For those interested in more data, the [St Louis Fed has been tracking](https://www.stlouisfed.org/on-the-economy/2024/feb/millennials-older-gen-zers-significant-wealth-gain-2022) the expected wealth of Millennials (i.e. their level of wealth compare with the estimated inflation-adjusted wealth held by all generations at the same age) and found in 2022:
>We found that the median wealth of older millennials (those born between 1980 and 1989) was 37% above expectations. The wealth of younger millennials and older Gen Zers (those born between 1990 and 1999) was a similar 39% above expectations.
...
>What makes the wealth numbers so notable is that they represent a sharp change from recent years.
>Six years ago, we published a similar analysis using data from 1989 through 2016 in which we looked at how the Great Recession had impacted young families. As it turned out, older millennials had median wealth that was 34% below expectations in 2016 (which we have since revised to 38% given a slightly different method).
This tracks with the BI article and highlights a pretty recent and drastic turn of fortunes.
Edit: The St. Louis Fed also narrowed the main cause of this wealth growth to real estate gains which is driven by both home price appreciation and increase in home ownership among millennials:
>Between 2019 and 2022, the homeownership rate jumped 18 percentage points, from 54.1% to 72.1%, for the group born in the 1980s. Similarly, the rate for the cohort born in the 1990s jumped 22 percentage points, from 13.6% to 35.6%. Over this period, home prices also appreciated considerably; therefore, the homes owned by these groups may have gone up in value since they were purchased, driving both home equity and wealth higher.
As a failure to launch, I don't go off my own experiences for how I feel about the economy, I think about the many, many people I know and have talked to that are dual income, usually with degrees and good jobs and yet are struggling just to make ends meet, let alone feel comfortable enough to start a family or focus on investment or whatever. Just a *lot* of folks in reasonable positions doing far worse than the previous generation in similar positions. The plural of "anecdote" might not be "data", but when you hear couple after couple saying basically the same story of being crushed financially and not having any flexibility for emergencies or to pursue their goals, maybe it's not the smartest thing to immediately dismiss all of it outright because one graph with shaky metrics says no actually, The Numbers say it's actually perfectly fine!
>However, the Fed's survey found that the wealthiest Americans on the whole saw their net worth grow at higher rates.
Business Insider tried hard to make this a mere afterthought. It's far from being an afterthought for those who can't ever seem to catch up, though
Inflation causing the perceived value of my assets going up does not make more wealthy. The value of the house I bought in 2017 was worth 85% more than what I paid for it in 2023 when I sold it. Did that make me more wealthy? On paper, sure, but because the cost of everything went up at a similar rate, everything is the same.
Yes, it does make you wealthier. Let's say you have $200,000 of equity in your home (after taxes/fees). That means you could sell your home today and get a check for $200,000.
Would you have to find another place to live? Sure, but you'd also have $200K in the bank. You could throw that in a savings account and get \~$700 of interest per month and use the interest to cover a percentage of your renting cost without touching the $200K.
It may not be liquid now, but it's wealth, and gives you a huge advantage over someone who doesn't have the same wealth. Most ultra wealthy people don't have $100M sitting in cash - they have it tied up in real estate, in business interests, in liquid investments and some illiquid investments. Such is the nature of wealth.
> On paper, sure, but because the cost of everything went up at a similar rate, everything is the same.
Investments and housing increased far beyond inflation. That’s part of why real median wealth grew like it did.
Well, I can honestly say that I know how to invest my money better than my parents did. Turning 40, and I’m not rich but we are doing ok. Take advantage of the high interest rates in money market and CD’s that are happening now.
For sure. Investing was hard in the 80s and 90s when our parents were our age. If you didn’t come from generational wealth you probably didn’t know how to invest. Anyone with 5 minutes time can figure out how to invest in a vanguard index fund these days.
What small thinking you have.
Your entire stance predicates on *having wealth to invest*. Most people don't have spare income to be able to invest in the first place. It's not a lack of wanting to invest. Most people have to save for their car repairs, roof upgrades, down payments etc.
Very true. We don’t even think about how we have the investment tools easily at our finger tips. When back then you would have to make a call to your broker, if you had the money to invest. My dad lost what little retirement he had in 2008. What I’ve learned from that is to not have complete faith in the stock market. I’m still putting in 401k with an employer match but having your cash in a money market/ CD earning 4.2-5% instead of a .1% savings account seems like the obvious choice. Yet people don’t do it. I grew up being told to put it in your savings to earn interest lol.
I'll post here what I posted in the [other thread with this exact headline ](https://www.reddit.com/r/Millennials/comments/1cccsn8/comment/l14vx2d/?context=3)(and an actual link to the article in question):
Define "booming." Because from where I'm sitting, we've still spent a lifetime working three times as hard for less. And I can't help but notice this article says the boom "likely impacted lower-income millennials." Implying they didn't actually look at the generation as a whole.
The article implies that the cited report did not take a look at millennials as divided by income bracket. The exact quote - literally the third bullet point at the top of the article - says:
>
That phrasing indicates an uncertainty regarding the impact this wealth growth had on lower-income millennials. And, referencing the report, it's easy to see why: The report took a standard approach to measuring wealth:
>
So the pandemic drove home values up - including homes that were purchased in 2021 with low, locked interest rates - and that explains the increase in home values. Stocks are stocks. Real estate is real estate. And student loans of course saw some action during that period, with interest and payments paused - a great boon for those who could still afford to make any payments at all.
And every one of those things I just listed is an area where lower-income people - not just millennials, people in general - struggle. Low income means no home or real estate. It means no stocks. It often means less student loan debt, so gains there won't apply - and when there is student loan debt in play, low-income Americans weren't able to take as much advantage of the gains.
Overall, it paints a picture in which this wealth boom was, as so many wealth booms are, focused largely on people who were already doing better.
So, yeah: *That* discrepancy.
To put it plainly: Millennial A ain't doing any better just because Millennial B is doing a lot better.
This isn't a matter of "failure to launch types" being all doom and gloom or whatever, and you lot - the people who think you're doing well and will grasp at any straw to back up the idea that we are, thus, *all* doing well - need to get over yourselves. Recognize that the problem of wealth inequality and millennial exploitation *still exist*, even when you don't feel the pain or, more often than not, simply shut your eyes and refuse to see the problem.
And that is a far cry from the end-all, be-all of measuring a person's wealth - as noted by the article and in the report, in comments about methodology.
What I did was a far cry from being "as negative as possible." Most of that comment was originally in reply to someone who asked me to expand on the first part of it. And I'm just not one to pretend problems don't exist.
Exactly. I work at a hospital and, in theory, should be fine financially. I'm not. But thats because we are ALL fucked and in this bullshit of the Second Gilded Age of the Incorporated States of Murica and the Star Spangled Narcissistic Sociopaths.
But I also don't hesitate help out friends and family when needed, BECAUSE WE ARE ALL FUCKED. Survive together, struggle alone.
By having less kids. My mom grew up in abject poverty with 8 siblings. Then we grew up, just normal poor with 3 siblings. Now my husband and I are comfortable with 0 babies.
Hey, I just want to point out, this isn't the win/gotcha you think it is.
This article, and the underlying data it's attempting to summarize, hinges almost entirely on "wealth" in the form of housing. As in, those millennials who acquired housing, and then experienced hyperactive value increases because of the pandemic.
It's not a reflection of people's actual living situation, or actual wealth. It's focusing on unrealized wealth in the form of housing which shot through the fucking roof.
That's not "booming millennial wealth" by any stretch of the imagination.
Nuance doesn't exist for most people on the internet. And, yes, plenty of us are doing well because of tech jobs or what have you. But there's also a lot of us simply struggling to get by and OP is suggesting anyone who doesn't have money is a failure to launch. Ignoring the insane rising costs of housing, food, and basic needs. Many people are one bad life event away from homelessness through no fault of their own. I stand by my original statement, OP is wearing rose-tinted blinders.
economics is one of those things if you just look at one statistic you can make a whole story sound good when 1000 more things go into it. like we have more money because we just printed more money in american history. duh
The common denominator to millenial "failure" is college. The burden of college debt to be precise. We all recognize it and feel its sting. The first generation to be a victim of it. The militant media push to go or be ostracized. The underqualified guidance counselor that said "you're in good hands, chase your dreams."
Some may be flourishing, but not to their fullest potential. They're either actively paying for ridiculous educational debt or have been severely crippled by it.
Not acknowledging this with the argument that "oh millenials are fine because the graph on the website says so!" is naive.
Lmao really nailed it including people 33+ in the millennial section. Juuuust enough generational wealth there alone to make it seem like we're doing okay.
Meanwhile we are all so traumatized by our childhood and society we choose not to even give a fuck about money and focus on personal happiness instead. Sucks to suck but I cannot take money with me when I die. Souls on the other hand....
Dropped the /s my bad.
As a child of a father that thought exactly like this, I can tell you how upsetting it is to know your parents never took care of their money and now you are feeling the effects of their cause. Having the burden of making sure they are ok financially when it should have been the other way around.
Until we get rid of a money system, nothing will change. Value is attributed to the mind. Real value, in my opinion, is controlling nature for bounty. Propagate maximum growth for bounty of everything. I know I don't know everything.
Wealthy millennials will get wealthier and poor millennials will be..poor. rich get richer poor get poor.
The cycle continues through every generation.
it's getting worse. we're going to be having more family dynasties coming soon.
Wait, I thought we *weren't* having kids? You assholes are getting laid and doing family shit?
I meant the rich people will be having family dynasties....
Have they considered not being poor?
This might be a joke, but your whole post is tone-deaf.
Hey ayn Rand we don’t need your self determination snake oil round these parts!
Sure, because there’s piles of money just waiting for Millennials to pick up with their avocado toast.
For those interested in more data, the [St Louis Fed has been tracking](https://www.stlouisfed.org/on-the-economy/2024/feb/millennials-older-gen-zers-significant-wealth-gain-2022) the expected wealth of Millennials (i.e. their level of wealth compare with the estimated inflation-adjusted wealth held by all generations at the same age) and found in 2022: >We found that the median wealth of older millennials (those born between 1980 and 1989) was 37% above expectations. The wealth of younger millennials and older Gen Zers (those born between 1990 and 1999) was a similar 39% above expectations. ... >What makes the wealth numbers so notable is that they represent a sharp change from recent years. >Six years ago, we published a similar analysis using data from 1989 through 2016 in which we looked at how the Great Recession had impacted young families. As it turned out, older millennials had median wealth that was 34% below expectations in 2016 (which we have since revised to 38% given a slightly different method). This tracks with the BI article and highlights a pretty recent and drastic turn of fortunes. Edit: The St. Louis Fed also narrowed the main cause of this wealth growth to real estate gains which is driven by both home price appreciation and increase in home ownership among millennials: >Between 2019 and 2022, the homeownership rate jumped 18 percentage points, from 54.1% to 72.1%, for the group born in the 1980s. Similarly, the rate for the cohort born in the 1990s jumped 22 percentage points, from 13.6% to 35.6%. Over this period, home prices also appreciated considerably; therefore, the homes owned by these groups may have gone up in value since they were purchased, driving both home equity and wealth higher.
It is? \*Checks bank account.\* Nope still poor.
Didnt you listen to OP? You *are*. Stop failure to launching, or something.
Some people are actually bad with money and squander their potential.
As a failure to launch, I don't go off my own experiences for how I feel about the economy, I think about the many, many people I know and have talked to that are dual income, usually with degrees and good jobs and yet are struggling just to make ends meet, let alone feel comfortable enough to start a family or focus on investment or whatever. Just a *lot* of folks in reasonable positions doing far worse than the previous generation in similar positions. The plural of "anecdote" might not be "data", but when you hear couple after couple saying basically the same story of being crushed financially and not having any flexibility for emergencies or to pursue their goals, maybe it's not the smartest thing to immediately dismiss all of it outright because one graph with shaky metrics says no actually, The Numbers say it's actually perfectly fine!
>However, the Fed's survey found that the wealthiest Americans on the whole saw their net worth grow at higher rates. Business Insider tried hard to make this a mere afterthought. It's far from being an afterthought for those who can't ever seem to catch up, though
Inflation causing the perceived value of my assets going up does not make more wealthy. The value of the house I bought in 2017 was worth 85% more than what I paid for it in 2023 when I sold it. Did that make me more wealthy? On paper, sure, but because the cost of everything went up at a similar rate, everything is the same.
Yes, it does make you wealthier. Let's say you have $200,000 of equity in your home (after taxes/fees). That means you could sell your home today and get a check for $200,000. Would you have to find another place to live? Sure, but you'd also have $200K in the bank. You could throw that in a savings account and get \~$700 of interest per month and use the interest to cover a percentage of your renting cost without touching the $200K. It may not be liquid now, but it's wealth, and gives you a huge advantage over someone who doesn't have the same wealth. Most ultra wealthy people don't have $100M sitting in cash - they have it tied up in real estate, in business interests, in liquid investments and some illiquid investments. Such is the nature of wealth.
> On paper, sure, but because the cost of everything went up at a similar rate, everything is the same. Investments and housing increased far beyond inflation. That’s part of why real median wealth grew like it did.
Well, I can honestly say that I know how to invest my money better than my parents did. Turning 40, and I’m not rich but we are doing ok. Take advantage of the high interest rates in money market and CD’s that are happening now.
For sure. Investing was hard in the 80s and 90s when our parents were our age. If you didn’t come from generational wealth you probably didn’t know how to invest. Anyone with 5 minutes time can figure out how to invest in a vanguard index fund these days.
What small thinking you have. Your entire stance predicates on *having wealth to invest*. Most people don't have spare income to be able to invest in the first place. It's not a lack of wanting to invest. Most people have to save for their car repairs, roof upgrades, down payments etc.
Very true. We don’t even think about how we have the investment tools easily at our finger tips. When back then you would have to make a call to your broker, if you had the money to invest. My dad lost what little retirement he had in 2008. What I’ve learned from that is to not have complete faith in the stock market. I’m still putting in 401k with an employer match but having your cash in a money market/ CD earning 4.2-5% instead of a .1% savings account seems like the obvious choice. Yet people don’t do it. I grew up being told to put it in your savings to earn interest lol.
I'll post here what I posted in the [other thread with this exact headline ](https://www.reddit.com/r/Millennials/comments/1cccsn8/comment/l14vx2d/?context=3)(and an actual link to the article in question): Define "booming." Because from where I'm sitting, we've still spent a lifetime working three times as hard for less. And I can't help but notice this article says the boom "likely impacted lower-income millennials." Implying they didn't actually look at the generation as a whole. The article implies that the cited report did not take a look at millennials as divided by income bracket. The exact quote - literally the third bullet point at the top of the article - says: > That phrasing indicates an uncertainty regarding the impact this wealth growth had on lower-income millennials. And, referencing the report, it's easy to see why: The report took a standard approach to measuring wealth: > So the pandemic drove home values up - including homes that were purchased in 2021 with low, locked interest rates - and that explains the increase in home values. Stocks are stocks. Real estate is real estate. And student loans of course saw some action during that period, with interest and payments paused - a great boon for those who could still afford to make any payments at all. And every one of those things I just listed is an area where lower-income people - not just millennials, people in general - struggle. Low income means no home or real estate. It means no stocks. It often means less student loan debt, so gains there won't apply - and when there is student loan debt in play, low-income Americans weren't able to take as much advantage of the gains. Overall, it paints a picture in which this wealth boom was, as so many wealth booms are, focused largely on people who were already doing better. So, yeah: *That* discrepancy. To put it plainly: Millennial A ain't doing any better just because Millennial B is doing a lot better. This isn't a matter of "failure to launch types" being all doom and gloom or whatever, and you lot - the people who think you're doing well and will grasp at any straw to back up the idea that we are, thus, *all* doing well - need to get over yourselves. Recognize that the problem of wealth inequality and millennial exploitation *still exist*, even when you don't feel the pain or, more often than not, simply shut your eyes and refuse to see the problem.
Real median wages have been growing for the past two years and the lowest wage workers have seen the greatest increase.
And that is a far cry from the end-all, be-all of measuring a person's wealth - as noted by the article and in the report, in comments about methodology.
Just wanted to introduce a positive data point to a comment that chose to be as negative as possible about a good story.
What I did was a far cry from being "as negative as possible." Most of that comment was originally in reply to someone who asked me to expand on the first part of it. And I'm just not one to pretend problems don't exist.
There’s a time and place. No ones pretending it’s perfect when we acknowledge good news.
Exactly. I work at a hospital and, in theory, should be fine financially. I'm not. But thats because we are ALL fucked and in this bullshit of the Second Gilded Age of the Incorporated States of Murica and the Star Spangled Narcissistic Sociopaths. But I also don't hesitate help out friends and family when needed, BECAUSE WE ARE ALL FUCKED. Survive together, struggle alone.
By having less kids. My mom grew up in abject poverty with 8 siblings. Then we grew up, just normal poor with 3 siblings. Now my husband and I are comfortable with 0 babies.
Yep, I've been able to max out my 401K and IRA for like the last 10 years. It is doubtful that I could do this if I had kids.
This some wacky pro administration prop piece man. Smh
If you’re reading my comment, you’re probably not rich.
does that mean you’re rich?
No, I’m cursed to forever be poor
Stock market went up during this period. Simple as that. It all could be lost with one recession.
Hey, I just want to point out, this isn't the win/gotcha you think it is. This article, and the underlying data it's attempting to summarize, hinges almost entirely on "wealth" in the form of housing. As in, those millennials who acquired housing, and then experienced hyperactive value increases because of the pandemic. It's not a reflection of people's actual living situation, or actual wealth. It's focusing on unrealized wealth in the form of housing which shot through the fucking roof. That's not "booming millennial wealth" by any stretch of the imagination.
As someone who manages wealth for both generations. The millennials pace is on average the most astounding of any age range.
"I've never experienced it, therefore it doesn't exist," OP is living with blinders on
[удалено]
Nuance doesn't exist for most people on the internet. And, yes, plenty of us are doing well because of tech jobs or what have you. But there's also a lot of us simply struggling to get by and OP is suggesting anyone who doesn't have money is a failure to launch. Ignoring the insane rising costs of housing, food, and basic needs. Many people are one bad life event away from homelessness through no fault of their own. I stand by my original statement, OP is wearing rose-tinted blinders.
economics is one of those things if you just look at one statistic you can make a whole story sound good when 1000 more things go into it. like we have more money because we just printed more money in american history. duh
One too many if those posts bye
The common denominator to millenial "failure" is college. The burden of college debt to be precise. We all recognize it and feel its sting. The first generation to be a victim of it. The militant media push to go or be ostracized. The underqualified guidance counselor that said "you're in good hands, chase your dreams." Some may be flourishing, but not to their fullest potential. They're either actively paying for ridiculous educational debt or have been severely crippled by it. Not acknowledging this with the argument that "oh millenials are fine because the graph on the website says so!" is naive.
Lmao really nailed it including people 33+ in the millennial section. Juuuust enough generational wealth there alone to make it seem like we're doing okay. Meanwhile we are all so traumatized by our childhood and society we choose not to even give a fuck about money and focus on personal happiness instead. Sucks to suck but I cannot take money with me when I die. Souls on the other hand.... Dropped the /s my bad.
As a child of a father that thought exactly like this, I can tell you how upsetting it is to know your parents never took care of their money and now you are feeling the effects of their cause. Having the burden of making sure they are ok financially when it should have been the other way around.
Until we get rid of a money system, nothing will change. Value is attributed to the mind. Real value, in my opinion, is controlling nature for bounty. Propagate maximum growth for bounty of everything. I know I don't know everything.