which I did not actually need all that education, for way longer than most people with any sense would. A lot of that was because I graduated into the Great Recession, and unless your family had money to support you while you lived at home indefinitely holding out for that perfect job, you took what you could. I did manage to work my way into a technical role that is in demand and I make ok money (enough to own a tiny condo and be able to pay off my student loans right now if I really wanted to). That is largely because I work for a company where internal mobility is in many ways prioritized, but, I still know I am underpaid for the type of work I do and the number of hours I put in. There would be no way I could afford kids (if I really wanted them) unless I found a partner who makes twice as much as I do and we could afford to live in a bigger house in this area. And the sad part is, I'm probably better off than most. My story is probably one of the better outcomes for people following boomer advice but didn't have any money to begin with. (And yes, I am definitely examining making some job changes in the new year when I find another role that has a reasonable work from home policy).

I sadly learned the hard way that working your way up no longer happens. I spent 13 years at the same company, directly out of university. Age 22-35, I never got promoted beyond the entry-level job where I started, even though colleagues would recommend me for the managerial position and I had to fill in as de facto manager for 3 months when the previous one quit. 3 Months during which, as I was told later by the regional manager, we did better than we had in years. I even trained some new people who had been hired from outside to be my new boss on how to be our boss. I knew how to do the job and corporate knew I could even teach someone how to do it, but I was flat-out told I would never even be considered for the position. I finally quit after they hired an 18-year old with no qualifications to be my new boss and she would call me 50+ times a day asking me how to do her job that I was much more qualified to do.

At 19 i was a high school drop out and my girlfriend(now wife) was pregnant. The idea of changing jobs for $0.50 more an hour was a necessity to help us both make more money to pay for this baby. But we also realized it never hurt us. By our mid to late twenties we had used the job change technique to move our income higher than our parents who were largely in that “get a steady job” mentality. In fact my father said once he hoped i would find a company that liked me enough to keep me. Lol When he said that i was an IT contractor making at least three times what he ever made. I advise young people now to go where you are valued. If the competitor across the street sees your experience as more valuable than where you are now then go. obviously there are many additional factors but if all things are equal then pick your best offer and revaluate that every few years. We expect this from Pro athletes and movie actors so why not bank tellers and computer programmers.

All of this is so true even in my country Sweden, known for having some of the best welfare systems in the world. Education is free but it doesn't get you anywhere and entry level jobs have hundreds fighting for every position. My parents bought their first 3 bedroom house in their 20's despite coming from poverty and having no formal education. I have a master's degree and could only buy a 1 room apartment in my 30's because I got a loan from my mother, who had sold said house with a massive profit. I can't think of any friend younger than me who owns their home, they are stuck paying overpriced rents and can never save up.

College education and student debt. This is an area where Dave Ramsey is extremely out of touch. He still thinks that you should be able to push the broom at the hard work factory and pay your way through college without ever taking out a loan.

Requiring a masters degree to even get a minimum wage job, to me, seems like another way to force people to become the ultimate wage slaves. American workers are already at a great disadvantage by having their healthcare tied to their employment but if they have to go into a possibly lifelong debt for their degree they truly are wage slaves. The corporate world have you forced into serving them for practically nothing just for you to exist, let alone have a decent quality of life.

The pressure to have kids is so insane. No parent should ever wish financial struggle on their child and yet I am always being told by my dad that it will all turn out ok and "remember how happy we were when we had so little" (which we weren't happy, my parents are actually both pretty abusive). The cost of living is way too high to be able to have kids willy nilly and it makes me want to scream when people act like the kids will just thrive and everything will work out.

To me my college education and degree was literally the ticket to everything i have right now. I am so grateful for it.

My Boomer mother stated my job for the state caring for an autistic adult isn’t a real job though I have health insurance and retirement! She thinks I need a real job even though I started at the state minimum! I am almost at twice the minimum for the federal wage requirement! She thinks that if I work outside the home my job is legitimate! She doesn’t understand the work from home reality in place from the pandemic! And I have been working from home for several decades!

What is frustrating about needing a bachelor's degree to get any decent paying job is that the skills I learned in college clearly aren't important, just the idea that I can learn them is. I graduated with one degree but got a job in a completely different industry, and I learned EVERYTHING on the job. Companies already know they have to teach their new employees how to do the job, so why they put so much importance on that 2-5 year degree boggles me.

Dual income, no kids sounds nice. For those of us who are perpetually single, a single income, no kids still makes it extremely difficult to participate in our economy. The family-oriented economic structure that we live in seems to intentionally shun us.

Warren Buffett, for more than 20 years one of the wealthiest man in the world, still to this day lives in his "starter" home for the last 45 and more years. When they asked him why he lives in the first home he ever bought, the home where he raised his kids and it's worth around 350 000 $, and won't move in a MacMantion when he can afford it cause he's a billionaire, he says he doesn't have any reason to do so because he never bought into that "keeping up with the Jonses" crap anyway! Now that's a good man to emulate and learn from!

Realizing that job hopping is the best financial choice has honestly become a relief to me. After spinning my wheels trying to figure out exactly what career I should pursue through my early and mid twenties, working in a field I fell into and hated, and becoming disillusioned with American work culture in general during the pandemic, I'm now comfortable with the idea of bouncing from one opportunity to another. I work to live, I don't live to work. Hopefully the jobs I find will be more enjoyable than my early positions--so far I like my current role much better than my last--but at the end of the day i'm trying to make the most money in the least annoying way possible. Living the same day at the same office for decades? Annoying.

My parents (Gen X, not Boomers) pushed me (Gen Z) towards community college, trade schools, and apprenticeship programs - and I'm so so grateful they did! Since I have no student debt, I was able to buy a house in my early 20s. So grateful for that advice!

I remember being a receptionist for a big tech company (~8 years ago) having to tell high school job seekers that nobody takes in-person paper resumes any more. They'd insist on leaving it anyway and I had to throw them out. High school guidance counsellors really haven't changed their advice since the 70s and don't get the disadvantage of not being tech savvy in the technological age.

I made a meeting with upper management to tell them I was pregnant. He said "woow, this is going to cost us so much money". They fired me 3 months later after they changed my goals and gave me a bad performance review. I was told that the work I did did not match upper management goals. My manager went out on vacation and I was terminated by random people I didn't know.

“Starter home” my partner of 20 years and I just want -a- home at this point. Having kids, much as we love them, was a massive financial mistake and now we have nothing for them to inherit because our lives were skin by the teeth after the recession and a never ending series of “you’re not poor enough for help but you certainly don’t make enough for a savings that can endure all of life’s unexpected nonsense and the medical costs of just trying to live” 🙃

1) Getting a 4 year degree will get you a good paying job 2) Get in on the ground-floor and work your way up. 3) Work a minimum wage job. Nobody is above flipping burgers. 4) You should buy a starter home. 5) If you want kids you should have them. 6) If you work hard you will be able to retire. There.

Funny I was berated and shamed in 1997 when I dropped out at 16 to start mowing grass. I wanted to make money since I had no passion for school. 25 years later I run my own biz with a dozen people. I have 0 official business training but my biz school buddies that all made fun of me are unemployed or working minimum wage jobs….. the world went and turned on its head after I quit school. Glad I didn’t buy into the hype, it sounded like bullshit to me even back then. I enjoy gardening and have built a good life for my wife and kids off that passion. Good luck young ones, there are those of us who want you to win. To succeed, despite having to work as part of the system they built to wring every last ounce of joy and autonomy from us. Teach all us old heads what real progress looks like.

I'm at the leading edge of Gen X, and believe me, long before there were millennials to say, "Okay, Boomer," we knew the rules were changing on us, and some of us figured out right away that we would never be the ones in a position to make the rules. I hope the currently-young generation succeeds in using the leverage of their numbers to create a better post-Boomer world.

Hearing advice like this for years, knowing it’s not actually how life is for people in our generation, has traumatized me. It’s a generation of people pissing on us and telling us it’s rain… while being the trusted adults in our lives

I'm a boomer and would never offer the advice you spoke of in this video. Anyone offering such advice in today's world has been living in an alternate reality. And, yes, there are a number of people doing so, including some elected officials. Wages have stagnated. Corporate greed has not. Some of the hardest working people are those working in low paying jobs and they are definitely not getting ahead economically. I believe what we're seeing is lingering Industrial Revolution thinking in a 21st Century world. It didn't work very well then. It definitely can't work now.

"No federally mandated maternity leave" .... we need A LOT of our current congress to retire or die. We have hit the point where they no longer represent our country's best interest.

“Toxic” is the wrong word here. I would go with “misinformed” or “irrelevant”. Both my parents are boomers and they gave me lots of financial advice, but neither went to college or had to deal with debt. And the career I selected doesn’t pay decent wages until you’re at the PhD level or higher (I’m a wildlife biologist). It took me living in my van for 6 years while doing research projects as a post-doc and research scientist before I could pay off debt for my masters and save enough for a down payment for a house. Finally at the age of 38, I bought a small house built in the 1950s. My parents were always confused on why it took me so long, but I had to tell them how things changed. They took advice from their parents and it worked out, so they thought the same advice would help me, but it didn’t. But they weren’t being malicious or toxic: they thought the advice they were giving would serve me as it did them, but now they understand why it didn’t.

Procrastinating and not starting one as soon as I was eligible was not the best move. It's really not that hard to open an account and manage yourself. And you can also have your brokerage manage it for you. If you're reading this, start now.

The advice on not sticking with one job is absolutely correct. Just left my job of 5 years that averaged a 2% annual pay increase over that time (meaning with a standard level of inflation growth my income had actually decreased over that time) for a new job paying $25k more. I calculated how long it would have taken me continuing at my previous job at that same 2%/year and it would have taken me another 15 years to get that increase that it took me a few months of applying to jobs on LinkedIn to get. And the kicker is my new company seems amazing and I’m working 100% from home.

I was talking to my mom awhile back and she told me she wishes she had bought a house when she was younger. We were never well to do and so this kind of surprised me that she thought she could have bought a house. I asked her about it and she said "Oh Maggie, things weren't as hard for our generation when we were growing up." I thought it was a very insightful thing for her to have observed when so many from her generation insist we just need to work harder or forego avocado toast or something.

My (young millennial) takes on these: 1. If you see benefit in going to college, go, but don't just go because you were pressured to by your parents/teachers. Know that there are other options depending on what you want to do, like trade school, online certification programs, etc. And yeah, if you do decide you want to try getting a 4-year degree, starting at community college and transferring is a good option for at least saving some money. 2. Completely agree with her advice. If you're not satisfied where you are and there's no opportunities for growth at your current job, don't be afraid to leave and take a different job elsewhere. 3. These days since it is so hard to make a livable wage like she's getting at, I would suggest for most people to work multiple jobs and/or monetize a hobby in addition to your main job. There are many ways to do this. 4. With how pricey homes are, it's best not to rush into buying one. If living with your parents well into your adult years is an option, that's probably what you should do while you save up. 5. Obviously don't have kids if you don't want them, but yeah, also don't have them if you do want them but can't afford them. Opt for volunteering to help children in your community and/or getting a job which involves working with kids instead if you have those sorts of desires. Having kids of your own is a huge undertaking not to take lightly, so only have them if you're financially stable enough to ensure a reasonably good life for them. 6. Yeah saving for retirement nowadays will take more conscious effort than it did for past generations, but we should still make the effort. Personally, I will not retire unless/until I become too unhealthy to be able to work but since we can't predict what might happen in life, it's best to be prepared in case we have to retire sooner than expected. Just like having an emergency fund.

my parents are boomers (born 1958) and they fortunately did not give me any of this advice but they gave me one very good piece of advice which was to not go straight into a masters degree after undergrad. it has saved me some of the pain my peers have experienced by getting the exact same job they could get with a bachelor’s once they had a master’s.

“Selling a home for seven figures that they bought for $0.25 when Nixon was President” was the point where the wine I was drinking shot out my nose, in case you were curious. This channel is fantastic. As a GenXer who’s still bitter about boomer parents misguided about the potential of the current society, thank you for your amazing work. 🙏

in my orientation at my current job, they told us the story of how the CEO 'started out sweeping the floors at a local store and now he's the CEO.' which turned out to not be entirely true (his family knew people higher up, so he only had to work at the store level as a starter job for a little while for optics before nepotism shot him right up the chain) and on the topic of pensions, my mom's former employer decided they were just going to not honor pensions for their workers who had been promised pensions, they were going to do something else instead (roll some money over to their 401ks I think? they still got SOMETHING added to their retirement package, but it isn't/wasn't a pension, and isn't anywhere near as good as a pension would have been). my mom actually got "lucky" in a sense because she got cancer a few years ago and a brain tumor that affected her ability to work (she is in remission, for anyone who read that and worried, she's doing great now - but she still can't do mental work like she used to), so she got to retire early which meant she got her pension...and she literally got it a few months before the company cut everyone else off. she had to take a lump sum tho, otherwise they would've done to her the same thing they did to everyone else.

Thank you very much for making this video. Every year around graduation time in the Spring, I get depressed because I didn't complete college like my grandma wants/wanted me to. You've made some really good points and I will look back to this video when I'm feeling discouraged and sad about the trajectory my life took post-high school. Even though I didn't finish college, I'm doing alright for myself, and I wish more people in the older generations (I'm a middle-of-the-road millennial) would understand that college is not the only path forward to putting a roof over one's head.

This channel is the good-hearted common-sense I have not been able to gather in the entire 12 years of my working life since college. I so appreciate it.

I’m a 27 year old part time bank teller/full time “nontraditional” college student and I’m constantly having boomer bank customers chastise me for not having kids “by now,” as if I could afford to graduate college, get married, and buy a house at 22, or like I would want to, or like there isn’t a large possibility that I could be one I’d the large percentage of women who want kids but have infertility issues. It’s very likely that I won’t be able to have biological kids and will end up adopting, largely because I have ADHD and can’t be off my meds for a year or more for each kid while attempting to conceive and being pregnant and function sufficiently at work. They’re just so fully removed from the realities of the current day that they have no idea that things are way more difficult now.

As a Generation Xer with early boomer parents, my life is vastly different from my mother's. Both of my parents came from poverty (father was a sharecropper growing up) but was able to go to college and trade school and work their up. My mother is a retired RN, but a 4-year degree wasn't required at the time. Unlike my parents, who brought their first and only house when they were 19 and 21, I would never see homeownership or retire at the respectable age of retirement. I can't imagine what people who are decades younger than I experience.

The most timeless advice I ever received was from my late grandfather that when it comes to your career path there will be many twists and turns as well as opportunities arising. I started to remember what he told me 13 years later amid the pandemic where I was let go of and then less than a year later finding a job that I generally like more as the job I had before wasn't good for my mental health where I even went above and beyond for them yet my loyalty wasn't good enough so I learned that loyalty to a company won't help you retain your job there for too long as they can easily let you go on a whim. This was probably among the many twists and turns that my late grandfather was talking about - mind you he was part of the great generation and not a boomer.

Although college is typically considered a way to "get a job", it is really a higher level of education. I'm so thankful I was able to go to college. i'm so happy my life experience was enhanced by classes in humanities and creative writing as well as play writing, biology and education. Did it make me rich? No. It was not until I read the book, "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" that I began to understand financial literacy. Once I had those basic ideas I was able to at least know the basic idea of income and expenses. I learned how to figure short term and long term interest, good debt and bad debt. I did have some student loans though not excessive that I was able to pay off in ten years. No generation has it perfect. The advice you mentioned certainly needs to be examined and evalutated. For some people college is not the right choice especially since much of it appears to be online anyway which I find to be grossly inferiour to in person classes.

Boomer here……in my experience all of these points are very true. It was much easier in the 70s and 80s to pay for college, get a good job, and buy a home (at least for white males). I would be interested to know what this channel thinks the trends will be in the future. Population growth is flat and immigration is discouraged. We are already seeing that companies are having to compete for workers by offering training, perks and signing bonuses. As our population ages and shrinks it may be possible that house prices will fall and wages will rise. I am hopeful that the market will turn around and reward our younger population because there are fewer of you. That doesn’t help a lot of people that are struggling now, however.

I graduated high school in 1975. Yeah, another boomer. There was gas rationing and inflation was running at over 13%. Rent for a 1BR apt was $160 and minimum wage was around $1.60. My family suffered shattering losses so I didn't go to college right after high school. It took me until I was 45 to save ANY money. Every time I got two cents saved some disaster came along, usually medical, and wiped out my wealth. A bad wisdom tooth made me go homeless even though I had a FT job and insurance. I never wanted to be a parent so I didn't let it happen. What seems to be the case is that even though the boomer fiction of 'bootstrapping' and not counting inheritance as a leg up the American system loves keeping an 'underclass' of permanently poor people who will literally work themselves to death just to survive. The American system is designed to serve businesses not people. Once we change that we may make progress. Your generation and those who come after have to pick up the banner for the people. Those boomers who've been environmental and economic activists all these decades are burned out, old and simply can't raise hell as we once did. Your generation and those who come after give me what tiny hope I have for mankind.

My parents (end of baby boomer gen.) started off really poor. I mean, having 3 chairs, two of them they would sit on and they would use the third one as a table. They were at the beginning of their twenties, with my mom finished school and working as a kindergarten teacher, and my father having finished military (back then it was a must for two years in my country) and starting work and later getting a college degree in a field he never worked in. They had two kids, my mom was 24 and 26. From the age of 24 until about 38-39, she was a stay at home mom (because we were sick so often that she could no longer continue working bcs she was absent from work so often due to us), where we all lived from my father's salary. I swear I don'T know how they could still save money next to raising two kids and having a carloan and mortgage and extra things that came up... They took up a 20 year mortgage and built a family home in one of the poorest counties of my country. The price of the house will never go up high because the house is in a part of the country where there is no job opportunity and nothing. But the bricks still cost just as much for us as it did for people living in a bigger city. All my childhood I had to listen to "we don't have money for that". I wore handmedown clothes from my cousins, we never went on summer holidays until my parents actually bought a small vacation home near us and then we ended up going there all the time for 20 years but never anywhere else. We always had food and clothes, not saying my parents did not provide, but it wasn't a carefree life (for them, nor for me sometimes, but I was just jealous of other people's lives). They kept saying if I get a university degree and get a good job (instead of pursuing music which I was really good at), then I would not have these problems. I know they said this because that is what they thought would happen, and bcs I did not have enough life experience, I had to believe them, but I still feel angry to this day how much I have suffered through my educationa nd then did not reap the benefits of it. Graduated with a studen loan (bcs my parents could not support me while being at uni, even though the education itself was free but you still needed money for rent and stuff and I was doing double majors, so I could have only worked at night but then would fall asleep during lectures), started working in bigger cities where life was also more expensive. I never got married as early as my parents, but if I think back to where I was at 24 yo where my mother had her first kid, and if I would have stayed at home with my kids for as long as she had, I would only have 4 years of work experience currently, bcs I would have gone on maternity leave almost immediately after finishing university. I mean what type of jobs would I have with 4 years of experience? A customer service job that is basically the modern wage worker of today? For sure not the management type of jobs I currently have. Not trying to brag, I just mean I would not be able to earn as much as I do. And then also take care of others than myself. And pay loans or mortgages. How do people do it for real? Would I actually be in a better financial situation than my parents were with all that being said? I don't think so. Of course my life went in a different direction. Never got married, job hopped to get my salary up (which my father hated), paid back my student loan relatively fast so I only have a mortgage, took out a 20 year mortgage on an apartment that I am planning on paying back in full within ten years and not 20. Moved abroad. Never had kids. Do I like where my life is at? Not really for many reasons. For example, I never feel that I am in my place, where i want to be. I feel like I followed someone else's life instead of mine and there are things I can no longer go back to or do that would require me to be young again. So yeah, I feel very goalless currently. But financially I am in a much better place than my parents (my mom died at 52 yo, so she basically never got to retirement) and for sure will have more money saved up for retirement than they ever will. But what did I need for that? Grind, working jobs I hate, jumping from job to job, and not having kids. Yeah, I also wasn't that fond of the idea of having kids, but just bcs I saw how much of a shit parents you can be if you are always worried about money, but you also cannot just get up and go and do something different and spontaneous with goals and work if you are responsible for other people and have to suffer in silence even if it breaks you. Now who wants a life like that for themselves and their children too?

66 now. dad was a spendthrift and died broke and miserable. mom was a workaholic and died exhausted and miserable. i started saving with my first paycheck. was self employed 4 years after college. saved always AND ignored the market. cash for house. ready to sell and increase is 125%. headed off grid. ss will just be gravy. i have enough cash that inflation will never be an issue because of my small life. ''start small, finish small, laugh EVERY day.''

Gen X here. The sad part is, her points have been the economic reality since the 90’s. I racked up a mortgage worth of loan debt for a degree, listening to my parents, when I should have paid more attention to that Winona Rider movie ‘Reality Bites’. My child is now college age & got the same crappy advice from school “guidance” counselors that I got from my parents. Luckily, I knew better & broke the cycle. My child decided to skip college, take a 6 month certification course for a couple thousand bucks, & now makes a livable salary, while her friends are still struggling through their junior year. Now that we made a positive example of a college alternative, I’ll pass the info along to every HS senior I come across, until they bury me with my worthless promissory notes. smh

I feel blessed to hit financial independence at 32 a couple years ago Most advice from the older generations is not valid or bad Here are some of the best advice I can give 1. Live below your means and invest the difference 2. Focus on increasing your income instead of penny pinching lattes 3. Don't use social media and try to keep up with others Good luck on your journey

This is not a new trend. I graduated in engineering in 1991 and it was the same back then. I had an entry level engineering job only because I had worked a co-op job for more than one year during college. My college found me the low paid co-op job. When I later went to law school, I had to work a free legal internship after my first year of law school. I got a law job, because I had the internship experience and also sent out 500 resumes, which only led to 2 interviews back in 2000.

I saw an ad lately, by a fast food company that claimed many of their franchises were owned by people who had started at the bottom---cooking, sweeping floors, etc. Can't remember which chain it was, but it gave me that creepy MLM vibe.

The other reality regarding not being able to work your way up, is that most things are outsourced....The mailroom is no longer in the same building where you can meet the executive.

Ok, my dad is one of the few people I know who started at the bottom and made their way to a higher level. My dad started sweeping floors in a foundry at 18 and worked his way up to managing a plant building by himself in his 30s. My aunt started making photocopies and running errands in high school for a community college and worked her way to being the chancellor’s personal assistant. Those are exceptions, not rules. There’s zero loyalty in today’s workplace. At a former job, my coworker had 20+ years experience in her department and applied for a managerial position. Instead of promoting her, the corporate assholes brought in someone with zero experience and made her train him. She had to give him 20 years of knowledge in a week’s training. His idea of constructive criticism is to make her cry. I saw myself in her place in a company that gave you nothing, when they ask you to give everything, and quit a month after he arrived.

I have to tell my friends this all the time when they are down about their parents success vs theirs. We didn't have the same opportunity or market dynamics that our parents did. Our version of financial success will not look like theirs, will not be with the same strategies, and will not be on the same timeline.

My boomer parents were able to buy a house in the 70s when they were only making $7 an hour (over double the minimum wage at the time). My mom cannot understand why I can’t afford a one bedroom apartment on my job that requires a degree and work experience pays $1 over the minimum wage for my area. And I don’t even get a match on my 401k contribution.

Yep, gen x here and I fell for it hook line and sinker. I graduated high school and went to college thinking I would get that degree, a good job and career, find the love of my life, get married, have the nice house with the white picket fence, have kids and live a good life. NOPE. I became a corporate slave, piles of debt im still paying back, divorced, pay child support, etc etc etc. Now I am helping my 14 year old gen z son run a business and he is learning more from this experience than I ever learned through all that. He will one day be his own boss and make good money his way, not this old crappy model that I was probably the last generation to fall for (though it did work for the older gens).

There are plenty of houses under 175,000, I just bought one in rural America for 5% dn and $900/mth, get technical degree, Dental tech pays over 75k/yr or better yet work for somebody in the trades for few yrs. carpenter, plumber, electrician and many others then start your own business . Start of this way and by 30 you have a home, family that can afford the woman to be homemaker and children. Two working this way could save and buy their house in just yrs.

"it is common place for minimum wage jobs to require master degrees" ... good lord, what kind of dystopian time line are we living in???

Ok one thought on the college point: I'm an engineer, I got an engineering degree from a state school with strong industry connections. It was absolutely essential to getting my high-paying, stable job(also one that is fun for me). IF you go to college, which I agree is not necessarily a great move for most young people, find out what people with that degree, in that area, graduating from that specific school are making. How much money? How easy was it for them to find a job? etc. College can definitely be worth it in some careers, but don't go for "the experience" go because it still *can* be a path to a high-paying job in some career fields

Having this struggle actually validated and put into words so well made me tear up, thank you so much

Also, homes should NOT be appreciating value. Absolutely in no way shape or form. Just the idea of them gaining equity is the problem where eventually, it will mean you have a thing that appreciates in value, which does not happen. Houses should DEPRECIATE with time, as they get used and worn down. Your repairs should act as a way to put money into your home and increase the value temporarily (as they depreciate too). EVERYTHING else depreciates (except land). Equipment, intellectual property, depletion of mines, automobiles, and even homes in the eyes of your taxes and in the eyes of investments. It's insane that we consider housing to do otherwise, especially when the biggest problem with houses is that they are huge LIABILITIES when you aren't renting them out, in that they DO require all those repairs, they cost you in taxes, and so on... I'm not saying a house is a bad idea, (and yes, land is separate from the house, but it too should not be appreciating as much or as fast as it is assumed), and if you want one, you should have a reasonable-ish means to obtaining one, but the idea of housing appreciating in value is crap. This goes beyond the actions of the individual however and are a complaint of how the whole system is set up, so please bear in mind that context when viewing this comment.

I'm a technology consultant in the financial advice industry so all of my clients are financial advice businesses. So many of the advisers started off with no degree as insurance salespeople and now have their own businesses. Nowadays it's mandatory for new financial advisers to have at least a bachelor's degree, it would be illegal for them to join a company straight from school and "work their way up" to being an adviser unless they wanted to work and study at the same time.

As someone who teaches at a 4 year university, most people should go to community college first, especially if you don't have a very very clear major and goal in mind. Check with whatever university you want to transfer into and make sure the credits will transfer and then take those gen eds and basic 100 courses at your local community college. Not only will it be overall cheaper, but it will clarify for you if college is appropriate for you.

When you’re loaded up with massive debts for an education, your increased salary won’t mean much because after DEBT REPAYMENTS AND TAXES, it amounts to nothing much…. Example. Indebted pediatrician or dentist pockets the same money as a debt free truck driver or plumber.

12:01 Starter Homes This is something I never hear broken down and it's so fundamental to our f-ed up housing situation today: Housing can *_either_* be a lucrative investment opportunity that only ever goes up in value & serves as the basis for the "passive income" funding an entire generation or two's retirement, *_or_* it can be a right that people have because people need to live indoors; it can't be both.

As a Boomer with two grown kids I say "You are right in everything you said." It goes to show that children have to be very careful in the choice of parents.

No joke an aunt told me: "Have kids. They grant tax credits." Lol. Pass. I can pay my taxes at full price. I can't pay childcare, ever.

Minimum wage has never (at least in my life) been intended to be a living wage. It is generally intended for teenagers and entry level employees who over the years acquire skills and knowledge enabling them to earn more. There is really no way to implement a "living wage" for all employees because businesses would have to charge more for their products in order to pay higher wages, causing prices to rise (and then employees are no longer earning a "living wage"). The old minimum wage of $7.25 is obsolete because congress has failed to act on it; meanwhile companies have been forced to raise pay significantly to get workers. In a small city this new minimum wage is $15-20/hour and is dictated by supply and demand.

Really great video and super relatable. My younger brothers are going through a lot of this right now, and I try to give them as best advice I can but the challenges they face are so extreme.

The bad advice handed out by my father was, "Just save your money." The interest rate on regular savings was 5 1/4 when I was a kid. Now, it's less than 1%, which under the best conditions, is well under the inflation rate. We all know how volatile the stock market is, so it seems like a huge lose-lose.

Thank you!! My husband and I would like to start a family but are pretty sure we only want one child because of work schedules and financial reasons. Every older person I've talked to has said "you should have two or more! they need a playmate. Your child will be lonely!" to which I say "are you going to pay for it?" and that usually stops them. Daycare is a second mortgage at this point and let alone normal costs to raising one child. I also don't want my career to be totally sidetracked. I feel seen so I thank you again.

Without oversharing, my main piece of advice as a Millennial for other millennials and Gen-z is that the two largest x-factors in your financial future are a) potential earnings b) location. Don’t pursue a degree or go into a career where earning potential isn’t reasonable to live with today’s high cost of living, but esp specific to your area’s cost of living. I purposely moved from NJ/NY area after graduating my undergrad in 2009 to Houston, TX because I knew cost of living was substantially less and wages went much further here. If you live in the NE or NW, you need way more to make a decent living than states in the south, Midwest, etc. Be willing to relocate. It may not be easy at first, but you’ll meet new people and you can easily keep in contact with family and friends these days. It was worth it for me.

The principle of houses increasing in value forever can be sustained. All we need is for wages to increase in value forever at the same rate. This is what planned inflation is *supposed* to do - a young couple buys a house at the very edge of what they can afford, pay their mortgage every payday, and hae barely enough to live on. Five years later their wages have gone up, but their payments have stayed the same! Every year they have a bit more money left over after paying their mortgage than the year before, and whether they choose to spend that money on paying out their mortgage faster, improving their house, having holidays away from home, or any other discretionary spending, this constant trickle increase in money available for discretionary spending makes them feel happy and confident. They feel good about the future, so they're comfortable making decisions like having children and actually spending their money rather than hoarding it. These days house prices and almost everything else prices are still going up, but wages have been falling behind for decades, and more than all the issues with climate and plastic and pollution, it's the way personal finances just keep getting worse that is creating the profound pessimism about the future in younger generations. Life isn't getting better for them - it's getting worse. The people who broke the deal that wages would rise with everything else have broken a lot more than the ever realised, but they're going to be dead while their grandchildren live with the consequences.

You are so on point. I’m 70 plus, attended college in the early 1970s. It cost under 3 grand a year including room and board, and as a single person I could easily afford to rent an apartment by myself earning minimum wage after I graduated. Even as a person with little money I had an old beater car of my own to drive. Some friends spent a month or two traveling around the USA, or even Europe after college graduation. It was so affordable back then. I’m sure my expectations were much lower than what young people aspire to today, of course. My world was much smaller. People often did work for one company their whole life and expected to climb the ladder for future rewards. Young people do have it so hard these days, but I’ve also watched the ones around me make new opportunities for themselves. They are incredible.

Even as a single man with no kids, I found myself identifying with the "people are punished for both prioritizing work over family, AND prioritizing family over work" paradox. I obviously can't speak to how it affects a woman with a child or children, but I feel like I'm constantly getting mixed messages like this in every place I've ever worked and it drives me crazy. One day, you're missing out on a raise or promotion because you asked for too much time off, and the next day, the same exact people are acting like YOU'RE the one who's overworking yourself and needs to focus on your mental health. Fucking, which one is it already?!

The pressure from the older generation is a big part of what makes the current economy so frustrating. I'm mostly at peace with the fact that things just aren't the same as they once were and I don't spend much time pining for a lost golden age, we have to live the lives we are given. But my parents and their friends seem completely incapable of accepting that things are different, so I just always get to enjoy being looked down on for not being where they were at my stage. I recently moved into a new apartment, my parent's friend commented on how he "started out" in an apartment about that size... he meant when he was 18, I'm 35. It also makes it impossible to do any actual brainstorming with them because they insist on giving advice that flat out WILL NOT WORK. When you try to point that out they think you're trying to belittle their accomplishments or something.

I’m an early gen-xer and things had already decayed quite a bit when I graduated college in ‘89. I was told that my history degree was fine but I had to go back to college and become a nurse in order toland a job. I’m really irritated by what has happened in our economy and to women. It’s almost as though some greedster said “oh OK little woman you can have your career, we’ll make it so you have to work to have any hope of supporting a family!” And now, because of the shambles they’ve made of the economy I probably won’t get any grandchildren in spite of having three daughters!😢

Preach, TFD! My Gen X husband and I are still paying our grad student loans. We both were told as 22 year olds that our BA degrees meant nothing in the Washington DC market. We HAD to get masters degrees to even be considered for an interview and fell prey to the “you can totally borrow whatever you need” from 2 expensive universities. We are telling our Gen Z daughter to 1) consider going into a technical degree first because electricians and HVAC techs can start making high 5 figures and work/save before going to university 2) if she wants to go straight to college go to community college for 2 years and then transfer into a 4 year institution 3) start her own business- she may not need a college degree if she is already a boss 😍Thank you again for all you do, TFD!

It was both validating and heart-breaking to hear how many people don't have kids or as many kids as they'd like because they can't afford it. I wish I could have one more but we can't fathom how on earth we could possibly afford to give them everything they need! It seems down right irresponsible to do that to them. I've mentioned this to my parents and in-laws when they badger me about when we will have another and it seems to fall on deaf ears.

As a late Boomer parent with a Gen-Z daughter in college, I wanted to see if I was "guilty" of giving any of this advice to her. She's finishing up in IT, and she's working to get an internship for some experience (government internships are better). I did tell her that she should get as much experience for about three years, then see if she can move to another organization, to go up. I know that we need to raise the federal minimum wage to at LEAST $18/hr, and even then, that's just enough to keep their head above water.

9:25 - I have never "flipped burgers" - all of my brothers flipped burgers, but my sister and I refused - in my own case I learned to touch-type in high school in 1975 and worked my way through school as a clerk-typist/receptionist (my mom was a telephone operator, and if I was ever unprofessional on the phone she would know...)

PREACH! Especially about women in the workplace/having children. I'm a stay at home mom, and have been for the majority of the past decade, and I constantly feel insignificant because I "don't work," but childcare costs are insane. I'd love to hear more about how stay at home parents can contribute financially, without getting a minimum wage job that my not even make it worth returning to work.

I’ve never had a KZfaq video make me feel so hopeless before. I’m 21 and trying my best to climb out of poverty. Got a 401k, 3 roommates, headed back to online college that my job pays for, but it all feels futile and I’m still below the poverty line and not putting away enough for retirement. What am I going to do?

My parents are both government employees. I unfortunately was duped into “if you get passed over, you arent working hard enough, which kept me at jobs long beyond their expiration.

As a Boomer, it's interesting to hear the differences in generational expectations. We, as Boomers, did have a "wave" we could catch, e.g. real estate and share market investing that worked if we did it right. And most of us had a go. And yes, those that worked a long-term steady (boring) job were also able to earn enough to raise a family and retire at a sensible age. In our generation, we believed that hard work and some risk would provide for your retirement. Life has been good to many of our generation. It is clearly harder now for young people and families starting out. It's definitely not the same as it was for us. I like to think that there are still opportunities today, but I don't know what, or where, they are. Maybe the only advice that can transfer from generation to generation is to keep fighting, something will always crop up. Try to be ready when it does.

My parents paid $400/month for their rent/mortgage. Apartments & houses in the same area are now $900-$1,200/month. Wages haven’t increased much locally and there’s no public transportation to take you to a higher paying job. Because the fools running things where I live work in the “we already have this” notion-everyone supposedly already has a car so why have public transportation? Just because you have a Lexus in your garage and food on your table it doesn’t mean everyone else does. If you don’t have a car you can’t go to work and if you don’t work you can’t buy a car. Which means if you want a job within walking distance you’re lucky if you make $11/hr. How can you pay a $1,200 rent plus a car payment, food, medical, gasoline, insurance, tampons, and everything else you need to basically function on $11? Add student loan payments from the bullshit degree you were told was essential. It’s impossible.

Younger boomer here, didn't have kids for exactly the issues you indicated. Also, my BA in psychology was basically useless when I graduated. Was lucky that I found a job that required such and left it 4 years later because I HATED it. Worked as a cashier and some other boring jobs for a few years until I lucked into something that I could stay with long term. I feel really bad for those who don't have the options that I had back in the day.

This is awesome. I'm an almost-exactly-middle-of-GenXer, which is to say, I'm old enough to have seen the world the Boomers took for granted and young enough to see up close what came next. And things have gone quite well for me, which is to say, I cannot be accused of sour graping. (I'm Canadian which makes it easier--as a rule of thumb, most US crazy/evil makes it to Canada in a slightly watered-down version.) All of which is a preface to saying, your points and arguments are about 90% spot-on from where I'm standing. And very, very well articulated. (Oh, bonus observation: back when the entire English-speaking world was agreeing to grind up governance, the social contract and any kind of safety net, the #1 justification was that it was too expensive and that--and this is key--'We have no right to pass on these costs to The Children, won't somebody PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN!")

I really appreciate my grandpa and his wife because they never pushed college. My grandpa is a farmer, electrician, retired ford motors worker, etc… he never pushed college to me, my sister, or my dad. He realized that you can do trades and earn lots of money with a hard earning job. He is one of the few baby boomers I know that are not delusional in the modern take of this society and he realizes what has happened over time

I appreciate that you’ve touched on what I call “the academic arm’s race.” I’m in a profession that requires an entry level doctorate degree but I have coworkers who were grandfathered in with bachelors degrees. Did the pay reflect the increased education? Of course not.

For retirement, the hardest part is being able to contribute enough while still having enough money to survive.

It also depends on what skill set your college degree is tied to. I went to college and studied Information Technology and my degree was a license to print money. I walked into a $26K per year job that became a $100K+ career in 5 years. Working with computers as a network engineer was easy and fun. I'm retired now with a pension and nice home. Yeah I am a boomer but due to my autism and many disabilities I did not start my college education until 1998. I did not start my career till 2000. Information Technology is still the land of milk and honey pay wise today. STEM professions still pay well compared to most other options. Few make 100K with degrees in English lit, Sociology, Child Development and Gender Studies.

I deeply resent the constant harping on "boomers". All of the advice that is mentioned, here, I (model year '48) learned all of what is mentioned, from my parents. I learned that those "principles" couldn't work any more while trying to cash my first paycheck, at a bank at which I had no account. The next lesson came when compound interest on savings accounts dropped below account maintenance fees....and so on.

I'm still an advocate for going to college, but I'm all for taking the most affordable route to get that degree done. Take the concurrent credit courses in high school (or AP/IB courses), do community college, seek out the scholarships, go to the cheaper state school, etc.

Gen X here, I haven’t watched the video yet, but will. A couple of observations. X was def going to ruin the world with our wicked ways… I went the community college route and transferred to 4-year. I could not afford college any other way. Companies were merging, putting long term employees out of work, stripping pensions and benefits. Why would I ever be loyal to a company when they will put me out to pasture when it suits them? I have heard about loyalty my entire career and have never received any. Make the best decisions that you can based on your situation. And don’t ever let anyone tell you who you are!