3 in 10? For you guys over 18, and still at home...

[Publius pro tem]

Heard something in a news blurb that caught my attention -

"3 in 10 Americans aged 25-34 live at home with their parents."

Looks like you 18 year-olds have seven years with Mom & Pop before you even become a poll stat.




Seriously - I moved out when I was 16, but that's almost impossible to do today.
Big time legal issues.

As time went by, I began to realize how smart it can be to stay at home.

Me?
No fxcking way.
I wanted out, and I got out.
And stayed out.

Best move I ever made, but that's just my family dynamic.

I've met countless young men and women who lived with their folks.
No debt.
Paying cash for durable goods.
Paying off new cars/trucks in no time.
Getting a degree or two, or working their way up in a job.
When they moved out on their own, they were in great shape financially.

Some young people stay with their folks to help take care of them in some way.
Even help them financially.

Then there are the ones whose planning ability (or lack thereof) bit 'em on the ass.
Kids having kids means they will likely remain with a parent - often in a broken home.
Cindy SingleMom is living with her divorced mom while raising a baby.
Steven SingleDad is paying out his ass for child support/alimony and can't afford a place of his own.
Has to drive his mom's car to work...

Of course, there are the folks on the other end of the ambition scale.
Then there are the Sofa Kings whose mom allows them to smoke dope and occupy the couch.
Nothing changes until mom moves away or passes away.

Now "the economy" is the convenient scapegoat, as was cited in the story I mentioned at the top.

Come on - in the nineties and 2000s we had unprecedented prosperity in the USA.
Plenty of people lived with their folks then - the numbers haven't changed that dramatically.


So, what's the story for you folks here?

When did you move out?
Still with parents?
Still have adult kids at home?

Discuss.

.​

 

[Benjammin]

I moved out when I was 18, first chance I had, 3,000 miles away to another country, and never looked back

 

[MineGoesTo11]

I don't know..

.. there's a big stigma against renting, so these kids stay at home until they can get a loan for the McMansion of their dreams..

Maybe that's different in the USA now in light of the housing crash, but real estate is still delusional here...average house price in my area now is over half a million.. including condos... this won't end well.

A generation of kids being brainwashed into believing that sinking your entire net worth into one highly leveraged, but possibly illiquid 'asset' is a valid retirement strategy.

Or they have been coddled.

Rent an apartment kids.. it doesn't make you subhuman!

 

[Strato]

That's ironic as all get out. Sad but true I think. Last summer my daughter lost her previous job and lost her apartment so the old Ball & Chain asked her to move back in to her old room. In less than a month she scored the best job she had ever had and has been hitting the door there for eleven months. Six days a week. She has tried to give us money for expenses but our bills are almost the same if she wasn't here. And when we cook, it's usually enough to feed a small platoon. Our goal is for her to save as much for the year as she can and then go and put it down on her own home. It's actually a joy having her back around as me and the old ball & chain have been bored with each other for years and Feather will at least sit down and strum some music with you.
If we were to hit her up for some sort of payment for rent or something, she wouldn't hesitate in the least as she's tried and been turned down. It's those deadbeats that pull that crap that I'd have a problem with.

 

[nauc]

not sure of "the story" but i read an article in the NYT like 2 years ago, it said a lot of big cities in Asia are having a hard time finding people wanting to fill in the top jobs. people in their 20s-30s dont want to work 60+ hours a week, makin $100,000+ and driving the big Mercedes. theyld rather spend time with their friends and family and make quite a bit less money and work fewer hours

the Asian old timers call them the "so-so's"

i say, enjoy being young and healthy, cause he who dies old and rich, probably missed the point

 

[180gROC]

My dad was out on his own at 16, I was on my own at 16. Emancipated, job, car, etc... My son was on his own at 17.

18 is just a number. When it's time, it's time. In my family, we get out quick.

 

[Shagnwagon]

Ill be 20 soon. Full time student, my parents didnt want me to struggle to get my degree and work full time like they did. I decided to stay at home and come out of school with absolutely no debt. The only reason they allow me to live at home is because I am a student, had I not been going to school I would of had to move out and pay rent to them until I did.

 

[Publius pro tem]

... a lot of big cities in Asia ...

Asian culture is VERY different.

Not uncommon to have five generations under one roof.

.​

 

[Davet]

I left home a couple of months after my 17th Birthday. I hope to leave the country by my 20th.

 

[itchybro]

I'd move back in in a heartbeat but.... They're gone.

I know it ain't easy sometimes but, love em' while they're here if ye' can. Only advice I got.

 

[Publius pro tem]

I hope to leave the country by my 20th.

Where ya goin'?

 

[Lyrica]

no sure of "the story" but i read an article in the NYT like 2 years ago, it said a lot of big cities in Asia are having a hard time finding people wanting to fill in the top jobs. people in their 20s-30s dont want to work 60+ hours a week, makin $100,000+ and driving the big Mercedes. theyld rather spend time with their friends and family and make quite a bit less money and work fewer hours

the Asian old timers call them the "so-so's"

i say, enjoy being young and healthy, cause he who dies old and rich, probably missed the point

i'm a so so.

there is nothing about any job i can think of, other than the ones i do that involve my music or other passions, that would make me want to spend any real amount of time there. i work hard at my music, i spend hours and hours a day doing it. i spend time talking to my friends and loved ones. i spend a lot of time doing my spiritual studies and learning in that.

i have absolutely no ambition for anything else. and i'm happy wiht that. you go ahead, work 60-80-100 hours a week. make a shitload of money. by the time you get to retirement age, you'll realize that you wasted your life on shit that doesnt' really matter. making money? pah, money don't mean shit. sure it's convenient and having a lot of it allows you to do a lot of cool shit, but if you're working that much, you don't have time or energy to do so.

most of the people i know who work a lot, get home and turn into zombies. they have no passion for anything in life. their work takes up everything they have and they have almost nothing left for their wives, their kids, or even the few passions they have in life. --disclaimer... that isn't every single person who works that much, but its a lot of them.

i can't think of any typical job, or any salary, that would induce me give up so much of my free time, to give up so much of my interactions with friends and loved ones.

you can tell me i have no ambition. thats cool. i don't. at least not in any typical sense. its my belief that ambition, --in the typical sense--isn't all its cracked up to be.

 

[PraXis]

Keep raising the minimum wage and the youngin unemployment rate will keep climbing.

 

[Publius pro tem]

making money?
pah, money don't mean shit.
sure it's convenient and having a lot of it allows you to do a lot of cool shit,
but if you're working that much, you don't have time or energy to do so.

Yeah... but have you ever actually made serious money for a year or two?

Changes EVERYTHING.

Try it sometime.

 

[PraXis]

Took a break during my undergrad days several years ago for a 10 month project that paid insanely well. My back will never forgive me. Ever.

/the money bought lots of whiskey

 

[Caleb]

I was out at 18. It would have never even occurred to me to stay longer than that.

 

[Lyrica]

Yeah... but have you ever actually made serious money for a year or two?

Changes EVERYTHING.

Try it sometime.

i've taken an oath of poverty. even if i won the lottery i wouldn't keep more than enough to keep me in strings and shoes and groceries and rent for a couple of years.

you go ahead. make money. devote your life to it. you won't be able to take it with you.

but everything i devote my life to, will come with me when i go

can i ask you a serious question which i ask you to think about.

if you heard from your doctor that you had only 4 months left to live. would you spend that 4 months working hard and making money? or would you choose to spend your last months doing something else?

our time, is priceless, since we don't know how much of it we have left. any one of us could bite it tomorrow. if i did, in my last moments, i would know i had spent my life well.

maybe you would too. i don't know. but a friend of mine who made a fair bit of money retired recently and she regrets that she spent so much of her life working simply to make a buck.

life is short.

 

[tazzboy]

Unfortunately this true in my case. I currently unemployed now for over year from my previous job (Harry and David) and I am still looking for work.

They said 2012 was suppose to be good year for the job market so I keep and hope something comes out of it soon.

 

[Skintaster]

I was out of the house at 17. Love my family, but never looked back or asked for financial assistance.

 

[180gROC]

I made serious money for a few years. For me, it didn't change much. I spent more, I saved more and I gave more away. Day to day, not much was different than now, except now I spend less, save less and give less away.

I live in the same place, shop at the same places, and like to do the same things. I lived so far under my means when I made six figures that losing that job didn't change my lifestyle much.