24% of Millennials have $100,000 or more saved

[tvguy]

Then why do you talk about EVERY workplace?

Well it appears I am not alone.

 

[hertamaniac]

I've seen friends of mine discuss their married and combined 401-K balances. I then reminded them of the taxes that are going to be levied during their withdrawals (which is why I maxed my Roth's for years). And then when I told them to divide the number in 1/2, as even though it is combined, it is for 2 persons (you never know if divorce lurks around the corner).

 

[mjkacmom]

Our DS turned 23 last week and we were similar, were married and had him by the time we were 23 and were homeowners by 25. We didn't have a chance to really start saving until the last 10 years. When I say saving, I am strictly talking about cash reserves, not 401K. That has been done since day 1 with both DH and DS. I don't know what is in his 401k because it isn't any of my business, but I know he contributes the max allowed.

My oldest is 23, we got married at 28 and had her at 29, one of the first out of all of our friends to get married and have a baby. I hope our kids wait until at least 30, at least to have kids (dd23 says no kids even though she’s been dating her boyfriend for 2+ years, ds21 says not until 30, also has a girlfriend of 2+ years). Both have good salaries, but student loans. I’m sad they won’t be living here anymore, but know it’s for the best. Dd18 won’t be out of school until 26.

 

[JenboJambo]

Hmmm... I'm a millennial wondering how the phrase "OK Boomer" has not been used yet.....

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

My oldest is 23, we got married at 28 and had her at 29, one of the first out of all of our friends to get married and have a baby. I hope our kids wait until at least 30, at least to have kids (dd23 says no kids even though she’s been dating her boyfriend for 2+ years, ds21 says not until 30, also has a girlfriend of 2+ years). Both have good salaries, but student loans. I’m sad they won’t be living here anymore, but know it’s for the best. Dd18 won’t be out of school until 26.

I don't get the fixation on a specific age (regardless of it being 30 or some other age) for having a kid. If we're talking financial security that is never age dependent and fluctuates over time.

 

[firefly_ris]

Hmmm... I'm a millennial wondering how the phrase "OK Boomer" has not been used yet.....

Ugh. Worst stupidest 'trend' phrase ever.

 

[karen4546]

That's great ! I have four adult children that have been in the workforce for 3-7 years. My son works for the same company as my husband and their 401Ks are steady. His company matches up to 8% and so that helps. My husband has been employed there for over 30 years and has made the maximum contribution per pay period. My oldest daughter is a teacher and so she does not have that right now. She has only been teaching two years, but her husband (who was in the Army 8 yrs) now works for the same company as my husband and son. They do have a bank savings account of over $50,000. My middle (27) and youngest (25) daughters have full time careers and middle daughter is in Law Enforcement for the state and my youngest works for a huge corporation and has her own business for graphic design.

As a whole, I think they are doing much better than my husband and I were when we were their age. We married young and had children young. They all went to college and got degrees in their field and only one has student loan debt (because she insisted on living in the campus apartments and partying it up-even though we paid her school and tuition fees just like we did the others-smh). Now, the other three don't have as much in savings as our oldest daughter, but her husband is just as frugal as mine Except where my husband loves vacationing-my son in law is a work horse (but so was my husband at that age).

 

[tink89]

Hmmm... I'm a millennial wondering how the phrase "OK Boomer" has not been used yet.....

haha because i deleted it from my post before posting. Not that i actually use the word honestly. But 100% thought about writing here just to make of point. Point being why are people mad at the fact that other generations are saving.

 

[RedAngie]

Hmmm... I'm a millennial wondering how the phrase "OK Boomer" has not been used yet.....

Because that phrase is SO 2019. Hopelessly out of date now.

 

[Allison]

Well it appears I am not alone.

There is a big difference between not being alone and saying "I don't think ANY..."

 

[mjkacmom]

I don't get the fixation on a specific age (regardless of it being 30 or some other age) for having a kid. If we're talking financial security that is never age dependent and fluctuates over time.

For financial security does not want to start a family until his loans are paid off. Real estate is expensive and he wants to own his own home. Plus, most people here don’t have their first child until 30+, so I assume most of his friends are in the same boat.

 

[RamblingMad]

For financial security does not want to start a family until his loans are paid off. Real estate is expensive and he wants to own his own home. Plus, most people here don’t have their first child until 30+, so I assume most of his friends are in the same boat.

Makes sense to me.

 

[mjkacmom]

I thought this was interesting
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/08/04/upshot/up-birth-age-gap.html

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

For financial security does not want to start a family until his loans are paid off. Real estate is expensive and he wants to own his own home. Plus, most people here don’t have their first child until 30+, so I assume most of his friends are in the same boat.

Right I understand that but it's an arbitrary age of 30 AND you said you didn't want your kids to start a family until 30 which is just a random age not related to anything.

If you can contribute to your 401K (as in you have the means to do so) you have the ability to pay off your student loans earlier thus you can start a family earlier (using your reasoning for the delayment). It's easier to suspend your 401K contributions for a short time and shift that money to student loans when you're younger as you'll have more time to play catchup if the goal is to have the loans paid off. Federal loans are 10years typically and if you graduate at age say 22 (or 21) that would mean around 32 (or 31) depending on your birthday and when you graduated (my Fed loans started repayment I believe November or December when I had graduated that prior May). Though I can't remember if you said somewhere if they were contributing to 401K or not.

Saying "I'll wait til I have xyz"...I've never met a person in my life who has started a family who has felt 100% financial security. Usually there was some sort of debt be it student loans, be it a car payment, be it a mortgage. That's not advocating for being under so much debt you really should take a look at it all that's just a generalized statement.

I get the sentiment I don't get the fixation on a specific age. If the goal is to have a family and the loans are preventing that it would make far more sense on reducing the loan repayment period than it would IMO to say wait til X age.

 

[RamblingMad]

Right I understand that but it's an arbitrary age of 30 AND you said you didn't want your kids to start a family until 30 which is just a random age not related to anything.

If you can contribute to your 401K (as in you have the means to do so) you have the ability to pay off your student loans earlier thus you can start a family earlier (using your reasoning for the delayment). It's easier to suspend your 401K contributions for a short time and shift that money to student loans when you're younger as you'll have more time to play catchup if the goal is to have the loans paid off. Federal loans are 10years typically and if you graduate at age say 22 (or 21) that would mean around 32 (or 31) depending on your birthday and when you graduated (my Fed loans started repayment I believe November or December when I had graduated that prior May).

Saying "I'll wait til I have xyz"...I've never met a person in my life who has started a family who has felt 100% financial security. Usually there was some sort of debt be it student loans, be it a car payment, be it a mortgage. That's not advocating for being under so much debt you really should take a look at it all that's just a generalized statement.

I get the sentiment I don't get the fixation on a specific age. If the goal is to have a family and the loans are preventing that it would make far more sense on reducing the loan repayment period than it would IMO to say wait til X age.

The whole start a family thing age is different throughout the US. Some places there is more social pressure on women having children. In other places nobody cares.

Some women want to enjoy their twenties without raising a kid.

I definitely don’t see the point in a woman paying for a university education only to be a stay at home mom. I was actually warned about these women during my university orientation. They’re only going to school to marry up.

 

[mrodgers]

That’s interesting b/c in my dept of about 75, I’m one of the youngest at 41. I’d say the average age of my coworkers is about 50.

I'm 47 and it seems to me like half the plant is going to turn 48 with me coming up between March and May.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

The whole start a family thing age is different throughout the US. Some places there is more social pressure on women having children. In other places nobody cares.

Yeah I know it is different thoughout the U.S. and I remember the poster's discussion before regarding the age at which people around them get married..but I think that's different than saying that's a natural thing versus saying "I hope our kids wait until at least 30". Being X age doesn't make you magically prepared--lots of people have those sorts of discussions with relation to our legal definition for a variety of things being age 18.

Some women want to enjoy their twenties without raising a kid.

I'll rephrase that, some individuals want to enjoy their twenties without raising a kid. Parenting ain't just about moms.

I definitely don’t see the point in a woman paying for a university education only to be a stay at home mom. I was actually warned about these women during more university orientation. They’re only going to school to marry up.

I'll leave that up to each individual (key word individual).

Like I said financial security is never age dependent and fluctuates. Circumstances change, life choices change. I wouldn't presume though to tell someone "don't seek higher education if you'll just be a stay at home parent" because in all honesty it will work the same way in reverse--circumstances change, life choices change. Debt is just another facet to adult life one has to navigate.

 

[Colleen27]

Right I understand that but it's an arbitrary age of 30 AND you said you didn't want your kids to start a family until 30 which is just a random age not related to anything.

If you can contribute to your 401K (as in you have the means to do so) you have the ability to pay off your student loans earlier thus you can start a family earlier (using your reasoning for the delayment). It's easier to suspend your 401K contributions for a short time and shift that money to student loans when you're younger as you'll have more time to play catchup if the goal is to have the loans paid off. Federal loans are 10years typically and if you graduate at age say 22 (or 21) that would mean around 32 (or 31) depending on your birthday and when you graduated (my Fed loans started repayment I believe November or December when I had graduated that prior May). Though I can't remember if you said somewhere if they were contributing to 401K or not.

I'm not sure how 30 became "the age" for having kids, but it is one I hear a lot too. Even my husband has encouraged the kids to wait that long, which is ridiculous because if we'd waited we probably wouldn't have them (my third pregnancy almost didn't happen, at 28/9, for medical reasons). But I suppose it is like any other milestone people think has to happen before kids, owning a house or whatever; if everyone waited until 30, there'd be a lot fewer kids in the world, and if everyone in NYC waited until they owned a home, the city would be far less crowded!

Paying off the loans as a target before settling down makes more sense, since both loan payments and kids are major expenses, but the math of 401k vs. loan repayment sometimes makes prioritizing early payoff the less fiscally sound move. We're pretty debt adverse and have put a big chunk of my income into paying off my loans, even above contributing to my retirement savings, but we wouldn't cut back on DH's contributions because his employer offers a fairly generous match and it doesn't make sense to give that up to pay off a relatively low-interest loan.

I definitely don’t see the point in a woman paying for a university education only to be a stay at home mom. I was actually warned about these women during more university orientation. They’re only going to school to marry up.

I think that takes a very narrow view of the value of a college education, but that's a topic for a whole 'nother thread.

 

[mjkacmom]

Yeah I know it is different thoughout the U.S. and I remember the poster's discussion before regarding the age at which people around them get married..but I think that's different than saying that's a natural thing versus saying "I hope our kids wait until at least 30". Being X age doesn't make you magically prepared--lots of people have those sorts of discussions with relation to our legal definition for a variety of things being age 18.


I'll rephrase that, some individuals want to enjoy their twenties without raising a kid. Parenting ain't just about moms.

I'll leave that up to each individual (key word individual).

Like I said financial security is never age dependent and fluctuates. Circumstances change, life choices change. I wouldn't presume though to tell someone "don't seek higher education if you'll just be a stay at home parent" because in all honesty it will work the same way in reverse--circumstances change, life choices change. Debt is just another facet to adult life one has to navigate.

Nothing is guaranteed, but unless things go off the rail, most people should be better off financially at 30 than right after college. If ds chooses to put down roots in the area his first job is (by college) he’s going to need $60,000 for a down payment for a house. He will be paying down loans, contributing to his 401k, and saving. Having to pay expenses for a child/children won’t help with that. If things do go off the rail, good thing there are no kids in the mix.

His plan is to live in a 3 bedroom apartment with roommates (looks like a dump but only $1700 a month total). He says no kids before 30. When I was young, I also had a mental timeline in mind, like most, finish college, get my MA, get married, have kids, buy a home, retire... It wasn’t etched in stone, of course.

 

[RamblingMad]

Nothing is guaranteed, but unless things go off the rail, most people should be better off financially at 30 than right after college. If ds chooses to put down roots in the area his first job is (by college) he’s going to need $60,000 for a down payment for a house. He will be paying down loans, contributing to his 401k, and saving. Having to pay expenses for a child/children won’t help with that. If things do go off the rail, good thing there are no kids in the mix.

His plan is to live in a 3 bedroom apartment with roommates (looks like a dump but only $1700 a month total). He says no kids before 30. When I was young, I also had a mental timeline in mind, like most, finish college, get my MA, get married, have kids, buy a home, retire... It wasn’t etched in stone, of course.

It’s pretty likely we’ll have a recession in the next five years, so that’s smart.