The generation that grew up during the Great Depression of the 1930s were known for their grit and amazing frugality. The Baby Boomers were known for more spending and being revolutionaries. But the Millennials are not known for anything as dramatic. They are known for their love of environmental consciousness and their love of anything that’s practical and healthy, like avocado toast. It’s time to explore exactly how the millennials are a much different generation.
They Are Very Well-Educated
The oldest in their generational cohort began college at the very beginning of the 21st century. So, they are the first generation to go to college en masse. Part of that is because they were brainwashed into believing that a college degree opens up immense career opportunities.
About a 33% of millennials are college graduates. That number is even higher for women millennials. Forty percent of them have at least a college degree. But something interesting characterizes them. They may be the best educated generation ever, but they certainly aren’t the wealthiest.
The average millennial is 41% poorer than his or her baby boomer parents were in 1989. Their pre-tax income in 2020 was slightly over USD 71,000. Another startling fact about millennials is that real wages for them have actually fallen by over 18% for them for the past 18 years.
They may be frugal, but maybe not nearly as frugal as the media paints them out to be. This is not all their fault. They grew up during a time of declining wages and skyrocketing prices of essential and non-essential goods. They are debt saddled (it began when they took out enormous student loans to go to college), they don’t save much, and they are not the best at managing money either.
According to the TIAA Institute in 2020, at least 33% of Millennials don’t have an emergency fund of $2,000. They also entered the job market around the time of the Great Recession. Unfortunately, they saw familial wealth decline by about 45% during that time. The wage gap only increased for them from 2010 to 2016, even as the economy started to recover.
They do, however, have one thing going for them. They are educated and this will give them a huge advantage to earn more in a changing global economy that increasingly values education.
They Understand The Old Saying, “Health is Wealth.”
Indeed, they may be the first truly health conscious and environmentally conscious generation ever. The Global Web did a survey which found that the average Millennial works out a lot. Over 75% of them exercise at least once a week. Interestingly enough, only 24% of them drink alcohol at least once a week.
In fact, Millennials held about a third of all health and gym club memberships in 2018. When they do work out, they like to do so in style. That supports the findings that they have expensive lifestyle habits. Their favorite workout area is the boutique studio gym.
Millennials will pay a premium, literally, to stay healthy. A survey did in 2021 revealed that about two-fifths of them had credit card debt stemming from fitness and nutrition expenses. Unfortunately, all of these efforts may not be bearing fruit. According to Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, Millennials start to have health issues around age 27.
Student Loans Follow Them Around Everywhere
Yes,, the average Millennial has about USD 87,000 in debt according to Experian. About USD 38,877 of that is student loan debt. This is not all their fault though. College education has skyrocketed. It’s an average of 70% more expensive now than it was in 1999 New America reports.
So it may not be shocking to reveal that the number of student loans issued during that time has doubled. So, Millennial borrowers aged 25 and 34 collectively had over USD 500 billion in student loan debt in 2021. The number was even higher for people aged 35-49 at USD 622 billion.
However, many Millennials simply can’t find the jobs allowing them to pay off this debt. According to some experts, about a third of Millennials who began college in 2003 have already defaulted on their student loans. By 2023, that was 38%.
Millennials Are A Sign of the Times
Millennials have learned to be sarcastic and cynical of the system. It’s not their fault. Many feel, and rightly so, that they were dealt a bad set of cards economically speaking. They came of age at a time when a college degree was preferred, increasingly able to obtain, and didn’t always lead to high-paying jobs. That was accompanied by relentless and sky-high inflation.
