“I’m not so sure this hasn’t always been the case with 20-somethings.”
I agree with this statement.
The most important things you can do financially in your 20s are first, get out of debt and stay out and second, develop financial habits that will serve you well for the rest of your life.
I wasn’t out of debt myself until right before my 26th birthday. But I did attack my debt with vigor, working two jobs for awhile and being very careful with expenses. I kept working at the second job a few years to work up some savings, only quitting it once I started doing well enough in my primary job that the secondary income wasn’t worth the effort.
At that point I was around 29-30, and bumped up my lifestyle a little, but not to the extent of the entire extra income I was making.
That was all in the 1990s, and I doubt things have changed much since then. If you’re 26 now I presume you’re three or four years out of college, and that must seem like a long time, but eventually you’ll learn it’s not. You have 40 years of your working life left, if not more.
It’s unreasonable to get rich overnight, but quite easy to get rich slowly. To use Millionaire Next Door terms, not everyone can play great “offense” all the time, especially in one’s 20s, but you can always play good “defense”.
BTW, there are lots of places all around the country where 20somethings with decent jobs have no problem affording starter homes. A two-earner couple making $70-80K can EASILY buy a starter home with a traditional mortgage in most of the country. Now if it’s beneath you to live in Michigan or North Carolina or Colorado…. well, that’s your choice.
