Baby boomers, they’re just like us.
Or, rather, we’re just like them.
And by “we,” I mean millennials.
Theinevitable march of timeoften means turning into your parents, no matter how much you swore you wouldn’t.
Millennials people born from 1981 to 1996 have long had a “forever young” air to them.
But the reality of many millennials is starting to more closely mirror their parents'.
He followed his career path and became a lawyer.
At 31, he’s married, like his dad was when he was his age.
It’s like the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, to be cliche."
Plenty of millennial apples are looking pretty treelike nowadays.
The oldest baby boomers reached 30 in 1976, while the youngest reached that mark in 1994.
They hit 40 between 1986 and 2004.
Elder millennials hit 30 in 2011, and the last batch will get there in 2026.
Their 40th birthdays started coming in 2021 and will stop in 2036.
Wealthwise, millennials are also doing decently, if not even better than their parents.
In 2022, that number was slightly higher, at $135,300.
Like William, other millennials are more invested in the stock market than their parents.
That number jumped to 54.4% from 22.7% for those under 35.
That’s the case for Faith Bergman, a 28-year-old who works in fintech and lives in New York.
“I think it’s more of just a lack of awareness.”
Arecent surveyfrom Schwab found that millennials started investing at 25 on average, compared with 35 for boomers.
(Gen Z is getting into the game even sooner, at 19.)
Despite the head start, millennials still bear the scars of their early years.
But the situation is also more complicated.
Millennials aren’t so much nonmovers as they are slow movers.
As of 2022,over half of millennials were homeowners.
It’s not necessarily a question of no buying it’s a question of postponed buying.
The median age of first-time homebuyers has reached a record high of 38 years old, the NAR says.
Back in the ’80s, people were buying their first homes in their late 20s.
Looking at medians and averages can paper over significant divisions within the generation.
While wealthy millennials are doing better than their boomer parents, poorer millennials are doing worse.
“Overall distribution of wealth has become more unequal within generations and also across the board.”
“There is a big trade-off millennials have to face,” Fairweather said.
People buying their first homes have “substantially higher” incomes nowadays than in the past, Lautz said.
There are a lot of awkward parts to aging.
Youlose your cool factor.
Your bodystarts to show more wear and tear.
You realizethe adult in the room is supposed to be you.
It can be uncomfortable to admit that you see more of your parents in yourself than you’d like.
As much as millennials were supposed to be minimalists, they’reloading up on stuffjust as much as theirstuff-loving predecessors.
Politically, just like generations past, many aremoving to the rightas they age.
Like many millennials,she wants to parent her children differently.
Still, she knows her lifestyle isn’t really a departure.
“There are definitely the moments that I have said that,” she said.
Even matching it may feel like falling short.
Millennials are also weighed down by a pervasive sense of precarity.
They remember 9/11, and they saw the economic bottom fall out during the Great Recession.
Maybe it will get figured out.
Maybe it won’t.
Millennials' experience tells them to have some concerns.
For many people, there is something at least a bit charming in recognizing their parents in themselves.
Millennials aren’t the lost generation after all.
They’re boomers 2.0, with a side of avocado toast.
Emily Stewartis a senior correspondent at Business Insider, writing about business and the economy.
