Alan C. Posted December 15, 2015 Posted December 15, 2015 More than half of millennials have less than $1,000 More than half of millennials (nearly 52%) have less than $1,000 in savings, according to a recent survey from howmuch.net, a personal finance site. The study was carried out online by Google Consumer Surveys last month among more than 2,550 people ages 18 to 24 and ages 24 to 35. But before you fret about the younger Americans and their tendency to splurge on Instagram-worthy meals, while they hold out for the perfect job where their boss respects them and they get to be creative all the time, take note: About 62% of Americans overall have less than $1,000 in savings, a survey from personal finance GoBankingRates.com found earlier this year. I'd be curious to know how many of them have a TV and smart phone. I have neither even though I could easily afford both. 1
utopian Posted December 15, 2015 Posted December 15, 2015 I would like to know, what percentage of these millennials are being given free rent, smartphones clothes etc. by their baby boomer parents/grandparents. Although I don't approve of the poor economic conditions we have been trapped into, life does not seem so bad when you're getting a free ride from grandpa.
Koroviev Posted December 15, 2015 Posted December 15, 2015 I have an acquaintance who recently got married (although we've asked she hasn't said how much her wedding cost if I had to guess $20-30k at least) told us they had $35 in the bank (as she was on her way to starbucks) This is not counting the $100k+ they have in student loan debt, their 2 car payments, and their $7000 massage chair payment. They also are buying a house currently, oh and her husband is going back to school, they have 5 dogs, and are talking about having a baby. so...yeah not surprising but it's ok because The Bern is going to make it all disappear...
thebeardslastcall Posted December 15, 2015 Posted December 15, 2015 The welfare system pays you to keep less than ~$2000 in cash assets (of the places they measure). So of course many these days tend to have small amounts in their bank accounts because they're punished for having more money in savings by receiving less welfare. The US welfare system promotes poverty and bad spending habits because it frequently amounts to a situation of spend it or lose it. Promoting bad behaviors is the government's business after all. 3
Bushrat Posted December 17, 2015 Posted December 17, 2015 Its fine to have low saving when you are so young.... but the debt is per person is more important than the savings amount. I wonder how much they owe. 1 1
tux Posted December 18, 2015 Posted December 18, 2015 their $7000 massage chair payment At first, I thought one of them was running a massage business and needed a high-end chair for clients, but then I realized that it is probably just one of those comfy chairs that vibrate here and there. Which is just an insane buy in their situation.
Existing Alternatives Posted December 18, 2015 Posted December 18, 2015 Millennials are by definition young and just starting out in their respective productive paths. As such, there is nothing wrong with them having low (and even negative) savings. At the same time, the spending habits of today’s youth simply blow my mind. A young guy in my office (who makes just a fairly basic coin) just bought himself a pair of $500 headphones for his phone, because… the last year model is way out of date. But this could be just me complaining about those young kids and their loud hippity-hop music…
ResidingOnEarth Posted December 18, 2015 Posted December 18, 2015 I have an acquaintance who recently got married (although we've asked she hasn't said how much her wedding cost if I had to guess $20-30k at least) told us they had $35 in the bank (as she was on her way to starbucks) This is not counting the $100k+ they have in student loan debt, their 2 car payments, and their $7000 massage chair payment. They also are buying a house currently, oh and her husband is going back to school, they have 5 dogs, and are talking about having a baby. How could someone do that to themselves? To me, that seems horrible and crazy. Who is lending them all this money? What is their plan if they can no longer service the interest on their debts? How could you even consider buying a house and having a baby in that financial state? They are literally borrowing their entire future so that they can experience a fake and flimsy, vizard of wealth in the present.
Koroviev Posted December 18, 2015 Posted December 18, 2015 How could someone do that to themselves? To me, that seems horrible and crazy. Who is lending them all this money? What is their plan if they can no longer service the interest on their debts? How could you even consider buying a house and having a baby in that financial state? They are literally borrowing their entire future so that they can experience a fake and flimsy, vizard of wealth in the present. We try asking these questions every time we talk to them the last answer I got was they make enough now to pay most of their bills and since he's back in school they don't have to pay back his loans until 6 months after he's done. By then he'll be making $100k+ a year so they don't have anything to worry about. We get more stressed thinking about their situation than they do.... RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
ResidingOnEarth Posted December 18, 2015 Posted December 18, 2015 Sarcasm mode ACTIVATED! they make enough now to pay most of their bills to pay "most of their bills" and since he's back in school they don't have to pay back his loans until 6 months after he's done. That's a whole 6 months away! That's like... forever away. It's so far away, that by then, hover-boards and deep-space travel will have probably been invented and we will all be living off the infinite resources provided by NASA sponsored, off-world, planetary mining! By then he'll be making $100k+ a year so they don't have anything to worry about. I get it... (1 * young_man) + (3 * government_higher_education_years) = $100K+ per anum Yep. The formula is sound. Everything will be just fine. 1
algernon Posted January 10, 2016 Posted January 10, 2016 This is an interesting discussion, these same people actually talking about their situations - https://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/3zq3gr/most_americans_are_one_paycheck_away_from_the/ I would say this has absolutely nothing to do with just starting out. I had my first "real" job at 17, after about a year I moved out into my first apartment, alone. I always had at least 4 to 5 months worth of savings to pay bills, I drove a 15 year old truck with 200,000 miles on it and had a motorcycle. I simply didn't spend my money on stupid stuff, it's really not hard to live like that. Every single person I knew or worked with had a nice car and a payment. I didn't have my first car payment until I was 25, and the only reason I financed a car was because the interest rate on a 20k loan was about $1k over the life of the loan (7 years, ridiculously low interest). So I kept that 20K I had ready to spend on the car in savings. And the only reason I bought a newer car was because I travel for work and didn't want to risk a used car breaking down on my wife while I was out of town. Before that we drove a Saturn I bought for $1000 cash, and it had over 220K miles when I sold it. In my situation it was probably my excessive pride issue, where I don't like to ask other people for help (with money, anyway). That being the case I've never put myself in a position to need to ask family or friends for a loan/help with bills etc. Of course there might be some unforeseen catastrophe that can't be entirely avoided, you can't mitigate all risks, but you damn well can mitigate most of them. How many of these people do an ROI on their education? Sure there are some licensed fields you have to go to school for, doctor, engineer, etc., But a Business Degree, just because you don't know what you want to do with your life? Four years of full time school, while not working, equals losing out on that entire four years of income, plus promotion opportunities and workplace experience. So with an average wage of say $35,000 year, a person not going to school equals $140,000 after four years, whereas someone going to school and not working, taking out loans to pay for their school will have $125,000 for just the average tuition cost (of a private college), then if they have loans for living expenses add that on it, and add on the lost wages, what are we at, -$300,000 after college including the lost wages. So now they get out of school, and how much more do they make compared to the person that didn't go to school? What if they come into the labor force and actually make LESS than the person working already for four years, because that person has been promoted to a management position in whatever field they are in. I'd say there is definitely a risk of the investment never paying off. This isn't just hypothetical, I knew and worked with a lot of people that matched this exact story, about half of my department in my field had degrees and I made more money than all (just starting out with degrees) of them because I had significantly more experience. How many people consider these things? I'm not saying school is always a bad investment, I am saying this is something to consider. 1
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