Recent data suggests we’re doing alright. So why doesn’t it feel that way?
The financial story of Millennials told over the past few years has been pretty stark. Millennials were going to be the first generation to do worse than their parents financially. Millennials were under more debt than previous generations and as a result were delaying family formation and home ownership (too much avocado toast…). Millennials had a smaller share of wealth than previous generations did at their same age. Overall the story hasn’t been positive.
So we were intrigued by this headline from The Atlantic. And it turns out some of this story is starting to turn, Millennials (at least in the United States) are starting to do better:
Households headed by Millennials are making considerably more than those headed by Silent Generation, Boomers and Gen Xers were at the same age (even after adjusting for inflation)
Fewer Millennials were in poverty in 2019 than were Boomers and Gen Xers at similar ages
Millennial home ownership rates in 2020 were only slightly behind Boombers and Gen Xers at the same age: 50% of Boomers owned their home as 25-to-39 year olds, compared with 48% for Millennials
As this article summarises:
Millennials, as a group, are not broke—they are, in fact, thriving economically. That wasn’t true a decade ago, and prosperity within the generation today is not evenly shared. But since the mid-2010s, Millennials on the whole have made a breathtaking financial comeback.
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