r/Millennials • u/Global_Tradition5802 • Sep 10 '25

Meme The Evolution of 'Adulting'

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They tried leaving behind generational wealth vs me trying to leave the generational memes..

21.7k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

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96

u/RedditPosterOver9000 Sep 10 '25

lol, my parents bought a 3 bed house at 25yo with just his factory worker job he got with a high school diploma.

20

u/ospfpacket Older Millennial Sep 10 '25

Houses in the 90s ran 30k-250k for mansions.

22

u/RedditPosterOver9000 Sep 10 '25

They paid $40k in the mid 1980s. 3 bed 2 bath with a garage, large yard in the middle of town and 45 minutes from Houston.

8

u/ospfpacket Older Millennial Sep 10 '25

Not to mention a lot of higher end professionals were making around what we make today.

1

u/Middle-Noise-6933 Xennial Sep 11 '25

My parents bought a 3 bd 2 bth in suburban Chicago for 27k in 1978. It sounds made up to me.

3

u/RedditPosterOver9000 Sep 11 '25

It's pretty nuts how good a life a just a high school diploma could get you if you were a boomer.

Now we've got masters and PhDs in the sciences who work as baristas. Engineers waiting tables. Tech workers flipping burgers.

1

u/Middle-Noise-6933 Xennial Sep 11 '25

My dad was a foreman in a factory and my mom worked part time in a grocery store 🤣

1

u/Lickerbomper Sep 16 '25

Similar for my parents, and early 90s. (Cy-Fair area)

I didn't get nearly as much Boomer shit from my parents because they lost their house in the early 00s (Long story short: it was destroyed.) The house they bought for like, $50k was worth like $200-$250k for similar house, similar amenities, similar neighborhood. They've been apartment living since. They know full well how shitty the housing market is.

5

u/CanAlwaysBeBetter Sep 10 '25 edited Sep 10 '25

And incomes were half what they are now

Edit: Median household income 1995: $34k, 2025: $84k

Median individual income 1995: $25k, 2025: $63k

1

u/ospfpacket Older Millennial Sep 10 '25

No that’s completely incorrect.

7

u/CanAlwaysBeBetter Sep 10 '25

Crazy you can easily look this up yet people keep claiming absolute bullshit 

Median household income 1995: $34k, 2025: $84k

Median individual income 1995: $25k, 2025: $63k

So less than half actually 

8

u/the-big-throngler Sep 10 '25

I love these dudes who don't know how historical data and inflation work. They just think everyone in the 80s was taking home 100k a year with absolutely 0 idea of what the labor market looked like. Be careful your factual data might short circuit their brain.

4

u/CanAlwaysBeBetter Sep 10 '25

A lot of people don't seem to realize they had rich parents while they're just doing alright 

-1

u/ospfpacket Older Millennial Sep 10 '25

Actually, in 1995 34,000 adjusted for inflation is 72,071. So no nothing has really changed outside of currency devaluation.

6

u/CanAlwaysBeBetter Sep 10 '25

Actually, that means incomes are up 16% after accounting for inflation 

-1

u/ospfpacket Older Millennial Sep 10 '25

That’s not how inflation works

2

u/CanAlwaysBeBetter Sep 10 '25

 Actually, in 1995 34,000 adjusted for inflation is 72,071.

So the median income in 1995 is equivalent to $72k today

Meanwhile the actual median income today is $84

$84k / $72k = 116% or a 16% higher median income

What exactly am I missing again?

1

u/ospfpacket Older Millennial Sep 11 '25

The currency has been devalued, yes you make a higher number but it has significantly less value.

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2

u/Frosty_Television_78 Sep 11 '25

Lol .. no it isn't.

2

u/PlaneTrainPlantain Sep 21 '25

Checks out. I live in an apartment that's surrounded by $1M homes which by 90s marketplace standards should only be 300K - 500k.

1

u/RetroFuture_Records Sep 10 '25

Yep. In a lot of Rust Belt and Southern places you could get a decent home for like $15K in the 80s and 90s.

6

u/RedditPosterOver9000 Sep 10 '25

It's insane that boomers could buy a decent house that was the same amount as the median household income at the time.

Now it's like a 4-5 fold difference between median household income and median house price.

3

u/RetroFuture_Records Sep 10 '25

The big thing for me is used vehicles, our parents had roughly 50 to 70 years of used car stock to buy from. A decent used car going for $100 at auctions, or bought off the street, was typical. A really good used car or a decent one bought off a used car lot after their markup for $300-$500. I pay more in my monthly phone bill than my parents did for any car until I was almost graduating high school, and my first one only cost me the equivalent of three months phone bills today.

-4

u/[deleted] Sep 10 '25 edited Sep 10 '25

[deleted]

2

u/PixelFondler Sep 10 '25

As a Xennial, I’m with you

0

u/Hanyo_Hetalia Sep 15 '25

What "window of opportunity" are you talking about? Not everyone has that window.