6 Reasons Why Millennials Are Going Broke

Here is why Millennial Net Worth has been declining

Photo by Aidan Bartos on Unsplash

Millennial Net Worth: CNBC reports that, in 1989, when baby boomers were around the same age as millennials are today…they controlled 21% of the nations wealth, which is almost 5X HIGHER than Millennials own, today — here’s why:

1. Student Loan Debt On average, the cost of a college education has risen 65% in the last 10 years. Alongside that… wage growth — on average — has only gone up about 26% in the last 10 years…And to make matters worse…on average, millennials who graduate with a student loan have a debt of more than $30,000. In 1970, only 16% of people had a college degree or higher, and today, nearly 40% of millennials in the workforce have a bachelors degree. This means that, back then, not only was college CONSIDERABLY less expensive than it is today, but it was FAR more exclusive and demanded a much higher salary.
2. Millennials are not investing. In fact, it was found that 43% of millennials are just straight up NOT investing anything…and almost 50% of them are WAITING to invest until they earn more money. Unfortunately, it appears that the main issue behind all of this…is simply just a lack of education, and the proper guidance in terms of HOW TO invest — which can be incredibly simple.
3. Lack of Home Ownership Millennials have been 8% LESS LIKELY to own real estate than previous generations for several reasons: first, being home prices. It’s said that millennials are paying a median price of $328,000 for a home…while baby boomers only had to spend $216,000…adjusted for inflation….in 1989. Because of that, nearly one fifth of millennials said they planned to rent forever…and of the millennials who DO plan to buy a home…63% have no money saved up for a down payment.
4. The cost of tuition is up…wages are down…and, in turn, even if you DO have a job — you’re making less, comparatively, to previous generations. Even though there CAN be benefits of getting a college degree…and it CAN be a pre-requisite for securing a job…it’s certainly becoming a lot more common, and therefore, less impactful towards getting a boost in salary.
5. Millennials are making less money. Surprisingly, 62% of millennials are living paycheck to paycheck…and, overall.. they’re making 20% LESS than baby boomers did at the same age. So, put all of that together…and you have a combination of factors that all make home ownership less possible, which — in turn — lowers the homeownership rate — and then, in turn — means millennials own less wealth.
6. Lower millennial net worth. This study found that the typical Baby Boomers had about $113,000 — in today’s dollars — in wealth in 1989, when they were in their early 40s. On the other hand, recently….older millennials had a net worth of just $91,000 in 2019. In fact, if we just look at AVERAGES across the board, overall….the AVERAGE net worth of millennials is just $8000.

It’s also INCREDIBLY important to realize that, at the end of the day — all the income in the world won’t help if you don’t consistently SAVE AND INVEST, so that way, you can participate in the markets going up in value over time.