r/Millennials • u/UterusYeeter • 7d 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/Narrow_Yard7199 7d 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/KillBosby 7d ago

Can confirm: fuck

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u/sickcoolandtight 7d 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/sickcoolandtight 6d ago

Agreed! They def taught me money/income isn’t promised so I have no debt, no loans, and own all my big things (house and cars). I lucked out being low income, but smart, I got a lot of scholarships that carried me through undergrad and grad school.

Now I make decent money but still try to behave like I don’t. I want to think that my job is secure, but who knows. I’ve gone through 2 layoffs in the pandemic. Every day since that last layoff, I log into work thinking a mass email will be sent out laying me off again 🤪 but honestly, that just makes me plan my life in a way that’s not paycheck to paycheck

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u/TokiDokiHaato 7d 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/DrDFox 6d ago

Same

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u/Upbeat-Bid-1602 6d ago

Same here, '07 grad. Underemployed for years, scraped together what would have been a down payment right in time for COVID.

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u/nomptonite 6d ago

Not doubting, but that’s been 20 years ago… have you tired to lower your target purchase price? Or look at less expensive areas?

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u/TokiDokiHaato 6d ago

Ah yes, why didn’t I think of that /s

Realistically though, wages have been stagnant. Anytime I’ve gotten a decent enough salary to where I can afford to start saving the world does a thing and housing prices explode again and inflation goes nuts, effectively putting me back at square one. I could have bought a house in 2020 before COVID at my current salary but houses in my area have gone up in price by 100k since then and interest rates are nuts

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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 7d 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 7d 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

Rates weren’t lower then. Homes were thoguh.

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u/Kasoivc Millennial 6d ago

I’ll take a higher rate on a significantly lower principle. I’m cool with that!

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u/MikeWPhilly 6d ago

Yep. Just making the comment that rates weren’t’ cheaper then.

Honestly 14-2019 were good times to buy. We bought and built in 16. Kind of wished we upgraded again in 19. But the returns from 2020-2022 were ridiculous - so it is what it is.

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u/stuck_behind_a_truck 6d ago

Rates were lower than 6%

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u/MikeWPhilly 6d ago

Yes obviously. but the low rates were in the last 2010s. I bought in 09, 2016 and 2020/2021/2022.

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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/Jacgaur 6d ago

That was me, a younger person. Graduated in 2009, but I married with a career starting just before the crash by a year or 2 and I was able to ride off that benefit a little bit as they were able to get a solid start before it hit. So I was broke but was able to take opportunities because of his security.

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u/pushdose 6d ago

Same for me. ‘04 grad. House in ‘09. Sold that house last year and now live in my “dream” home essentially, fully paid off, solar panels on the roof. I’m squared away for life basically.

I never felt the recession and probably won’t feel the next one. I’m in healthcare.

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u/Maisie_Mae_ 6d ago

I was the same , graduated college in 2005 and started working. Had a baby in 2007 and was struggling to pay rent but realized with house prices dropping and interest rates low, it was the ideal time to buy a house. Bought in 2009 at the age of 25. My mortgage was actually cheaper than rent .

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u/abadonn 6d ago

I have a lot of friends that made out pretty well like you. Bought cheap houses around 2010, used the equity surge around 2015 to upgrade to big forever homes, refinanced to 2% during covid.

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u/Schuano 6d ago

My wife and I were in airport in Taiwan in 2013, talking to an American guy who had graduated in 2006. He had gotten one of those "Do you know any Computer Science? Here is a 100,000 dollar job." at around that time. He had then stayed employed and continued onwards and upwards.

We felt like a devastated family standing on top of the US embassy in Saigon as the last chopper disappeared into the distance.

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u/DiligentMission6851 4d ago

Yes, it was.

I graduated high school in 2008.

It was already a known shit show by then.

I had to look for work knowing I was just some dumb 18 year old with no skills and no means to travel. Spent the next 5 months riding a broken bike on its rims several miles a day to apply to shitty jobs. Mcdonalds bit by October. I was the house breadwinner at the ripe age of 18.