Millennials want to live a ‘soft life,’ and it’s changing how they work

[JEDI]

Millennials want to live a ‘soft life,’ and it’s changing how they work

More and more, younger generations are opting to live soft lives, rejecting the struggle, stress, and anxiety that comes with working a traditional 9-to-5 career and grinding out your days on life's hamster wheel.

www.yahoo.com

living the soft life is about throwing yourself into joy, and prioritizing the richness of experiences instead of the 9-5 hamster wheel.

"What's the minimal amount I need to live a sustainable life?"

 

[sdifox]

Nothing wrong with that. Capitalists better be willing to pay more if they want workers.

 

[brianmanahan]

i'm still trying to retire by 45

dunno if i'll save enough in time, but i hope the next few years are good to me

cmonbigmoneybigmoneybigmoneybigmoneybigmoneybigmoneybigmoney

 

[VirtualLarry]

cmonbigmoneybigmoneybigmoneybigmoneybigmoneybigmoneybigmoney

No Wammies!!!!

 

[JEDI]

i'm still trying to retire by 45

dunno if i'll save enough in time, but i hope the next few years are good to me

cmonbigmoneybigmoneybigmoneybigmoneybigmoneybigmoneybigmoney

Plan B: https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/powerball-almost-at-1b-7-15-23-drawing.2613706/

 

[Ns1]

!remindme in 2 years

Friends and family often ask LaBeach how he affords to live the way he is. It's not like he has a nest egg funding his life. He's taken a "$10 in; $20 out" approach

 

[JEDI]

!remindme in 2 years

Fuzzy math is fuzzy

 

[brianmanahan]

Fuzzy math is fuzzy

round to the nearest 100$

 

[Fenixgoon]

!remindme in 2 years

That doesn't strike me as particularly sustainable...

 

[MrSquished]

Calling it a soft life is already being judgmental. Maybe just finding a more rational work-life balance is not soft, but just sane.

 

[nakedfrog]

They've grown up seeing how much our corporate world ultimately values their contributions, what's their incentive when homeownership is nearly out of reach for most of them even if they do grind themselves away for an increasingly smaller piece of the pie?

 

[Captante]

Yep.... everyday that goes by in 'murica my "IDGAF" attitude makes more and more sense!
(damn shame)

 

[KB]

I can't blame them. I feel the same way sometimes. When houses, schooling, healthcare and food costs so much, you have to be able to get by with less or you will work yourself to death. In my grandparents generation, and a little of my parents generation too, you got a job out of high school and retired at 55 with a decent pension. Thats not really possible now.

 

[Captante]

To be fair compared to what my grandfather went through in the 1930's/depression we ain't seen nothing yet .... but this country isn't what it used to be that's for sure!

 

[SteveGrabowski]

To be fair compared to what my grandfather went through in the 1930's/depression we ain't seen nothing yet .... but this country isn't what it used to be that's for sure!

At least he got to see an America that was good, well good if you're white. The US has been on a downward spiral even for white people ever since W took office. First healthcare got ridiculously expensive, then college. Now it's housing, food, and electricity has shot up in price too right as we're starting to get the boot on our neck from global warming.

 

[Captante]

At least he got to see an America that was good, well good if you're white. The US has been on a downward spiral even for white people ever since W took office. First healthcare got ridiculously expensive, then college. Now it's housing, food, and electricity has shot up in price too right as we're starting to get the boot on our neck from global warming.

He told me a lot about his first-hand experiences living back then .... starving to death was a "thing" for example.

Even homeless folks living on the street in 2023 have access to food.

But overall I completely agree.... America today is crap-hole in many ways.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Inflation is going to make sure that never happens unfortunately. Matter of time until getting a 2nd job in the evening is the norm just to keep up with costs of living that keep going up each year. Either that or have to give up basic life things, like owning a house or car. Doesn't help that companies just don't want to pay anymore. The idea of bonuses and big raises is a thing of the past at most companies. Now days you're lucky to even have a job that pays more than minimum wage. I think it's gen Z that will have it the hardest though, they are just starting life now in this hyperinflationary state and trying to find a permanent job. At least us millennials are more or less established, and maybe around half way through our mortgage. Anyone starting a job now is also not going to make as much as someone that's been there for a while and grandfathered into a higher pay scale that is not offered anymore.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

I can't blame them. I feel the same way sometimes. When houses, schooling, healthcare and food costs so much, you have to be able to get by with less or you will work yourself to death. In my grandparents generation, and a little of my parents generation too, you got a job out of high school and retired at 55 with a decent pension. Thats not really possible now.

-Boomers and the post war era in the US have really completely and utterly fucked expectations forever.

Really what you're describing has existed for the common man during only one time, in only one place, in all of history and that was from the 60's to the 90's in the US (with some bumps along the way and in other developed western nations).

If you lived before that time, get fucked. After that time? Get double fucked.

The problem is that we've been treating it like it's the norm, not a freakish historical aberration, and as a result have not properly identified root causes and how to sustain them.

Take immigration. With the rest of the world blown to bits or under the yolk of colonialism or a backwards economic philosophy, the best and brightest fled to the US, depressing the world's economic output while supercharging ours.

But somehow thanks to culture war garbage and protectionism we're turning away the new blood at the southern border and elsewhere, make it brutally difficult for people to go through a legal citizenship process *even if they're college educated STEM workers* etc.

 

[Exterous]

I can't blame them. I feel the same way sometimes. When houses, schooling, healthcare and food costs so much, you have to be able to get by with less or you will work yourself to death. In my grandparents generation, and a little of my parents generation too, you got a job out of high school and retired at 55 with a decent pension. Thats not really possible now.

That has never been the experience for a majority of Americans at any point in our history. Retirement has ticket up slightly (~3 years) but it's never been below 61 for a major population segment and only a minority of workers have ever had access to a pension

https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2001/article/pdf/retirement-age-declines-again-in-1990s.htm

The 'Golden Age Of Retirement' Is A Myth

The notion that today's retirement crisis is new — that there was some golden era in the past when Americans could retire in financial security — is a myth.

www.businessinsider.com

 

[brianmanahan]

That has never been the experience for a majority of Americans at any point in our history. Retirement has ticket up slightly (~3 years) but it's never been below 61 for a major population segment and only a minority of workers have ever had access to a pension

i'm jealous of a older guy who i grew up around. him and his buddies worked at a local ford plant at just the right time:

- start at 18
- retire at 48
- pension and healthcare for life

seeing him out doing whatever he wanted by the time he was 50 is partially why i work a job with a pension and save like crazy to retire early

for him it was easy mode, but it's harder nowadays (though still doable)

 

[JEDI]

i'm jealous of a older guy who i grew up around. him and his buddies worked at a local ford plant at just the right time:

- start at 18
- retire at 48
- pension and healthcare for life

seeing him out doing whatever he wanted by the time he was 50 is partially why i work a job with a pension and save like crazy to retire early

for him it was easy mode, but it's harder nowadays (though still doable)

most pensions now a days dont pay till you're at least 55 even if you had the years at age 48.
yeah, he got in at the right time.

military is the biggest exception.
enlist age 18, retire at 38 as a staff sgt (e-6), pull in about $45k/yr.
(average of the highest 36 months of active duty pay)

then work in the fed govt as a contractor pulling 6 figures because you have top secret clearance.

i cant imagine people wanting a soft life enlisting in the military.
ok, maybe the airforce since non-pilots dont usually get shot at