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NYT Magazine: 'What is it about 20-somethings?'

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Dick Whitman, Aug 18, 2010.

  1. The No. 7

    The No. 7 Member

    I'm in my late 20s, and I'd say my ability to be financially independent and live away from my parents has a lot to do with timing. I graduated in 2005 with an internship in hand, and I got a job with benefits about five months later. I've had that same job for almost five years. Most of my friends who graduated just a year or two later were booted out of their post-graduation journalism gigs within months or a year of getting them, and they've had two or three jobs since.
     
  2. Gator

    Gator Well-Known Member

    I think both you guys are using sweeping generalizatons.

    I know one kid who graduated from Williams, came to work for me as a sportswriter, making $24,000 his first year out. His writing (on high school sports and Williams men's basketball) was some of the best I've ever seen. He left after a year, went to Columbia journalism school, then to NYU law. I know he's going to do some great things.

    Then there's the son of my girlfriend's former boss, who owns an art gallery. He went to BC (his dad's alma mater) before going everywhere else under the sun in search of every degree imaginable. Where is he now? China ... living off his father's money with little intention of starting his own's life.

    While I agree that a degree from Williams will get you ahead in life, there are many, many diamonds in the rough, especially for people who want to work hard. Through the years, I've had a number of college interns from what is supposed to be a "select" school, and it always pans out poorly, mostly because the idea of actual work scares the shit out of them.
     
  3. Crash

    Crash Active Member

    Well, as a 20-something who just graduated from college in May, the state of the American economy has pretty much made sure that I'm going to need help from my parents for a little while. I don't live at home and haven't since the summer after my freshman year of college, and I've had a job since I was 15 years old. I went to college on a full-ride, had quality internships in different fields, graduated with honors, and I'm stuck working part time in a field that has nothing to do with my field of study hoping that someone will finally respond to one of the 100 or so resumes I've sent out since mid-March. Paying rent in a one bedroom apartment is barely affordable, much less affording car insurance and health insurance every month.

    I'm lucky that my parents are able to help me out a little bit. But my lack of total independence from them isn't because I lack the will to be on my own. I'm not trying to work part time in a job I don't care about. I want to grow up. I want to be out on my own. But there aren't too many jobs out there.
     
  4. Twoback

    Twoback Active Member

    I don't know what it's like out there for a fresh college graduate.
    But I graduated into 18 percent interest rates and 9.7 national unemployment in a city whose primary industry (steel) was decaying rapidly.
    Hard to believe, but the economy is dramatically better now.
    I think part of what makes it harder is there's so much more news about how crappy it is.
    When I got out, I didn't realize that 18 percent interest on a car loan was outrageous. It was what was available. Now you're bludgeoned over the head on the internet, on the front page, about how the world is going to hell in a handbasket and you can get a car loan for 0.9 and a mortgage for 4.5.
     
  5. farmerjerome

    farmerjerome Active Member

    With me, I always thought college was a definite. Then I got my two-year degree and kind of floundered. I ended up with a job in my field so I decided not to go through with the four-year program, all the while living with my parents on and off.

    I finally got the four-year degree but by then journalism was in real trouble and the economy was in the shitter. If I wasn't married (to split the bills) I'd still be hanging out in my parent's basement. Even the job I have now doesn't pay enough to support me if I want to have kids.

    I'm thinking of scrapping everything and going back to school for medical billing, which will pay about twice what I'm making now. But I don't think I can pull off working and going to school full time.

    Sometimes I don't feel like I've grown up yet.
     
  6. Jersey_Guy

    Jersey_Guy Active Member

    The Millionaire Next Door is a tremendous book and, if I remember correctly, had some statistical evidence that helping your children financially after college is generally a very bad idea.
     
  7. exmediahack

    exmediahack Well-Known Member

    Yes, I strive to do everything to impart - in my children - the ability to take care of themselves, financially.

    Parents allow it because we have more "helicopter parents" who are now of the edge where they have kids who are 25.

    I left home at 17 for college but also had plenty of older friends who flunked out of their college and had to "go home" to a community college. I swore I would NEVER do that.

    And I didn't. That was my motivation. No flunk out after a semester and I damn well wasn't going to live at home after graduation.

    Once I was out...I was out. Never went home in the summer, largely because the city I went to college in had a far, FAR better economy than the city I grew up in.

    I won't fault the recent grads too much. Finding a job - at 22 or 47 - is a bear these days.
     
  8. Madhavok

    Madhavok Well-Known Member

    Totally fit this and I really don't care. I'm 28 and doing the whole 'ski bum' thing. All I know is the last three years of my life have been the best. I wake up every morning with a smile. I basically live where people vacation/wish they could live and what I get paid to do is a hobby for most across America. I think today I'll go play 18 over at Copper, then go skate the bowl in Breckenridge, play my softball game, and finish the night off with some Madden 11.
     
  9. deskslave

    deskslave Active Member

    I think a lot of 20somethings have pretty much decided that the path followed by their parents just isn't worth it. For the most part, they worked hard, they saved, they sacrificed, all that cliched crap, and for what? To get stuck with a house that they don't want and can't sell? To get laid off 10 years short of retirement? To buy a bigger TV and a nicer car every two years? What's the damn point? It's accumulation for the sake of accumulation.

    I decided way too late in my 20s that I wasn't going to waste them worrying about what was going to happen when I was 40 or 50 or 60. Doesn't mean I ignore my future, but I'm not going to spend my youth, or at least not any more of it, doing stuff I don't want to do in the vague hope that it might pay off at some nebulous point down the road.
     
  10. RickStain

    RickStain Well-Known Member

    If they were buying a bigger TV and a nicer car every two years, were they really saving and sacrificing all that much? Maybe they could have used that money to put a larger down payment on their house.
     
  11. Lugnuts

    Lugnuts Well-Known Member

    The purpose-driven life! ;D
     
  12. deskslave

    deskslave Active Member

    You're probably right.

    Of course, maybe owning a house isn't the be-all, end-all of life.
     
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