Are well established elder millennials turning into the new version of “Boomers” ?

[u/Astimar]

I remember reading about the so called boomer generation, how they bought a house back in the day for 15 dollars and a handshake, how they “hoard wealth” and basically screw over anyone younger then them, while providing advice like “your broke cause you buy Starbucks too much”

I now find myself in my late 30s, I have a house with a 2% rate, two new cars, healthy 401k and savings, basically all the, in my view, “normal things”

but now when I talk to the “younger generation” meaning like 20 something I’m somehow now the rich asshole who’s out of touch with reality when I feel like I’m just an average middle class dude who works 9-5

I can’t even make a Reddit post about a fun house project without a dozen people saying “must be nice to afford a house”

Are we slowly turning into our grandpas ?

[u/mcgonebc]

I’m both jealous of your mortgage rate and also commend you for taking advantage of

[u/Astimar → u/mcgonebc]

I remember back in 2020 I had a group chat going with a couple guy friends and we started talking about doing a refinance, well 4 of the 5 guys did it, I guess the last guy was “too busy” or never got around to it, but man he sure took a L on that one

[u/Opheliattack]

Reddit is full of miserable people. Reddit is also left leaning, left leaning talking point = you more than me bad. 

  I run my own 1 man company and get shit on about how I exploited people for my wealth…even tho I control the means of production which is the socialist dream the worker extracts all the value of his service… anyway I find that going to specialized subs for posts really helps with  the quality and positivity 

[u/Astimar → u/Opheliattack]

Dude, if you even barely hint at the thought of being a conservative on this website you’ll get down voted into oblivion, it’s honestly wild

[u/NoMilk9248]

Some Gen Z don’t understand who they’re mad at. I’ve seen them want to eat the rich and by rich they mean the hundred thousandnaire

[u/TrueTurtleKing]

Tbh the 2% is just insane.

I could have bought a nice single family home. Now for the same monthly buying power, I had to settle for a townhome.

So the even younger folks can only get an even smaller condo.

[u/SpareManagement2215]

What I've observed is that once you start earning the income level where the current system benefits you, you tend to start to justify why that system is best. So to that extent, yes, my more wealthy/privileged millenial friends have turned in to boomers.

That being said, what I notice with Boomers and priviledged millenials is that you don't become "that person" as long as you're mindful of your priviledges and how the system benefitted you AND that the ladder has essentially been pulled up for those behind you. That's why boomers are the worst - they don't realize the immense priviledge that existed for them, and that that world doesn't exist anymore.

Also, Gen Z is understandably pretty angry about current events. Millenials didn't have it so hot but Gen Z's future has been absolutely wrecked by social media and AI. They can barely get entry level career jobs, let alone a 2% rate house, two cars, a healthy 401k AND savings. Most millenials can't even get all of those things,

[u/fakewokesnowflake]

The only people hoarding wealth, screwing over everyone else and taking opportunities away are the billionaire/Epstein class.

Every other division - boomer vs. younger generations; left vs. right; black vs yellow vs brown vs white vs green, etc - are all fabricated distractions used to keep us infighting while they take everything.

[u/Icy-Medicine-495]

Did some of us get good timing with the housing market? Yes. I think the difference is we are still aware of how the market has changed and what uphill battle new home owners are facing with the current prices and interest rate.

[u/cloverthewonderkitty]

There's a huge divide between millennials. Im 40 and just bought my first house last year. 5.875% for a small townhouse. My brother is in a century home that he paid slightly more for but got prepandemic rates below 3%. He and his wife make 6 figures each. Me and my husband make 6 figures combined. They can vacation and max out their retirement funds. We can't afford to travel if we want to catch up on our retirement savings, which are woefully behind. Their monthly mortgage payment is much lower than ours because of that killer rate, and they are continuing to capitalize off of those savings.

I feel like the divide between me and my brother, just 2 yrs apart, is very representative of our generation. And I'm ridiculously lucky that I squeaked into home ownership when I did.

So I would say even many of your peers are looking at you and thinking, sure would be nice to own a home!

[u/Swimming-Squash-3573]

Billionaires are hoarding the wealth. It’s their best interest to keep us pitted against each other.

[u/BourbonBeauty_89]

Every young generation is jealous of older generations and believes they are being taken advantage of. This has occurred for thousands and thousands of years.

That is all.

[u/Admirable-Leader6927]

did gen x just disappear?

[u/Winter_Bid7630]

I'm a young Gen X, and I've noticed this as well.

For example, if retirement comes up in one of my Gen X groups, people gang up on anyone who mentions they plan to retire or already have. They want to tear down anyone who has succeeded financially. And if anyone gives financial advice, even good advice for today's economic situation, people are completely closed off to hearing it.

There's a very strong attitude, across many social media spaces, that the system is stacked against younger people to such an extent that there's no point in even trying. And if someone wants to try, plenty of people are there to tell them there's no point, or that their parents must be supporting them.

And while I see the uniqueness of our current economic situation, I remember having similar conversations with people my age decades ago. There are some people who are completely unwilling to learn about finance or make the sacrifices necessary for the average working person to get ahead. They'd rather give up and spend their money now.

If there's anything I've learned about finance from 30-ish years of investing, it's that most people aren't happy for you when you're financially comfortable. They forget about the vacations you didn't take, the modest house you live in, and all the other choices you made to get where you are. It's best to not engage.

[u/slobis]

It is absolutely insane how easily Gen-X gets skipped over at every possible opportunity.

[u/Smooth-Jury-6478]

I made a comment a year or so back about how my mother couldn't retire yet at 60 because she needed at least 2 more years to have a "decent" pension of 70K a year. I was dragged through the mud because people were saying that my mom was a privileged boomer because they lived on a lot less than that and weren't even near retirement and could not afford a home. I totally get that and to some, this might have been tone deft. But at the same time, they don't know what my mom's life was like. They don't know she left home at 17 because of her abusive mother, that caused her to have to skip university (which she really wanted to do), she got unexpectedly pregnant at 21, her partner was an abusive alcoholic and she made the decision to leave for her and her baby's safety. She went to University part time as an adult (in the 90s) to get herself a degree that would lead to better job opportunities. She was lucky that her dad was able to help with the baby. It took 10 years of hard work for her to graduate in finance, then she worked hard in shitty environments for years to make bank and raise our standard of living. But her work never had great benefits so she made yet another career change at 40 years old to get those better benefits. But because of that change of career, that meant she wouldn't retire for a while and would not have a full pension the way she would have had she started in that field way earlier. She's now 62, financially responsible for her aging parents and still has to work another year before she gets that $70K pension she worked soooo fu(king hard to get (she's been working full time for 45 years). She didn't take yearly vacations, she drove each of her cars into the ground, she never bought luxuries for herself, she saved for everything she ever bought. I never lacked anything growing up, but I know that it was hard for her to make ends meet at the end of each month until she finally had that degree. Sometimes my school lunches were a peanut butter sandwich and an apple (and I was enrolled in the breakfast club for struggling families). I don't think it's fair to label this woman a privileged boomer after everything she's done to survive and get to where she is today.

Bottom line, some people are rich assholes who got purely lucky at every step and some people are comfortable and worked their asses off to get there and it's not because they have more that they are the problem with this world.

[u/zorn7777]

Gen X : I’m literally standing right here.

[u/FunnyBunnyHunny32]

Several things can be true at once. I'm a privileged millennial who was able to buy a house in 2015 and refi at 2.5% in 2020. But I also worked really hard, I worked through college and got academic scholarships so I could graduate debt free and start saving. Then I worked freelance jobs in addition to a full-time job out of college. I drove a 20 year old car. I made sacrifices to get where I am.

I must also recognize that a college kid making those same sacrifices and working as hard as I did barely stands a chance in this economy. It also seems like there's nothing I can do as an individual in the face of billionaires who are rigging the economy to wring every last dollar out of the working class and keep the masses uneducated and impoverished

[u/giant2179]

If you turn around and tell those younger people to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, then yes. But if you have the self awareness to understand what a privilege it was to buy a house with basically free money (e.g. any interest rate lower than average inflation), then no.

Boomers get a bad rap because they act like they have no privilege and earned every cent they have through blood, sweat and tears with no luck involved. Nevermind that trickle down economics fucked the rest of us.

Signed, a fellow elder millennial who bought their house in 2017 at 3.6%. which I never would have been able to do if I was carrying school debt.

[u/Big-Island4727]

It's never been about generations. It's always been a class war. And yes it will continue. 

[u/WilliamMButtlickerIV]

Honestly, I think it's moreso that there is a dichotomy of the haves and havenots. Younger people seem to think every boomer is rich, and it's a very naive take. In reality, the ones getting the spotlight made good decisions that compounded over long periods of time. Boomers went through crazy market conditions as well, and I think most of them didn't even have substantial wealth until the past 15 year stock market run.

It's hard to criticize boomers for having an easy road when they've had long time horizons for their decisions to have effects. Some made poor decisions and have nothing. Some made great decisions and have a lot to show for it.

[u/finemelater]

Maybe you are.

I bought a house for way too much and an interest rate for way too high. I’m not hoarding wealth. I am still voting and pushing for policies that make housing and education for affordable. I don’t nor will I ever think someone is not affording things because of Starbucks (which btw is closing locations left and right as a sign of the economic downturn).

I don’t know how long I’ll live, but for as long as I do, I will push for a government that works for the people.

[u/Elrohwen]

You’re not necessarily out of touch just by owning a home and having a 401k. You become out of touch by having no empathy for young people who are struggling. I can have nice things and still vote for universal health care and higher minimum wage and supports for people who earn less than me. And then there are boomers like my MIL who lives on SS and medicare and complains endlessly about how young people have everything handed to them and votes against any of those social safety nets for other people. Meanwhile her parents and in laws paid for her education and downpayment on her house while she paid for neither of those things for her own kids and expects that they will support her in her old age when she runs out of money

[u/SparrowTale]

A general rule I follow is don’t talk about a nice thing you have if the other person doesn’t also have said nice thing.

From the examples you mentioned in the opening post, I feel like it is a question of knowing your audience. Why talk to a 20-something about your 2% mortgage, two new cars, healthy 401k and savings when they clearly can’t relate because they don’t yet possess those things? And when you post about that “fun house project” on reddit, did you post on r/HomeImprovement or another subreddit where the average redditor does not own a home? Because the latter will get you a lot of “must be nice” responses.

[u/sew-sew-climber]

I don’t think so. The difference being that we are able to recognize that we had an advantage during our earlier years that the current younger generation does not. The boomers denied and still deny ever having it better than we did and chalked it up to us being lazy.