When you get married and have kids matters more than you may think.
'A record 55 percent of millennial parents have had children before getting married — compared with 25 percent of the youngest baby boomers who did the same — and the trend could be costing them. That's according to a 2017 report published by Wendy Wang and W. Bradford Wilcox, which found that "the most financially successful young adults today continue to be those who put marriage before the baby carriage."... As CNBC's Ester Bloom reports, being born to single moms or to unmarried partners "can be rough on families for numerous reasons. Pooling resources can make many aspects of life easier, from affording a home to being involved at school. Coupling up also helps people stay healthier and live longer, especially men." Wang and Wilcox's findings support the idea of a "success sequence," which was first introduced by Ron Haskins and Isabel Sawhill of the Brookings Institution in 2009. It says that the path to economic success and away from poverty is to do things in order: 1) Earn at least a high school diploma, 2) get a full-time job, and 3) marry before having kids.... More than half of millennials who didn't follow the sequence are in poverty....' I would add that, other factors include the "extended childhood" that many cling to -- living at home with parents support, unemployed or underemployed for long periods of time, building up no marketable skills and (if one does go to college) earning degrees with unmarketable majors such as Lesbian Dance Theory, Women's or Minority Studies, et al. There is also a serious worldview problem that goes along with this "extended childhood" attitude. E.g. thinking the world is required to bend to your personal wishes and desires while not requiring you to accomdate the demands of the world around you. For some examples: expecting to get hired into a high paying professional position without the required degree, arriving at the interview with a face full of piercings and "Tats" all over exposed areas, while not wearing any socks or otherwise dressing professionally, then immediately making your own demands on work hours, vacation time, benefits etc. before the hiring manager describes the job requirements and duties. If you couple these typical millenial attitudes (why they're called "snowflakes") with thinking you will be fine and dandy having a child before you can adequately handle the extra costs and demands on your life, or thinking its no big deal to be a single parent... its a recipe for financial disaster.