re: 3/4s of millennials are more than $100,000 in debt, most not from mortgages

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You do know not everyone has the same credit line right?

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Wouldn't people who are drowning in debt and not making much money not get bigger lines? I need to reread it but I'm guessing student loans were the biggest factor.

I'd be mostly worried about the 'great wealth transfer' with so much debt incurred that's where all the money goes. Or worse, spending it and hoping for a bailout of some kind.

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Damn. What the frick are they doing?

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They think they're smart but most are dumb motherfrickers.

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master debater

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That’s probably the only thing he’s good at

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I have some bad debt right now, but none of it is student loans. I was doing great financially, but decided to buy a modest starter home and rent half of if. It was a fixer-upper, so I started a few repairs. I had to finance most of the home and the repairs.

About half way through the reno, I get laid off and spend a couple months searching for a new job, but can’t find anything in my city. I end up getting a job in another city thinking I can rent out the whole house while I work over there. I get f$&ked by a bad tenet. Now, I’m stuck with the mortgage on my old house with not enough rent to pay it, and the rent for my place in the new city.

I’m barely getting by, then I get sick…really sick (almost die), but the health insurance at my new job is terrible and covers nothing, AND they don’t give me adequate sick time or short term disability to recover, instead, docking my pay (they also gave me a date by which I would need to vaccinated or be terminated). Then, they jack me around about not working remote during a Hurricane when the office is wiped out and I can’t find anywhere within 100 miles with electricity. To make matters worse, the hurricane wrecks one of my side hustles completely.

As a result, thinking I have another job lined up, I quit that job, but the other falls through leaving me f$&ked (led me on). I Weasel out of my lease and move back to my house after ousting the deadbeat tenet who stiffed me, but have to go in more debt to pay off the apartment.

I work whatever little shitty gigs I can get and mooch off family, but it barely pays for my mortgage and some food. I have a professional degree, yet get stuck working 3 or 4 different under-employed gig jobs just to get by because I can’t get hired at a real job. It says everyone’s hiring, but I never get a call back. I just keep racking up debt thinking the next job is coming, but it never does. If something doesn’t change soon, I’m going to have to sell the house and move back in with my parents…again. I don’t even need that much money to live a very stable existence, like less than $40k, yet I just feel trapped in these dead-end gig economy jobs. I have a couple real job interviews this week, so hopefully one of them will pan out and everything will be fine again.

The reality is that in the span of 18 months, I went from solidly middle class young professional to bordering on bankrupt deadbeat because I got laid off, when I was literally the last man standing on my team from the date I was hired. Yeah, I’m mad!

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That sucks bro. Hope things get better for you.

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Some millennials are actually successful, save money, build wealth, etc. It's almost like every other generation in history.

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In history? Now is the time to learn some history.

Why do U.S. consumers think they way they do (and it is NOT the same across generations)

The amount of economic growth since WWII is unprecedented. In short, things were very uncertain during WWII, then they were very good, then pretty bad, then really good, then really bad, and now here we are!

Low interest rates after WWII as soldiers came home to shortages of many things. Europe's cities were bombed to rubble so world leaned on America's economy. Pent-up demand for stuff fed by credit boom and a hidden productivity learned during depression

Total US Household debt:
1945 = $29 billion
1955 = $128 billion
1965 = $331 billion
...see where this is going?

Debt rose tremendously but there was a period where incomes did, too. Impact not a big deal...

Things started cracking in early 1970s. Recession, unemployment back to 1930s levels, inflation surged, interest rates high.

The boom returned with Reagan but was different than before...same amount of growth found new pockets. Top 1% saw 86% growth and bottom 99% saw 7%, some in the middle fell. Can debate why but cannot debate this happened.

Americans held onto 2 ideas post WWII: (1) That you should live a lifestyle similar to most other Americans and that taking on debt to finance that lifestyle is acceptable.

Fast forward:

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Today, only about one-fourth of millennials (28%) are debt-free. Of those, about 1 in 3 (34%) have never had debt, while 1 in 4 (25%) have paid off their debts within the past year.

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Good on them. Wish there were more!

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Why can't Millennials live below their means?

A. Don't want to sacrifice lifestyle
B. Don't have a choice in the matter
C. Don't know chit about personal finance
D. YOLO, suck it

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There are consequences of course. I don't blame them, they were steered to it esp regarding student loans.

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The survey says they polled millennials on how much student loan debt they had, with the following responses:
$10,000-$99,999: 54%
$100,000-$199,999: 12%
$200,000-$299,999: 11%
$300,000-$399,999: 9%
$400,000-$499,999: 8%
$500,000: 5%

The statement is incredibly misleading. The survey results say:
- 72% of millennials have non-mortgage debt.
- Of that 72%, 48% (35% overall) have student loan debt.
- Of that 35%, 46% (16% overall) have >$100,000 in student loan debt.

So the survey results find that 16% of millennials have >$100k in student loan debt, but declares that “The Average Millennial Owes More Than $100,000 in Student Loan Debt” (in large font as a section heading, no less).

This is probably due to a rather dubious use of averages vs. medians (which are far more meaningful) along with a failure to properly qualify that they are talking about specific subgroups. I’d be willing to bet that the vast majority of millennials with student loan debt >$100k are doctors and lawyers (ETA: Or high-end B-school grads as someone suggested below.)

Regardless of the reason, it’s enough for me to conclude that this “Real Estate Witch” survey is probably garbage.

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Thank you

Millennials are stupid. The shocking details on 9 News tonight.

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Do 10-15 year bankers in NOLA and BR really make $200,000+?

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I looked at jobs in Louisiana that are $200k salary+ and they are all in the medical field or mortgage loan officers/managers (I highly doubt any of them make that much unless they are grinding 70-80 hours a week)

So I doubt it.