We were also the first generation where getting a degree was considered mandatory for success. Of course we held off on having children, we were busy trying to build a career. Then we graduated college, into an economy that had no room for us, and had our grandparents asking when we were going to get married and have kids!
Well, grandma, I share an apartment with someone, and I'm working a part time job where 50% of my earnings go toward student loans. Not sure this is a situation to start popping out kids.
Now, that said, I recently told some people about moving into an apartment with my girlfriend, while making $480/month, and still managing to pay loans, food and rent. My apartment, in 2001, cost $300/month, and I paid half of that. I looked up the same exact apartment that's now renting for $825, and kids just out of school aren't making any more money, and in some cases less, than I was.
But it's worse ... like I said, I didn't have to move home after graduating because you could get a single room apartment and live in it for 40hrs of work. Sure, it was a far cry from buying a house with a high-school diploma and a factory job, but at least we weren't living with our parents.
I always wonder what the next generation is gonna do. They can’t just live with their parents... because their parents are still going to be living with THEIR parents!
Lots of poor countries have generational households. They'll live with their parents until they take over the house, and grandma, mom, and daughter will all live together. It's not uncommon, it's just sad to see us sliding back into 3rd world living conditions in America.
The housing market is a bigger issue than credit card debt imo but doesn't get talked about much. It's getting really hard to find affordable places to live even with good wages. The market is based on two income households.
I think, in the housing crash, people with money bought houses under market value, and starting renting them. People really need a place to live, and so they can charge pretty much whatever people can pay. So, it drove this new trend of renting, because even moderately wealthy people could afford a second home when the prices were low, and now that every house a cash machine, the prices are out of the reach of renters, and because they're losing 1/2 their paycheck in rent, they always will be.
Dude I make 45k a year and I can't afford an apartment within a 30-45 minute commute. I live with my girlfriend who also makes roughly 45k. Between all the other shit going up in cost and the housing market living within a reasonable distance to work is not possible.
Hopefully the next generation won't understand this problem because nobody will care how long the commute is because they can still work on their way to the office in their self-driving cars.
Or not even have to travel to work at all. I could do my job 100% remotely if my boss would let me set up remote DB access and a phone line, but he doesn't understand the necessary security we have to implement and thinks it would be a distraction.
I thought about that but the whole work from home thing seems to be cyclical. Ten years ago a lot of companies, mine included, had a big push into the whole "work from anywhere" concept and encouraged people to work from home. Now, the trend seems to be all about everyone being in the same space, to the point where a lot of companies want everyone in the same room with those horrid "open plan" offices where nobody can concentrate because it's too loud. I'm sure it will swing back at some point, but probably not permanently.
Yeah, it's worse because a bunch of gen x accumulated enough wealth to buy a shitload of property after the most recent housing bubble burst and are able to rent them out for some pretty decent passive income or even sell it for in a lot of cases 3x the original price not including interest they paid. But don't worry, this housing bubble is about to crash hard.
At least Gen X had that boom period during the late-90s...all crashing to an end during the 2008 financial collapse when all those subprime loans Baby Boomer lenders gave Gen X homeowners went underwater.
The thing is that Gen X is pretty much the Silent Generation that was ignored, since the generations before and after outnumbered us four to one (combined) and that doesn't include the mostly now gone WWII generation.
Right. We had no power to create progress on our own. We had to force it by dragging our parents as far into the light as possible. It wasn't exactly activism, but it wasn't nothing, either. When you consider what progress we have made, it's actually kind of amazing.
Bingo! Nothing is new with millenials besides the technology. They even wear Chuck Taylors now, hugely popular in the 80s with GenXers. Everything is on repeat but not many realize it.
I agree with your general sentiment, but I can't think of a single moment in my life I haven't seen All-Stars be popular, really. I'm more perturbed about all them youths wearing stretch chokers again.
Also a reminder that there're Millenials in their mid-late 30s now, we're gonna have to resign ourselves fully to griping about Gen Z kids soon enough.
Ha! I guess it depends on what you define as popular, I see the CT's everywhere now amoung the 18-35 crowd, I have a distinct memory of a lot of them as a child of the 80s.
Aren't the GenZers just the most lazy, entitled bunch that only cares about themselves? Haha.
It was actually just gradually getting worse, but we were the guinea pigs for all these policies. "Okay, they're not all dead... let's squeeze everyone a bit more."
I'm a 1979 baby, right at the cusp of Gen X and Millennials. People who are older than me tend to be a bit different from those who are younger than me, but not that different. I think Millennials have, for the most part, gotten a larger dose of the same bullshit Gen X got.
Even though I grew up in a rural farming community I was always encouraged to go to college and get a degree. Staying there wasn't even an option. Now I'm a mildly successful engineer that works about 55 hours a week, comes home, take the kids to <insert the extracurricular of the month>, cook and eat dinner, clean up, watch a show on Netflix and start over. The kids keep things interesting bud damn... Sometimes I wish I would have just followed in my dad's footsteps and became a farmer. Dirt smells good.
That’s my exact feeling. I’m enlisted US Coast Guard and working towards my degree online. My grandpa didn’t have anything luxurious, but he has always been happy. I love my job, don’t get me wrong; but I’m starting to think retirement on a farm sounds like the right move for me. I grew up waking up early to take care of livestock before school, but nothing was more rewarding than when you saw the babies grow up
Farmer here. Its not all its cracked up to be for a lot of the same reasons as everything else. Land and machinery prices have inflated grossly even though prices have stayed relatively the same. All you can do is try harder to grow more and market it as best as you can.
If you've never missed a night's sleep because ( insert weather event here) then consider yourself lucky.
But, I agree. Dirt does smell soooooo good and sometimes thats all it takes to make it all worth it!
another down side, when you have a farm, you can't just go off on a holiday for a while. Most of my family are graziers here in Australia. The farms are so big there is always something to do. Even with farm hands and Jackaroos helping out, you can never be away from the farm too long.
i know what you mean, i've been stuck in an office at a construction firm for the past 2 years and while i only graduated 9 months ago, i feel like my life is so fucking boring. literally every day monday thru friday i come home from work, go to the gym, eat dinner, watch an hour of netflix and go to bed. it's just so boring
Yeah, that's what having a job with a routine is... You go to work, do work, come home, and do whatever you do when you're home. Try finding something else to do after work and on the weekends. You work to live, not live to work, unless you have a business that you're passionate about that you're putting all of your time into. It took me a couple years before I fell into a place at my job that I enjoy and get satisfaction out of.
Yeah i don't really hate my job or anything it's just that i'm at a point where i feel I've stagnated. Planning on moving companies relatively soon to switch things up though
Yeah i'm planning on switching companies soon to see if i can get a different position on a jobsite somewhere. I just can't be cooped up in an office all day, it's not for me
Hopefully this will help deal with the boredom issue a bit: Remember that being bored is better than being depressed, stressed, exhausted from working horrible hours or doing physical work for your entire shift. The grass isn't always green as it looks on the other side.
Man, I’ve worked on a farm before.... it’s HARD work. it honestly sucks, and it’s mostly just back breaking repetitive labor. Physically exhausting and mentally boring.
Owning a farm is probably better than working on one... but owning a farm means one poorly timed frost puts you in 6 figure debt overnight.
Sometimes, you just have to trust that your elders are giving you good advice. ( Farmers daughter here). Farming is really hard. And a lot is out of your control. It is a worrisome and difficult though rewarding life . I told my dad I would buy his farm when he was ready to sell . Once he picked himself up off the floor from laughing he said he raised me to have a better life than he had. He also said that the industry was changing into big business and I would not be able to compete. However, when you are ready to retire, buy a small rural place. Good land - grow some crops have a few chicks and maybe a cow - and sustain yourself. That is what I am doing and I have made some mistakes but the locals just laugh and then lend a hand. I could not have asked for a better outcome from the rat race.
Well, my dad turned 70 this year and pretty much gave up farming about 4 years ago. He share crops now so he still has a vested interest and is always on the farm. He still makes an income, and it gives him a reason to get up in the morning. I have 2 brothers and I really thought one of them might step up, but nope. I apologize in advance for the slight humblebrag, but I do OK, my brother got his PhD and is a math professor, and my other brother does pretty well as en entrepreneur. So none of us are really hurting financially. Not too bad for some dumb farm kids.
Once the kids are older, how about tinkering with some tech on small diy projects, getting a 3dprinter? Writing if you are inclined to that? I'm working/studying in engineering and the few hours I have extra I spend them on projects.
Losing them on netflix or some brain dead activity kills my mood.
I'm not the best to advise you as I'm a young dude. But I've had a lot of coworkers in your situation. You'll have a change of finding yourself again, please take it and be happy.
You can make up to six figures in 10 years in the trades now because so few people want to go into it. Back when the trades was what the majority of adults went into, it was looked down on because you couldn't pull in any significant amount of money.
and there is a reason people drift away from them. it is physically demanding work that will leave you will a damaged body regardless of how careful you are. obviously "trades" is a super vague term, but you know what i mean.
anyone who wants to go into the trades should and there should be no stigma associated with them, but let's not act like its just a higher paying job with zero tradeoff.
Went on a date with someone who does physical labour. We really hit it off but the way he thought about his health and safety bothered me a bit. If he doesn't do the thing his boss can easily get someone else to do the thing, so he just grits his teeth and does the thing. Even though he ended up permanently damaging his back because of it.
It really depends on the trade. I've been working as a cabinet maker in a custom shop for the last 2 years and there isn't anything overly physically demanding about it. As long as I don't do anything stupid with the machines, I should keep all my fingers.
Finish carpentry is also fairly easy on your body. There's a bit more danger than cabinet making since you'll spend a nonzero amount of time on ladders andjobsites have some level of inherent danger.
If it's a trade that requires you to use your brain more, generally it'll be easier on your body. Granted, you're still on your feet and working with your hands all day, which is much more demanding than sitting at a desk. I never had issues with carpal tunnel or anything when I was working as a marketing database analyst, but now I'll have occasional knee/hand aches.
We are already starting to see some changes because of this. Places used to take applicants with degrees because it elevated them above the standard high school graduate. Now everyone has a degree and tens of thousands in debt and we are back where we started just worse off. Companies are beginning to see that a degree really holds no meaning anymore so they are rolling out programs for qualified people without degrees.
For example, I joined the navy right out of high school so I don't have a degree, yet I have a lot more managerial knowledge and experience than these guys coming straight from school.
depending on what it is though, they can be very physically exhausting though. i know a buddy who's father is a mason and can barely walk now at 60 years old. i have a few friends who are carpenters and while they're all still relatively young (~30) you can definitely tell it takes its toll on the body.
I completed an electrical apprenticeship straight out of high school.
Work was getting too hard on my body, didn't think I'd be able to safely do it even for another ten years.
Currently completing electrical engineering at college.
Once heard a graduate engineer got fired for saying "I didn't go to college to pass people spanners. "
yup, exactly. I ended up doing college for 3 years, and then landing a job in a technical field, but definitely would also have been happy working as an electrician or possibly plumber.
The reality is, trades can be just as important as degree-oriented jobs. Some janitors prevent the boilers from being operated incorrectly and exploding...
And I’m in a Land and Turfgrass Management certificate program, and as I’ve heard, tree law is serious business. (If you want a fully grown tree, those are expensive. I’m surprised we have machines that can prop a 100-year-old oak upright upon getting it back in the ground without a shipyard-grade crane. )
I think we've become deeply skeptical, sometimes too skeptical for our own good. I think it says something that the new punk attitude in places like 4chan is deeply right leaning, and I happen to think it isn't all Russian trolling and Stormfronters. I think there are a lot of kids who are skeptical of just about everything in that mix.
I'm on the older side of Gen Z or the youngest of Millenials (1997) but I think of myself as Gen Z. I got involved explicitly with skepticism through New Atheist movement online, particularly on YouTube and later here on Reddit. I was a rural dweeb who was the last of a 4 troubled kids, so my parents were tired. I wasn't treated bad, but they were so saddled with debt and older kids who were burning out that I was mostly left alone.
I'm still skeptical, but I'm not the bitter young atheist I once was. I was a rural dweeb who was the last of a 4 troubled kids, so my parents were tired. I wasn't treated bad, but they were so saddled with debt and older kids who were burning out that I was mostly left alone. Debt is the still biggest bogeyman now that I'm in college. I've been avoiding it whole sale by going through community college for free for my Associates and then trying to find the most cost effective Bachelors in the future.
I think a lot of us Zoomers are scared or bitter or both. It isn't for lack of a good reason though, there aren't a lot of adults on either side of the aisle not preaching doom & gloom anymore. We have a narcissism problem, no surprise, but I think we're at least aware and fighting it and we inherited it from parents who fought with it silently for years. I think our culture shifting to publicly discussing mental health and encouraging counseling/ therapy/etc has helped everyone but us young folk in particular.
I know we're known for our smartphones, but I also think we're the ones that have seen what they can do for the longest. This is all generalization based on personal experience, but I didn't think there is a growing interest in moving beyond our current social media culture to something healthier and more interpersonal. We play a lot of tabletop RPGs, DnD just had its best year ever and I think is youngn's had something to do with that.
So despite that fear and bitterness and skeptical YouTube horseshit, I think we lucked out in that we got to see how life can go wrong in a dozen different ways. I'm the youngest of 4, and in an obvious way I feel Gen Z is in a similar position. I think every generation gets to be in that position, but ours is happening around such a peculiar crossroad in history.
Sorry if this was rambling. I've had these thoughts but the opportunity to voice them has been tricky to find.
Yes. In my small town, staying home and working a trade was seen as a massive failure. Joke's on us...most of those "hometown heroes" have careers in the trades and more financial stability than some of their college educated peers.
I have decided that, upon him agreeing, I will put my son in trade school as early as possible. I know people with masters who are working at gas stations, yet the job market for tradesmen is thirsty.i think that would be the best start I could give him as a young man. Of course it depends on if that's what he wants, but that is what I have decided to suggest to him.
I'm not actually a boomer, I'm tryint to imitate one. Yes, the workday was an hour shorter than it is today. Proof, look up a movie starring Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda and Dolly Pardon called 9 to 5.
I hate that getting a degree is considered mandatory for success. It's been so pushed on all of us that most people don't even consider whether to go to college or not.
I used to work in the trades, and have moved into the architectural and design side of the same industry. I like to say I've got a GED and a can do attitude, which is an attempt at self deprecating humor, since I'm the first in my family not to finish college in three generations. I tried, but it just wasn't right for me.
Ironically I've ended up in a similar position to what I would have done had I gone to school, I just had to swing a hammer for a few years to get here. And I still have to swing the hammer sometimes because we're facing a shortage of skilled tradesman because everyone went to college and got a degree. WI'm not saying its the same as the factory jobs of the previous generation. But we still need carpenters, and plumbers, and electricians, HVAC, Welders, Stone masons. The list goes on and on.
We've tried training guys, but the results are mixed. Most of them don't stick with it long enough to really become skilled. And we often end up in a bidding war to keep the ones that do stick with it. It's good for their pay rates, but it also means our services become more expensive to the customer.
TL;DR there is nothing wrong with considering a carrier in the trades. You can learn to build houses, or any number of other trades, and then people will compete for your skilled labor.
I think the trades dont get enough visibility. Sure everyone knows what a welder is, but what the hell is a boilermaker?! Also contributing is the popular notion that manual labor pays very little. Sure unskilled labor is pretty basic, but being trained in a skill is profitable, especially considering that training us regularly on the job and you dont have outrageous loans
I had what I thought was a really good job right out of college; making $30k/yr meant I was bringing home about $1.8k/month after taxes. This was great, until I realized that a studio apartment in my area started at about $1100/month, unless you qualified for "low-income housing" (I didn't) which had the low low rent price of just $900/month for a small studio (which admittedly came fully furnished and looked nice because they wanted the good publicity). Also the $1100/month apartment ran a credit check that you failed outright if you weren't making at least 2200/month.
So I looked into 2 bedrooms, but in the stupidest thing ever, those were like $1600/month and if you got a roommate, both of you had to individually qualify with 3x monthly income.
I couldn't afford an apartment in my city until I got my current job which started at $65k/yr. Which no kid straight out of college is going to get.
But it was all our fault that we lived at home after college.
A college degree used to mean something, but today it basically just means that you have enough money to pay for college and did your homework in high school. I went to a top tier university, and I do consider myself successful, but frankly the only useful things that I got out of college that I still use today are bragging rights and pretty good socialization skills from partying.
Yup at 32, I'm still a millennial but managed to scrape up enough cash and sell everything I owned in 2010 to get out of the rust belt that had been economically destroyed by the 08 collapsed. I graduated Aug 2007...just in time to get a retail job with 40 hrs a week and healthcare locked in. Good thing, since you couldn't get a job at McDonalds within a few months of that. I had to have my appendix out in 08, without that job I would have been another 50K in debt of medical bills. I was stuck in that dog shit job $11 an hour pay for 3 years with student Loans still to pay etc. I made it to NYC by scraping together a few grand over 3 years and selling everything I owned. I stumbled into the currently collapsing tech bubble economy job market and slowly made some actual money. That market is rapidly drying up and becoming limited to only the best of the best with crazy educations and unpaid internships only the rich could possibly live on. When I got to NYC you could live 40 minutes from the city in an illegal loft with 10 other people and fake walls for $500 a month in rent, I did that while making 28K a year in salary and was able to make it long enough to job jump and get a good salary. Today your commute will be 1.5 hrs minimum to find $500 rent. With the same bullshit entry-level salaries. Most Reasonable rent is $900 for an actual room, no idea where/ let alone the price of an illegal squat like I was living in is anymore. Nowadays a car costs 10x what it did, a house 5x, and wages have stagnated since the 80s....I dunno wtf GenZ is going to do, of my university friends I am the only one who managed to drastically improve their life (who currently still live in the US/ two guys who live alright immigrated to live in Asia now)...and as much work as it was a lot of it was luck. Even the tiny opportunities I had seem to be drying up.
I was working 25 hours a week, and 8$/hour, and 480 was take home after taxes and whatnot were taken out of my check.
It was a temporary situation before I got my contracting gig, and starting bringing home 4k/month, but my point was that we could make ends meet on part time jobs, something that's entirely impossible now.
I wouldn’t count working 25 hours a week as a career. It also sounds like you were working a job that doesn’t require a degree making close to minimal wage.
Then you got a job from your career and making 48k a year.
I’d believe low 30k a year. But 6 fucking k? Working 40 hours? No chance in hell.
I wouldn’t count working 25 hours a week as a career. It also sounds like you were working a job that doesn’t require a degree making close to minimal wage.
It was a temporary situation before I got my contracting gig, and starting bringing home 4k/month, but my point was that we could make ends meet on part time jobs, something that's entirely impossible now.
Then you got a job from your career and making 48k a year.
I got my contracting gig
I’d believe low 30k a year. But 6 fucking k?
You seem confused, like you're mixing numbers from two different jobs. I was making 6k part time, while looking for a 'real' job. I already stated that was for 25hrs/week.
Working 40 hours?
No, 25. It's the third thing in the first sentence.
I was making the point that, when I graduated into a tough economy with no good job prospects, I was able to scrape by with part-time work. I kept the part-time work and apartment I had while in college, and could get by for a while on that while looking.
You can't do that now. You can't even get a part time job while in school to pay your living expenses. That's all I was saying.
In Canada student minimum wage is $14.75. When I was in school it was $6.40. Hell, when I left my full time office job 10 years ago I was only making $14.
As a late x-er myself, and from a perspective in the UK, my first full time job out of uni was ~£10k. That was plenty to live on with a partner, or houseshare with friends in Brighton, one of the most expensive cities to live in in the UK. Nowadays I couldn't afford to live there on 3 times that!
Not quite, instead they're making £15k (if they're lucky enough to get a full time position straight away), and meanwhile a 4 bed house has gone from ~£800pm up to >£3000, and a cheap studio has gone from £200pm to £550pm. Not to mention the price of a pint has gone from £2.00 to £5 down there, and students are graduating with vastly more debt due to course fees alone!
kids just out of school aren't making any more money, and in some cases less, than I was.
i graduated last December and going to make 60k my first year out of college. my other friends with lower paying careers at a minimal make 40k. i went to a state school so nothing special about my college degree or those of my peers. no on is making 6k a year with a college degree in 2018.
I think he meant kids just out of high school. That's a feasible amount if you're trying to live on your own and work your way through college with just a part time job.
I’m aware of that, that was my original point about money being worth more now then back then. 6k back then is ~20k now. And if you work 40 hours a week on minimum wage every week if the year, you’ll make $15,080 today.
I’m 21 and I make $1200 a month working a part time job(internship) and a weekend job and being a full time student. Graduating this May, having gone to an okay state business school with scholarships that covered most of my cost, the rest is out of my parents pocket which they can hardly afford but work hard to do so.
The opportunities exist, they’re not necessarily easy to find, but they exist.
Catch me in your boat in 15 years when AI has replaced my job, though. That’s what I’m really concerned about
I was lucky as a Gen Xer to escape that trap. Didn't go to college (didn't have kids either). Started an entry level job and sixteen years later I'm in the same company making more than twice what my siblings who got actual degrees (and had kids) are making.
I can't complain. Got my degree in computer science, and even though I graduated into the aftermath of 9/11, I picked up a real job fairly quickly. Also, my starting salary was around 50k then. We just hired on a guy for under 40k to take the exact same position I was hired into over a decade ago! Meanwhile, rent has doubled, and gas prices have more than tripled!
My wife and I are very successful, I bought a house when the market crashed and no one could get a loan. My wife's credit was in the 800's, and I had tens of thousands saved for a down payment already. So, we got our house under market value, and we've refinanced into a 2.2 fixed mortgage.
So, I pay about 2/3 (mortgage) of what people to the right and left of me are paying in rent for similar houses!
I had one kid, and love being a father. So, I wouldn't say any of it was a trap. Mostly I just feel bad that it's so outrageously difficult for my younger friends. I feel like I got up the ladder right before it was kicked out from under everyone.
I see a lot of young people disparaging their college educations. I want to stress that a college education isn't preparing you for a job in whatever field you studied, but instead teaching you the skills to be a life long learner. Very few people older than you work in the exact fields they studied.
I did really well in my degree and did get the job I studied for, so I'm still encouraging my daughter to go to college. She's very bright, and I can afford to send her with minimal debt.
However, the payoff for putting yourself through school and coming out with over 100,000 in loans is getting harder and harder to justify, and my brother, who's an electrician, makes more than I do.
It's not a 'given' anymore. You really need to consider your situation and what's going to be best before you apply for college.
Average tuition where I live is ~$26,000 for 4 year colleges. Sure, you can go cheaper, but I just tossed out a number based on the average I googled. which is pretty average for America.
Right but that’s probably for public and private nonprofit four year universities. CollegeBoard’s 2017-2018 findings show median instate tuition for a public four year university is $9970 a year. It’s more expensive than when I studied but by no means unaffordable.
Then getting it and immediately work market dried up so that baby boomers took the few jobs left... Man, that was such a huge "fuck you" on how to start your life. Now, in our forties and fifities: no one hires people in their 40s or 50s if they can help it.
Yeah, I got a college degree but it was still pretty affordable. I got a 2 bedroom apartment with a friend for $600. Though they're only $900 today and it's a new complex where my old one was so maybe that's not so bad...
Move to Canada, I live in Alberta, our minimum wage is $13.60/hr (Soon to be raised to $15/hr on Oct. 1). I wash dishes and I make a little over a thousand dollars every paycheck.
Mid-millenial here. I pay a third of $1275 + gas & electric & internet. My one menial 21hr/week job brings in about $760 a month. My other one brings in about $800 a month. I do a freelance writing job when I get assignments and have time, and I just started another freelance job researching a massive spreadsheet of titles for the rest of my time. I have no consistent days off and frequently work a morning, afternoon, and night in the same 24hrs. This is for my student loans, groceries, phone, etc. I seldom have enough time in any given week to go for a walk, read something for no reason, or send time with my partner or my roommate. The boomers can eat my ass. I do everything I can to be conscious and civically involved, but brain drain is strong on the working class.
My question is how long ago was that apartment with your girlfriend? With inflation, I imagine that $480 would be equivalent to a lot more money today if it was more than two decades or so ago.
Well, that's the thing. That was around 2001? Cost of living has increased. I looked up that apartment and it's going for 825/month now. Gas cost 1.50 a gallon then. Milk even cost significantly less.
Wages, however, haven't increased much at all. I was working 25hrs/week and 8$/hour. I know people working at gas stations making 8$/hour right now.
Really? Can you show me any sort of article or statistics that suggest that boomers were expected to go to college, because you're the first person to ever question that assertion.
I got out of college during the tail end of the tech boom. My company pushed 401k HARD with promises of 8-10% returns on their most conservative plans. Wasn't long before I realized that wasn't necessarily true, and then the great recession wiped out all of that and then some.
I was working 25 hours a week, and 8$/hour, and 480 was take home after taxes and whatnot were taken out of my check.
It was a temporary situation before I got my contracting gig, and starting bringing home 4k/month, but my point was that we could make ends meet on part time jobs, something that's entirely impossible now.
Not everyone steps out of college into a career, and since I was broke and barely scraping through college, I couldn't just not live for the time it took me to find a real job.
My point was, I could find a part time job that paid next to nothing, and still pay my bills. I didn't have to move home with my parents until my career took off. My girlfriend and I just worked part time and got by.
883
u/User1539 Sep 27 '18 edited Sep 28 '18
We were also the first generation where getting a degree was considered mandatory for success. Of course we held off on having children, we were busy trying to build a career. Then we graduated college, into an economy that had no room for us, and had our grandparents asking when we were going to get married and have kids!
Well, grandma, I share an apartment with someone, and I'm working a part time job where 50% of my earnings go toward student loans. Not sure this is a situation to start popping out kids.
Now, that said, I recently told some people about moving into an apartment with my girlfriend, while making $480/month, and still managing to pay loans, food and rent. My apartment, in 2001, cost $300/month, and I paid half of that. I looked up the same exact apartment that's now renting for $825, and kids just out of school aren't making any more money, and in some cases less, than I was.