re: Millennial and under baws: what’s the craziest boomer advice you’ve heard?

quote:

---

1. Establishing better reasons to go to war in Afghanistan?

---

What? Every generation has dealt with unnecessary war this isn't unique to millennials.

quote:

---

Schools to focus more on stem?

---

Do schools focus more or less on STEM than prior generations?

quote:

---

3. More educational materials on power of internet?

---

What more could you possibly need? Anyone with access and the slightest bit of intelligence can find out how to pretty much do anything with a quick search.

quote:

---

my first job paid me $35k a year and I made it work." Mind you he wasn't saying this in a boomer-y lecture kind of way to me, we were just having a general conversation. I responded "That was my salary at my first job out of college too, 40 years later.

---

That is extremely atypical. I got my first job as an electrical engineer about 41 years ago. I was paid $26k. My son was an EE and got more than double that starting out. That was 30 years later.

Doubling salary 30 years later not adjusted for inflation is kinda bad. Imagine your mortgage and his.

quote:

---

For Millennials they've now lived through multiple recessions.

---

So did boomers.

quote:

---

Wage stagnation

---

The stats show wages keeping slightly ahead of inflation

Your other two points were hard to decipher.

Huh that’s exactly what I suggested. I said luck plays a big factor and telling someone they didn’t try hard enough don’t paint the whole story.


Smart decisions are not based on you alone but factors around you that impact those decisions.


How do you get “it’s all luck” from that statement

It plays a factor in everyone's lives. Suggesting it's a big factor in successful people's lives is discounting the work those people put in. I'm sorry, some people are willing to put in insane amounts of work and effort relative to others. Some people truly do not try hard enough.

quote:

---

Smart decisions are not based on you alone but factors around you that impact those decisions.

---

okay

Two things can be true.

You can make good money and still find things expensive. This is a true boomer take you have.

I bet more boomers as a percentage have homes at same age, have multiple vacations at same age, all while prob having one earner household.

quote:

---

Millenials have seen *three* black swans in their lifetimes, as they've been trying to get into adulthood. The Iraq War

---

Wait, I was a young man when we invaded Grenada.

Good thing I haven't lived there in 13 years.

quote:

---

Tell the other part of your bootstrap story

---

What other part? At 24 my wife delivered our first of four children in under five years. She quit her job. We lived on my salary.
- We had a house that because of our hustle and sweat equity we had a mortgage that was only about half the house value.
- We had to commute to work and to see our family and friends.
- We bought second and third hand beater cars for me and a decent second hand car for my wife.
- I fixed anything that broke if I possibly could
- My wife cooked every meal. We did not eat out except once a week I’d have lunch with the guys at work and maybe once a month we’d go to a cheap dinner with another couple.
- We went 10 years without a vacation.
- We went ten years without going to a movie except kids’ matinees.

Gradually my salary started to outpace living costs as I became more valuable in my field. Eventually we took a risk and started a business. Grew that to thousands of employees. Now I fly in private jets if I can’t get first class direct.

Does that cover what you wanted?

My son is doing most of this right now. He is mid 30s with a stay at home wife and three small children. He isn’t struggling as much as I did because he waited longer to have children.