Yes this. I’m generation X, got out of college in 91. I got a ‘good job’ at a cpa firm but most of my money went to rent (with roommates or a small studio). I had an old beat up rusted out car given to me by my parents. I did buy clothes (always been my weakness) but mainly business attire. I had exactly 2 designer items – a black and a navy Bally flat I bought at a sample sale with my employee discount (I worked retail in college). Those shoes got worn to death with my suits. I didn’t have a cell phone, a computer or a designer handbag/accessories. I drank coffee in the office and did get reimbursed for dinner for basically working until 9 pm every night (& all day Sat, sometimes Sun too). I had zero sense of entitlement at work, stayed until the audit supervisor said to pack up and did what I was delegated to do. I was keenly aware that I was still learning and didn’t know enough of the whole picture yet to question the way something was done. Back to college…I worked all the way through (I’ve had very little no employment time since I’ve been 15, maybe three months in total). My roommate worked all night at a full time job to pay her way through college. I had other friends who signed up with ROTC to pay for college. But all of our perspective isn’t that we had it rough, it was just accepted and we even considered ourselves fortunate. I don’t doubt that millennials have it rough financially but the perspective that it that generation x had it easier is not true. We worked very hard for everything we got and didn’t have a lifestyle that I see younger people living today (not all but definitely some). My parents generation were immigrants or children of immigrants so we never complained that they had it easy. I think it’s the perception that everyone has had it easier than millennials is what bothers me sometimes. But I have to say the student loan crisis in the US is out of hand, which has caused astronomical increases in tuition and I do think high school students need financial education including talking about the ROI of your degree. I intentionally went to an in state public university and majored in a marketable major (accounting) not to become rich but to be able to support myself in a state with one of the highest cost of living indexes in the country. The other challenge is lifestyle inflation, it is a different time now and there are many temptations for little luxuries that weren’t there when I was in my 20s. I’d also like to say not all millennials have a poor me perspective, I work with many and none of them are that way. Every generation has the poor me types but they don’t speak for everyone else. I recall being told by acquaintances who partied away their twenties that I was “lucky”. I do feel I’m fortunate. I had good parents and like to learn/read but I worked very hard in my twenties – opportunity met with preparation is not luck.

Tea. Book. British series, and documentary. Trying plant-based recipe and buying vegan food in the grocery that I haven’t tried before. (Surprisingly oatmeal milk taste good.) Oh and that dehydrator and mirrorless camera. I’m not buying the latest iPhone because of the hefty price and size.