By Charlotte Cowles, The New York Times, July 11, 2022
There’s a popular cartoon meme, “Me vs. My Parents,” that compares “my parents at age 29” to a millennial at the same age (“me”). The 29-year-olds of yore are always making adult decisions — buying a house, having a baby, investing in a 401(k) — while the millennial contemplates getting a cat or a plant. The punchline is that the millennial won’t grow up. Or can’t afford to, depending on whom you ask.
Broke millennials have been the subject of hand wringing and the butt of jokes since they first began entering the work force in the mid-aughts. The clichés are getting old, but at this point so are we — I’ll be 38 this year, also known as a “geriatric millennial.”
Americans born between 1981 and 1996, the most educated and most diverse generation in U.S. history, were once considered harbingers of economic progress and promise. But now, even well into their careers, most of them lag behind the financial and familial strides of previous generations.
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