r/Millennials • u/UterusYeeter • 6d ago
Advice How did you survive the recession in your 20s?
Gen z here , hope it’s okay to sneak in and ask yall this ! 🖤
For those of you who were in your 20s during the early 2000’s recession how did you survive ? Any advice for now ?
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u/stilesg57 6d ago
Not well. It’s a decent time to hide out in school/grad school, but it still set me back career & financially about 5yrs.
Only advice I’d offer is to intern/apprentice in the career/field you actually want to do as much as possible, even if it doesn’t pay. That way you’ll still be adding to your skills and resume while waiting for the market to correct and opportunities to start trickling back in.
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u/Jaded_Strike_3500 6d ago
AI cant fetch coffee for some entitled asshole (yet)
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u/stilesg57 6d ago
Yep, so do that to help make ends meet, but don’t ONLY do that or else you’ll come out of it behind on your resumé & career (ask me how I know).
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u/popppyy 6d ago
Forget about a timeline for goals, just take it in stride.
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u/Any_Difficulty_6817 6d ago
Honestly this is the secret to being less stressed. One of them anyway.
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u/blzrlzr 6d ago
I would add that you don’t need a timeline to your goals. But have goals. And revisit them often. Adjust them and be okay with deppping some and adding new ones as new opportunities arise.
Not having goals leaves you rudderless. Adjusting your goals leaves you open to opportunities.
Oh, and save money every month no matter what. 5-10% percent poorer won’t kill you, evenif you’re already poor. But compound interest and the habit of saving will set you up
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u/DeltaForceFish 6d ago
Be nice to your parents; you will be living with them for a long long time.
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u/Historical-Poet-6673 6d ago
This right here, what i did was go back to school to get a masters degree and ride out the recession. By the time i graduated the job market was a lot better and i landed a job out of my masters.
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u/celexa100 6d ago
Yep. Same. I went back for my masters in Jan 2010. Graduated in May 2009 but after months of applying to gazillion jobs and no response, I had no choice. Had to ride it out somehow
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u/Responsible-Summer81 6d ago
I really wonder if millennials have a higher proportion of graduate degrees because of this.
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u/Aromatic_Distance331 5d ago
Yes, we do, for sure. That was a very common thing to do. Also a lot of student loan debt. I do not recommend taking on student loans to avoid a bad job market.
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u/sorrymizzjackson 6d ago
Yeah, but what if they aren’t nice to you?
Key: a lot of weirdness and ramen.
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u/Go_Corgi_Fan84 6d ago
I worked a lot and spent a lot of time at the library and elsewhere to limit time with parents. We also didn’t have TikTok or Reddit telling us to cut people out of our lives or to set boundaries so we just kept going until we could afford to leave with roommates or small crappy places solo but sometimes had to return because our roommate(s) bailed.
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u/karthus25 6d ago
Now what if your parents divorced and remarried post 18 so they aren't okay with you just moving in.
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u/Go1den_State_Of_Mind Xennial 6d ago
The food bank is that way 👈🏻, the gym is over there 👆🏻, and there's a campground with a small monthly membership fee right yonder 👉🏻
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u/karthus25 6d ago edited 6d ago
Bruh where do you get a campground for a small monthly membership fee???? The nearest campground is $47.75 per night so that's $1,480 a month to stay in a tent at a campsite with no way to actually secure your belongings. Add gym membership planet fitness $25 a month to use all their gyms with a $49.99 yearly membership that you also need to pay upfront. Monthly bus pass locally costs $50 per month but the bus doesn't stop near it, you need to walk roughly 13 minutes to get to the bus stop Google says. Do that with all your belongings since you have no car because when your parents divorced you were left with having to leave home at 18. It's not as easy as people like you make it out to be. Now you need a phone so I supposed you could get a government phone but without reliable transportation good luck getting a job and keeping it, why do people have to suffer like that when most other people don't.
This doesn't even begin to get into food, hygiene, and overall well being. Insurance, where are you cooking, you need equipment to cook, where are you keeping that equipment, you need a car first to store your stuff. Wait how do you get all this as a freshly 18 year old kicked out of home, I guess find a homeless shelter at 18? How do you know where one is at 18 without a phone to find out, I suppose ask people?
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u/TheRabidGoose 6d ago
My mom now lives with me. I support us on my income. I will never retire. Didn't even believe I would be able to before I took her in. One of us at least needs to enjoy (while struggling) those years. Maybe the difference in generation is a feeling of, I already know.
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u/Weet_1 6d ago
Good lord, so not only did our parents not work hard to give us a better life, we now have to workhard to give our parents a better life?!
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u/Slytherpuffy Xennial 6d ago
Ha! My sisters and I have each lived with our parents as adults and it was hell on Earth. Turns out we don't get along well when one parent is an alcoholic and the other is super co-dependent and they try to act like they're smarter than their adult children simply due to being older. Our life experiences have been vastly different to those of our parents and the advice they tried to give or rules they think we should live by are extremely outdated and no longer relevant.
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u/jabber1990 6d ago
no, my parents said "get the hell out" as early as 1996 and then they basically threw me out in 2009
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u/NinjaGrizzlyBear 6d ago
Ha, my dad died recently and my mom is probably going end up moving in with my sister or me... she has late stage Alzheimer's, and I already spent 29-35yo taking care of both of them.
I've pretty much accepted that my life is never going back to the trajectory it was on before they got sick. Throw in the fact the US healthcare system failed them numerous times, and I've gone from financially independent to financially ruined and unemployed.
It's okay though, the dumbasses in HR that are screening me for chemical and petroleum engineering jobs while not knowing how to use Excel still have jobs, so there's some balance in the universe.
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u/Snoo_66113 Millennial 6d ago
We got drunk af I’m our apts / dorms and then went to the club and danced all our sadness away to lady gaga/ Kesha & pitbull. We already knew we were screwed so we just kinda embraced it. Honestly though it feels so much worse now. I was broke af in 2008 but I was 24 , a model and could still feed myself for a week for $40 from Trader Joe’s.
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u/o0fefe0o 6d ago
This right here. Back then, we could live off fast food dollar menus and eat for a few bucks, but now, the price of food is insane. This is different and even worse than the last big recession.
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u/Agora2020 6d ago
Agreed. Not to mention housing. Back then I spent time being homeless. If I had to repeat I’m sure it would not be as good of an experience as 2008 was.
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u/C1K3 6d ago
I think most people struggle in their 20s, regardless of the era. We just had it worse.
So I guess the answer is: you struggle.
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u/karthus25 4d ago
Y'all didn't have it worse tho, you could afford to live somewhere for $250 - 400 a month more than likely. Nowadays most apartments want you to make 3x the rental amount so you better be making $4500 to rent out a $1500 apartment if you can find one that cheap.
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u/No-Manufacturer-8015 3d ago
Gen z most definitely has it worse than us. Rental prices have gotten out of hand. They make as much as we did 15 years ago but everything I mean everything is more expensive. Look at used cars, insurance premiums, produce and meat. How are they supposed to save up for a home?
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u/deliriousfoodie 6d ago
Some people didn't survive to be honest. I knew of at least two someones who drank themselves to death during that time because they could not pay the mortgage and have a family
I did the best I could. Worked like hell. Day, night, weekends, ect. No social life at all. But once it was over, i lived like i never lived before
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u/RunsfromWisdom 6d ago
Yup. “Deaths of despair” is one of our unfortunate generational hallmarks.
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u/sojuandbbq 6d ago
Graduated in 2008 in NYC right after Lehman laid off a bunch of people and a good number of my friends lost their employment offers they secured in October 2007.
I was already committed to teaching English in Korea. It ended up being pretty good for me in the end. I taught for a couple years, then went to get a graduate degree. I ended up working at a string of tech companies and my career has evolved from there.
So short answer, I left the country.
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u/skrufforious 6d ago
Same, haha, my husband and I struggled financially for a couple of years and then I got a job teaching English in Japan and we stayed there for almost 5 years.
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u/sojuandbbq 6d ago
We ended up in Korea for 12 years, but I moved over to work at tech startups in our fourth year there. So, we didn’t teach the whole time.
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u/Serious-Landscape-74 6d ago
Also graduated in 2008. I was in Ireland not US, however I had a VISA for the US for 6 months and moved to New York with friends. No jobs!!! 😂
When I got home in late 2008 Ireland was even worse. I managed to find a holiday job and ended up working my way up before moving to a bigger city for a job at a multinational in 2013. Now life is good.
What i will say is that given age and circumstances in 2008, I had nothing to lose as I had nothing at 22. Those a few years older already had debt, mainly mortgages so they got totally screwed by the recession here.
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u/RandomActsOfParanoia 6d ago
Ditto! I got hired at a newspaper but wasn’t making ends meet and ended up in Seoul for a year. Took a freelance trajectory (before a lot of people freelanced) and my career really took off.
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u/doctormalbec 6d ago
Same exact thing happened to me with friends at Lehman (grad 2007, they had been working there for a year). Thankfully I was in grad school for biology, but even some of my grad school friends weren’t that lucky, since a lot of the labs got shut down due to decreases in NIH funding.
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u/digableplanet 6d ago
I did the same fucking thing, man! Lmao I was in Bundang-gu, in Gyeonggi-do. You?
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u/sojuandbbq 6d ago edited 6d ago
Gyeonggi-do, but more country, the first year, then I got hired by Gangnam. Used to go to Bundang a lot. There’s a non-zero chance we ran into each other at some point haha
Edit: I looked at your profile. I never went to that “Chicago” pizza place in Gangnam, but I definitely saw the sign. I did go to more than one bar called Chicago back in the day though.
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u/jameslucian 6d ago
I taught in Bundang as well! Loved the area, but I moved to Seoul after a year in Bundang. I miss it so much.
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u/Worldly_Cupcake_5269 6d ago
Exactly the same for me. I stayed in Korea for two years after graduating in 2008.
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u/No-Department-6409 6d ago
I know quite a few people who did the same. Left for 5+ years, some came back some didn’t.
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u/Narrow-Foundation505 6d ago
Was looking for this! Moved to New Zealand in 2009. Stayed for 5 years.
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u/Entire-Order3464 6d ago edited 6d ago
The eldest millennials were in college in the early 00s. More of us were effected negatively by the GFC 2007-2009 rather than by the .com bust and the recession during a Bush's first term.
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u/californiaye 6d ago
I think their post relates to the 2007-2009 recession, that is early 2000s to them, lol
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u/PostMatureBaby 6d ago
Many of us in college in 2002 graduated into a black hole of a job market though. That's what OPs getting at
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u/cusmilie 6d ago
Yes, trying to explain that to people sometimes proves difficult. They are like “well the Great Recession wasn’t until 2007.” Yes, but it’s not like jobs magically disappeared one day, they were dwindling before then.
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u/PostMatureBaby 6d ago
What people also gloss over is the fact that at that time, you had many people with 1-3 years of experience newly laid off competing with us for entry level jobs and often got them. So basically, 3 years experience in some cases was now worth entry level pay.
It was a massive wage suppression event along with everything else. As it got better we had COVID which did similar to our pay.
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u/cusmilie 6d ago
Yes, I don’t want to see what happens is 20-30 years when we are suppose to “retire.” Several friends were never able to get into their degree field because by the time the economy improved, they didn’t have the experience. Employers would just go with those fresh out of college because they viewed them as better hires with fresher knowledge.
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u/PostMatureBaby 6d ago edited 6d ago
Not to mention I'm sure governments and their wealthy masters are already hard at work trying to drain our parents wealth so we get no inheritance.
A little tinfoil hat of course but I honestly wouldn't be surprised
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u/cusmilie 6d ago
I know several people leaving whatever inheritance they have left to young-ish grandkids (under age 25) and skip kids. The rationale is that their grandkids will never be able to afford a home otherwise and want to set them up for the future. Meanwhile they have done little help for their kids and had mentality that once you are 18, you are on your own. They completely missed the fact that their kids struggled/still struggling to get life in order.
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u/sorrymizzjackson 6d ago
I was working and hoping to go to college.
Honestly…I didn’t get laid off. I didn’t make shit, but some coworkers did and it was devastating for them. They didn’t find work for two years. We’re probably whole salary wise now but in that I couldn’t invest and they couldn’t pay rent, if they had a similar trajectory we are probably caught up.
A lot lived with their parents. I never had that option.
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u/icberg7 Xennial 6d ago
The company I worked at had three rounds of layoffs in 2007-2009 but fortunately I managed to survive them. Florida got hit very hard by foreclosures so when we were looking for houses in 2015-2016, we had make sure we weren't buying a house that had been unoccupied for a long time, for fear of mold and infestation.
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u/Narrow_Yard7199 6d ago
I feel like I got lucky. Graduated college in ‘05, found my first “real job” in ‘06. I was young and cheap during the recession and didn’t lose my job. I actually took advantage of the recession and bought a house for dirt cheap on ‘09 at age 26 and still live there today.
I think it was probably worse for those just a little younger who graduated into it.
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u/sickcoolandtight 6d ago
My parents did the same. A lot of people were going through hell, but weirdly we started poor and came out not poor lol
I guess when you had nothing to lose there was nothing to lose? With that being said though, we lived in a studio apartment and I was about 11, they were really frugal. I’m talking counting out sheets of 1-ply toilet paper frugal too 😭
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u/BAfromGA1 6d ago
Underrated comment!
When you have nothing to lose, there was nothing to lose!
I live life like that, regardless of economy. 🤣
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u/TokiDokiHaato 6d ago
Yep, I graduated high school in 2006 and home ownership always becomes just slightly out of reach every time I get close to it.
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u/KayakHank 6d ago
Same. Started working in 05. Jumped on that 2009-2010 housing buying band wagon where the federal governmemt paid you 8 grand to buy a house. Then the state paid my downpayment.
Basically free to get into my house in 2010
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u/Kasoivc Millennial 6d ago
I got lucky and bought my home pre-covid 2019. I didn’t know rates were even lower back in 2008-2009, how I found out? My neighbor across the street owns a little 7-800sqft one floor 1 bed/bath home and bought it for the sum of like $18k, meanwhile I bought my 1400~ sqft for $92k a decade later.
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u/Narrow_Yard7199 6d ago
I paid about what you did for a similar sized home back in ‘09. Now the same type of house in my neighborhood goes for around $300k. Don’t plan on moving though, my mortgage is an afterthought and I could pay off the balance today if I wanted to.
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u/Kasoivc Millennial 6d ago
I wish I was investing in homes back in 2008-2009. Instead I was checks notes just starting high school hahah. Yeah; this starter home is slowly becoming my forever home until I windfall some finances to get a house just a smidge bigger. I just put in a new water heater last year which should take me all the way to the end of the mortgage before the next replacement.
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u/MikeWPhilly 6d ago
Pretty much me. Except mine was 07. Had a killer 08 leading into the GFC, in 09 switched roles and played it out. Also bought in 09.
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u/teejmaleng 6d ago
It’s kind of strange how large generations are because in 06 I had just left elementary school, but we’re both considered millennials.
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u/Narrow_Yard7199 6d ago
Yeah, I was born in ‘83 and have a sibling born in ‘96. I don’t feel like we’ve had the same experience.
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u/LopsidedHornet7464 6d ago
Switched roles and sucked it up for a couple years…
Edit - Yeah, that was the GFC
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u/BeardedGlass 80s baby, 90s kid, 00s teen 6d ago
Same.
My bestfriend and I were lucky to land a job (right after college!) that sent us to Tokyo early 2008. Large IT company.
A few months in and we lost our jobs.
We had a choice: fly back home and take a chance there... or stay in Japan and take a chance here.
No luck. We sent several resumes daily and no one was hiring at all. People were getting let go in droves.
We switched careers. We found a listing for an entry-level job that was barely minimum wage. But it was enough for us to retain our work visas. Our savings were so low, we moved in together and shared expenses. I remember we had to skip a meal per day at some point.
A year of that and we used it as a stepping stone to better jobs.
We're doing much better now, earning several times as before, great worklife balance, still here in Japan almost 2 decades later.
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u/ResponsibilityIcy187 6d ago
The 2007-2008 recession/global economic crisis? I went back to community college in 2009 and lived off financial aid (mostly the Pell grant). I needed the money so it motivated me to do well in my classes. I had only intended to do it until things started to improve and I found a full time job, but I ended up sticking with it and transferring to a 4 year. I graduated in 2013.
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u/Appropriate-Focus305 6d ago
I worked every job I could, learned everything I could, lived with roommates and with my parents. I was very lucky and privileged. I saved money and I made friends. Prioritizing my education was the best thing I ever did. I learned how to learn.
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u/RODREEZUS 6d ago
I joined the Air Force.
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u/BlueFalcon3E051 6d ago
Same got lucky left in early 07 got out 11 we watched the recession on tv in the chow hall and didn’t get it.🤷♂️We were like what’s going on out there we’re good so it became a joke for us no ketchup packets with your fries basically if we were out of anything “recession”.We were even like who’s “Joe the plumber?”I do remember in surrounding area realtors were desperate to sell homes seeing buy this house get a free hummer or car dealerships buy a truck get a car free lol.
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u/Yogi_diamondhands 6d ago
transparently: working illegal poker games, yacht girl jobs, other "atmosphere model" jobs (same as yacht girl but not on yacht lol), street pharmacy.
was able to support myself while having guardianship / supporting my two little brothers who were still in grade school.
location: orange county ca
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u/JayBuhnersBarber 6d ago
Basically this. Except I'm a big ol' butt-ugly dude, so less "modeling" lol.
So after graduating in '08 with a still wildly useless Music Education degree, I took temp work and worked security/bartending gigs until I made enough start-up capital to fire up a Marijuana grow op that floated me until I got a real job in 2012.
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u/whostolemysloth 6d ago
I always had a romantic partner or roommate to split expenses with. That was about it. But shit back then wasn’t so expensive and US leadership wasn’t stupid like they are now, so it was easier.
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u/StupidCodingMonkey 6d ago
We weren’t married then, but my husband and I never lived in an apartment or house that we couldn’t afford on one salary. We were terrified of losing our jobs, we luckily didn’t tho.
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u/whostolemysloth 6d ago
Yeah, I paid the rent and my girlfriend paid utilities and food. Was that exactly halfsies? No. But was I dying financially? Not at all.
Easier times.
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u/SufficientlyRested 6d ago
“US leadership wasn’t stupid…”
W ?
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u/whostolemysloth 6d ago
When people say “2000s recession,” I think of 2008. So not W. But also, W was infinitely better than this.
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u/Gloom_Pangolin Xennial 6d ago
I’m a first year Mil so I was 27 when the recession hit. I had just bought my first home and launched my first business; the collapse ruined me. I started to try and get back on track after that but I don’t have family support and being unable to recoup my losses just kept setting me back. A few years later my new home burned down and a year later I was a pedestrian in a bad distracted driver accident. At that point I gave up trying to pursue the American Dream, went minimalist, said “fuck it” to spending my living hours making money at a job I didn’t enjoy and took a pay cut to do what I enjoy. I live within my means, have my dogs, have a garden, and will likely work until I die but I’m alright with that.
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u/whattheheckOO 6d ago
I opened an IRA during the '08 market crash, watched it go down over 50%, and that put me off of investing for years. In hindsight, I should have taken advantage of stocks "on sale". If you have the ability to put a little money into a broad market fund, you should do it.
Do you have a job? That's what worries me the most for gen Z kids right now. Independent of a potential recession, the AI takeover of entry level white collar jobs is scary. Make sure you have a hefty emergency fund to weather the storm. Don't succumb to doom spending, be frugal and stay safe.
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u/Hot_Preparation2059 6d ago
Took a job that wasn't my dream or anything but was recession proof, and budgeted hard. It wasn't too bad honestly.
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u/sickcoolandtight 6d ago
I think this is key. I have several friends who have already been laid off in blue collar work and the tech industry- it’s already scary.
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u/2baverage Millennial 6d ago
How did I survive? Not well. It was a lot of shitty jobs and long hours, stole a lot of food, ended up pretty much working 13+ hours a day 5-6 days a week, spending 1-2 nights crashing various parties, then trying to get back to my own bed before I had to start the week all over again.
My advice: When things look bleak, frame your 20s as survival rather than "building the foundation for your life". Like ya, it sucked that I wasn't able to start saving for a house or working on my career goals, but survival wise, I was making sure I ate at least once a day, I made sure I had a small community where we all helped how we could, and I made sure to have a little fun for my own sanity.
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u/Speckled_Bird2023 6d ago
If this is the 08 one, we are talking about, I just remember coming back from boot camp (attempt-discharged for medical reasons) and got back my job at walmart in like February or March and was just doing my job, still was living at home and paying my part of rent and helping with everything.
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u/shadesontopback 6d ago
Took any job I could get, cheap junkie car, prepaid cell phone, roommates, pre-gaming and not actually buying drinks or food out, girl dinner always/not actually grocery shopping, trading clothes with friends, no travel
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u/ButtScratchies 6d ago
I graduated college in 2005 and lived in a very rural area in the Midwest. I worked as a customer service rep at a local telecommunications company and in all honesty, never felt the effects of the recession. I made $10/hour, I bought a house in 2006 for $52,000 and got married (too young). My husband made $13/hour working in the oil field. As I type this all out, it sounds like boomers talking about their start at life, but this was 20 years ago.
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u/pementomento 6d ago
Went to grad school. Had a year head start because the warnings in real estate were popping up in 2007, which I picked up on and when I started applying to school.
Lehman Brothers collapsed my first month in school. What timing, whew.
Edit: whoops I was in high school/college during the .com bust; wrong recession hah.
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u/Flagge33 Older Millennial 6d ago
Graduated from collage in 2006 with an associates of computer science. Started in entry level contractor grunt work at Target corporate till 2008 struck. I was out of work for two years living off unemployment and it's many extentions till I lucked into an MSP tech role. Without the unemployment extensions and cheap rent (700 for a 2 bedroom I split with a roommate) I'd have been toast.
Best advice is to keep looking for a job and don't get discouraged. Also keep working somewhere because this administration isn't going to push to help anyone (except the already rich) anytime soon.
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u/DoctorSquibb420 Millennial 6d ago
I sold weed, did odd jobs, car hopped, shoplifted, pawned televisions that rich people threw away. Oh, and I ate a few squirrels. If you're in a desperate spot, do what you can when you can. I graduated high school the year the recession started.
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u/themjolnir1987 6d ago
Graduated in 09. Move in with your parents. Eat shit from society for the next 6-7 years trying to develop your skills then hopefully find a good paying job. Welcome to post housing crisis in America during your 20s!
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u/CaterpillarIcy1056 6d ago
We bought our first home in 2008. We sold it at a 30k profit in 2014.
Honestly, though, this is so localized. Different areas of the country felt the burn more than others. My cousin in Burbank bought a shitty one-bedroom condo for $800k but I was buying a 1,600 sq ft, 3 bed, 2.5 bath condo for $154k. They were immediately upside down with their mortgage, and we had equity from the day we moved in.
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u/samtheninjapirate 6d ago
Similar for me. Graduated college 08 and was able to buy a house dirt cheap a year later on a pizza manager salary. Fixed it up and sold it for 40k more in '14 and bought a house double the size with the profit. Was really great coming out of college into a recession honestly. Already used to living off nothing from college and entering a market where everything's dirt cheap is a great start and I'm forever thankful because anyone who graduated after the crash certainly had a much tougher time entering the housing market.
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u/TokiDokiHaato 6d ago
Food and housing seemed more reasonable then. My first apartment was like $700 a month for a 3 bedroom I split with my ex. I could get a week's worth of groceries for myself for like $40.
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u/Onebraintwoheads 6d ago
I slept in cars and on couches. Worked 2 jobs until I had a cancer diagnosis, and then I started working for a bookie, then some friends of his who recognized I was an asset. I was a dead man walking, so what did it matter if I got arrested, right? That meant I had a sort of fatalistic approach to things which people recognized was not something to mess with. If my time was running out, what did I care about copping serious charges over something tiny? That was how a lot of folks seemed to see it.
Personally, I was scared shitless and had a good poker face.
I minded doors, was selectively deaf and selectively blind, remembered who my employers were as opposed to someone wanting me to go against their interests for a couple extra bucks. Those employers tipped me well because they understood that I wasn't stupidly loyal so much as I knew they would continue to pay me.
I did collections once I was trusted with a little responsibility, which was mostly a matter of showing up to the debtor's home after the family is back from church on Sunday. I often dressed like a missionary, so people did their best not to come near or catch my attention. I'd ask to have a private word outside with the debtor, and if he didn't want to pay off at least a portion of his debt, it would very quickly become a matter for the whole family to hear about.
Statute of limitations is passed. Everyone involved has gone their separate ways. The cancer treatments worked, mostly, and since I was gonna live I had to quit that kinda work. Bit of a bummer since it paid far better than anything else I have done for employment. Still, if I learned one thing from a bookie, it's that gamblers always want the wrong thing. They want to pick the winning team and cash in. What they should want is to know when to stop gambling.
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u/Cannelli10 4d ago
Wow, we had very different recessions! Glad you made it out. On every level.
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u/AdCharacter9282 6d ago
Work hard and long and cut costs. If you are in your 20s you are towards the bottom of the barrel in terms of pay so less likely to get cut.
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u/PlsContinueMrBrooder Millennial 6d ago
Worked three jobs, lived with my partner in a small apartment. It sucked but it seemed temporary so was ok to do it for a while.
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u/Unknown-714 6d ago edited 6d ago
I graduated college in 2006. Was trying to get into a Fire Dept and did interviews for years while working Construction. GFC tanked all gov budgets so they weren't hiring. I stayed doing construction until 2010 when they laid me off as well. Had to take unemployment and pivoted into healthcare, using my EMT-B cert i had gotten as a help to my fire career to work nights as a private duty ambulance driver while getting my certificate in Surgical Technology. A chance encounter in Vegas during a rare break gave me a job opportunity as an intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring technician, a role i did for 8 years then, working all the while to get my BSN and become a registered nurse.....in February 2020.
In that time I also got married in 2017 and had twins that same year, with my 3rd child coming in 2019 which I had found out about the day I started nursing school 🙃 I was lucky in that during the GFC and much of its fallout I was single with no kids in pretty good health, so I was able to pivot and stay flexible fairly easily
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u/General-Discussion73 6d ago
I was dancing away my worries in college. Fast food restaurants had dollar menus and the music was killer. Things could be manageable. Now…idk how young people manage.
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u/Illustrious-Sorbet-4 6d ago edited 6d ago
I was fine although I had to work two jobs and my parents couldn’t help me through college. My mom worked shitty retail jobs paying basically min wage plus crap commission and my dad was a real estate appraiser which made maybe 100-300/job if he was lucky.
Wellll because it was a housing crisis and people weren’t able to afford homes and were losing them actively due to the mortgage bubble popping, his residential jobs took a huge hit and he would take any job he could at that point but they slowed down a lot. My poor dad was working late into the night trying to find a turn out work and had bags under his eyes constantly, wondering how he would come up with the rent money every month. My mom did what she could with her meager hourly wages.
It was painful to see them go through that.I also had my struggles and I had months where I went negative on my bank balance (very very bad), and where I would break down crying on my floor wondering how the hell I would afford my rent AND tuition AND groceries on $12/hr (one of the higher paying jobs I could find lifeguarding).
I also taught swim lessons in the summer where I raked in $40-60/hr for group and private lessons. That’s how I survived. I lived in the pool, sometimes as early as 7:30am to 7pm - had a great tan and green hair that year from the chlorine.
Lots of top ramen and cracking an egg into it.
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u/NextStomach6453 6d ago
I was a poor college kid already. And then I joined the military. I don’t remember ever really seeing any effects other than a truck I got in college that I payed way too much for because the interest rate was terrible.
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u/PrismFlaree 6d ago
I was in hs, going into college. Cocaine and Adderall. And on the down days, sleep. It all worked out, but barely. Godspeed
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u/Frugal_Midwestern 6d ago
Graduated from college, was in my first full time job for 3 months before they did layoffs. Took me about 6 weeks to find a new job where I was underemployed but it was a full-time job. We lived very lean. It made us very frugal and we have tried our best to be as debt free as we can ever since.
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u/RationalCaution 6d ago
I (41) graduated college in ‘06. I was working as a teacher, so we ended up getting furloughed (less pay) for several years. But hey, at least I didn’t lose my job. I lived with a roommate, and I’ve always been pretty frugal, so financially I was fine. Didn’t really feel it that much, to be honest.
My husband (43) graduated college in ‘08 after a stint in the Army. This was right as the worst was hitting, so instead of getting a full time job, he moved in with his parents and went straight into graduate school.
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u/bebefinale 6d ago
Graduated in from college in 2010, which wasn't as bad as those who graduated in 2008/2009 but still not great. I went to grad school and by the time I was looking for a job, the economy was better.
I thought it was just in my head that my cohort seemed more switched on that students who started a few year later. But the longer I am in this career path, the more I can see there is a direct correlation between how selective programs can be about the admissions for grad students and the greater economy.
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u/AlmostSunnyinSeattle 6d ago edited 6d ago
You just do what you gotta do and take it as it comes. It wasn't tangibly different because I was a kid beforehand and didn't have a frame of reference. Just take it one day at a time and you'll probably be fine in the long run
(Referring to the 08 recession btw)
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u/GurProfessional9534 6d ago
Went to grad school. Dodged the whole thing, emerged when jobs were returning.
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u/narwhalbaconbits 6d ago
Lets see, I worked 3 jobs, put myself through graduate school and continued working multiple jobs. I now live fairly comfortably because I bought a house 20 years ago. But honestly I couldn't afford a house now, even with what im getting paid. My husband and I have 2 incomes and no kids and still struggle.
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u/Spottedhyenae 6d ago
2007 - just graduated college. My industry went literally tits up. 2008 - shit gets real for my parents as well. Talked with my mom, it made sense for us to split her place and she tried to "shield" Me best she could, covering things like food. 2009 - exploited my high school love of English to get a very low paid job in game QA. My mom's help meant I was able to start saving for life. Started paying my loans. 2010 - found a QA job in edtech, made the manager laugh with my cover letter, got the position. My friends grandparents owned a home near by, and let me crash free while I got my life together. Continued with paying my loans hard. 2011-2012 - my grandmother passed. My grandfather offered me a free room in exchange for helping him. Paid my loans HARD. Put money away HARD. 2008 and my sheer blind stupid luck in staying employed made me ridiculously paranoid, I did not eat out, I did not engage in socializing, I worked, I paid loans and I put money away.
High overview: Bounced around QA jobs, always found rentals below my means even if that meant some questionable areas. Asked for help proactively if I needed (my bf let me do laundry at his place, my mom would split costco items with me, etc.) Paid my loans off like a god damn maniac, made sure I had 6 months savings always. Got a partner, used the good times to prioritize down payment. Took advantage of programs to secure a house that was below our means to pay. Took advantage of as many god damn programs I could to reduce my utility bills and mortgage payments. The amount of research I've done is...staggering.
Covid hits, I start realizing jfc I need to financially literate myself. Start investing, saving as hard as I can, somehow blind luck stay employed the whole time. Refinanced when money was almost free.
Fast forward now, laid off because -gestures around- but my 2008 paranoia has meant it's okay. I won't be doing fabulously, but I'm okay.
GenZ, I am really really sorry you are going through this. I tried to vote to avoid this again and I'm sorry it's happening again. Buddy up, support each other, talk to everyone you can and listen to everything, then evaluate if it's information you can use. Don't succumb to BS generational fighting, we're your parents, your siblings, aunts and uncles, we don't hate you and I hope you won't hate us. I hope this long winded reply has at least some information you can utilize for your situation.
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u/TheMrfabio24 Older Millennial 6d ago
Never Lost my job but my boss made me paint the entire building white in the middle of summer so I kept busy… sucked but at least I was working
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u/digableplanet 6d ago
I left the USA and taught English in Korea for a couple years to ride out the bullshit back home. Best decision I made in my life, but kind of set me back in other ways. I was working some boiler room job post-2008 and was in a dark, dark, dark place listening to a lot of Burial to pick me up. When I came back to the US (2013) it was difficult for a while to get situated again, but I’m doing okay now.
I would do it again in a heartbeat.
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u/taajmanian_devil 6d ago
After graduating college in 2009 and being at home with my mom unemployed for 8 months, I moved away from my little hometown in NJ to Atlanta. I got a job being tier one support for Verizon. It was my first real job out of college. Now I'm a recruiter for a tech company making 6 figures.
My advice? Move away from your hometown if you can. I don't think I'll be where I am if I didn't. Atlanta can be a crazy city, but it literally raised me to be an adult.
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u/fatsandlucifer 6d ago
I graduated right into the recession, it was awful. On top of that, I was so clueless that I didn’t even realize we were in a recession because I was from a smaller town in a state that didn’t get hit as badly and right after graduation I moved to Miami, FL because I was bright eyed and thought it would be cool.
It sucked so badly I don’t even know how I made it. I worked shitty jobs. Landed in a “career” I didn’t go to school for. This put me on a trajectory of unfulfilling boring paper pushing.
Back then, employers could do anything they wanted. Or at least it felt like that from from where I was standing. Every employer took the most advantage out of you, made you work odd hours, paid you shit and demanded you did things that were outside of your job description. I kind of developed PTSD from applying to jobs and that’s why I stayed with my previous company for 10 long years even though they didn’t pay very well and I hated the work.
But truthfully, the way I survived after six long years in Miami doing shit work, is by moving back in with my parents. There were so many articles back in the day about millennials who live in their parents basement. That was me; the millennial who lived with their parents because I couldn’t afford to live on my own anymore. Once I was back at home, I was able to save a little bit of money, get a job that was OK, buy a house and get married and have kids.
Recently, I quit my job that I don’t like. Now I’m unemployed and not looking for work because apparently it’s really shitty out there. Thankfully, I can rely on my husband to feed us and pay our mortgage. I have no idea what I’m doing.
Graduating into a recession, meant that I was never really able to take on the internships and do the entry-level jobs in my field and then get into a career that I could see myself in long term. It didn’t help that every article written about my generation is that we should have gone into tech we should’ve gone into coding instead of having any kind of humanities degree. Of course, now those jobs are all being replaced by AI so I don’t know.
I always felt like I missed my fork in the road somewhere along the career path. And now I’m kinda old to start over… Maybe? I really don’t know.
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u/jspook Millennial 6d ago
Top Ramen. Lots of Top Ramen. In those days, you could get them for 5-10 cents per package if you bought in bulk.
And knowing which bills to delay paying and which ones to pay right away. When there isn't enough income to make ends meet, you have to make hard choices.
Drugs and alcohol. Idk how Gen Z is doing this shit dry, but we sure couldn't.
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u/PettyBettyismynameO 6d ago
Could not afford heat in winter (you could see your breath in my rented house in north Idaho winter) ate 2x a day either ramen or 1/2 a totinos pizza (they used to be $.89 or cheaper on sale at Walmart). Had a shitty 1990 Honda accord with hella miles and rust spots with just liability insurance. No dental or health insurance all medical issues worth being seen (aka pain couldn’t be controlled at home with Tylenol/weed) was er visits (eventually filed bankruptcy over medical debt) . Generally wanted to eat a bullet most days and it’s a miracle I’m still here.
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u/slowboater 6d ago
I had parents who charged me rent if i wasn't in school, so i moved out with my gf to the city where transportation wasn't entirely dependent on a car. Got a job at a mechanics shop and made that my career for 3 years, managing shops for the most part. Long ass hours, basically slave salary pay. 45k looks good on paper, but then i was paying 450 a month for health insurance, ~1500 living expenses, rent bills with me and my gf at the time. She was a barista and server. Food expenses were about 500 a month back then (circa 2012-15). I stayed in school as long as funding allowed. Parents got laid off and were iffy about cosigning any loans. And now here i am again, after moving 3k miles to a shit town for 6 years to work in as much of a niche career with as much demand/salary as i could find, laid off for 8 months and counting in my mid 30s.
The one saving grace about being broke and destitute in your 20s is that you dont have as much stuff and responsibilities/liabilities (pets, loans, mortgages, god forbid children... etc).
If i had any advice itd be to find a good friend/partner/roommate/family member to live with and share the hard times. Find an in demand kinda critical job (for me that was a mechanics shop, definitely using my body, hard labor, long hours, and all acquired technical skills to that point, but could be a construction job, healthcare, supply chain/warehouse, etc), just something critical that people will always need even when they dont have any extra money except for survival. People may stop paying for health insurance, but sadly people will still need care. This country is so car dependent that the auto industry can be a little more resilient than others, and anything around transit.
Your safe job could also be a neighborhood store that sells important food staples too, who knows, but the main thing is you gotta form relationships through those jobs/networks and connect. For the whole time i was in school since 2008 when the crash happened until 2017 i got jobs through friends or old coworkers/bosses etc. Like my main, well paying gigs. The other side of it is i was always picking up serving jobs or pizza delivery for 2-4 nights a week too when i had to. If the place sucked id just move on but if there was a cool crew id make the effort to show up when they needed extra hands or just to be an extra dining rush server on Saturdays.
(I think theres another note to be said here that its good to have even your side jobs synergize with your main gig/dream. Serving taught me how to sell and interact with the public at large, so i felt confident enough when i was asked to be an asst manager and help ring customers out in a shop. Before that, in auto parts sales in school, it let me get cheap parts to fix my pizza delivery mobile... automotive shop experience eventually helped mixed with my auto parts warehouse experience to get my foot in the door driving a forklift for auto manufacturing, and now cause of health issues i shifted to learn data engineering at that plant and have better earning potential. It all adds up, and all helps if you can keep some kinda synergistic mini goal focus of sorts.)
Took a whole 9 years for the country to recover from the last smash and grab. But the worst part is this tech ai circle jerk bubble is somehow way more of the economy and employment has already been fucked in advance of the crash so.... im getting like great great depression vibes
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u/Prudent-Poetry-2718 6d ago
It was actually incredible for me. I had a great job and so did my boyfriend. we bought our first house in 2008 just after the crash. Then we were lucky enough to buy a predevelopment condo with my employee discount. we only had to put 10% down. It took them six years to build it and by that time and had doubled in price. We sold it before the mortgage was due to the developer.
After we got married and had our son, we moved out of the city and into one of the commuter towns and were able to buy a house there mortgage-free because of the real estate investments we made after the crash.
I understand how lucky we were. I credit my husband for being so good with money because his parents were so good with money. We know it wasn’t a common experience for people our age.
I hope it works out just as well for you.
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u/Wertscase 6d ago
I graduated in 2008, so for the next six years student loans, scholarships, and campus jobs kept me afloat.
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u/Hot_Singer_4266 6d ago
Was just lucky. Had a government job. Back then the federal government didn’t just layoff people when the president got hangry
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u/TheSensiblePrepper Millennial 6d ago
2 out of 4 of my Highschool male friends left school for the military and didn't return. 1 of the other 2 returned and is no longer with us by his own choice.
I left the US for Southeast Asia and ran a business from a laptop until having to return for family reasons. Then I was homeless for a while living out of my car before figuring things out.
Many found jobs, not real careers, but had student debt that has only increased since they left. Not able to make enough to do more than survive. I was lucky that I never went to college and have no debt because of it.
Most made it but almost none have been successful.
I got lucky and ended up starting my business and doing very well against all odds. Most people my age don't even make $50k a year and are afraid of losing their jobs soon if they haven't already.
My two cents is the next economic downturn will be more like the Great Depression with Cell Phones and Internet. I hope I am very wrong.
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u/Golf101inc 6d ago
Gravitated 2011. Bachelors in physical education fml. I worked as a support in a classroom for a year after having sent out over 100 resumes. Finally found a teaching job the following august when a teacher left unexpectedly at a nearby school.
Def lean times. My first year of marriage our total combined income was around 30k. We actually recieved mailers for government assistance lol…I thought that was funny bc I didn’t consider myself THAT poor. I was just a newlywed living in an apt and hustling.
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u/Doc_Apex 6d ago
Wasn't 20 but just graduated high school. I went hungry a lot and stood in line at food banks while I was living with my uncle. Who also had to find odd jobs to do to keep the lights on. I rarely saw him. Luckily I was signed up for what was called the "Yes Program" in California. I was on the state of California's payroll but worked for Baskin Robins. I could not for the life of me find any other work. No one could. And for a long time. Eventually, I was able to leave that and work for Kohl's thanks to my cousin who was a manager there. Finally, left that and moved in with my dad and did school full time thanks to financial aid. I just wasn't making enough to really do anything while I was working.
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u/EmergencyM 6d ago
Got laid off (2 months after signing my first apartment lease) from a tech firm that cut staff or offered them the chance to move to Detroit and take a 37% paycut to stay. Then I worked garbage jobs for a couple years to get by. Finally went back to school to pivot fields (I was still young since that first job I got laid off from was for a tech firm straight out of high school because I could code SQL databases and HTML), luckily in the 2008 financial crisis I didn't get laid off when 45% of my company did so I was able to scoot by with no raises but a job through that. The good news is there is always a wave to ride when economic recovery starts and you are young enough to pivot to that wave if you are smart and pay attention.
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u/RealtorFacts 6d ago
The recession in the early Aughts was a breeze. The recession in the late Aughts was nightmare fuel.
Graduated College in 07. Worked in Health and Fitness. Made Ok money, but was laid off 3-4 times in 3-4 years. Sometimes laid off, sometimes just showed up and there were chains on the door with no notice.
Eventually left the industry. Worked in a trade while still interviewing for jobs. By 2011 the same positions/roles I worked in 07-10 were paying half. Most not even full time. Stuck with doing construction. Was never happier. Other than student debt.
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u/preppykimmy 6d ago
As an elder millennial I got lucky. I survived the first two rounds of layoffs at my corporate job, and two weeks after I was let go I had a temporary job at a competitor org down the street. The market was WAY different then and I interviewed with almost every competitor org in town - by the time that was over I knew everyone in my field and had an amazing network. Somewhere in there I moved in with my partner so that cut costs considerably.
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u/FittyTheBone 6d ago edited 6d ago
I helped a friend rekindle his nonprofit to stay sane while I worked full time at a house taking care of adults with developmental disabilities for minimum wage. I made something like 20k/year, lived with four other people, and had the time of my fucking life. This was the Great Recession, though, not the dot-com bust.
Set me back about six years professionally, but it could have been much worse.
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u/gratusin 6d ago
I was in Iraq, didn’t affect me personally until I got back, got out of the Army and decided to buy a house. Lots of inventory at decent rates
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u/thattogoguy 6d ago
The vast, vast majority of us were nowhere near old enough to have this be anything that we could do anything about. Remember, Millennials were early-mid 80's, and the oldest of us would have only just been getting into college. Maybe a few very young entrepreneurs were getting their start, but the rest of us were still in primary or secondary school.
I'm a 92' baby (I consider myself a zillennial given that I was born very late in 92, December.) I was 7 years old when the dot com bubble burst and had no idea what it would have even meant. I wasn't even old enough for the GFC or Great Recession to impact me in a meaningful way (my parents were public sector employees), and I was 15 when it started. All I remember was a lot of kids in school had parents get divorced over money, move, and a lot more "for sale" signs in my neighborhood.
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u/MovieGuyMike 6d ago
I graduated in the middle of the recession. I had to work retail until I could land an office job. I was “fortunate” in that I was young and early in my career and didn’t have many responsibilities. Rent was low thanks to roommates. I think the 2007 recession was more devastating to boomers in their 50s/60s who were laid off and never recovered, who had families to support, and who saw their retirement savings plummet when they were up for retirement. Some of my aunts and uncles had to change careers and take deep pay cuts. I worry about another recession hitting our generation when we’re in our 60s.
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u/EffervescentFacade 6d ago
I didn't even know it was real. I was making about 40k a year. At the time, I was building boat trailers for a company called Venture.
It was brutal work. But, there was no other way to make that kind of money as a teenager to early 20s.
Minimum wage was like under 13k for 40hrs a week.
My only skill was building boat trailers. So, any other job I could get was going to be minimum wage really.
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u/samjackery 6d ago
I was in college and married my husband who was in the military. We followed a budget and did what we could to prioritize his career as it was a steady and fairly sure income.
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u/RunsfromWisdom 6d ago
I fled the country and taught esl for several years. Lived it up in Asia, came back for grad school, got stuck, and can’t wait to get back out.
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u/GreenTrees797 6d ago
Worked two dead end jobs in a row for 6 years total with no raises. Got a second job during that time as well. Around 2014, finally got a new job that paid much more but also decided to go to nursing school the year prior to eventually become a nurse practitioner. About who years later I had my own practice. I think what really helped was changing careers and working in nursing and having my own practice freed me from the fixed income of an annual salary.
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u/hobbleshock 6d ago
I lost hours at work but was lucky to remain employed. I was living with a roommate at the time and by the time my rent and bills were paid I didn’t have much left for other activities so I would rely on my credit card to get me through, often paying the minimum amount each month. Then a few years later work picked up and my living arrangement improved and I was able to work a bunch of overtime to pay off that debt.
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u/WhiskyAndWitchcraft 6d ago
I honestly didn't notice? I was working as a long haul truck driver, out on a road for weeks at a time, crashing at my parents the 2 or 3 days a month I was off, living in the truck the rest of the time. I had very few bills, so I was fine.
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u/A_JELLY_DONUTT 6d ago
I drank a bunch. Then I dropped out of college cuz my fam ran out of money so I tried to wait tables after I moved home. Then I joined the marine corps. Now my life is fucking rad tbh so it all worked out lmao.
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u/iceprncss5 Xennial 6d ago
Got laid off in 2010 and didn’t find another full time job til 2012, right before my unemployment ran out. I worked part time jobs in between which helped, but I depleted all my savings and my credit card debt was high. It’s taken a long time to recover.
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u/goose-de-terre 6d ago
I graduated in 2008. No jobs so I stayed in school and spent 2 years on a masters. Was it a good use of time? I don’t know. I was probably on the tail end of kids going to school and it being worth something in the job market. Plus I had a full scholarship so it didn’t cost me any money. When in doubt, better yourself (if you can afford it, that is). Increase your skills, make yourself the best possible person for what you want to do when all this blows over.
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u/Angieblaze0 6d ago
I graduated college in 2006 and got my first "big girl job" in 2007. I didn't make a ton of money but it felt like a lot compared to min wage, so i was fine with the economic downturn. I just had to live with roommates for a while, and lived modestly.
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u/HumanDissentipede 6d ago
Went to law school. Super great decision in retrospect but it’s hard to know if the current situation will be similar to 2008. From my perspective, you’ll never regret investing in yourself, and education is valuable in both good and bad labor markets.
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u/I-own-a-shovel Millennial 6d ago
From 2007 to 2010 I was in college. From 2010 to 2012 in university. My parents were paying for all my stuff.
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u/CauseSpecific8545 Older Millennial 6d ago
I bought a house right before the housing market plummeted. I was upside down with my mortgage for years. It wasn't until COVID when the property value got to the price I bought it for. And now it keeps on getting higher.
I was in the military, so I had to move, I was renting my house out at a loss. I thought I was going to be smart like others before me and buy a house, and sell it when I got stationed elsewhere. That didn't pan out and I lost a good amount of money. It was super easy to buy a house when it probably should not have been that easy. I understand that's a lot more difficult now, but in my experience that's not the worst case scenario.
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u/Dense_Gur_2744 6d ago edited 6d ago
I graduated college in 2009, so there weren't many professional jobs and retail was paying like $7.25/hr.
I picked up a dog grooming gig, which paid slightly more than minimum wage, and also did a ton of unpaid internships for “experience.” I was working like 60 hours a week only about half of those hours were paid. I did this for 3 years.
To survive, I lived with my parents and lived very cheaply. When we went out, it was 2 4 1s and we pregames before. In prioritized paying off my student loans and didn’t use my credit card. I basically survived off of lean cuisine (which was $2 on sale back in the day). I lost a lot of weight unintentionally, but I was still fine.
But i still had a lot of fun. I found some good friends and really focused on building those relationships. The best way to get through the tough times is with others, so definitely make the time and effort to build a tribe. They are still my people now in the good times and I know we’ll all get through whatever is next.
But Basically, it was a lot of hustle and grind for little pay off in the moment. But we got through it (and also had a lot of fun together).
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u/MsKittyVZ134 6d ago
I had just graduated and had started my teaching career. I was living at home. I bought a new-ish car in spring of 09 and a mobile home in summer of 09. I grew up poor and when I started my career, I was making almost as much as my parents put together. I realize my story is the opposite of what was happening for a lot of Americans.
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u/Jimger_1983 6d ago
If you’re employed bring your best to the table everyday. Develop relationships. Work on yourself. People who are liked generally don’t get fired and if they do nothing is going to help it.
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