Current Events > millienials have to be willing to work longer than their parents

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2018/06/07/millennials-preparing-for-retirement-000670

Concern about the financial health of Americas younger generations is growingespecially millennials, a demographic boom that came of age in an environment of unstable work and record levels of student debt. Experts worry that millennials are falling so far behind previous generations that their retirement may be at risk.

My research suggests that those concerns are real, and millennials really are building wealth more slowly than the other working generations. But they are not insurmountableas long as millennials are willing and able to work longer than their parents and grandparents did.

A comparison of millennials (adults currently ages 25 to 35) with earlier cohorts (Gen-Xers and late baby boomers) when they were the same age shows that even though a higher percentage of both millennial men and women have college degrees, they are behind in almost every economic dimension.

One reason is that millennials entered the labor market during tough times. Most turned 21 between 2002 and 2012, which meant that they were graduating from college during a period that included both the bursting of the dot.com bubble and the Great Recession. This experience appears to have been particularly hard on millennial men, who have labor-force participation rates below earlier cohorts.

In addition, both men and women have had more difficulty finding quality jobscareer-track positions with good compensation. As a result, they are not only behind Gen Xers and late Baby Boomers on their earnings trajectory, theyre also less likely than previ ous cohorts to receive important employer-sponsored benefits such as retirement savings plans and health insurance.

In terms of preparing for retirement, millennials have three strikes against them. First, because of limited access to retirement plans at work, millennials will struggle to build retirement savings, since experience shows that people have a great deal of trouble saving on their own. Second, they are less likely to have bought a home, and home equity is a valuable retirement asset. And third, they are more likely to be burdened by student loans, and young workers with student loans have less to stash in retirement plans and are more likely to end up at risk in retirement.
Securing retirement for new generations

An easy way to gauge retirement preparedness is to measure the ratio of wealth to incomein other words, how much millennials have been able to save or invest in assets like 401(k) plans or home equity compared to their incomes. It turns out that the wealth-to-income ratio for millennials is not only below that for Gen Xers and late Baby Boomers now, it is also projected to remain lower through their lifespans.

Millennials lack of wealth in their 30s relative to earlier cohorts should be a source of great concern, given that they will live longer than previous cohorts and will face higher health care costs. They, like Gen Xers, will also have to wait longer than previous generationsto age 67before they can collect their full Social Security benefit. Moreover, Social Security faces a long-term financing shortfall, so millennials could face further benefit reductions.


fuck the baby boomers
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If millennials weren't so fucking lazy, they'd have nothing to cry about.

I'm a big fan of personal responsibility, but the Boomer generation dealt the Millennial generation a pretty shitty hand. "Millennials don't own homes!" Yeah, because the Boomers knocked down all the starter homes and built the maximum square footage on the lot. "Millennials don't have employer sponsored benefits!" Yeah, because the Boomers are our employers. "Millennials are burdened by student loans!" Yeah, because the Boomers told us from grade school we absolutely positively HAD to go to college or we'd be poor. Most of us did... and many of us are poor anyway.

Secondly, you're joking yourself if you think the retirement age is going to be 67 years old in ~2050 when Millennials are that age. When it was set at 65, the life expectancy was 65. Retirement age realistically needs to be 75 years NOW, by the time we're halfway through the 21st century it will need to be even higher. Social Security was designed to keep long lived people from being a burden to their families, not support somebody in retirement for 25-30 years.
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Blade_Trinity posted...

If millennials weren't so fucking lazy, they'd have nothing to cry about.

https://hbr.org/2016/08/millennials-are-actually-workaholics-according-to-research

Millennials Are Actually Workaholics, According to Research
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@FLUFFYGERM

Thoughts?
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NightMarishPie posted...

@FLUFFYGERM

Thoughts?

https://www.politico.com/agenda

that about sums it up
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Blade_Trinity posted...

If millennials weren't so fucking lazy, they'd have nothing to cry about.

The neocon fuckheads rigged the game so they could siphon away more wealth. Don't get me wrong, their liberal equivalents would've probably wasted it all on bums anyway, so not much would've changed in terms of fair economics, but it's not so much that anyone is lazy, it's that there are simply less freedoms in the economy because the 1% bought themselves advantages to keep everyone else down after they got what they wanted. I know a lot of millennials that own businesses and houses and seem to be doing better than their parents. To put that into perspective: a 1500sq/f townhouse a block away from me starts at $750k.

Yeah, millennials seem whiny and lazy, but they're really not. It's just a vocal minority of losers tarnishing them.
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Working longer ain't going to solve this shit, especially since many higher paying jobs are salaried and working longer hours for a chance at maybe getting promoted is a bad idea (much better to jump companies until you get to where you want to be, if possible). This is just another ploy by asshole employers to squeeze more profit out of workers.

I remember eight years ago, I read an article by some jackass trying to argue that India has the right idea and that young workers should really be living with their parents until they're about 30 so that they can "compete" with workers from poorer countries. Of course the implication being that employers can pay them less with the expectation that they'll be living with their parents. This guy looked like he was old enough to be from the generation where high school drop-outs could get a job that would pay enough to let them live alone.

This shit about the "sharing economy" and "gig economy" and the rest of the stupid "new economy" bullshit is all just about making us peasants make due with less as the rich pocket more and more. Fuck them.
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Considering how we live longer lives due to advancements in medicine, of course the later generations will have to work longer into their lives so they can pay for the pervious generation's pensions.

That's life, man.
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https://pics.me.me/economy-baby-boomers-gunshots-ad-why-would-millennials-do-this-32312067.png
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Eat More Beef posted...

Considering how we live longer lives due to advancements in medicine, of course the later generations will have to work longer into their lives so they can pay for the pervious generation's pensions.

That's life, man.

Except if you look at how lifespans have increased, it doesn't fit this picture. We're able to cure or mitigate things that would've been a death sentence so people won't die so young. This doesn't mean those people will live on to 100. We've also gotten good at keeping people from dying when they're late in life. So instead of dying faster, they can suffer for a few more years. Either way, they're in no condition to actually work. So while our medical advances are amazing, they do not mean we're increasing the working age range in any significant capacity. A bigger contributor of longer working age would be the prevalence of office work over more labor-intensive work, but sitting at a desk all day is not exactly healthy.
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Eat More Beef posted...

Considering how we live longer lives due to advancements in medicine, of course the later generations will have to work longer into their lives so they can pay for the pervious generation's pensions.

That's life, man.

we have made just as much advancement towards reducing the amount of work necessary
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Godnorgosh posted...

I have worked 60-to-70-hour weeks, but after a certain point, you have to ask yourself if it's worth spending your youth working and potentially damaging your health early on to hopefully save up enough for old age. One of my primary motivations for developing a better skillset is that I can work less to make a wage I'm comfortable with and not even have to worry about overtime (unless it's mandatory).

this

whats the point of working that much if you can't also enjoy life? is life meant to just exist so we can work and then die? working 70 hours a week like that i question how anyone would have time to not only start a family but enjoy said family.

what this article fails to address completely is that Social security will not just be diminished in terms of benefits, it flat out won't be there. so millienials are being asked to pay into a system that isn't going to be able to give them anything in return, and by the time we get to that point, the lovely baby boomers will all be dead or half dead and have already gotten theres and said fuck the next generation.

Fuparulez posted...

I'm a big fan of personal responsibility, but the Boomer generation dealt the Millennial generation a pretty shitty hand. "Millennials don't own homes!" Yeah, because the Boomers knocked down all the starter homes and built the maximum square footage on the lot. "Millennials don't have employer sponsored benefits!" Yeah, because the Boomers are our employers. "Millennials are burdened by student loans!" Yeah, because the Boomers told us from grade school we absolutely positively HAD to go to college or we'd be poor. Most of us did... and many of us are poor anyway.

Secondly, you're joking yourself if you think the retirement age is going to be 67 years old in ~2050 when Millennials are that age. When it was set at 65, the life expectancy was 65. Retirement age realistically needs to be 75 years NOW, by the time we're halfway through the 21st century it will need to be even higher. Social Security was designed to keep long lived people from being a burden to their families, not support somebody in retirement for 25-30 years.

i too agree with this.

it's high time we realize that the past generation totally fucked this generation about 10000 times over. it's because of their bone headed decisions that now im left holding the bag and i was given this bag before i was even born.

averagejoel posted...

Eat More Beef posted...

Considering how we live longer lives due to advancements in medicine, of course the later generations will have to work longer into their lives so they can pay for the pervious generation's pensions.

That's life, man.

we have made just as much advancement towards reducing the amount of work necessary

yep, and despite this we are stuck in the old 9-5 40 hours a week mentality. whatever happened to the promise that computers would make us work less and earn more? whatever happened to working smarter? yeah thats not there.

Blaming shit on previous generations as far as work and debt problems go seems like a cop-out though, to me.

I was poor. Eat ramen and off-brand pickles for every meal poor. I was angry at everyone and thing in the world, blaming my parents, employers, everything. Once I quit caring, everything turned around.

A little financial planning goes a long way, and you don't gotta kill yourself to do it. That's something almost everyone in my age bracket is doing, working themselves to death for minimal payout. Hell, I work half the time as my best friend and I'm doing better financially than he is due to shit like not keeping up with the best smartphones and managing my college expenses and cutting costs to where I had damn-near none(When you live that poor, you can go back to it for a while for the greater good.)

Also gotta realize life isn't worth stressing over. Life is your one shot at everything you'll ever do--even if you believe in an after life, it is after this life, so it's not this one. Fixating on the bad only hurts you and doesn't help in the least. May cut down on those college funds.

Also, if you're struggling, get down to brass tacks. Pride also doesn't really help anyone. You may want to run a startup or be a tech billionaire, but working at a garbage company for triple what you're making at Walmart in some states(and occasionally less hours too) could be the godsend you need to get on track.

people living paycheck to paycheck might not be able to retire some day?

no shit
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Good thing aging will have been cured and AI will have taken control of all jobs by the time millennials are 80.
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It doesn't help that in America there's a huge social judgment about trying to get young guys (especially) out of the house asap to show their independence in society combined with the fact that housing alone (plus the expenses like utilities etc) are very likely to eat up the vast majority of a young employee's paycheck...and that's in the best case scenario usually. But yeah, once a millennial does land a career path type entry job, it's kind of their ass that they make sure they do well in it for at least a few years since experience is everything out there. Until you get a solid couple years in, it can get tricky.
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