Do Millennials Make More Money Than Young Boomers Did? The Answer Might Surprise You.
My answer is: comparing what Millennials make with the inflation-adjusted earnings of Baby Boomers when they were young is impossible.
And I’m not sure that’s even the right question. Here’s why:
By almost every standard, we are “wealthier” than any of our Boomer parents when they were growing up. That includes access to information, travel, experiences, options to work at home and in all-around safer conditions, and modern conveniences like Netflix (I mean really, who could live without Netflix?).
So even if we Millennials were starting out at lower salaries than Boomers, that wouldn’t be a fair comparison for quality of life.
Then, think about the income disparity between Millennials. Just the other day a classmate from Columbia Business School told me his sister is making $100,000 — not even a year after graduating from college.
That would have been UNHEARD OF 50+ years ago. Then again, there are plenty of Millennials sleeping on mom’s couch or bunking up with friends in a rented house.
So, in summary:
More options than ever + quality of life + greater income inequality = your question is unanswerable (except in mathematical terms, which I hope you’ll agree really don’t provide an answer at all here).
So, then, what is the better question?
The better question is:
How can Millennials today market themselves in order to earn the maximum on the income curve?
For that, I say,
- Get into an industry that is exploding. Like AI.
- Start your own business. I don’t care who you are and what you do, if you’re a Millennial, you should at least have a side-hustle. Reasons: a) retirement planning, b) flexibility, c) diversification of income streams, etc.
- Build a personal brand. Once you do, you have an infinitely marketable brand that can help you land future jobs, clients, experiences, opportunities, etc.
If you want to learn more about how to do this, click here to get the free course I built to teach Millennials how to build a personal brand and scale their business.