Gen Y Entitlement

when i read stuff about millenials, i blow it off because i'm not very millenial in my personality/work ethic/etc, except for the desire for meaningful/impactful work.  but i work hard, i was cheap through college and right after, and a i chose a secure career path.

this guy just sounds...bitter.  people can live on one salary now, it's possible.  i know lots of people that do it.  people put off having children because of the expense now.  of course everything is more expensive than it was 30 years ago - that's how money works.  i also make 2x more than my mom made while raising me.  he kind of sounds a lot like the millenials in the articles that he's complaining about.  glancing at the titles of his other articles on the sidebar, I feel like he is just trying to be outrageous.

Gotta say I disagree with this guy.  He racked up the debt.  Not anyone else.  He choose a career that doesn't pay that well.  It is all on him.  I fell into that trap.  Worked 10 years in an career that I loved, but didn't have a future.  I choose to change careers while I was still young.  I don't love it as much, but I am way more financially stable, and have managed to pay off much of my debt.  (Yes going back to school increased my debt in the short term)

Ultimately, it is a persons responsibility to figure out how to be successful.  No one can do that for you.  You can be successful in work or life or both.  I enjoy my job, I don't love it.  But I do love my life (Wife, Kid, Hobbies).  You make your own choices and are accountable for your own happiness.

Also,  I strongly agree with the original article that this guy was refuting:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wait-but-why/generation-y-unhappy_b_3930620.html

Just my $.02.

Seems like a lovable guy.  lol

I was born in 85 so I could be a Gen X or a Gen Y depending on who you are asking. But I agree with the Huffpo article and not at all with the response.

No one "deserves" a home, food, medical care, car, etc. all the things he listed. Everyone deserves an equal opportunity to work for those things (ie no discrimination based on race or gender) but no one deserves those things.

If he wanted to be rich he should have chosen a career that paid some money and didn't require massive college debt to obtain. Every college student has the option of which path to choose. He sounds like he figured he "deserved" a college education and a job and now the reality of the debt and lack of pay are not in line with his expectations.

Yes the cost of goods are going up faster than my pay, but we are doing okay. My wife and I own a house, have good cars and are able to take a vacation now and then. If I want more I'll work harder and longer to get it. 

This is my sentiment as well.

I have a theory, and I could be way out in the weeds, about what I call the "everybody gets a trophy" syndrome our parents and schools seem to adhere to now.  Kids these days aren't allowed to face adversity due to the potential of harming their self esteem.  They go through their entire life being reinforced and rewarded for a meager level of effort.  Finish last place in your baseball league?  no problem, here's your trophy.  Barely pass 7th grade?  No problem, you're on the merit honor roll".

However, the real world has no such merit system.  You either succeed or you fail, and what's meant to build our kids up ultimately (in my opinion) harms them far more in the long run.

I finished an Ironman 4 hours after the winner and still got a medal.  

lol, me too.     OK, I need to revise my statement above.  Medals are OK for Ironman finishers. 

this is basically the point of the huffpo article he is "responding" to.

Unfortunately I think the "real world" is not as real as it used to be. You and I have similar experience with this, we both have extended family that are being cared for by "the system". 

I have two extended family members that are very much entitled and believe they deserve whatever it is their hearts desire, they are 19 and 21. Both have been and/or are still on food stamps, both have utilized cheap government housing for the few months they managed to be on their own. Neither finished high school despite their mom working her rear off to give them every opportunity and all the help they could ever need. They spend their time now going from house to house asking for handouts and living with anyone who will allow it for a few months. They are not afraid of failure because there are many adults in their family that make a living out of the system. They are perpetually angry at my wife and I for not propping them up because it isn't their fault they don't have good jobs like we do, and we have a house and cars so obviously we can afford to give them money and we should feel obligated to do so. 

Because they were raised to never fail nor take responsibility I don't think they ever will. There are too many ways to get assistance even for an able bodied young person. 

On that note, I worked at the local YMCA at the front desk during college. Membership price was based on income and if you were on SS it was free. I can't tell you the number of young, able bodied people, on SS disability that came in to work out. They were all there to run, swim, lift weights etc. Many were prevented from working due to "depression" etc. One had been getting disability for years for his bad back, he benched over 350lbs. 

If we shrink the entitlements and cut down on the programs and the fraud maybe the real world will get a little more real and be scary enough for people to put some effort in to secure their finances. 

Gotta agree with others that he is just whining and struggling with the reality of some poor planning/decision making. 

I was born in '79 so am in that "in-between" generation group. I don't feel I was raised with the "everybody is special" mentality, but I was definitely encouraged to be anything I wanted to be, through hard work.

My parents are hard-core, debt-free savers and passed that mentality along to me early. I have limited sympathy for people like the author who complain about debt that they got themselves into. Go buy a Dave Ramsay book and start the process to get yourself out. Complaining and wishing and writing articles does not change anything.

I think he does come off pretty whiny and entitled, however I disagree with the points that some have made about getting an education for a job that pays without incurring debt.

Have you seen the price of college these days? The average student graduates with $27,000 in loans. That is a LOT of money. and thats the "average." That means that half(ish) of students had more debt. If you want to go to graduate school, a requirement for many hard science to really have a job that "pays" it costs even more. Law school, med school, etc. They are EXPENSIVE. The rate of tuition inflation has been double the rate of natural inflation for the better part of the last 60 years.

I graduated with a degree in engineering from my state school, which was the cheapest option for me, and I came out with $30,000 in debt. I make ends meet fine, but even with this "good" degree, I would have a LOT of trouble supporting a family on my sole income while paying off my student loans. Forget putting money away for retirement at this point. The fact is, the cost of a degree, and the cost of living has increased while income has not. So the "millenials" are left leaving college with a truckload of debt and difficult circumstances in which to pay it off.

• engineering degree
• "state-related" school
• approx $24k in debt at graduation 10 years ago, paid down to about $12k at this point
• own a home (underwater but who isn't?  have a great interest rate in a good neighborhood for rent/resale)
• own 2 cars - paid off
• nice vacation annually
• zero credit card balance
• MBA paid for by employer and approx $8k in loans
• med-to-high cost of living area (but gasoline is cheap and my car gets great mileage)
• max out 401k to employer match and roth IRA to tax limits - could be doing more but i've been doing it for 11 years now so i figure i'm off to a good start.
• 2 dogs no kids (this is both a financial and a lifestyle choice at this point, but was a financial one for a while)

not trying to brag but just showing that it's about smart choices and hard work and it can be done.  it wasn't always fun but i haven't been TRULY broke since undergrad and generally can do what i want.  and i am smack dab in millenial territory.

I agree with the fact that a lot of folks have to go into debt to get an education and career they want. But at the same time those who chose this path can't act surprised when they have to re-pay that debt down the road. That's what it feels like this author and a lot of others his age are doing, and they get frustrated when the can't pay off their debt immediately while enjoying a big house, nice cars and a starting a family - in an entry level job.

Exactly, you chose the path you should be ready for the reality of it. If that means you don't have a house, cars and kids right out of grad school so be it. 

My wife and I are holding off on having kids partly because I would like to wait a while longer but a large part is because kids are expensive and I don't feel comfortable enough financially speaking to add a kid right now. Currently we both work, once a kid is introduced my wife will not work full time, so until we have some more debt paid down and until I make a little more money we are holding off. We aren't owed nor deserve to have kids, a single income household, a nice house and cool cars. We wanted a house and cars right now so we made it happen, when we are ready for kids we will sacrifice in some areas and work harder in other areas to make it happen.

I have a friend who just graduated with a Masters in engineering a year or so ago. He got an entry level job with Boeing but has to live in Seattle. Makes good money but it is expensive to live there and he has loans. So he is holding off on a house, wife and kids until he is in a better situation. In the mean time he sacrifices everywhere he can to put as much money on his debt as possible. 5-10 years from now he will have a great job, great pay, and be able to do what he wants because he put the work in upfront.

Putting minimum payments on debt and thinking one is owed a house, cars, stay at home spouse and kids is delusional at best. We all make our decisions and we all live with those decisions. This author made decisions that don't allow for everything he wants right now, he can either work to change that or complain about it, he has chosen the latter. 

Good point. And heaven forbid you want to go into a field that requires 6, 8, 10 years of specialty training (law, medicine, etc.). I dated a guy who disclosed to me he had $100K+ in student loans from chiropractor school. He hadn't started his own practice yet so was working for another doctor for less than half what I made annually. Brutal.

Not sure what the answer is, except choose carefully.

College is a business decision... plain and simple. What can you make, and is it worth it? If the answer is yes... then fine, if no, then don't do it.

Made the same decision putting my wife through. She would make more with it than with out and the ROI was worth it. Simple. Do the math. For me, I already make good money, and the ROI stinks... not to mention a engineering degree while working rotating shifts would probably take me 8 years. I would hjave to start over as an engineer, and make less than what I make now. Not worth it... didn't do it.

We are paying back the loans now, and monthly, her income is not paying them... but she does own her business and that should turn around. (hopefully) I don't complain every month paying back what I borrowed... that was sort of the deal... they gave us money for something we wanted, and we agreed to pay it back.

It's not complicated.

My wife has a 6 figure income.....and still owes about 25,000 in student loans from a degree she earned 20 years ago.  She pays the absolute minimum, and always will....I think she has it down to a couple hundred bucks per month due to some govt. refinance program she found.  She looks at it as the price of a decent job and doesn't give it a thought. 

Both of my older daughters have fairly large student loans as well.....and both make fairly large incomes to go along with it.....they do the same.....figure out what the minimum payment would be to still be compliant.....and pay that.  There is NO WAY in hell I would work to quickly pay off a student loan.....especially if you are not settled in your career.  You could end up with a company or other entity that pays your loan off for you.

Has your wife ever calculated the total interest she has paid over those 20 years? Bet it's ugly.

Who cares?  It's an absolute fraction of the money she has made from her salary.  I'll say this for you Gen Y'ers....you sure like to make life complicated.

Here Aaron.....look at it this way.  She's probably paid right at $40,000 toward her student loan.......so let's go ahead, for the sake of argument, and say that every penny of that is toward interest only.  In the 20 years she has been paying she has made about 1.7 million in salary....something she never would have been able to do without paying that $40,000.  Last week we started our first steps to seeing what we may have when we retire.....me in 7 years and her in 10 years, so we could make some adjustments if needed.  The worst projection for us, based on what we have saved, our pensions, and social security is right at $180,000 per year.......the best projection was nearly $230,000 per year. 

Don't worry though.......she's going to keep throwing that 200.00 a month away....especially when she starts paying it toward a loan that allowed her a comfortable retirement.  I bet she has a big grin in that rocking chair.

Haha, doesn't matter to me what your wife does with her money. 

But I can see a lot of value in getting rid of debt quickly, can open up other opportunities or just put one in a better position in case something unexpected happens. 

Is the idea of a company paying off your student loan commonplace? I have never heard of such a thing. 

I wouldn't say it's commonplace but one of my buddies is going to get his entire law school loans paid for if he stays with a City government's legal department for 10 years (obviously while getting paid a nice salary). They did the math and it's worth it to them.. he has California law school tuition loans 

I think it's more commonplace to have a company pay for an advanced degree while you are employed with them - some require X years of employment after graduation. Something I highly suggest if your company offers it!