Erin Gee
Millennials vs Boomers – who’s better off in 2025?
Photo by Nicoleta Ionescu / Shutterstock
The Topline
opline
- Wall Street Journal reported in August that Millennials are nearly a third richer than their Boomer parents
- According to Fortune, the median net worth of Millennials 46 per cent higher in 2022 than their parents would’ve been at the same age in 1989 after adjusting for inflation
- Millennials’ assets meanwhile had a median net value of $219,200 – nearly $100,000 more than that of their parents
- Boomers, however, grew up during a time of unprecedented economic growth, while Millennials have endured two periods of economic instability – the Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic
Bigger, better, weirder opportunities
Much has been written over whether or not Millennials are better off than their parents. The fact of the matter is – they are.
Asking whether Millennials are “better off” than their parents is not specific enough, as there are many factors to consider. On the whole, however, Millennials are better off with more access and more opportunity.
Millennials are the most educated generation in history – as of 2019, four in ten Millennials had a bachelor’s degree or higher , compared to roughly 25 per cent of their parents’ generation. This has given women, in particular, increased access to opportunities and financial independence, previous generations never had.This has led to 72 per cent of Millennial women being employed compared to 66 per cent of Boomer women at the same age.
In a similar vein, Millennials have increased access to wealth creation tools, largely facilitated by the internet, that exist outside their typical 9-5s. These include index funds, crypto (if that’s your thing), and online entrepreneurship. Additionally, because they’ve experienced multiple severe economic shocks –most recently the COVID recession – Millennials try to be more conservative in their spending, saving and investing when they are able.
While the internet has facilitated digital entrepreneurship, Millennials have access to unprecedented global connectivity, giving them access to career options not available to previous generations. Whether they’re building online, working remote, creating content, or accessing global job vacancies, Millennials have access to a whole new realm of global employment opportunities.
And while the Girl Boss mentality was a specifically Millennial affliction, Millennials have managed to push past the idea of their jobs being the centre of their lives, one that was central to the lives of their parents. Work-life balance has become increasingly important for Millennials, as they were the first digital nomads (thanks to the opportunities provided by the internet). The COVID-19 pandemic really emphasized this importance as lockdowns forced all non-essential workers to work from home, resulting in an even bigger focus on work-life balance.
Like, uh, just look around dude
If ever there were a generational question, this would be it. Since Millennials came of adult age (ironically during the Great Recession), pundits and economists have posited whether or not they are better off than their Boomer parents.
If Millennials were, in fact, better off than their parents, then we wouldn’t need to ask the question, let alone debate it.
Despite high educational achievement, Millennials have worked during a time of overlapping economic challenges. Yes, there have been recessions, including the Great Recession, but Millennials have encountered stagnant wages coupled with increases in housing and the overall cost of living, plus – ironically – high amounts of student debt. These concurrent challenges have created a climate where Millennials are less financially secure than their Boomer parents.
The economic shocks of the Great Recession and the COVID-19 recession also stunted Millennial’s wealth building opportunities by delaying their career starts and, in some cases, being forced out of the workforce for a period of time, in which some changed careers, further delaying advancement.
For Boomers, a major wealth building vehicle has been homeownership, a life milestone that remains out of reach of many Millennials, despite their desire to do so. In the U.S., housing prices have increased over 1,000 per cent since the 1970s , while in Canada, between 2016 and 2021, some communities saw the average expected value of a home increase by 50 per cent .
While “better off” is vague, being concerned about the costs of living and housing does not align with things being “better” than your parents, no matter how much work-life balance you have.
