4 ms·

They only need enough of an analysis to get a catchy article heading. Every day it's either "millennials are rich" or "millennials are poor". Millennials are p

They only need enough of an analysis to get a catchy article heading. Every day it's either "millennials are rich" or "millennials are poor". Millennials are poor: ~10% have $15k saved up https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/09/a-growing-percentage-of-millennials-have-absolutely-nothing-saved.html https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/09/a-growing-percentage-of-mill... Millennials are rich: ~47% have $15k saved up https://www.sfgate.com/personal-finance/article/Millennials-saving-more-salary-savings-generation-12522722.php https://www.sfgate.com/personal-finance/article/Millennials-... Avoid articles that stereotype any generation, because they're garbage that distort the truth to push agendas and generate clicks.

mgbmtl 8y ago
Not to mention articles that use an average instead of median. Millennials can seem rich on average, but poor on median, because of the growing wealth disparity.
mjevans 8y ago
Maybe 30-50 years ago having 15K saved up was rich. What can 15K get you today? An OK used car, maybe, and it's like 1/10th of the down-payment that's expected on a house that's still too far away from work, which you can't expect to stay at because no one has a stable career anymore.
- dahfizz 8y ago
  Where do you live? I bought a car that was <2 years old with <30k miles for just under 8 grand. You can easily find good cars for less than $15k. In fact, 15k is nearly enough for a brand new nissan sentra. And with a median home price of $200k, $15k is nearly half of a down payment if you want to avoid mortgage insurance, and is plenty if youre willing to take on mortgage insurance.
  - mjevans 8y ago
    Arguably the price of the car is still near enough to estimate; 15K being a median figure in the ballpark. It's also not JUST the home price, it's the career, being able to expect to stay in the same area for a long time and generally do well. I happen to live near Seattle, but I think the same could be said of a majority of the 25 most populated metro-areas in the US, if not a similar proportion of cities in most other countries. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_metropolitan_statistical_areas#United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_metropolitan_statistic... I'm extrapolating that any place with >5% population growth over the ~10 year period is in a similar bind due to various policies.
pcdoodle 8y ago
Thank you. The narrative is wack and stats are cherry picked for headlines.

mgbmtl 8y ago

Not to mention articles that use an average instead of median. Millennials can seem rich on average, but poor on median, because of the growing wealth disparity.

mjevans 8y ago

Maybe 30-50 years ago having 15K saved up was rich. What can 15K get you today? An OK used car, maybe, and it's like 1/10th of the down-payment that's expected on a house that's still too far away from work, which you can't expect to stay at because no one has a stable career anymore.

dahfizz 8y ago
Where do you live? I bought a car that was <2 years old with <30k miles for just under 8 grand. You can easily find good cars for less than $15k. In fact, 15k is nearly enough for a brand new nissan sentra. And with a median home price of $200k, $15k is nearly half of a down payment if you want to avoid mortgage insurance, and is plenty if youre willing to take on mortgage insurance.
- mjevans 8y ago
  Arguably the price of the car is still near enough to estimate; 15K being a median figure in the ballpark. It's also not JUST the home price, it's the career, being able to expect to stay in the same area for a long time and generally do well. I happen to live near Seattle, but I think the same could be said of a majority of the 25 most populated metro-areas in the US, if not a similar proportion of cities in most other countries. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_metropolitan_statistical_areas#United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_metropolitan_statistic... I'm extrapolating that any place with >5% population growth over the ~10 year period is in a similar bind due to various policies.

pcdoodle 8y ago

Thank you. The narrative is wack and stats are cherry picked for headlines.