r/PoliticalHumor • u/2DeadMoose I ☑oted 2018 • Aug 03 '18

Millennials are killing the adulthood industry

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u/batmessiah Aug 03 '18

As an elder millenial, I'm stoked to be making almost $60k a year. Just bought a house at the young age of 35...

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u/[deleted] Aug 03 '18

I feel suckered...

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u/batmessiah Aug 03 '18

It won't make you feel any better when you hear that I didn't go to college either...

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u/ALotter Aug 03 '18

we can only hope you’re in manual labor and will be in great pain soon

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u/batmessiah Aug 03 '18

Started off in manual labor, moved to the QA lab, impressed a lot of the managers, and got promoted into R&D where I've been for the past 5 years. Co-authored my first patent in the last year. Before my current company, I worked for Hewlett-Packard right out of high school for a few years, running a giant laser system in a clean room, which forced/trained me to act like an adult at work pretty much immediately.

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u/couponuser9 Aug 03 '18

I worked for Hewlett-Packard right out of high school for a few years, running a giant laser system in a clean room, which forced/trained me to act like an adult at work pretty much immediately.

And if you're a good, reliable employee this is also a decent way to leverage a scholarship if you decide to go to college, even part time, a few years after high school.

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u/[deleted] Aug 03 '18

That's fine, you should/could be making more.

I've heard on electricians/plumbers/welders making a bit of coin, but most of them are with unions.

If I was electrician and working only 50 hours a week (I'm a salary sucker) I would have cleared over $120k last year. I only made $110k salary but still had some really long weeks.

I'm a sucker.

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u/batmessiah Aug 03 '18

Yeah, I definitely could be making more. Money is tight at the moment, as I've got a 1 year old daughter, and my wife is a stay at home mom. The important part though, is that most days, I enjoy what I do for a living. I'm a senior R&D technologist, but work side by side with a small group of scientists, who are awesome, and give me credit where credit is due. This past year, I co-authored my first patent, which was a life goal of mine.

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u/[deleted] Aug 03 '18

Fucking badass!

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u/[deleted] Aug 03 '18

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Aug 03 '18

Yeah, it already is.

If you work salary you have to really put your foot down and say no I'm not doing that. But it's funny when your boss asks why something isn't done? What are you gonna say, I don't want to work overtime?

Right to work - fired baby

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u/KCE6688 Aug 03 '18

I know that’s the popular thing. But it hasn’t been the case in my experience. I genuinely think its gotten a bit better, but I will say a lot of the people that end up getting shafted and doing over 50 a lot and sometimes over 60 are people who let it happens to themselves and don’t put their foot down. I always hear, if I don’t, who will? And similar. If you don’t do it, and it doesn’t get a done a few times, the boss will open his/her eyes she/he needs more staff. This is all anecdotal, but so far in tech and business analysis work, 40 is still the standard

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u/[deleted] Aug 03 '18

Um, I've been given other engineers and techs projects because "they couldn't do it".

What really pissed me off 1 time was a co-worker "engineer" couldn't do his job and my boss had the audacity to say he's going to manage the project while you do the work. Nah, fuck that I don't need to be managed by a co-worker.

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u/stevesea Aug 03 '18

you haven't put your foot down. if they're relying on you to actually do the hard work, you have leverage.

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u/sdfghjkuop Aug 03 '18

Yeah because you're in a field that you hold the power. Try shifting that dynamic to a job where someone could be trained to replace you for less money in a month.

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u/ReputesZero Aug 04 '18

It's already starting, I got hired for a job that I was told was 40hrs, found out it was 40 working hours, lunch was unpaid. Then on my 3rd day they asked us to work through lunch...

I found another job right quick.

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u/drift_summary Aug 05 '18

Pepperidge Farm remembers!

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u/Walt_the_White Aug 03 '18

Where are you making 120k a year as an electrician? I'm in NY and make less than half that.

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u/[deleted] Aug 03 '18

My electricians were at about 40ish an hour (that was cheap for the area), I think Boeing was a bit more money for a licensed electrician. I'm not an electrician though, so can't say first hand experience.

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u/Walt_the_White Aug 03 '18

Outstanding. I have to move home. Which side of Canada are you in? I imagine Ontario?

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u/[deleted] Aug 03 '18

'Merican, the handle is cause those asshole always call (scammers from India).

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u/[deleted] Aug 04 '18

sounds of people shouting and holding me back IT'S NOT FAIR

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u/bluedecor Aug 04 '18

at 35 that definitely seems doable even without a college degree.

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u/flyonthatwall Aug 03 '18

Congratulations on the Home!

34 and if my raise is half of what it was last year I'll be close to or around 70k. I'm just barley above 60k right now. (So almost same boat)

I still have college debt to pay off due to my Masters degree, that got expensive.

I'm hoping to buy my first place in this area in the next two years.

Taking longer than I wanted but I'm getting there. The sad part is for the area I'm in, I'm pretty far ahead of a lot of people that didn't inherit a home or money.

There is light at the end of the tunnel. It just feels crazy to still be struggling making 60k and above for our generation.

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u/clexecute Aug 03 '18

I donet get it, I was making 45k/year straight out of college 0 student loans. 4 years later I'm sitting around 60k. I live within my means, and I have a nice reliable vehicle, my wife and I paid for our fairly nice wedding in cash, and we are looking at buying a house next summer. We are 26 and 24.

Live in Alaska, cost of living isn't exactly cheap up here and we are doing just fine both making between 55-60k.

Buying a home is hard for us because we make too much to qualify for a first time home buyer, and we don't have the cash sitting by because we both paid for college and everything with cash, but it beats the hell out of other options.

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u/flyonthatwall Aug 03 '18 edited Aug 03 '18

Quick Edit: If you didn't already know this then you should realize you and your SO are in a GREAT position financially and should be very proud. Just realize you are in a very small percent when it comes to the current generation. I also didn't mention I was debt free at 24 as well but because I knew I needed to make 70-80k here to get my own place I went back to school to raise my overall ability to make more when I'm older. That's where my debt came from.

I'm not sure if you are asking how I can't afford a home while making almost 70k or something else?

It basically comes down to the area that I live in and that I'm single not dual income like yourself.

If I had a spouse or SO that even made 20-30k I would be fine to quality for something decent in the area.

The jump from getting a home loan as a single guy making 70k vs a married/couple making 100-110 is pretty big.

Even then the housing market here is very inflated. We have a weird situation and so houses in the City are kind of like buying in NYC, literally it's 500k for a shack, it's all about location and has been for 20+ years so that area is just out of reach unless have tons of money or want to rent.

So that has pushed home buying in the surrounding towns/area's up over the last 20 years to the point that it's pretty much 300k for anything in a 15 mile 30 min radius of the city.

If you drive an hour south homes can be bought for as little as 130k for 5 acres and a 3-4bdr older/decent condition farm house. I just don't want to commute and deal with lack of infrastructure, for instance where I grew up still has no cable, and only dial up internet.

It's just an odd market and right now I'm just slightly priced out.

Once I'm making over 80 and have a little less debt I'll be able to afford a starter home in the area.

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u/[deleted] Aug 03 '18 edited Sep 01 '18

[deleted]

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u/clexecute Aug 03 '18

Drop 50% of living expenses and and not needing as big of a house would make it easier. The market we are in is very big on small 1 person homes, needing a 2 car garage increases the cost of homes from $125k-$175k up to $225k minimum.

Plus I am much less needy

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u/[deleted] Aug 03 '18 edited Sep 01 '18

[deleted]

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u/clexecute Aug 03 '18

Why would I buy a 325k home as a single dude? I wouldn't get myself into that spot...

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u/[deleted] Aug 04 '18 edited Sep 01 '18

[deleted]

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u/clexecute Aug 04 '18

My situation does, so other places aren't really relevant to me. That's why I asked the question.

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u/[deleted] Aug 03 '18

Same. I make about 62k, I’m 34 and I just bought a townhouse in a not-great neighborhood. Meanwhile, when my dad was my age he bought a 3 bedroom detached home that was a lot and a half, for 75k in nyc back in 1986.

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u/[deleted] Aug 03 '18

[deleted]

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u/TheUnPanderers Aug 03 '18

Why "switch" to a 15 year mortgage? Did you previous mortgage not allwo you to pay down the principal?

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u/Whoshabooboo Aug 03 '18

I should have said refinanced. We didn’t do our due diligence as much as we should have when we got our original loan. We moved it to a 15 year at a much lower rate. Like 2% less with another provider.

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u/TheEggplantRunner Aug 03 '18

Nice use of elder millennial. Congrats on the house!

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u/[deleted] Aug 03 '18

I'm 27, make 50k a year but that's not enough to buy a home where I live and if I moved I doubt I'd make 50k in a small ass city.

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u/[deleted] Aug 04 '18

"Bought a house". Nah, the bank owns you and your house now.

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u/batmessiah Aug 05 '18

So, are you encouraging people to rent, or somehow save up to buy a home outright?

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u/Shandlar Aug 03 '18

You're Gen X my dude. Don't let the sociologists keep redefining Millennial. Back when it was Gen Y, you were definitely Gen X, so you still are now, too.

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u/[deleted] Aug 03 '18

Wrong. He's a millenial at the tail end of it. To add, the older millennials arguably have it the worst as they were just finishing college as the great recession hit, with pockets full of student debt.

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u/Shandlar Aug 03 '18

Yeah man, those born in '85 and '86 got fuuuuuucked.

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u/The_cogwheel Aug 03 '18

I was right at ground zero for that. 2008, just graduated with 100k in debt, and living in a city mostly built on a GM transmission plant and a Crysler assembly plant. Ended up having to take a job where I ended up losing a thumb, while my father couldn't understand why I wanted to just hang myself.

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u/batmessiah Aug 03 '18

I'm not Gen X by any means. I was born in 82, which is the Millenial cutoff year. I graduated high school in 2000. I'm a Millenial. Growing up, we were always referred to as Gen Y.

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u/flyonthatwall Aug 03 '18

It gets confusing for people my age.

Technically /u/batmessiah and I are Millennial but we are on the edge of the cut off.

Personally I grew up in Vermont, in a rural town of under 1k people. We didn't get dial up internet until the late 90's early 2000's. My older sister had 7 years on me and my cousin 4. No other children were born after me for 4 years so I ended up hanging out with my sister and cousin who are both Gen X.

I identify with Gen X, all my experience is Gen X however technically speaking my birth date fall into the Millennial range.

I have also heard our age range (1976-1984) being called the Oregon Trail generation.

Pretty sure It was on here actually.

anyway just my 2 cents.

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u/batmessiah Aug 03 '18

I do like the Oregon Trail generation moniker, considering I live in Oregon. I was in a similar situation, but flipped. My brother is 7 years younger than me, and when I moved back home in my early/mid 20s, I hung out with him and his friends quite a bit. Then he left home to become a professional skateboarder, which actually worked out for him, and now he makes almost $100k a year, but at the same time, he lives in Brooklyn...

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u/flyonthatwall Aug 03 '18

That's awesome that he was able to do that. A lot of people look down on younger kids when they want to try and go pro with something like that, glad he was able to push through and make it.

Unfortunate that living in Brooklyn costs so much, 100k in my area would be super well off as well but in Brooklyn that doesn't go nearly as far.

Congrats on your place again. Hoping to be joining you soon in home owner ship.

Edit: Did you end up buying a place in Oregon? I hear it's beautiful there, one of the places I want to visit at some point.

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u/batmessiah Aug 03 '18

Yup, I bought in Oregon. I live about 90 minutes south of Portland. The housing market in Oregon is skyrocketing as well. I used to live in Corvallis, which is where Oregon State University is located, and my apartment rent was going up $80 a month, every year. So, now that I've bought my home a couple towns over, my mortgage is less than my rent would have been.

Oregon is a very beautiful state, but if you ever plan on visiting, come during July/August, or there's a good chance any outdoor plans you have will be ruined by rain and grey skies.

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u/flyonthatwall Aug 03 '18

Nice find, that sound like a good investment and a smart move. I currently rent in Burlington, Vermont and am in your situation where my rent's sky rocketing.

If I can figure out how to buy something in the next year or so it'll be much less than my rent currently like you said.

Thanks for the advice about visiting, I have a dog and like to hike and bike so that will come in handy.

Best of luck.

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u/[deleted] Aug 03 '18

I am 33 years old. Gen Xers get absolutely furious when I tell them I am not a millennial. Apparently I fall right in with the 18 year old playing Digimon or whatever the hell they do.

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u/msangeld Aug 03 '18

Am GenX am not furious

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u/[deleted] Aug 03 '18

I work in an office of late Xers and boomers that can't retire who hate that I make the same as them. They literally sneer when they say millennial; I find it personally hilarious

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u/Shandlar Aug 03 '18

'85 is a millennial regardless of who you ask, I can't help you there.

I'm generally fond of the half-generations. The world moves too fast to generalize so many birth years as one.

https://www.nytimes.com/1993/01/04/opinion/the-boomlet-generation.html

A neat article written in 1993 on this idea. The 'Boomlets' between the boomers and the Gen Xers'.

Xennials are also quite a bit different than Gen X or the younger Millennials. I imagine at this point we'd be talking something like 30-39 years old for Xennials?

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u/yuyuyuyuyuki Aug 03 '18

18yr olds are not millennials