Pt. 1: Money, Millennials & the Bizarre American Fever Dream: The Culture & Economy that Made Millennials

The Money with Katie Show

Money with Katie

Self-improvement, Education, Business, Investing, How To

4.8 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 7 September 2022

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Months ago, I received this reader question: “It feels like I’ve done everything right, and yet I can barely make ends meet. Has life always been this…hard?” This stuck with me for a long time. They weren't the first to ask this, or the second or third. And ultimately, this question became the focus of this special two-part series. Because when I first started writing about personal finance in 2018, I believed the rules of the game were fixed, simple, and universally applicable. I had the tonic that was going to make my generation rich, because I figured the things that worked for me would work for everyone. The perilous two years that followed—aka the pandemic—opened my eyes to just how complex life is in the 21st century, particularly for those coming of age in it—and this mini-series is my attempt at making sense of the world around us politically, economically, and culturally. (And yes, the financial implications at the collective and individual levels.) I'm also joined by Malcolm Harris, author of Kids These Days (https://www.littlebrown.com/titles/will-collyer/kids-these-days/9781478992332/), which I quote throughout the episode. Listen to part two here: https://link.chtbl.com/O11nOQjn. — Mentioned in the Episode Anne Helen Petersen's Budget Culture and the Dave Ramseyfication of Money: https://annehelen.substack.com/p/budget-culture-and-the-dave-ramseyfication?s=r Dēmos research in 2008: https://www.demos.org/research/economic-state-young-america Jacqui Shine of the Los Angeles Book Review: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/wont-get-fooled-again-malcolm-harriss-kids-these-days-human-capital-and-the-making-of-millennials/ Richard Fry of the Pew Research Center: https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2014/05/14/section-1-student-debt-and-overall-economic-well-being/ — Follow Along - Listen to Money with Katie here: https://www.podpage.com/money-with-katie-show/ - Read Money with Katie: https://moneywithkatie.com/ Follow Money with Katie! - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moneywithkatie/ - Twitter: https://twitter.com/moneywithkatie - TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@moneywithkatie Subscribe to Morning Brew - Sign up for free today: https://bit.ly/morningbrewyt Follow The Brew! - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/morningbrew/ - Twitter: https://twitter.com/MorningBrew - TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@morningbrew Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome back to The Money with Katie Show Rich Girls and Boys, and not just any episode
0:12.5	of the show, but part one of a two-part special that I'm calling Millennials, Money, and
0:19.3	the Bizarre American Fever Dream.
0:28.9	This episode, which spanned about 10 pages in writing after I finished them, which might
0:34.8	explain why we've decided to split them up, were my attempt at synthesizing roughly two
0:42.0	years worth of confusion and research and casual reading and observations.
0:49.6	It's my attempt at understanding the world around me, around all of us, particularly
0:55.2	from my viewpoint as a personal finance blogger.
0:59.5	Here's the thing.
1:00.9	Our team had some concerns when we were putting together these episodes that they might feel
1:05.6	a little too pessimistic, so I want to acknowledge that because I know some of the topics we're
1:11.7	going to dive into may feel a little hopeless, and I want to make it very clear that I do
1:16.8	have hope for the future.
1:18.5	I am optimistic, particularly about the potential of Gen Z and the Millennials that are getting
1:24.9	older, and that we can turn the ship around, so if it's pessimistic, why did I feel
1:31.2	strongly about publishing these thoughts?
1:34.2	It really all started with a rich girl round-up submission we got a few months ago that
1:38.3	essentially said, hey, my friends and I make good money and we've worked hard and we did
1:43.0	the right things, but it feels like after we pay our bills and our student loan debt
1:47.3	back and have a little bit of fun, there's basically nothing left over.
1:52.0	Has life always been this hard?
1:55.0	Are we doing something wrong or is this just normal?
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Money with Katie, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Money with Katie and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.