[ck425]

Yet even if you do all that you'll still have more debt, higher rent and more expensive home prices. Even those who work their ass off with lower expectations are going to end up less well off than they would have in a previous generation. That "little temporary discomfort" is significantly less temporary than it used to be.

[MadManE]

Yeah, life sucks sometimes. But I have yet to see someone complaining about how hard millennials have it who doesn't also have the latest iPhone and MacBook, living in an expensive city.

If you're really serious about growing your net worth, then stick with the old hardware and move to somewhere between the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi River. Prices are low enough to live the "American Dream" there, but it's not the cool, hip living of SF Bay, Seattle, or NYC.

[wvenable]

I'd love to move somewhere cheaper but jobs my wife and I do don't exist there. Which is quite likely exactly why those places are cheaper.

[popmystack]

You're going to compare necessary tools that cost nothing over their lifetime to having things like retirement, cheap rent, benefits, and a strong job market?

"Life sucks sometimes" is also a thought terminating cliche, as such you should really avoid using it -- if you're actually trying to contribute to the discussion instead of sounding like a daft moron.

[tonyedgecombe]

Their MacBook or iPhone is your Chevy or Ford when you were their age.

[yarrel]

That's because you are reading about it on the Internet. If they didn't have the devices to access the Internet you wouldn't hear about it.

If you're really serious about hearing from people between the Rockies and the Mississippi, move there and ask them.

[MadManE]

I grew up there. It's not pleasant, but it is ripe with opportunity to seriously grow your worth.

And 5-year-old hardware is hardly inaccessible to the internet. It is orders of magnitude cheaper, though.