'Middle-Aged Americans, Not Millennials, Are The Problem'

'Middle-Aged Americans, Not Millennials, Are The Problem' Finally, an honest headline from my dear friend Forbes!

You can probably imagine my glee when I read today, finally, that Millennials are not the problem!

Admittedly, the entire headline reads "Housing's Non-Recovery: Middle-Aged Americans, Not Millennials, Are the Problem," so we're only off the hook for the housing market's failings. And really, it has nothing to do with us--according to this article, we're not buying fewer homes than any previous generation did at our age, adjusting for demographics.

Unfortunately, I don't think that the effect Forbes and others are reporting will be limited to Generations X and Boomers. The hard truth is that if we expect a housing rebound, we'd better look at the long term prognosis for Millennial financial health.

And it looks bleak.

Millennial workers are the most financially stressed, burdened by an average $30,000 in student loan debt (and little hope of refinancing), and twice as many college graduates were working minimum wage jobs in 2013 than in 2006. To top off the bad news, Milliennial women are lagging even further behind in an already tough economy.

It seems as though this doomsday Huffington Post article might be right about Millennials. We're not only going to miss out on home ownership, we're facing chronic homelessness!

It's not all bad, though. Millennials, I'd like to stress, are not the problem. Even though Millennials are struggling to find worthwhile employment, we are a generation of super-savers. We expect to fund our own retirement, and are even setting aside the money to provide financial support for our aging parents (which is a good thing, since the Boomers' retirement isn't looking so good). If optimism counts for something, we've got that in spades. 

Our own saving and spending habits can only go so far though. Again, Millennials aren't the problem. For Boomers, spending hurt retirement plans--and it wasn't just superfluous spending that got them into trouble. Those horrible student loans hurting Millennials? Boomers are also carrying around student loan debt, in addition to the money they shelled out for our own outstanding tuition (thanks Mom and Dad!). Healthcare spending also contributed to a lion's share of spending; healthcare spending 'essentially wiped out the gains in median family income over the last 10 years.'

So where does that leave Millennials? Well, like my generational counterparts, I'm stupidly optimistic! Why? Well, to start, I'm hopeful that even though we seem convinced that Obamacare is a raw deal for Millennials, I'll benefit in the long-term from its positive effect on our nation's budget deficit. I'm also hopeful that the Affordable Care Act will keep my spending in check in case my husband or I face a catastrophic health situation, by guaranteeing me insurance even in case of a preexisting condition, and hopefully keeping me from bankruptcy in case of emergency.

I also think that the size of our birth cohort could also soon advantage us. Millennials are now first in the population contest, with more Millennials than that other large generational cohort the Boomers. As evidenced by 2008 and 2010, Millennials vote [mostly Democratic], and Millennials are more likely than older generations to support an activist government. I'm optimistic that as more Millennials reach voting age, there will be citizen demand for an actually functioning Congress, and the votes to back that up.

If we still haven't figured out how to make democracy work, though, there should at least be a shift in business. Financial benefits now are focused mostly on retirement for aging Boomers. These boomers are finally retiring, which will make jobs for Millennials, but surely will also shift how businesses offer financial benefits. The Millennial generation is large enough that when the majority of workers are no longer Boomers, businesses will have to change financial benefits to fit the needs of their Millennial workers.

Millennials aren't the problem in today's economy. We could be the problem for tomorrow's economy, however, if government and business don't start addressing our debt, suppressed wages, and lack of social benefits--both via government and business. What's sad is if Millennials are the cause of economic non-recovery, it won't be our fault. We're saving, learning, and engaging at record levels. I'm not sure what more we could do. Millennials aren't the problem.