Strapped: Why America's 20- and 30-Somethings Can't Get Ahead

[pstans]

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=eV3H6f1D5m&isbn=0385515057&itm=1

I heard the author on Al Franken's show on AAR on Wednesday and was happy to find it at the bookstore. I just bought this book and started reading it today. I am 25 and find it is pretty interesting. I think even older people would be interested in this book, especially if they have kids in this age or coming into this age group.

I will post some more about this book as I read more.

[rox63]

1. Some of the 40-somethings are having a tough time also

I know several of them.

[Zensea]

2. There's truth in this idea but

... there's a lot of people over 39 who can't get ahead either.
I'm 49 and when I was in my 20s and 30s I had a hell of a hard time getting ahead also, so I'm not really sure this is a particularly new thing.
Also, I wouldn't say I approached getting anywhere economically until I was almost 47 and it's still a struggle today.
Same sorts of reasons, college debt, predatory lending etc.
I doubt I'll ever be able to afford to buy a house of my own and when I hit retirement age from where I sit today, it looks to me like it ain't going to be easy either.

[NEOBuckeye]

3. 20 and 30-somethings can't even do half of what the Baby Boomers did

When they were our age. We can't buy the house and the car, because we don't have the well-paying job and benefits. But we do have tons of creditors and tuition lenders calling our cellphones and demanding payment on the $30,000, $50,000 or even $100,000 that so many of us owe after 4 years of college for a degree that doesn't even guarantee a job anymore.

How can we get by? We can't even get started.

[CrispyQ]

11. I can't imagine starting my adult life with

> $50k debt in student loans.

Business week recently had a story about college students & how much they owed by the time they graduated & the average was in the $50-$75k range. ~gasp!! That's a huge amount of money to owe when you are first starting out. They said that many are putting off having a family due to the amount of money they owe upon graduation. One couple were both going to grad school & estimated that when they were finished they would owe approx $200k. :wow: How does one save for a down payment for a house much less take on a mortgage with student loans that high? What a sad state of affairs. Soon, only the ultra-rich will be able to afford an education & to have a family. The rest of us will be slaves to our corporate masters, Wal-mart & McDonalds, working 60-80 hour work weeks for peanuts.

But, that's basically what the neocons want, isn't it?


I feel fortunate that I have lived during the best time of America. I'm sad that I am seeing it decline into something unrecognizable.

[northzax]

18. $200 grand for a couple?

that ain't nothin' I have at least three friends, people I see weekly, who are $200+ in the hole without a spouse involved.

[serryjw]

21. I spend a lot of time on

our college campus doing petitioning. I think ONE of the problems is kids give ZERO thought to what they are majoring in & the will it be needed in 5-10-20 years. I can't tell you how many teachers in waiting I talk to. Very noble but teachers didn't get paid much when times were good and now the public education system is under assault. Most of us Baby Boomers graduated with ZERO college debt. How do you repay thousands when you make $25K and have to support yourself. The days of a 'liberal arts' education are gone.

[Sheri]

4. In my thirties.

Still struggling, and probably will be for a long time. I read somewhere that Americans have been getting poorer every year since about 1973. Douglas Coupland talks about this in Generation X. Better get used to the idea. Things are going to get worse (and you don't have to believe in Peak Oil to believe that).

[laheina]

9. Hi Sheri!!

Welcome to DU :hi:

[serryjw]

22. Welcome to DU!!

I always recommend reading Professor Elizabeth Warren on the subject
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002TP1IU/sr=1-1/qid=1146280226/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-8262904-7665745?%5Fencoding=UTF8&s=books

[cmd]

5. My kids are in this age group

I can attest that this is true. They are both talented, educated girls with large college loan debts. One will bless me with a grandchild in a few months. I'm very worried about her financial security. She has at least 6 years of college behind her and a less than stellar job. The other daughter is living from pay to pay, but does have a decent job.

[msongs]

6. because they spend all their money on junk??

instead of saving anything they spend it all on electronic junk they do not really need and can easily live
without, on junk foods that have little or no nutritional value, on overpriced cars that only get them where
they want to go by adding a huge wad of debt, on telephones where they are charge to MAKE a call and also to
RECEIVE calls, on all this kind of stuff.

my comments are based on the 20 somethings I know who have jobs, are stable, and will not hang on to any of
their money, and complain about being broke and blame it on the credit card companies LOL!

the cost of housing may in fact be a burden on lots of people in the 20 something group that I know, but they
are not willing to go without anything. Do you really need a 40 inch plasma tv and $150 a month cable TV?

as leonard cohen so aptly puts it, "the rich have got their channels in the bedrooms of the poor.."

Msongs
www.msongs.com/political-shirts.htm

[NEOBuckeye]

7. Not all of us are addicted to junk

But the process of deprogramming onesself from society could probably resemble something like Alcoholics Anonymous. It's not easy.

[Zensea]

8. I wonder

what my father, who would be 85 if he was still alive and who lived in Oklahoma and southern California during the great Depression would think about these 20 and 30 year olds.
Actually, I don't wonder at all. He'd think they were whining.
& he was no Republican, he was quite radical.
He voted for Henry Wallace in 1948 and was a conscientious objector in WWII.

[SoonerShankle]

14. While this may be true for some...

it is not true for all. I am in my late 30s. I'm a single mom. I am a professional who has a stable job (I've been in my profession for 15 years). I still barely live month to month. I don't pay a cable bill. I have a single TV 25" in my home and a five year-old computer. I don't consider myself frugal, but I do consider myself cautious with money. The average two bedroom home in my community costs over a million dollars. The median home price in my county is near $500,000. I'm stuck renting -- paying nearly $1,800 a month. Housing in my area is only one of the factors keeping 20 and 30 somethings struggling, but it is a big factor. This doesn't even count retirement planning, savings and investment, health care costs, etc. It doesn't count car payments, electric bills, etc. It doesn't count basics for my son: clothing, food, etc. I don't consider these things fancy. I consider these things responsible. Those that won't go without give those of us who do a bad name...

btw I don't care to have a 40" plasma screen TV. That would be just one more hassle... Personally, I prefer a low-end mp3 player and a walk on the beach...

[elehhhhna]

15. don't forget the monthly ringtone rental on the camera/cell phone

oy.

[northzax]

19. funny, I don't know anyone

who can't pay their bills who has a large TV, mine is ten years old. Sure, the corporate lawyers have nice tvs. the rest of us all take the bus or rtide bikes and use broadcast TV. I do splurge, I guess, for high speed internet, but it's a requirement for school, I get 2-3 megs of emails a day sometimes from professors and fellow students, can't do that on dial up.

let's see, how else do I splurge? oh yes, I donate to DU every now and then. and yes, I have a cell phone, but that's actually cheaper than a landline, if I ever want to talk to my mom and dad who live long distance from me.

Oh, and I splurge on health insurance. I kinda like having that major medical for $125/month.

and a one bedroom apartment in DC costs about $300,000 in a bad neighborhood. Let's do the math, that's about a 1700/month mortgage payment. my takehome is $2200/month. doesn't leave much for electricity, does it?

at my age, in New York City, my father made the same as me, adjusted for inflation. we have the same education. He paid 25% of his income in rent. I pay 40%, I'm in DC. yes, I choose to live in the city and not have a car, I guess I could move out. seems like a two hour commute would be unreasonable, though.

no, I'm not complaining, but as the middle class spins its wheels, life gets worse for those trying to enter it.

[Katherine Brengle]

20. This isn't entirely fair...

While many 20-somethings live this way, I can say for certain that two do not--me and my husband.

I went to college, but only owe about 20K altogether, which is still very hard to deal with. I don't have a cell phone, a car, a very nice apartment--hell, I don't even have a watch, lol.

My one true luxury is my laptop, and I bought it used, and even then only because my previous computer was 5 years old and no longer usable.

My husband is a police officer in our city (at least he will be when he gets back from Iraq and gets sworn in--he had to deploy right after graduating from the police academy) and doesn't make a ton of money--we have a 22 month old daughter, and it is hard to get by.

We have no credit cards, no loans aside from college loans. Neither of us has credit card debt, but we both have enough school debt to keep us from qualifying for a home loan or car loan.

I posted somewhere else on DU today that going to college was the biggest waste of time and money I ever experienced--I left school with one semester left till graduation because I was pregnant, ended up getting billed for the entire year--the university never notified me of the bill until it had already been referred to a collection agency that will not accept a long term payment arrangment. What a joke...

So now I am a stay at home mom and I write from home--hopefully one of these days I will finish my book, get it published, and start making some money--ironically without any need for that degree I never got...

[pstans]

10. I have read 40 or so pages so far

and the theme has been the "debt for diploma system" that our higher education has become. In the 1960's and 1970's college was affordable because of financial aid (which is not student loans) and if you did not want to go to college you were able to get a decent job with just a high school degree. Now, the financial aid is mainly in student loans, tuition has skyrocketed and students who do graduate from college have dug themselves such a deep hole already. Worse, is that many students see the high tution costs and don't want loans, so they attend community colleges or don't go to school at all. The author calls this "downsizing your dreams."

[NYC]

13. Night school.

I worked during the day, and went to college at night. A lot of people did that.

[CrispyQ]

16. Me too.

And my husband got his master's that way. We both attended accelerated night school programs & we were also both fortunate to have worked for companies that reimbursed us for 80% of our tuition. I imagine that is a diminishing benefit in today's cut-employee-benefits corporate world, but there are still companies that offer it.

[pstans]

17. Another thing in this book

is the financial demands and the demands in the workplace make people hold off on having children into their 30's. People will go to night school to work on their master's and not have kids. If they do have kids, then many fail to finish.

[pstans]

12. Here is an article I just found about this topic

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060211/ap_on_re_us/college_financial_aid

"A new report by the American Council on Education estimates 1.5 million students who would probably have been awarded Pell Grants in 2003-2004 did not apply for them. That's up from ACE's estimate in a previous survey of 850,000 who missed out on aid in 1999-2000."