Travel is by far the largest expenditure for millennials I know. My D thinks nothing of jetting off to a girls weekend in Miami or to see a concert in NYC. She has another international trip already planned for later this year. In her friend circle, it almost seems like a competition to the see who can collect the most passport stamps. Different priorities for sure.
5 Likes
The travel thing is another media stereotype. I know plenty of millennials that donât travel much if at all and far more baby boomers that travel constantly, both due to work commitments or a lack thereof. My millennial friends who travel often are single by choice. Marriage is less popular with millennials, so that may be why the travel is more noticed by other generations. Having children is less popular still. Itâs more of a shift in priorities, not an increase in overall spending, at least with my urban/suburban older millennial friends.
I wpuld expect Boomer travel to increase, as many are retired now. I am not judging the choice to travel, but expect those who do so recognize tradeoffs need to be made.
This!
I do wonder if when articles talk about not being able to afford a home. And Iâm not talking about CA or NYC or an expensive city.
Is some of it that young people have a different idea of how they wish to spend their money?
I have a niece who claims they canât buy a house. But they travel almost constantly and love fine dining. Not judging but I do wonder if their priorities are on experiences right now and not sacrificing to buy a home.
Which was our experience buying a home. We wanted to buy but it meant sacrificing other things.
6 Likes
Millenials come in all types, canât really stereotype. All the eateries and bars in Greenwhich village/West Village in NYC are packed with millenials every day as I take my daily stroll. Hardly any millenials I know cook at home regularly. Definitely not what I used to do when I was in my 30s wishing to save money.
1 Like
Baby boomers should be traveling more at this point in their life / income cycle. The valid question is did they travel more when they were the same age as the Millennials are now. I would be surprised if the aggregate answer is yes.
5 Likes
The youngest millennials are 26-27 now so a lot of the young adults out and about in cities are actually gen Z. All my millennial offspring eat at home as much as I do. Theyâve got young kids and itâs not as much fun going out with them.
Only one of the three owns a house though. One has more than I paid for my current house 10 years ago saved for a down payment but prices have doubled. They moved to try for lower cost of living and during the pandemic their new town took off as a prime location. Itâs been hard for them. They are older millenials and timing for things has never seemed to be in their favor even though they work hard and are great savers.
Millennials are raising families now so unless they are DINK they have mortgages, kids and follow traditional path
I have millennial kids and their situations vary. Older child is married and both have well paying jobs as well as a small child. They are currently selling their âstarter homeâ (bought 3 years ago) and buying a larger home. They are doing well.
Other child is single, worked a few years after undergrad but small salary in large, expensive city.Currently finishing a Full time Masters program and looking for a job (please send any good wishes,prayers, etc). But both kids like dining out, travel, joining gyms, etc - things H and I did not do much when we were that age.
I think itâs key to compare apples to apples. When H and I were first married we both worked long hours and did not have kids (we waited 10 years!). Our parents always chimed in with âwe were broke, tooâ but they we both one income families with small children when they were at that age. It wasnât really a comparable situation.
3 Likes
Baby boomers were married and had children by 40 at a much higher rate than millennials. That would explain the less travel.
Itâs also not a requirement to travel when you are older than 60. At least, I sure hope not, at least for me! Itâs not a should. Itâs a choice.
I prefer not to think of it as a competition/comparison thing, but thatâs probably because if I did, who would I compare myself to?
This likely depends upon which millennials within the generational cohort weâre discussing. Mine is a young millennial (26) who plans to wait several more years before starting a family. A couple of her friends had babies in the past year, but itâs not a priority for the rest of the group.
3 Likes
Itâs never a requirement to travel at all at any age. 
I hate travel, always have.
But, I do agree with all the comments that many younger people prefer to spend their money differently than we Boomers did. With a streamlined lifestyle, looser location requirements, and aggressive savings, home ownership might well be possible for many who moan, but I suspect that many of what we view as spendy habits are more important to younger people than owning a home within a particular timeline, even if they donât see it or canât admit it. I donât think this is a âmillenialâ thing. For those who claim to be âbroke,â I think itâs partly choice.
4 Likes
This is all very eye opening for me, I appreciate everyoneâs persepctive. My extended family includes 6 millenials, 4 of whom are married to millenials. So of those 10, 3 own houses (one couple and one single). All the rest rent. Only one couple has children. The other 3 all say they donât have enough money to ever have kids or a house.
My millenials both drive cars that were mine, signed over to them bc they do not have money for car payments. Neither have any student loans, but of our 10, 6 of them do. All of them went to college; only one has a degree in a tech field and yes, thatâs the one with a jaw dropping amount of money. Very few of them have ever had a raise. Some of them work two jobs. Some of them had times of no health insurance. My DiL makes fairly good salary but no health insurance; she is in my sonâs policy and it costs them a few hundred a month.
Just offering a less rosy perspective. The millenials I know (and I live in a college town) are all terrified financially unless they are in tech or engineering. And those millenials seem oblivious to the hardships of others.
4 Likes
Thanks for this perspective. I too know many millennials just like this.
Not in NYC. People there get married and start having kids well into their 30s. Both my kids did not marry until they were 31 and waited a few years before having kids. They were working on their careers and having fun before then. Hardly any of their friends marry in their 20s.
3 Likes
With new rules like the above, who would bother with a mortgage?
7 Likes
That page is paywalled.
From other sources, it appears to be related to changes in the Loan Level Price Adjustment (LLPA) used by government-related mortgage aggregators and securitizers (like FNMA).
FNMA announcement of January 19, 2023, updated March 22, 2023: https://singlefamily.fanniemae.com/media/33241/display
Old before May 1, 2023: https://singlefamily.fanniemae.com/media/33201/display
New starting May 1, 2023: https://singlefamily.fanniemae.com/media/9391/display
The new LLPAs are not uniformly higher or lower holding credit score constant at high or low values.
A non-paywall news page on the subject: https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/local-news/mortgage-fees-going-up-for-some-with-good-credit-down-for-some-with-bad-under-changes-next-week
2 Likes
Perhaps this Newsweek article is better
3 Likes
The government is very creative in redistributing wealth
5 Likes
My daughter has worked hard to be fiscally responsible and so now should she buy a house and look for a mortgage her well-earned 826 FICO score will cost her money (instead of saving her money)
3 Likes