Overcoming the Worst Economic Odds: Millennials

I have been, by all definitions of the word, lucky.

I was raised by two middle-class (married) parents. My dad never lost his job, and he worked at the same company for his entire career. As the only child, I was sent to private schools. Thanks to my private school education and the familial obsession with good grades, I got a full ride to college and graduated without debt.

My family was always frugal. We didn’t go on vacations or pay for club sports teams, but I never really wanted for anything (with the exception of competitive cheerleading – that was a “no” that I never got over). Sorry, mom.

It’s not lost on me that the good fortune of my upbringing created a pretty solid foundation for good financial habits, and the more I talk to readers of Money with Katie (and read about the state of work, wages, and debt in America), the more I realize that my situation is rare.

I was curious: Are Millennials that unlucky? What economic factors set us up for a financial clusterf***? And if we are that unlucky, how do we overcome an economic situation that our predecessors didn’t have to? Is there a way to outsmart our circumstances?

The situation

My understanding (going into my research) was that it’s a two-fold shit-storm: The combination of wage stagnation and the student debt crisis.

This is a big factor in my reluctance to promote hustle culture too much on this site – if you’ve had everything go your way your entire life and you’re still behind, then sure, you might need to get your ass in gear. But much of our Millennial cohort isn’t struggling for lack of having their ass in gear – it’s that the cards have been economically stacked against them. I think the Washington Post said it really well:

“This narrative of, ‘Oh you should just work harder, sink or swim by your own effort?’ It’s very American, but it ignores the fact that the tide is much stronger now, and many millennials are swimming upstream.”

I’m not an economist (nor do I claim to be), but this narrative does feel like it holds up to reason: Millennials graduated during or in the aftermath of a recession, went to college during an education bubble, and amidst falling wages.

Gone are the days of the pension fund (a magical thing in which companies used to pay 7-8% of payroll into a fund to provide income to their retirees), and even healthcare benefits are becoming scarcer: The number of new college grads who receive healthcare from their employer has fallen 22% since the year 2000.

And yet, Millennials are making better financial decisions than their parents and parents’ parents

And it’s all due to Money with Katie! Literally all of it!
Just kidding.

While the Millennial clichés abound (avocados, lattes, TikTok, etc.), Millennials spend less than their predecessor generations. CNBC postulates it’s because we literally just have less money. And with good reason, too: “Higher education is more necessary and less affordable: Adjusting for inflation, compared to college tuition in 1988, private school tuition in 2018 has increased 213% and four-year public school tuition has increased 129%. As a result, much of the generation is drowning in student loan debt.” (Also CNBC.)

To some degree, I think there’s a subtler factor at play here, too: Millennials might feel this pinch more acutely because of the unlimited access to comparing ourselves (and our lives) to thousands of other people on-demand.

50 years ago, you might have debt and a low-paying job, but you didn’t know that Jenna from your high school chemistry class was in St. Barth’s with her investment banker husband. You just knew that Sandra next door was also hard-up for cash, and you were (probably) more or less surrounded by people in the same (or similar) economic situation as you.

In 2020, you’re painfully aware of your economic shortcomings, because the highlight reel of every person you’ve ever met scrolls on an infinite feedback loop in the palm of your hand. I’d argue that the ubiquity of personalized, curated advertising and – the worst – influencer marketing only exacerbates the issue, and sharpens a feeling of “lack” or “want” that may have only been a dull half-awareness before.

So what do we do?

I think about this weird (and unevenly applied) Millennial plight a lot. After all, it doesn’t take much to avoid these pitfalls: If you’re merely lucky enough to graduate without debt and land a high-paying job right after college, you’re going to be just fine, and basically none of the data above applies to you.

Maybe this is just a more generation-specific way to explain the same phenomenon that’s been true of every generation in a capitalist society: Momentum is powerful. Rich get richer, and poor get poorer. There will be outliers, certainly, but it’s practically the law of inertia.

Young people in low-wage industries are the most at risk, and I feel guilty sometimes that I publish early retirement investing advice when there are other people my age who don’t make enough money to pay rent and buy groceries.

Income inequality has always been a fact of a capitalist economy, but as a whole, I think our generation faces a few unique challenges that should shape the way we plan for the future.

Be very mindful about your time on Instagram

Having peeked behind the curtain of many women’s financial lives now (through consulting and coaching work), I’ve become intensely aware that appearances don’t always tell the whole story.

Whether it’s the girl whose first paycheck of the month goes to rent and half of the second goes to pay for the Mercedes lease, the floor-to-ceiling windows and granite countertops may be a facade for which the influencer you follow pays dearly.

Because remember: Keeping up with the Joneses has always been a financial game of hopscotch that every generation has dealt with, but those generations never dealt with it at technological scale. It is unnatural and dangerous to compare yourself and your financial situation to the carefully manicured appearances of people you barely know.

If I had a nickel for every Hermes belt, Cartier LOVE bracelet and Celine bag I saw on my Instagram feed, I could buy all three.

The only thing that tells you? That individual no longer has thousands of dollars in her bank account, because now she has thousands of dollars around her waist, on her wrist, or in her hand.

And that’s only half the story: You don’t know if that individual ever had the money to begin with, or is struggling with a mountain of consumer debt to finance her feed.

I don’t say this to tear down any woman who does well for herself and buys nice things with her income – I say this to remind all of us that appearances don’t tell you anything, and when we expose ourselves to HOURS of “appearances” every day, it becomes difficult (impossible, even) to resist the temptation to spend to keep up.

Our human brains simply can’t differentiate or reason through it rapidly enough to circumvent the comparison. All we see is “other girl my age on vacation in Paris.” We don’t see “girl on vacation in Paris has $10,000 in credit card debt.”

I’m not going to tell you what to do, but I encourage you to think long and hard about the energy and influence you invite into your subconscious, and whether the people you follow are making your life feel fuller or emptier.

The 401(k) contribution is not enough

Our generation got screwed out of the pension fund. My dad retired around age 50, and his pension fund all but enabled it.

If you’re like, “What’s a pension?” To that I say, Exactly.

The 401(k) was never designed to be our sole source of retirement income. As a result, so many of us grow up hearing well-meaning (but problematic) conventional advice: Save 10%! Contribute to your 401(k)! The scary reality is that most of us are really, really behind as a result, and we won’t feel it en masse until the Millennial generation starts nearing retirement age and realizing (collectively) that we can’t afford to retire.

Even if you’re not an early retirement fanatic like I am, I encourage you (using only the slightest fear-based tactic!) to invest as much as you can possibly afford to – and not just in your 401(k).

You want to invest as much as you can in your 401(k), sure – since the annual maximum contribution is $19,500, you could theoretically put in $1,625 per month – but you also want to open an IRA as well. And while I’m being the bearer of bad news, I feel compelled to elaborate that even these two retirement accounts together will likely not be enough – anything leftover should be sent directly to a taxable investing account.

Think about the most aggressive monthly investing plan you could imagine, and then add a few percentage points to that. That’s your goal.

Because while it sucks that corporate greed and myriad other economic factors are slowly sucking the life out of our retirement options, you have two choices as a result: Do nothing and never retire, or figure it out and double down.

More education might not be the answer

Another surprising facet of my work consulting with young women is the amount of debt being taken on rapidly for secondary education. I used to ask: “Have you checked whether or not a Masters degree earns higher pay in your field?” But I was so disheartened by the fact that the answer was almost always, “No, I haven’t looked into it,” that I quit asking.

I would never, ever discourage someone from learning more, but with the cost of higher education at an all-time high and wages at a relative low, taking on six figures of debt for another degree without even checking if the degree will help you earn more feels like a big miss.

For the lifelong learners who go to school more out of curiosity than with an intent to earn more, I want you to understand what you’re really getting yourself into before you commit to it. Are there other ways that you can keep learning without taking on an $800/mo. student loan payment? Sometimes, there really may not be – but most of the time, there is.

Graduate loans are a double whammy because they’re less required and more expensive than undergraduate loans. The interest rates are higher because lenders realize someone who’s going for ANOTHER college degree can probably (theoretically) afford to pay more.

I worry that too many Millennials go back to school because they’re trying to kill time or get back into a system they understand and feel good in (academia), instead of using it as a means to an end for better opportunities (I’m speaking purely from anecdotal experience here). After all, some of the highest paying jobs don’t even require undergraduate degrees anymore – software engineering being the primary example.

It might feel off-brand for Corporate Bad Girls Club Chief Feminist Officer to tell you that graduate school is a bad move, but this is a money blog – and we can’t turn a blind eye to the numbers.

The bottom line is, you may be surprised what your monthly payments turn into with a 6%+ interest rate, and the joy of two additional years of education may feel less joyful when you can’t afford to save because of them. Education is priced at a premium right now. Make sure it’s a sound investment before taking on more loans.

It’s not all bad

While it’s true that Millennials may very well be the unluckiest generation of all time economically, I can’t help but think the opposite might be true overall: We have more opportunity than just about any other group in history. If you’re reading this on an iPhone in the United States of America in 2020, to some extent, you’ve already won.

Ever watched a World War I or World War II movie? I feel like that’s a generation who probably had it worse, even if they were able to buy a home sooner.

The trick is to use your access to opportunity and information wisely, you smart Millennial, you – and together, we’ll compensate for all the bullshit working against us. We’re like the Rudy of economics – and everyone loves an underdog.