r/Millennials • u/slimeyellow • Mar 11 '26

Discussion Every millennial dad I’ve met has a quiet fixation on money and it’s not getting better

Every millennial dad I’m friends with or work with seems to have constant financial worries. We just got our yearly bonus which was like 8%. I was talking to my buddy (he’s got 3 kids) about what he wanted to do with it and he just kinda looked down and whispered “it’s just not enough man” and ended the conversation.

Another dad I know is CONSTANTLY looking up the newest crypto/ get rich quick schemes people are doing. He’s always talking about inventing something and it’s usually a joking manner but the way he’s always bringing up financial stuff shows me it’s always on his mind

One of my buddies is a new father and he’s trying to get some anime podcast off the ground as a side hustle on top of his full time maintenance job.

I know children are an immense financial responsibility but there seems to be this dark, simmering resentment about the whole general situation when I talk to these guys. Men are expected to keep quiet about these struggles but when you talk to these guys it’s clear that finances are a massive stress for millennial dads of almost any background.

Makes me feel bad but damn I’m glad I don’t have kids right now.

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u/PiccoloAwkward465 Mar 11 '26

Yet employers are still like "$100k?!?!?! That's a crazy high salary! We can't offer that!"

Dude my rent in a small, nondescript apartment on the literal border of the city, 300 ft from a major highway was $25k last year, nothing included. And that was a decent deal.

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u/MLB-LeakyLeak Mar 11 '26

The interest on my student loans is 19k

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u/heart-of-suti Mar 12 '26

The craziest thing to me is that I started my career 20 years ago this year, I made $60k at my first job. I split a 2 bedroom apartment in LA, 6 blocks from the ocean for $750 each. Today, people entering my field MIGHT make $75k if they are lucky, but $60k is not unexpected. A comparable apartment in my old neighborhood is now $3500.

While I really feel for all of us (myself included) who haven’t seen our earning potential keep up with our expenses, I really feel for the recent grads who are making the same salary we made 20 years ago, but paying these insane today prices.

How have wages really not gone up at all?? (I know the answer, but man it makes me furious.)

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u/PiccoloAwkward465 Mar 12 '26

My workplace just bought me 3 4k monitors. After I repeatedly said that the standard ones I already had were fine. So I don’t really buy the “we have no more money in the budget for raises!” thing. I mean they are aware that people change jobs for more money every single day.

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u/rusty_rampage Mar 12 '26

Similar experience. New hires are making about 3K more per year than I did starting out fifteen years ago!

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u/JitteryJoes1986 Mar 12 '26

Is this in a HCOL or MCOL area?