QuarterLife Survey... 57% of 20-somethings depend on...

Both my parents lived thru the depression and still prepped in case another one come along. They saved and lived below their means all their lives. They taught their children to live that way too. I tried to pass on that teaching to my children.

We were told to never go into debt for anything other than land/home. If we want to buy a new vehicle, we should pay ourselves until we have enough saved to pay cash. That way we EARN interest on our money instead of PAYING interest to someone else.

A few years ago my dad told me that he seen a depression coming. He said the people who will make it ok are the ones who have a home paid for, can grow/raise their own food, and have as much money stashed as possible. I think he was a wise man who gave wise advice. I'm glad I followed it.

__________________
.
.

I think it is subjective. Certainly I'm not a boomer and our oldest (my niece but I raised her with my sister) has just turned 21.

We are GenX. GenX is one of the most practical generations to come along in a long time, however our generation has a hallmark of being "helicopter parents" much like the generation 5 before us did. Both generations did it as a response to being raised by generations of parents who were into themselves and their lives and sort of left the kids to raise themselves.

We've raised a generation of folks who are so inculcated in the concept of a second opinion that they can't function well without it. They work in teams and finding a stand out leader in the Mils is hard to do..and they will command the best salaries in the future.

So, I think maybe we're mixing some apples with some oranges. Most of those in the early twenties were raised by people who were either transitional between boom and GenX or GenX. No greatest generation parents there unless they were REALLY late parents (not many women having kids at 60).

I'm a child of a boomer and I'm in my 40s so I can't see "main sequence" boomers being the parents either.

That leaves transitional and GenX.

Failure to launch is something that MIGHT turn out to be good. It is forcing us to make choices that are more in line with actual human life. Living in multigenerational households, allowing young workers to take lower wages and really learn their craft while contributing to a household, preventing early marriage with it's associated later regrets...etc and so on.

One of the hugest benefits of the Mils is that they are less likely to feel like they need to leave home. They are, by and large, so accustomed to working and living in a group that they often feel uncomfortable living alone, leaving home or even just going away to school and tend to decompensate.

We should count our blessings with this change. Sure, we do now need to teach them the difference between a want and a need and they still need guidance. But in the end we might get what is better than all of that worry...a family that stays together. Perhaps "flying the nest" won't be the norm and the only future an oldster can look to if they weaken is to be put away in a home will be a thing of the past too.

How great for the NEXT generations would that be?

__________________
Christy
Growing Human
http://growinghuman.blogspot.com

When wearing narrow lenses of hate and ignorance, is it any wonder one finds it difficult to see clearly? - Me

Youth is wasted on the young, very much agreed!!

__________________
"Follow the seekers of truth, but avoid the people who claim to have found it!" -- Jens Martin Knudsen

ill admit myself and my wife are both Gen y'ers and yes i have a cell phone but it has defiantly seen better days, our car though great on gas mileage is not a pretty site, college tuition and books are the largest expense along with rent and elec. times are tough but they are for everybody we both have part time jobs (all that is avail) i even delivered phone books for a month! but those numbers seem very accurate i done feel bad for very many of my peers, as i know when they complain about noth having enough money its because of what they did last Friday night "movies-food-BEER-PARTIES" i dont feel bad for them one bit.. do we live paycheck to paycheck yes we do do i shop at safe way? no i shop at walmart why because its cheap i also hit the Mennonite scratch and dent grocery store first. have i relied on my parents for a 200 loan until payday yes i have did i pay them back yes i did! i believe there are two types of 20 somethings those with there heads to far up there own asses to see the light of say and those that have a great head upon there shoulders and are at least trying to "make it" i for one believe I'm the latter but at times I'm positive it was dark and i couldn't see the sun

__________________

I have a 20 year old and a 21 year old living at home. One works full time at a big box store and the other works part time in a mall clothing store. Both are fulltime college students.

They are on the same family plan for the cell phone that we are and pay an extra $30 per month to have internet access on their smart phones (Blackberry & Droid). The basic cell plan for each only costs $10 per phone on our family plan and they each pay that.

They don't drive fancy cars and they take the bus when they don't have a ride.They do have laptops, but those were high school graduation gifts. If they want new ones, they wil have to pay for now ones themselves.

I don't see that they are particularly spoiled, though they do sometimes have to be reminded about picking up after themselves and loading the dishwasher. Neither one has a credit card account, though they have access to one of ours and must pay their charges in full each month. They have no student loan debt.

I just don't view them as being spoiled and don't think that they should necessarily be out on their own yet. When I was their age, I was married, working full-time attending college and had already started my family. My children have inherited their parents' work ethic and have worked hard to set themselves up for a successful future. Maybe some kids choose to do things differently...

__________________
~TheMartianChick~

My latest novels:
Bystander: A Tale of the End of the World as SHE Knew It!

Christmas in Bystander & Other Village Tales

Coming Soon: A Slice of Heaven

Do you?

I know what I could do as a 22 year-old college graduate. I could get a job and actually support myself. I could do well enough that I could get married. With both my wife and I working, we saved enough money to build a house and we had our first child when I was 25.

I also bought my first new car - a Buick LeSabre - when I was 25. Payed for it in 36 months.

I don't think I was an isolated case.

Now...in today's economy, how many 25 year old kids do you know that can afford a family, a new home and a new car? Maybe somebody with an extremely lucrative degree such as PharmD, but not the average bear.

Jeez, I'll have to point my 20 year old son to this thread so he can be amazed at how lazy and spoiled he is. I'm sure he will wonder when he had time to be lazy and spoiled while pulling fence, bush hogging pastures, running a lawn care and computer repair biz and being a general "handy boy" every summer and after school and weekends.

I find it ridiculous to paint all 20 somethings as lazy, spoiled, greedy brats. Sure some are, but I will bet for every 20 something, I can point to a 40 - 60 something that won't work and lives off a relative, wife, husband, GF or boyfriend. Not to mention those that never have worked and learned early on to work the system.

Good and bad in every batch that comes down the pike. Not much encouragement for the 20 somethings that read this forum and hold down jobs, go to college, and might be raising a family to see that many think they are a bunch of lazy ne'er the wells.

__________________
Be yourself - no one can tell you that you're doing it wrong!

I don't see anybody calling the 20's "lazy ne'er thee wells". Just speculation on why 57% of them would still need at least partial support from their parents. 43% are doing it on their own and kudos to them.

I do believe that each generation of young people seems to expect more. They seem to expect to live just as well as their parents do when starting out on their own life, when many times their parents struggled and did without things at some point to achieve the lifestyle they enjoy by the time the kids are raised. If you never had to scratch and fight for something, do you truly appreciate it?? A lot of parents need to let their grown kids struggle and not just whip out the checkbook. That's how they learn about priorities and delayed gratification.

I'll single this out, because you OBVIOUSLY missed it.

__________________
Check us out out "The Modern Homestead", a small, helpful, friendly forum. Find us at "The Modern Homestead", on facebook too!

Some good points her Christy, especially about the "Helicopter Parents"... Lord save us from them.

I tend to disagree though with the statement about the multigenerational households being a good thing.

At one time they were, but it was out of necessity, in order to survive... the men were men and worked like it, the young ladies helped raise the other children, etc.

But, to me (and I believe there have been a few studies out there on this) adolescence has been extended in Modern America. This multi-generational thing isn't about a generation that's chomping at the bit for their turn at bat... (I think that's more apt to describe the past multi-generational situations) A good portion of this generation seem content to remain in that pseudo-adolescent state with all their time caught up in video games, socialization and entertainment.

Perhaps it could be argued that those are the opiates of the masses now days to escape the economy, etc.

In the other discussion I am having another girl, who also has a child, is in school, holds a full-time job, etc. was complaining about those who refuse to work for anything because it's given to them. She was hard on her fellow 20-somethings.

So taking the college student out of the equation, is there anyone who is facing this whose 20-something kids AREN'T in college full-time?

__________________
Check us out out "The Modern Homestead", a small, helpful, friendly forum. Find us at "The Modern Homestead", on facebook too!

Interesting observation. I see a similar trait in many young, fresh out of college job applicants, 'works well in a team environment', 'excellent collaborative skills'.

They are educated to work in groups, and I think the pendulum has swung to far towards the 'group work' side of the equation. So much so that quite a number of them struggle with doing tasks as an individual. They have trouble with that direct responsibility, whereas in a team environment that responsibility is spread around a bit, and there is less focus on the individual.

I've seen new engineers that were so indoctrinated in the group work concept that they wanted to turn just about every assignment into a full-blown, multi-discipline, cross-departmental, cross-functional design project team. There is no question that the team approach has it's place, and it has helped to increase the quality of the product created and in particular has reduced development cycle-times, but you just don't need this approach for every task.

sorry didn't hit the quote feature, I was responding to Georger's comments:

Our society has become addicted to cheap and disposable wealth - cheap as in not having to struggle, sacrifice and work hard for many years to acquire. They want something so they go crawling to mommy and daddy for it just so they can look cool (cell phone? Hell I don't even own one and don't need one)

Our young people have become a society of lazy spoiled brats.

I happen to think that it is tougher for many of the younger generation to get ahead these days. They come out of college and there are few jobs or no jobs..even the old stand-by "teaching" is not what it used to be. Teachers are being laid off in many states, even nurses are being laid off. So on the one hand we encourage the kids to go to college, they may or may not rack up debt to do so (because most jobs these days state "4 year degree" even for a receptionist's position) and the kids get out and they can't find a job doing anything remotely close to what they studied. (not talking about those kids that get degrees in "underwater basketweaving".

I do think the economy has made things harder, the housing bubble didn't help - rentals are costing more and more due to the vast numbers of people who have been foreclosed on and need a place to live..so rent prices have increased. Makes it hard for a young person to get started in life.

__________________
Be yourself - no one can tell you that you're doing it wrong!

Some interesting points you bring up but I do think what I'm refering to is a bit different.

To my view, the extended adolescence is different from a multigenerational household.

Extended adolescence, as you lay it out, is a true problem nowadays but I think that is more a failure to parent too. Instead of leading...not guiding, but leading...their children as they grow and even after they grow to take joy in work well done, it is easier to continue to indulge them in mindless activity that requires no input from them as parents.

I started my life in a multigenerational household of 5 generations. It was awesome. There is never a time when you have to do a task alone. Never a worry about climbing up to get something off the top shelf or needing an extra pair of hands to haul a laundry tub. Always someone to read a bed time story and someone will, inevitably, be singing somewhere. Many hands make light work is a truth we can live by and live well if we choose.

So, my view remains that those with a retarded emotional growth that leaves them in that limbo of extended adolescence are a transitional problem that can only be helped by the leadership of older generations. A truly functional multigenerational household is something we shouldn't eschew but embrace as an excellent side effect of returning from our various "bubbles" to a more human existence.

But we can agree to disagree.

__________________
Christy
Growing Human
http://growinghuman.blogspot.com

When wearing narrow lenses of hate and ignorance, is it any wonder one finds it difficult to see clearly? - Me

since im constantly looking for a closer place to work or school i can attest to the rent at least in surrounding "college town" is very expencive "no pets" "first, Last, Deposit" i could have a very "gross" apt for less but im willing to work harder for somthing that both my wife and i can live in with out feeling dirty and my doggies have to be allowed too!

__________________

ChristyACB, I'm with you on the multi-generation household. I grew up in one and live in one now. The older generation can easily be isolated and lonely when they live alone; hardly anybody eats right when they are cooking for one; any children in the home benefit from the close relationship with their grandparents; it conserves resources, etc. That subject probably merits a thread of its own.

Sorry for the side trip, back to the 20-somethings........