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Millennials Who Are Thriving Financially Have One Thing in Common: Rich Parents

21 points by minikites 11y ago

dummy7953 11y ago
The system works!!
madcaptenor 11y ago
Is this any different than it used to be?
- minikites 11y ago
  The difference more pronounced now as wages fall and debts increase.
- wmil 11y ago
  Wages have been stagnant for the past 30 years (inflation adjusted), but education and housing costs have been skyrocketing. Rent control laws are set up to benefit long term residents, so new workers or people who move to a new city get screwed. So it's much worse than it used to be. Depending on how far back you go with "used to be".
nostrademons 11y ago
I'd wager that if you look at Millenials who are thriving financially, you'd find a bigger correlation: those who majored in STEM and ended up with jobs in technical professions. Take a look at the math in the article: "Imagine an individual who earns $50,000 and is shopping for a $200,000 home (the median U.S. income and house price). This person would like to put 20 percent down. If he or she follows the popular financial advice to save 10 percent of his or her annual pay, it’ll take him or her about eight years to have that down payment ready to go. If that same person has $26,000 of student debt, which means monthly payments of $280 based on a 10-year repayment plan, it’ll take this person closer to nine years." Now imagine that the individual makes $80K instead of $50K, a not unreasonable technical wage even outside of SF or NYC. Even after taxes, he can save the down payment in 2 years. The financial outcomes of my friends & acquaintances have largely followed their facility with technology. The best hackers are now billionaires; the good ones made a million or two, even if they took the safe path of working at a big company. Even ones who just know how to use Facebook, Word, and Excel do fine in digital marketing specialties. The English majors are struggling hard, often in service jobs.
- angersock 11y ago
  The best hackers are now billionaires [citation needed] This is a lie. Hell, even Torvalds is worth less than half a billion. Stallman is basically broke. Carmack is worth less than a hundred million. Meanwhile, sociopaths and kids with Ivy connections seem to be the ones raking in the money you mention.
  - nostrademons 11y ago
    Drew Houston and a couple early Googlers. I was talking personal acquaintances in the post, not the people generally lionized by the hacker community. There's this phenomena with a lot of hackers where once you make a lot of money, you're no longer cool, mainly because you've made a lot of money. Your day job also tends to shift to managing people, but I can assure you that many of the founders of the big unicorns today are wicked smart technically in addition to being savvy businesspeople.
    - rndmind 11y ago
      If you make millions by selling out against the hacker ethics or selling out your users, that would be pretty selfish and uncool.
      - nostrademons 11y ago
        There's a degree of Hacker Ethic in-between Stallman and Zuckerburg (who, BTW, is quite a skilled hacker even if he does take advantage of basically everyone he comes in contact with). Most people don't believe it's unethical to get paid for the fruits of your labor, nor to enter into deals with mutually-consenting adults. If you do, that's fine, but realize that's not going to stop other people from doing it, and if you live by that, somebody else will get paid for the fruits of your labor. The thread is about how to be financially successful as a Millenial: the best way to be financially successful, in any generation, is to work hard at things that other people value and insist that you're compensated appropriately for that.
Beached 11y ago
I dont get their definition of rich. My parents helped me with college, yet I still graduated with the average debt of $29,000 from school, I make less then 40,000, yet I was able to pay off all my loans and debt, while saving more then 30% income towards retirement every year, AND save 8k for a future down payment. However my parents certainly are not rich, unless you define under 70k(pretax)/year combined in income with 2 kids rich..
- wmil 11y ago
  Where do you live? You can't be paying much rent.
  - Beached 11y ago
    in Michigan, I pay about $950/m for rent and all utilities.

21 points by minikites 11y ago

dummy7953 11y ago

The system works!!

madcaptenor 11y ago

Is this any different than it used to be?

minikites 11y ago
The difference more pronounced now as wages fall and debts increase.
wmil 11y ago
Wages have been stagnant for the past 30 years (inflation adjusted), but education and housing costs have been skyrocketing. Rent control laws are set up to benefit long term residents, so new workers or people who move to a new city get screwed. So it's much worse than it used to be. Depending on how far back you go with "used to be".

nostrademons 11y ago

I'd wager that if you look at Millenials who are thriving financially, you'd find a bigger correlation: those who majored in STEM and ended up with jobs in technical professions. Take a look at the math in the article: "Imagine an individual who earns $50,000 and is shopping for a $200,000 home (the median U.S. income and house price). This person would like to put 20 percent down. If he or she follows the popular financial advice to save 10 percent of his or her annual pay, it’ll take him or her about eight years to have that down payment ready to go. If that same person has $26,000 of student debt, which means monthly payments of $280 based on a 10-year repayment plan, it’ll take this person closer to nine years." Now imagine that the individual makes $80K instead of $50K, a not unreasonable technical wage even outside of SF or NYC. Even after taxes, he can save the down payment in 2 years. The financial outcomes of my friends & acquaintances have largely followed their facility with technology. The best hackers are now billionaires; the good ones made a million or two, even if they took the safe path of working at a big company. Even ones who just know how to use Facebook, Word, and Excel do fine in digital marketing specialties. The English majors are struggling hard, often in service jobs.

angersock 11y ago
The best hackers are now billionaires [citation needed] This is a lie. Hell, even Torvalds is worth less than half a billion. Stallman is basically broke. Carmack is worth less than a hundred million. Meanwhile, sociopaths and kids with Ivy connections seem to be the ones raking in the money you mention.
- nostrademons 11y ago
  Drew Houston and a couple early Googlers. I was talking personal acquaintances in the post, not the people generally lionized by the hacker community. There's this phenomena with a lot of hackers where once you make a lot of money, you're no longer cool, mainly because you've made a lot of money. Your day job also tends to shift to managing people, but I can assure you that many of the founders of the big unicorns today are wicked smart technically in addition to being savvy businesspeople.
  - rndmind 11y ago
    If you make millions by selling out against the hacker ethics or selling out your users, that would be pretty selfish and uncool.
    - nostrademons 11y ago
      There's a degree of Hacker Ethic in-between Stallman and Zuckerburg (who, BTW, is quite a skilled hacker even if he does take advantage of basically everyone he comes in contact with). Most people don't believe it's unethical to get paid for the fruits of your labor, nor to enter into deals with mutually-consenting adults. If you do, that's fine, but realize that's not going to stop other people from doing it, and if you live by that, somebody else will get paid for the fruits of your labor. The thread is about how to be financially successful as a Millenial: the best way to be financially successful, in any generation, is to work hard at things that other people value and insist that you're compensated appropriately for that.

Beached 11y ago

I dont get their definition of rich. My parents helped me with college, yet I still graduated with the average debt of $29,000 from school, I make less then 40,000, yet I was able to pay off all my loans and debt, while saving more then 30% income towards retirement every year, AND save 8k for a future down payment. However my parents certainly are not rich, unless you define under 70k(pretax)/year combined in income with 2 kids rich..

wmil 11y ago
Where do you live? You can't be paying much rent.
- Beached 11y ago
  in Michigan, I pay about $950/m for rent and all utilities.