I don't relate or sympathize w/the youth featured in the article in terms of spending. A lot has to do w/media, television, and society telling us what is normal lifestyle behavior. We can all agree that Mustachians are "not the norm" although it should be.
"Her daughter, who is in her 20s, was not able to find a good-paying job and ended up moving in with her mother."There are a lot of Mustachians like this here, minus the spending. People say it's bad to live w/parents. Historically, the idea that children have to be on their own at 18 is very foreign and an outlier in human history. If you look at other cultures and in history, children have been with their parents a lot, even until marriage. NYT had an article and comments on this and most agree. Kicking kids out in actuality is maybe not the best thing financially and staying together is a behavior we should encourage more.
But again,
"Continuing that support into adulthood has spread, experts say, largely because the economy of the last decade has fallen short in generating good job opportunities for their millennial children." Please remember that people in my age group and a bit older entered their careers in the worst recession in many decades. And those effects are still carrying over. We know job prospects are still not good, global growth could be stagnant, technology is threatening many jobs, and wages are flat or falling with inflation. Those are main reasons. You are not representative of the average or population, just a tiny sample.
Young people today aren't so different from young people before but their circumstances are. It's why I can't stand baby boomers always criticizing the young. And in my workplace, the generation that criticizes are often not as hard-working as young people I see; it's incredibly hypocritical and frustrating to see that. Think "Scumbag baby boomer meme or New Economy Steve."(of course not all seniors are like this).
You cannot compare decades ago to today, different times, different eras. When I was 18, I couldn't be held responsible for the financial crisis right? But I have to deal w/it and handle it. You older people helped create those problems in voting/not voting on issues and candidates and own spending patterns.
It's easy to cite people around you as examples that young people complain. But people surround themselves with people who they want to be around and are alike in social status or values. Part of my per-diem job involves being with people I don't associate with. If I painted the world as being my circle of friends and extrapolated that to the whole world, I'd be pretty biased and ignorant. But listening to others outside, it's not always what you think. That's why I don't find social circles to be accurate sources for understanding how the world works. You need to get out and see the other perspective. I know people who have jobs and who don't. They all make decisions they think is right but it's hard to know in the end. Society is not just lawyers, health care professionals, teachers, soldiers, truck drivers. And not everyone can be those things and shouldn't be. (Teaching is incredibly difficult to find in my area). And Shiller has talked about career insurance to protect against poor decisions.
I think young people don't get get enough sympathy or understanding that their situation is much different to those before, at least in media. Young people know struggle but the issue is there's no hope for quite a few. Absolutely no future for some because the barriers to attain that are too high (even state college). I see this in a lot of young people. Plus living expenses relative to income are up. NYT featured this too on rent as a % of income. The reason I stay at home is because it's harder to save now than it was then.
If you have a good paying job and can save so much why are you still living at home? It doesn't sound like you have massive debt, based on you'd savings rate, so maybe it's time to move out of the basement.... My g/f still lives at home too but she also has massive student loan debt.
My job isn't well paying in absolute terms let's be honest (though how much I work for it, yes it is). And personally the area I'm in is expensive and I can't move out because I'm still in school. I'm staying at home to have a shot at retirement. Financially, I do very well for my age group and occupation but I know I'm an exception, not the norm. Technically I'm doing better than similar peers making 2-3X more than me. If I didn't live with my parents, my savings would be much less. I'll move out once I hit certain financial goals. And I'm not burdening my parents. Their expenses haven't changed much with me at home.
I agree that the ones featured are out of hand and stupid. And I don't think parents should finance this lifestyle. But in better times, these stories would be rare. Young people get a lot of schtick but they didn't create these job conditions. Things outside their power. If today's young people were born in the same time as older people, they wouldn't be so heavily criticized as part of medias' bashing for news clicks.
Side note: why a lot of people don't blame parents? Parents raise the kids and are responsible for how they turn out. Lately, parents are removing themselves from the failures of their kids. A big part is in education performance. It's always, "better teachers", more school spending. But that's not the problem. It's the parents. Look at Asians, why do they succeed? Good parenting. Teachers teach and if good, instill values but parents are responsible. Or maybe the parents have mediocre DNA, so why expect stellar, special kids? Kids are reflection of adults. Fail, they are not ours, it's their fault. Succeed, well because of the parents. Parents don't accept responsibility for kids failing and controlling who they hang out w/ or do. Stop being friends, start being parents. I know there's some parent bashing but those defending parents and criticizing kids, maybe look in the mirror.