Which generation isn’t doing this? I don’t think it is a generational cadre thing. I think it is a class thing.
I pretty much said the same thing about my own experience then was downvoted to all hell and accused of being a boomer who caused all this. Wth is wrong with people, no wonder we can’t escape this shit no matter the generation.
Late babyboomer and early genx are doing just fine for the most part. I mean they’ve spent the last 5 decades pillaging from their children and grandchildren’s futures to keep the stock market booming.
If you put a $100 investment in the S&P 500 at the start of 1980, with dividends reinvested, it would have grown to approximately $17,427.60 by early 2025. This is the reason the vast majority of people who vote for Republicans are 55 and older, because they don’t care about anything but securing their own bag.
But a ton of these people got completely obliterated is 2008 too. My point isn’t there aren’t rich people, it’s that there are poor in each generation and the wealth gap is increasing across demographics, even if not uniformly.
There are poor people in each generation but post boomer generations are doing less well off compared to their parents.
I frankly don’t see have how new technologies can help post boomer generations. It is just like the French revolution. Each generation is worse off than the one before. Eventually people will revolt.
You only got obliterated in 2008 if you took your money out of the machine.
With the S&P500 as an example, within 4 years it was back to where it was. By now, it’s worth 4 times what it was in 2007 at the peak before the trough.
It’s all about being able to save. If you can’t then capitalism won’t work for you. I feel it’s worse now, but there’s always been the poor and always will be. The world ain’t about to get fair any time soon. They just rely on the welfare state a lot more. Which is fine. I suspect some of the people struggling the most just aren’t claiming what they’re entitled to.
The people who were laid off didn’t have a choice.
But a ton of these people got completely obliterated is 2008 too.
And even more made more money than ever with the bounce back. The market recovered its losses within 4 years, but wages didn’t recover until 2015-2016.
there are poor in each generation and the wealth gap is increasing across demographics, even if not uniformly.
For adults the poverty level is around 10% all age demographics, however the important thing to evaluate is the difference in wealth.
The median net worth under age 35 is about $39,000, but this rises to approximately $364,500 for the 55-64 age group.
True, some people made that money back. But crucially, some didn’t. Partly due to market fears causing sales of positions and partly because they just had to retire in that window or because their annuity was invested poorly for those conditions. Some people did get wrecked and not always because they messed up.
But yeah, some people are doing well. More yet in the older age groups as you point out. I’m just saying the problem is more directly linked to class than generation. People need to increase class consciousness if the end is ever to be in view. A poor 50 year old is sinking in the same leaky boat as a poor 20 year old.
But yeah, some people are doing well. More yet in the older age groups as you point out. I’m just saying the problem is more directly linked to class than generation. People need to increase class consciousness if the end is ever to be in view. A poor 50 year old is sinking in the same leaky boat as a poor 20 year old.
I never claimed otherwise… I’m just pointing out that there are clear overlaps when it comes to class and generational divides. I never claimed there weren’t poor people above the age of 55, as I said earlier poverty levels for adults is around 10% across the board. The difference is that the vast majority of people above the age of 55 are in a different class than the rest of America.
they don’t care about anything but securing their own bag.
You’ve just described humans in general.
If you put a $100 investment in the S&P 500 at the start of 1980, with dividends reinvested, it would have grown to approximately $17,427.60 by early 2025.
WHICH CAN BUY YOU A HOUSE IN 1963.
I think the point is the 174x growth, not the final number based on the arbitrary $100. If you’d invested $10,000, you’d have $1,740,000 (simple extrapolation not accounting for dividend reinvesting, it’s too early for math)
Right? I’m in my 40s and I’ve razed every 401k I’ve had to survive and move between jobs.
Millennial but I’ve been doing this for the last 4-5 years at this point
Wait, do you actually have retirement savings?
I’m on the leading edge of millennial and my retirement plan is to die.
My job has a 401k I was putting into when I started 12 years ago and they allow to borrow against it so I’ve had to do that to survive for a while now. Whenever I inevitably get fired or leave my job I’m gonna take the opportunity to just cash out and take the huge tax hit because I find it highly unlikely that I’ll make it to actual retirement age at this point.
Oh, you’ll make it to retirement age, you just won’t be able to retire at that age, or ever.
That’s what I expect at least.
I figure that I’ll be able to retire when I have my house, and all other debts paid off in full, and I’m collecting my government pension (we have a national program here in Canada). And that assumes that the pension payments can cover my day to day and month to month expenses, which, at this point, with inflation the way it’s going, I have absolutely zero confidence that it will be enough.
So I keep working and working, and creating value for shareholders.
It’s like Gen Z is going through a divorce. Exactly where I was after mine.
I got to keep my retirement. But if I want a house I’m going to have to dip into it. If the goddamn bubble would pop it wouldn’t be a problem, but here we are.
Im Xer and my wife is to. We are doing that now to some degree. We were actually sorta trying to dejunk but now we are scared we might need something and not have the money to buy it so not getting rid of stuff as much.
I’m currently downsizing homes, and while staying with family, doing the one thing I swore I would never do, paying for storage.
When we find our next place we won’t be able to afford to refurnish if we sold all the furniture. I feel you.
You guys have retirement savings?
It’s amazing how badly small amount of people can treat large amount of people and get away with it.
I learned this lesson when I was in middle school. Our school cafeteria sold students expired food. Not, “Oh it’s a few days late, these dates are estimates so it’s probably fine.” I mean food several months past dates, with obvious changes to consistency and taste. Two examples I vividly remember were moist cheetos and ice cream that looked like foam.
I thought it was disgusting and unsafe. I personally stopped trusting all such school cafeteria food from that point (and never touched it again.) My friends, however, didn’t seem to care? Somehow?
Every time a friend took a bite and asked, “Does this taste weird?” I’d examine the food. If it was a packaged food, I’d check the date. Every time, the expiration date would be from last semester. I know this, because at one point I started keeping records in a notebook about it.
But before I started doing that, I encouraged the affected friends to tell the lunch ladies and ask them to exchange the expired package for a fresher one. They refused to. They were terrified of “causing trouble.” I was like, “It’s just a simple exchange. I’ll go do it for you.” But they begged me to just stay there and say nothing, like the rest of them. They were so scared to potentially upset someone.
Must be quiet. Must behave. Must not dare consider speaking up for our own well-being, even if it means we must literally eat garbage.
I’ll give 'em this, the long-game authoritarians from the 90s and early 00s did a bang up job conditioning the kids to accept fascist rule in 2025. Want to know why so many Americans aren’t fighting back? Because we’ve been raised to accept this abuse. Many are active enforcers at worst, or spinelessly compliant bystanders at best. Anyone outside that spectrum is a trouble-maker that the first group would gladly make suffer (while the second group “minds their own business.”)
I feel bad for 20 year olds now. Shit would have made me kill myself had I had to pay rent at these prices back in 2008. I barely survived on 300$ a week paychecks then. How are people even doing it today?
We’re not and trying to stave off the urge
Billionaires have all our money. Maybe we could ask for it back nicely.
People would need to stop using their social media, software, webstores etc.
But that would be harrrrrrd tho.
Yes.
But: people still want to be billionaires, what if they became billionaires themselves after coming up with a new invention?
I don’t understand the question. If you are a billionaire you took too much from society, not matter how it happened.
Guillotine is nice.
Free haircuts for the rich! You’ll immediately feel 10-12 pounds lighter!
BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL :\
And it’s only going to be more beautiful once people are dropping dead due to medicaid and RFK Jr.
I had 14 grand in a 401k. I had to spend it to survive for a year while I looked for a job. All of it.
Now I know 14k aint shit. But that is where we are.
14k would have been $132k in 45 years when you would have otherwise retired.
The power is in the interest. Even if you max out your 401k in the future it cannot make up for missing interest earnings on early deposits. Having to use it it now means nobody in this entire generation will ever retire, ever.
Just to put it into perspective, if the inflation rate for the past 45 years predicts the next 45 years. $14K today = $55K in 45 years. A $75K household income today would be $294K in 45 years.
So $14K in a 401K saved for 45 years is a pittance and should never be considered a retirement “program”. It’s all bullshit to decrease and eliminate the cost of actual pension programs.
401k will accrue interest (and will rise with the market). It’s not just going to be JUST a straight inflation calculation.
You don’t just put $14k into a 401k, you keep contributing to it. Getting more and more money to compound upon itself.
If you put $4k into it every year (remember, this is pre-tax money and often has an employer match), and it grows 8% per year on average (S&P 500 actually does more like 10%, but we will be more conservative and say 8%), we will also be conservative and assume you won’t increase contributions, even as you earn more later in life, then you have $1,546,022 after 45 years of working.
Yes, this is something you can retire on.
Gotta include inflation in there.
$1,546,022 in 45 years with the same inflation we’ve had for the past 45 years would only be worth $529,400 in todays money.
If you only plan on living for 10 years or less after retiring, then, Maybe.
You only get the 401k when you retire in US? This is not in addition to normal Social Security?
Correct, you get both your own savings and Social Security during retirement. The person replying is being a doomer, rather than preparing for his future.
Most of us that are younger than the Boomers or maybe Gen X don’t want to count on Social Security because we’ve been hearing our whole lives that Social Security is on the chopping block because the government is in so much debt. And at this point we kinda just expect that ladder to be pulled up behind the Boomers before we get anything, because that’s already happened in so many other areas like home ownership.
I also think people need to remember that Social Security is their own money that they paid in over their lives, and they are owed it back.
And also that even though the US government has a large amount of debt, we’ve also spent the last 50 years giving tax cuts to the rich, we’d probably be just fine if we went back to a 90% marginal tax rate on the top earners like we had in the “good old days” of the 1950s.
Most of us that are younger than the Boomers or maybe Gen X don’t want to count on Social Security because we’ve been hearing our whole lives that Social Security is on the chopping block because the government is in so much debt.
Thinking about it, the chance that Social Security money will be stolen and transferred to the 1% is quite high. Not because of the debt but simply to make the rich even richer. They will probably just say that the current system is not sustainable and move all the money into pension funds controlled by private banks which will then gamble with it pocketing the profits and socializing the loses. But 401k is the same so putting money there is not really a solution. The solution is to run away but obviously not everyone is able to.
And $132K in 45 years will buy you 1 Happy Meal. ;)
Without the toy, because we can’t incentivize kids to ask for fast-food meals.
I had $20K a 401K and $15K in school loans when I swapped jobs in my late 20’s. Guess what I did with it.
3 years later I was able to purchase my first house because I saved up money instead of paying the student loans.
Right now I should be maximizing my retirement savings according to all the advisors. Instead I am using the money to pay for my kids college so they can start off in life above zero instead of -$50k like my wife and I did.
I figured out a long time ago that there is no way in hell I can retire and remain in the U.S. The system is rigged against me. So my goal for the next 10 years is to learn Spanish.
14k is worth 14k, and you can live a very spartan year on it apparently.
Probably worth a lot less after early withdrawal penalties and taxes.
Yep. Was 18k originally.
Luxury, I had 9.5k and had to spend it to survive for 2 years while I looked for a job.
no shit, same old story
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They voted for this. I’m glad to finally see they are getting what they wanted.
Really? I voted for this 10 years ago when I was selling belongings to keep from going homeless? I voted for that at (lemme check) 17?
This isn’t a new problem, this has been a problem since before Gen X was born.
The US is, and has been for decades, Absolutely Fucked™
I mean America didn’t really vote for this. Between ramp and gerrymandering, election fraud, and a generally anti-democratic voting system, America isn’t a democracy.
While its not a fully functioning it is a democracy and they did vote for it
While its not a
fullyfunctioning it is a democracy andtheythe dumbest and most brainwashed minority of them did vote for it.
I mean America didn’t really vote for this.
No no no. America is a perfect democracy in which everyone has a fully informed and equitable say in governance.
If the legislature is crippling the economy while the President crushes dissent with a massive paramilitary force, it is only because the people being impoverished and oppressed choose this for themselves.
They’ll have an opportunity to do things differently in two years, when we have another perfectly fair and equitable and fully representative elections cycle, at which point they will once again be responsible for everything that happens afterwards.
America isn’t a democracy.
Only a Russian Wumao or a North Korean Iranian bot would say such a thing. You’re trying to trick us into not voting! Well, I’m not falling for it. I’m going to vote. And then I’m going to blame everyone else, since our democracy is perfect and everything bad is the fault of my neighbors for not voting the way I did.
I’m not trying to shift blame here, but I’d be curious to see stats on how much needless spending these generations do compared to those prior.
We definitely do pay more now for shit but at the same time, I wonder if latter generations can’t go without some of their creature comforts.
Our economy would collapse without this “needless spending”.
The younger generation is already going wothout homes and healthcare. How much more do you think they should give up?
I can afford a lot of tiny electronic doodads year to year. I could save it all for decades and not get close to a home or a decent retirement.
Everything you want, nothing you need.
Ok, but what does your avocado toast budget look like?
/s
Well, back in the day a dozen people would live in a tiny ass house. I’m not saying this is ok, but I realize y’all gonna vote my comment that way anyways like you did on my original one.
🤷♂️
What are you, a paid shill? Shut the fuck up.
Someone is a touch sensitive. Need a hug?
Yes. Come closer.
Ok
Been watching Caleb Hammer’s financial audits. It’s amazing how much people spend on shit they don’t need, then find the credit card bills are so high they miss payments.
Basically every single guest walks out with a budget that gets their self-inflicted bad debt paid off in 2-10 years.
That channel is for entertainment purposes only
The people featured on it are not representative of the population as a whole. He specifically picks extreme cases to maximize entertainment value
Of course he only picks the biggest train wrecks, wouldn’t be fun to watch otherwise.
Regardless, there are lessons to draw from the channel. I know quite a few people in my personal life who have self-inflicted financial difficulties. Door-dash should be a sometimes thing; your car still works, you don’t need a brand new one; you don’t need to live in an expensive city; your current phone is 2-years-old, you don’t need a new flagship, etc, etc.
If you have unpaid bad debt, these are the types of things you need to seriously consider no longer spending money on and instead pay off the bad debt that keeps you down.
I have never once in my life paid for an uber to deliver my burrito.
I don’t even order takeout outside of being social gatherings with friends.
I’ve been driving for eight years and only ever owned two cars, one I had to get rid of because I couldn’t afford to pay for it to be repaired, and the other was dirt cheap because it had a dodgy crash sensor.
I have NEVER had a credit card.
But do tell me how frivolous financial choices are what’s making me poor, because you seen it on TV.
It’s definitely not the complete lack of protections on livable wages and how inflation has been above wages for my entire lifetime.
I have NEVER had a credit card.
But do tell me how frivolous financial choices are what’s making me poor
Sounds like you don’t have unpaid bad debt. Given I specifically said to seriously consider the above “If you have unpaid bad debt” then, it doesn’t apply to you. Not sure why you are being hostile about something that even I said doesn’t apply to you.
I used to watch Caleb when he started out but good fucking god every episode now is just him screaming at people. There’s no content worth watching there for me anymore.
I wonder if this really is the majority in america…its weird, I dont really see it here but im guessing a lot of people I know are getting parents help. I am seeing more homeless in my area all the time though but that does seem mental health related as well
If you knew for a fact that you’d never retire, you’d go a bit insane as well
From me and my husband’s family, 5/6 kids (late millennials and gen z) have absolutely fallen back on moving back in with Mom and Dad in order to made things work. Probably one of those could have made it work otherwise, and the one that didn’t have help lives in a tiny house. We’ve all been working the whole time, it’s just between crazy rent hikes, health issues, and hurricanes it just hasn’t been realistic to thrive (or in some of our cases thrive) without help. There’s no social safety net.
Most of my friends (we’re in our 30s) really want to start families and genuinely just can’t afford to. We couldn’t if we weren’t receiving support from family. Childcare is just prohibitively expensive (especially on top of rent and insurance).
