The poor generation

[ElbertoHokie]

Seems chicken and egg. Number 1 priority is paying down debt because they accumulated more debt at their age than other generations. Conversely, my generation came out of college with little or no debt, were raised in an era of home ownership as a priority, and therefore we all wanted to save and buy a home.

It has definitely changed. My dad graduated from Tech in '75 and was able to pay the vast majority of his college cost with a summer job working on a golf course. The idea of that now is just laughable. I'm just lucky I got a full ride for grad school. Tuition alone would have run me $72,000 for the two years I was there.

[133743Hokie]

I agree with you but I think millenials are this way for different reasons.

They saw the baby boomer generation get clobbered in 2008 with their housing values. Owning a home is no longer a guarantee that you'll have an appreciating asset in most parts of the country. So why rush to buy a house and start pouring money into it?

due to the above, the boomers aren't retiring. I have a friend that works at a big 4 firm. His dad had X amount of steps to go to get to partner. My friend now has X+2 steps to get there. So millenials, while characterized as lazy by many, have a much longer road to go to "make it." That's just one example. The boomers haven't stepped aside like previous generations and made room for the coming ones due to the financial hits they took in their houses. Their portfolios should have recovered by now. So many millennials are staring down the barrels of more years at lower incomes due to a slower pace of advancement through the corporate ladder leading them to frugality.

Now I don't have reams of data to back that up, but looking around and talking to my many friends, that's the trend I have observed.

Ah, the baby boomers. We were first a disappointment to our greatest generation parents, now we are an impediment to our greedy, ambitious, spoiled little brats. What a country!

And now we're taking care of those parents that were so disappointed in us.

[133743Hokie]

Seems chicken and egg. Number 1 priority is paying down debt because they accumulated more debt at their age than other generations. Conversely, my generation came out of college with little or no debt, were raised in an era of home ownership as a priority, and therefore we all wanted to save and buy a home.

It has definitely changed. My dad graduated from Tech in '75 and was able to pay the vast majority of his college cost with a summer job working on a golf course. The idea of that now is just laughable. I'm just lucky I got a full ride for grad school. Tuition alone would have run me $72,000 for the two years I was there.

Yeah. I graduated in 79. No debt (parents paid for tuition, room and board and books, I paid for everything else). Graduated. Had good job. Bought a car. Got a credit card. Got married and bought a house at 26. Life went on from there, NBD.

My 26 and 28 year old sons, while debt free after college, see things differently. Both have great careers. One is in the LA area and will likely rent forever! The other has been in NYC and now NOVA and just bought a townhouse as he was tired of renting (and paid out the wazoo for a 30 year old property!). Both with long term relationships but neither looking to get married any time soon. It's a different time.