nekrodev posted...
The bigger takeaway in this is that a lot of that wealth the top millennials have, was probably not earned by them, it's inherited - or their parents position and influence allowed them to get ahead where others weren't so lucky.
Your average millennial is almost certainly NOT "way ahead" of where their parents were at the same age, if they're doing better AT ALL.
There is a real gap in the millennial generation. Those of us who were out of college (or would have been, I didn't go) and into our jobs several years before the 08 collapse are doing far better than the ones after that. That group I think is called "Elder Millenials" and were born between 81 and 84. We didn't have the crippling loan debt that those came after us did. Most of the people I graduated with in 2000 took on some debt, but it was in the 10-20k range for their bachelor's.
We got lucky, I had an ok job waiting for me out of HS and my wife (Highschool GF) went to college on a full ride at a State School because of her grades and test scores. So we had essentially no debt past other than my car when we got married in 04. That allowed us to save up money and build a house when the market was it's bottom in 09 and builder's were basically begging people to build with them.
Generally the worst off ones I know are the ones who graduated between 2007 and 2011. Especially the ones who came out of college in that time, saw the market collapsing, and just went "well I'll just stay in school, take out more loans, and get my Masters". Which on paper was probably a good bet, but they accrued so much loan debt that they'll never pay it off.
Even now though, we don't make anywhere near that. In a good year we might clear 80k after taxes between the two of us. We only live as well as we do because we don't have kids. Every millennial I know that has kids is miserable and broke.