I heard a young comedian say a while back, “They say that we’re not going to have the same standard of living as our parents did. That’s silly, we all live in our parents’ basements, how can we not have the same standard of living?”.
Our S is doing very well and has many times more in retirement accounts at age 29 than I did at his age. He also works full time at a job he enjoys and has a lucrative part-time hobby. Its early yet to tell for sure but I suspect he will be fine.
Our D on the other hand has chronic health issues that have made it unable for have any reliable measure of stamina, which has made holding a full time job impossible. Her financial future is considerably more uncertain, but we will leave her as many assets as we can.
We were always able to live below our income and meet our needs and some of our wants, as did our folks.
Most of theses screeds of “research” are thinly veiled arguments for socialism. I’ve got no patience for them. There are far too many wanna be communists around.
This has been the best country in the world and will continue to be as long as we believe foremost in the value of individual freedom…especially in practice and not just in principle.
The issue of the overall well being of the country is real, but its a fact of life that the world is more competitive now, and we have to compete. Not whine.
Both sets of my grandparents were dirt poor and each side had big families with lots of children. My parents far exceeded their humble origins but the way they grew up probably drove them too. My siblings and I never thought of our grandparents as anything but what they were - sweet, wonderful people. Though I’m proud of my parents and their accomplishments I do not think of them in terms of how much better or worse they’re doing, or we did. Every generation has its own challenges and areas to shine.
To me it’s really an apples to oranges comparison. Technology has changed the world. Expectations were different then. Some things are better, some are worse.
I think millennials and future generations may define “well off” differently than we understand it now.
@SouthFloridaMom9, like you, my grandparents lived in a rural environment, none graduated from HS but very hard workers. Always had jobs. My parents never went to college but were also hard workers. I had a very comfortable middle class upbringing. My S from an income stand point made more his first year out of college than any of us will ever make. This generational leap is due to hard work and educational opportunities. I’m thankful I grew up with a strong work ethic and entrepreneurs.
Money doesn’t buy happiness, it but can sure buy a good night’s sleep.
I’ve been poor and I’ve been rich, and I can say categorically that being rich is better in terms not of buying lots of “stuff,” but knowing you’ve got it covered in the event of an emergency, that your house is bought and paid for, and your retirement relatively secure (with the potential to leave something substantial to one’s kids). Of course it doesn’t guarantee health, a happy marriage or family life, and is no substitute for many of the things that make life worthwhile. Being poor doesn’t automatically bring with it the joys of living either. I think I read somewhere that being poor can be miserable, but there is a point where one can be just as happy with one salary as the next. That’s an important distinction.
My kids will graduate with advanced degrees and zero debt, they’ve started their retirement accounts responsibly, and will most likely have substantial funds down the line. What they do in between is largely up to them, with some input from the world over which they have no control. I’m optimistic for them. As long as they keep their health, they are sitting pretty.
Well, there are degrees of income between rich and poor. I don’t think ANYONE is making a case for poor being better.
And “poor” and “rich” are relative terms.
^^agree, and I also believe that no little to no debt is true wealth. That is how we’ve raised our kids, even when we lived in a very “show-y” area for most of their lives.
Then again, my grandparents didn’t have any debt really, either. They just didn’t have income. 
It was going into the 80’s and 90’s that debt exploded, at least it seems to me. It’s an interesting social phenomenon.
*deleted but main point: Millenials look at this differently ime, at least some that I have encountered.
The exploding debt thing is a good point. Unsecured credit wasn’t easily attainable in our grandparents’ generation and not even that much in our parent’s younger years.
That is what I worry about, not whether our kids will surpass us. Both me and my husband went straight into the military after college, and then right into the industry that we were trained for, eventually to a strong company that we will stay with until we retire. Except for a short and devastating period of unemployment (which definitely helps me to understand and empathize the despair that people have), it was a straight line track. No negotiating, no soul searching, a forever company. Most jobs now, how do you get to the place that you want?
I have watched my younger son work his butt off, trying to get a job as a software engineer in NYC. Computer science degree, intensive web development program, plenty of skills, smart and personable kid. 168 applications out so far, a small number of interviews and no job, recruiters not interested in talking to him. If a young person has to struggle to get a job in a hot industry, in a strong local market, how does anyone get that first “real” job? I feel like the only way you can break into an industry is to have connections, or a lot of experience already. This was not what we went through after graduation, it was so simple!
The secret sauce, IMO, is finding alternate paths, or paths less traveled. When you apply for entry level jobs in Silicon Valley, San Diego, LA, or any other desirable location, you have to expect the competition is going to be fierce. Even experienced, highly qualified people have difficulties finding good jobs in these types of areas.
In this economy, you have to be flexible. As a newbie, you sometimes have to be willing to take jobs in places that may not be as desirable, if for no other reason than to build up your resume so that you can move somewhere nicer later on. The problem is, most young people don’t want to do this. Most want to graduate from college and live by the beach, or in some big city where every other equally qualified person wants to live.
Best of luck to your son though. I hope he finds what he is looking for!
Thanks for the good words, @fractalmstr. I’m all for moving where the jobs are. However, there are a LOT of tech jobs in NYC, and it seems like his odds would be just as good or better there than anybody else. It’s hard to think of where a better market would be, except for maybe here in Seattle.
Tell him to look at DevOps jobs. Very hot area now.
@busdriver11, if the market is that good, it makes me wonder if there is something wrong with his application. Does he struggle with interviews, or are there typos on his resume? Is he making unreasonable salary demands? Anything you can think of? Has he had any feedback from potential employers about why he’s not getting the job?
Thanks, @Tanbiko, I’ll tell him that. Never heard of DevOps, but since he did the Hack Reactor school in Web development, sounds like it could be a fit.
@Nrdsb4, I asked him all those questions, and he can’t seem to pin it down. His school has helped with his resume, that sounds all good. He’s getting some telephone interviews and coding challenges, but not many in person interviews, and it seems like often they are trying to fill a different position than what he’s qualified for…for example, he just interviewed for something that seemed like a designer position, which was not a fit. As far as the salary demands, I think he’s not making any salary demands whatsoever.
It just seems like this process is taking much longer than we expected, with no end in sight. I don’t know how people do this if they don’t have a lot of money saved up, or parents helping them.
Is he open to working for the federal govt? S landed with them and it has worked well for him, but he had to move to DV/Va area. They have given S a lot of training and he’s enjoyed his years there.
I’m sure he’d be happy to work for the federal govt, though I suspect those jobs are next to impossible to land. He’s still wanting to stick to NYC because there are so many jobs there, for now. Of course, even I would move if I could get one of those jobs as a hacker spy that saves the world! There must be those jobs out there, right? 
“I’m sure he’d be happy to work for the federal govt, though I suspect those jobs are next to impossible to land”
And will get harder if President Elect gets his way.
Just to rule out any stumbling blocks with his process, @busdriver11, if he hasn’t already doing some mock interviews with someone who will be honest with him might be a good way of seeing if his interview style needs some tweaking.