Millennial MISFortune: No Money, Mo Problems

As a teenag­er in the 90s, I jammed to Biggie’s “Mo Mon­ey, Mo Prob­lems” like I under­stood the mean­ing. But as a mil­len­ni­al in today’s econ­o­my, I’m jam­ming on this key­board because my gen­er­a­tion is still igno­rant of the wealth that for­mer gen­er­a­tions expe­ri­enced, and that’s a big prob­lem. 

Mo Mon­ey, Mo Prob­lems?  It’s more like No Mon­ey, Mo Stu­dent Debt. 

Most of you read­ing this have col­lege degrees (and stu­dent debt), but let me school you. Per recent Fed­er­al Reserve data, Mil­len­ni­als only own 4.6% of total US assets com­pared to 7.8% for Gen Xers and 25% for baby boomers at about the same age. 

That’s why your par­ents are rock­ing on that chair on the front porch of their homes while you’re rock­ing to a beat of finan­cial pros­per­i­ty that has no base. That’s why your par­ents made mon­ey while you made debt that you can’t make enough to repay. 

So why did the chil­dren of baby boomers end up in a finan­cial bust? 

We came of work­ing age dur­ing the finan­cial cri­sis and no flip of the wrist from our com­put­er dri­ven child­hoods could save us. We grad­u­at­ed col­lege only to be recruit­ed into the Great Reces­sion where unem­ploy­ment rates soared to 19% for young adults. 

Accord­ing to the Cen­ter for Eco­nom­ic and Pol­i­cy Research, old­er gen­er­a­tions, specif­i­cal­ly boomers, began their work­ing lives straight out of high school and we were able to accu­mu­late more assets soon­er, com­pared with a mil­len­ni­al who went to col­lege and grad school and only start­ed work­ing at 25. Those rel­a­tive­ly new to the labor force don’t have that many years behind them build­ing wealth.

No Mon­ey, Mo Debt

No Home, Mo Stay­ing On Mama’s Couch

But this won’t be our jam for­ev­er.  To the gen­er­a­tion who was raised in the Dig­i­tal Age, but didn’t age in finan­cial matu­ri­ty (yet), keep putting in that work as the tur­tle ulti­mate­ly beat the hare in the race. 

Blogged By: Malia Dawkins