3 ms·

>To be a young well off millennial is basically like being part of a Boomer v2.0.0 generation. TIL that being well off is great. As a fellow millennial who has

>To be a young well off millennial is basically like being part of a Boomer v2.0.0 generation. TIL that being well off is great. As a fellow millennial who hasn't "made it", could you please guide me with some tips on how to "make it"?

whateveracct 3y ago
Life really turns on a few moments in time all told. For my wife and myself, STEM degrees with in-state tuition (I turned down a prestige private university) with automatic test-score-based scholarship went a long way for me and my wife. Ended up with $40k in debt total which was pretty easy to pay down in a couple years in industry. Parents haven't helped once financially past college (including home buying). They had some savings for me and sent some money for food. And they bought a new car and gifted us their '08 Civic upon graduation (still going strong!) More recently, we moved out of an expensive coastal city to a suburb of a smaller nearby city in the first summer of the pandemic. When mortgage rates were sub-3% (with 20% down) and before the housing market got crazy hot. That was just luck = preparation (saved money and built credit and no debt) meets opportunity (turns out our savings were enough for 20% down if we looked to the burbs and we could get a low rate and go under asking for a 3k sqft, newish house). That's the best financial decision we've made since our college decisions. It really is a combination of luck and a few consequential decisions. It helped that we were both pretty academically smart and lived in a state with great engineering and CS programs at in-state schools. But we haven't made 100s of savvy financial decisions with huge ROI. Just a few sensible ones and dodged some bullets such as private university, burdensome house, etc.
r2_pilot 3y ago
From another getting-older millennial, your best tip will be to be lucky. Barring that, manufacture your own luck. Hey, it works for some people(just not me, apparently).
xwdv 3y ago
Here’s a repeatable, no nonsense, passion free guide: 1) research careers, find out what the average salary is at the highest levels. If it takes more than 8 years to reach six figure income (before other forms of compensation) it’s probably not good enough. Also if it’s the type of job where you are paid primarily for the time you spend doing something rather than the value you create it’s a shitty job that doesn’t scale. Sorry. You need a career where you work less and decide more as you grow in skill and knowledge. 2) now get the entry level job 3) start looking for new job opportunities after a year and when a new higher paying job arises take it. This might happen around the 2 year mark. 4) repeat the cycle of taking a job and finding a better one until you max out salary and comp. Other advice: your first few years in your career are not the time to make big expenses, this is the time to start paying down debt, saving and investing money. Plan to live with parents, roommates, trailer, car, whatever you need to do to have as low cost of living as possible. Do not worry about your love life because you will not find an optimal partner in these first few years, no one cares about you until you’re at least in the late 20s. If you can manage to get like a 90% saving rate and make good investments that track the markets, you will be doing very well later on. Do not waste time and do no listen to people telling you to chase a passion or start a business. Being poor or having a shitty business take over your life sucks more than having a job you’re not passionate about. If you already fucked up and you’re in your 30s, do not worry. Just pretend you’re still in your 20s and avoid revealing your age. People will assume you’re younger and you will be immune to the ageism that often halts people’s progress in a career. Being in your 20s is more about your status in life than your chronological age.

whateveracct 3y ago

Life really turns on a few moments in time all told. For my wife and myself, STEM degrees with in-state tuition (I turned down a prestige private university) with automatic test-score-based scholarship went a long way for me and my wife. Ended up with $40k in debt total which was pretty easy to pay down in a couple years in industry. Parents haven't helped once financially past college (including home buying). They had some savings for me and sent some money for food. And they bought a new car and gifted us their '08 Civic upon graduation (still going strong!) More recently, we moved out of an expensive coastal city to a suburb of a smaller nearby city in the first summer of the pandemic. When mortgage rates were sub-3% (with 20% down) and before the housing market got crazy hot. That was just luck = preparation (saved money and built credit and no debt) meets opportunity (turns out our savings were enough for 20% down if we looked to the burbs and we could get a low rate and go under asking for a 3k sqft, newish house). That's the best financial decision we've made since our college decisions. It really is a combination of luck and a few consequential decisions. It helped that we were both pretty academically smart and lived in a state with great engineering and CS programs at in-state schools. But we haven't made 100s of savvy financial decisions with huge ROI. Just a few sensible ones and dodged some bullets such as private university, burdensome house, etc.

r2_pilot 3y ago

From another getting-older millennial, your best tip will be to be lucky. Barring that, manufacture your own luck. Hey, it works for some people(just not me, apparently).

xwdv 3y ago

Here’s a repeatable, no nonsense, passion free guide: 1) research careers, find out what the average salary is at the highest levels. If it takes more than 8 years to reach six figure income (before other forms of compensation) it’s probably not good enough. Also if it’s the type of job where you are paid primarily for the time you spend doing something rather than the value you create it’s a shitty job that doesn’t scale. Sorry. You need a career where you work less and decide more as you grow in skill and knowledge. 2) now get the entry level job 3) start looking for new job opportunities after a year and when a new higher paying job arises take it. This might happen around the 2 year mark. 4) repeat the cycle of taking a job and finding a better one until you max out salary and comp. Other advice: your first few years in your career are not the time to make big expenses, this is the time to start paying down debt, saving and investing money. Plan to live with parents, roommates, trailer, car, whatever you need to do to have as low cost of living as possible. Do not worry about your love life because you will not find an optimal partner in these first few years, no one cares about you until you’re at least in the late 20s. If you can manage to get like a 90% saving rate and make good investments that track the markets, you will be doing very well later on. Do not waste time and do no listen to people telling you to chase a passion or start a business. Being poor or having a shitty business take over your life sucks more than having a job you’re not passionate about. If you already fucked up and you’re in your 30s, do not worry. Just pretend you’re still in your 20s and avoid revealing your age. People will assume you’re younger and you will be immune to the ageism that often halts people’s progress in a career. Being in your 20s is more about your status in life than your chronological age.