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70% of Millennials Are Living Paycheck to Paycheck: Survey:
Millennials' wallets are rather skimpy.
Seventy percent of the generation said they're living paycheck to paycheck, according to a survey by PYMNTS and LendingClub, which analyzed economic data and census-balanced surveys of over 28,000 Americans. It found that about 54% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, but millennials had the biggest broke energy.
By contrast, 40% of baby boomers and seniors said they live paycheck to paycheck, the least of any generation. Living paycheck to paycheck reflects economic needs and wants just as much, if not more than, incomes or wealth levels, according to the report. Age and family status also factor in greatly. This explains why millennials, who turn ages 25 to 40 this year, are struggling.
[...] It doesn't help that millennials have faced one economic challenge after another since the oldest of them graduated into the dismal job market of the 2008 financial crisis. A dozen years later, many are still grappling with the lingering effects of The Great Recession, struggling to build wealth while trying to afford soaring costs for things like housing and healthcare and shouldering the lion's share of America's student-loan debt.
The pandemic threw yet another wrench into their plans by giving them their second recession and second housing crisis before the age of 40. The report acknowledges that the pandemic played a major role in that stretched thin feeling.
[...] It seems, then, that it's a combination of external economic circumstances, a precarious life stage, and some spending habits that are leaving millennials feeling strapped for cash.
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Wednesday September 29 2021, @02:11PM (2 children)
The problem is that it ain't sustainable. Total consumption used to be something we could do. From cradle to crave. Yes, we went out of this life with little in terms of savings, but hey, who gives a crap? People would spend, but their income would keep them afloat. Maybe barely, maybe comfortably, but they would get by and continue spending.
The problem is now that this ain't the case anymore. Your niece and nephew will eventually hit their credit limit, that is, the point when nobody will let them spend on more debt anymore. And that will affect more than your your niece's and nephew's comfort, because the economy is dependent on them being able to spend. if nobody spends money and consumes, then companies don't get money for their goods.
Our economy is fully dependent on peoples' ability to spend money. And we're desperately short on that kind of people. Not that people wouldn't want to keep our economy rolling. They'd love to. They just can't afford to anymore. And that creates a vicious cycle. Because fewer people spending money means less goods and services being requested meaning fewer goods and services being produced meaning fewer people being needed to produce those goods and services, meaning fewer people having jobs, meaning fewer people getting money from working, meaning fewer people having money to spend on goods and services, meaning fewer people spending money...
(Score: 4, Interesting) by driverless on Wednesday September 29 2021, @03:56PM (1 child)
They hit their credit limit a long time ago, and then depended on their parents for money. They've been insulated from financial reality, and having to take responsibility for things, for their entire lives.
Thing is, it is a lot harder now to make your way in life today, I'm not denying that. However, there are also an awful lot of people who expect to be able to live beyond their means because someone else will bail them out and/or because they've never had to consider not living beyond their means. When I was a kid, blah blah, 26 hours a day, blah blah, uphill both ways, blah blah, only the shirt on my back, blah blah.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 29 2021, @07:22PM
Agreed. There seem to have been several generations feeling entitled to literally mortgage their lifestyles onto the backs of subsequent generations, then throw their hands up and shed crocodile tears as they feign sympathy and can’t deny how much harder life is now as a direct consequence of their own avarice, then scold people for their financial state because of $2 avocados and $200 “big screen TVs.”
So, I really don’t blame younger generations for getting a bit of a case of the fuck-it’s when they should really be expressing an acute case of the fuck-yous.