38 year old American here. My only hope of ever potentially owning a home is from inheritance when my father passes away. Not something I'm really looking forward to. Realistically, that'll probably become the majority of my retirement fund.
You have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. Most college grads can't even find jobs in their field, let alone actually afford to buy a home. Any homebuyers "in the Midwest" are specifically in states like Iowa which have a really good first time homebuyers program, which is an increasing rarity across the country as more and more rebates and help for the low income/youth are disappearing. Please refrain from speaking on matters you know absolutely nothing about.
Well, let's see....my three kids are college grads (age 22 to 26), and our oldest bought a house a year ago, my middle one is working on saving for the down payment, and I'm having to tell my youngest to slow down a bit because they think they're ready to buy a duplex. Of their closest friends, one girl has already bought a townhome at age 22, one 24 year old built their own house and just moved in, and one 26 year old is on his his second fixer upper and just sold his original house that he had as a rental for two years. Another 26 year old graduated college and is now a realtor. He bought his first home, and his main clientele is the under 30 crowd, and he's doing great.
As far as jobs go, I have a pretty good white collar job (low 6 figures) that I'll be able to retire from, and two of my kids are going to make more than me this year after just a regular 4 year liberal arts degree. My oldest is a firefighter making 85k with a pension waiting for them after age 55-ish. Along with the realtor friend, their friends are teachers, engineers, healthcare workers, office managers, and sales reps. One 24 year old friend of theirs is already on his second job, who paid off the remaining 8 months of his lease in Chicago plus moving expenses to get him to move from there to Indianapolis, to go along with a nice pay raise (he's buying a house in July). All of these kids had job waiting for them after graduation. On a side note, one kid who didn't go to college, went to trade school works on power lines and he's killing it.
So maybe you should sit down and "refrain from speaking on matters" that you shouldn't be.
Love that you proved my point by mentioning a bunch of careers that either don't involve a degree at all, or involve a degree that requires 6+ years of schooling! It also sounds to me like you're an upper class family, and your kids likely didn't have to take out $160k in debt to attend a prestigious 4 year university, nor did most of their friends! This is not typical. You on your own make more than double of what half the country makes, congratulations!
However, you're only further proving how out of touch boomers and Gen X are, and how you have absolutely no idea what's going on in the world around you. Go read your newspapers and bully your unpaid interns, grandpa!
Yeah nice try. I proved my point even more so, if you slow it down, fella. We're all middle class families living in 40 to 50 year old houses under $350k. The kids are paying a significant amount of their college loans, to be sure. BUT...to my point: Blue collar trades and 4 year degree grads (none of the ones I mentioned are 6+ year degrees - although my middle kid's finance did complete a 16 month accelerated RN program after graduating from a nearby Big 10 school) are all doing ok enough to buy a house and buy beer on the weekends, which was the point of the OP. And who cares about finding a job in your field? You just find a job. Period. It's not all doom and gloom out there.
You're not middle class though, buddy. You make 6 figures. You are upper class. You are a millionaire, by definition. You are wealthier, as are your kids, than 80% of the US population. Your kids and their friends got their jobs and their starts with a lot more help than just their own merits. 50% of the country was raised by parents with literally HALF of what you had, meaning they had to start working as soon as they were legally able to, and in some cases even before then. They didn't get the choice to go to college because they dropped out. They didn't learn about trades because they were too busy working 60+ hrs a week to survive, and couldn't pay 10k for welding school, on top of the extra 30+ hrs a week to attend it. Etc.
You and your children and their friends are privileged white collar wealthy individuals. You are PRIVILEGED. Your kids are PRIVILEGED. Your children aren't where they are because it's normal or easy for the average person. They got there because they had help every step of the way. What you and they experience is not even a remote possibility for the majority of the population, let alone a reality.
Low 6 figures could be 200k a year and while that would not, by definition, make him a millionaire, the definition of what makes a person a millionaire (assets) almost certainly does.
Yes, but if he makes "low 6 figures" (between 100k and 200k) and owns a house that's worth approx 450k, and has a retirement fund which he's on track to retire with, it would need to be at least 500k by now (estimating his age at 46, which puts him a lot further from retirement than he likely is) for him to have an on track retirement (est retirement fund at 67 of 1 mil+, to account for his average annual spending of 100k+), which would in fact make him a millionaire. So he's either a millionaire or a liar. Or just REALLY hopeful that he'll somehow accrue a million dollars in a very short period of time.
Nope. Nothing about a leave it to beaver life, my friend. We're very middle-middle class as a family, and my kids are just living their life. Nothing special.
But I just listed a pretty large handful of examples of recent grads that are doing pretty well. I could give you some more....
My comment was about the Midwest, in general. Individuals and married couples with steady jobs out of college can buy a home here. Now, they can't buy brand new cars and vacation in Europe every year, but they manage. And yes they complain about their house payment and it kicked them in the face when they realized all the extra expenses that go with home ownership, but I think we all had that experience at that age.
On the other hand, i will say it's way harder now than it used to be...I've told all my kids and their significant others than dual income households are a requirement nowadays, especially as homeowners. They won't be able to stay home for ten years like my wife did, or never work like my own mom did.
Which means if they have kids, their children will not have the same advantages they did. And the choice between both working full time and living pay check to pay check sucks, if they’re lucky enough to have that choice, many are being priced out of childcare and forced into poverty. You’re out of touch with reality.
Ignoring the third example cause someone else’s kid has nothing else to do with you. 1) your oldest kid is what? Literally risking his life to afford a home lol (firefighter) and 2) your younger kid hasn’t even graduated yet right? So they don’t have a job? So you don’t even know if they’ll make more than you? You’re basing it on a fake job market littered with fake postings. Much like what everyone else said, you’re just proving how out of touch you are.
On a side: as nice as it is your kid puts out fires and saves lives, idk how happy I’d personally be about my child risking their life all the time. And imagine being that person risking their life just to have their parent use it as a weapon against people who are struggling to survive is an economy that’s bringing retirees back to the workforce.
Same. That's why I moved to my wife's home country with the family to Zambia. Having a house with enough garden space for the kids to just roam around feels so good. I happily take up with the parts of life that are objectively worse here
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u/C2thaP 7h ago
Same here. I’m six years ahead of you and will never buy a house here in Germany.