LINK: bit.ly/2xCXaLy
HEADLINE: Millennials Are Facing The Scariest Financial Future of Any Generation
PUBLISHER: Huffpost
Make no mistake, this is DEFINITELY A MUST-READ — especially for Millennials. I’m going to tell you a quick story. I was taught the dumb life plan since I was a kid: 1) Study hard in school to get into a great University; 2) Study hard in the University to then get a great job; 3) Work hard in your job to accumulate the money necessary to buy your house, your car, to get married etc. Ok, so that was in my head as the “Ultimate Life Plan” because my parents taught me that, and since they’re great parents, I should trust their advice. But here’s the thing: I’m from Brazil. I was born in a middle-class family (which is close to poor in Brazil). So once I started going to school, it was a public school, not a private one. In Brazil 99% of public schools are useless, there are gang members, kids getting searched for drugs by cops at the entrance almost every day, teachers are very weak and don’t know much because their salary is ridiculous etc. While private schools are the best there is where you can get the best education possible. Ok, so I was already playing the game in Hard Mode because I went my whole life to public schools, but that’s life. Deal with it. Fast forward, and in my final year of high school, at the last 6 months, I faced some bad kids who got together to try to kick my ass at the time. The problem is that a brazilian public school is mostly about kicking people’s asses all the time, because that’s all poor kids know in life. There was even a game we used to play while in break called “Malha” where we’d play football with a soda can and try to slip the can between someone’s legs. When that happens to someone, EVERYBODY has the “green light” to punch and kick the kid a lot for 5 seconds. Yeah, that’s Brazil my friend. But anyway, as I was telling you I faced too many bad kids at the same time which made my life miserable at school. The only way to actually focus on learning again, was to leave that school. And so I did. But since I had that stupid life plan in my head, I asked my grandparents — because they had more money at the time — to pay for a private school for me in my last 6 months of school. That way I’d be more prepared for College. And THAT’s when I got a HUGE reality check. My grandparents agreed, but as soon as I stepped a foot in that new private school, I felt like in MY WHOLE LIFE I had learned literally NOTHING. Trust me when I say this: private schools are light-years ahead of public schools in Brazil. That became another problem, and here’s why. You see, Brazil sucks. Everything is backwards. For instance, I told you that private schools are where you get the best education and public schools are the worst possible education someone can have. Now, if you’re a POOR KID that means you’ll go to a…public school. Ok, great. But here’s another fact: The best Universities in Brazil are the public ones, while the worst are the private ones. Therefore, a rich kid pays for a private school his whole life in order to get into a University where he doesn’t have to pay anything. And the poor kid has free “education” his whole life only to have to pay for college. See? This is why inequality in Brazil is almost unbeatable. Because once you reach the age of getting into college, you’re YEARS behind in terms of preparation because Brazil’s top Universities’ — the public ones — exams are very hard to pass. Very hard. So if a poor kid who studied his whole life in a ridiculous public school wants to get into a public University, he’s basically finished. It’s a T.K.O. baby. You’re done. Forget about it. The only way out of this situation is to do something I did: Buy a “cursinho” which is something like “a quick course that goes through every subject approached in your final years of school that may be tested in exams”. Those courses are usually a side-business of private schools because even rich kids fail to get into public Universities as soon as they get out of high school, and those courses are basically to remember them of everything they learned. Therefore, you get the same education of a whole lifetime in school in 1 year, 6 months…or 3 months. So ok, I registered for a 3-month course and once again….HUGE reality check! It was like 10x my last experience in the private school. I was literally lost. I knew nothing. All my years in public schools were just a whole waste of time (except for the friends I made). So as soon as I finished those 3 months, I tried to get into some colleges and then…failed. Obviously. While rich kids were recapitulating every subject…I WAS LEARNING THEM FOR THE FIRST TIME. So I got one final shot: 6-month course. So I used the books I got from the 3-month course to prepare myself for the 6-month course and then I was able to learn just like the rich kids (partially). Ok, so by this time I’m 17 years old. Keep a track of all this effort I’m making because you’ll understand why I’m saying all this once I’m finished. So, after finishing my 6-month course I managed to get in into a public University. HUGE WIN! Everybody in my family was happy because I couldn’t pay for college anyway (a good one) so if it wasn’t that…I’d be doomed in Brazil’s marketplace. There are some private Universities that almost match the public ones, but they’re crazy expensive. Now, here’s where you need to start really paying attention. Ok, so I started College in 2006 and I finished it in 2009. When I got in, my very first class was with an old lady with weird glasses, a teacher who said to all of us in her first “speech”: “You just go in into a very good College, congratulations. By the time you finish this whole course, you’ll leave here making already $8,000”. The reason that teacher said that was because the college I got in was built specifically to teach IT skills in 3 years to spit out capable IT professionals to the booming IT market. The problem was that education in Brazil gets no investment. Therefore she was repeating the same old speech she was saying since the 1990s. Guess what? After finishing college EVERYBODY was only getting job offers with salaries around $1000! Since I got two big reality checks already in my first year of College, I noticed what I was getting into, so which allowed me to land a position in the Federal Government in my last year of college. Now, notice that I graduated in 2009. That’s one year after the 2008 crisis. Meaning, by the time I executed the “perfect plan” that my parents taught me, I was 21 years old and entering a market that was already shred to pieces. Destroyed. Financial Crisis everywhere. At the same time, education was not keeping up with all the latest market trends, not even public Universities (with some rare exceptions). Therefore, that was a losing battle from the start. It took me years to realize that but I’m glad I did and embraced Entrepreneurship. People think this is happening just in Brazil. Those people know nothing. Brazil is definitely worse, but you can be sure that this is happening worldwide. Why do you think Huffpost published this article below? Simple: because almost no educational system is actually preparing youngsters for the market that’s coming ahead. And since the market changes every 6 months nowadays, people are investing money in something that won’t be a solution for them to make money in the near future. That’s the truth. The reality is simple: Millennials who train themselves in whatever the market is demanding, and take a very different approach than everybody else, are the ones who will make money in this destroyed economy. Period. Because besides the whole problem in the educational system, and , we still have to worry about and making everything worse. That’s what I wanted to say to you. This is why older people should not call millennials “whiners” because we have been playing a very different game than our parents where EVERYTHING is worse. Economy, crime rates, health plans, price of housing/rent, price of food etc. We work too hard for little money. We study too hard for ridiculous salaries. And our plans get postponed for years because of it. Finally, I’d like to show some evidence to support the sad reality of many young people today. You’ll see this is not happening only in a country or two, but instead it’s a worldwide problem: “TESTIMONIES – CASE STUDIES: Ed Lewis, 36, London – Lewis lives in a house-share with four other people while working fulltime for a campaigning organisation. ‘I have lived in this shared house for three years now. I couldn’t afford to rent on my own – I’m single, so renting with other people is what I expect for the future. ‘I know a number of people in their 30s who are in a similar situation. The biggest frustration is the lack of any security and lack of control over the conditions I’m living in. We’re subjected to the whims of the landlord, who is able to behave in a complacent way because of the power imbalance.Nia, 26, Cardiff – Nia, who didn’t want to give her last name, left university after a year and works on a zero-hours contract as a science communicator. ‘People don’t appreciate the constant pressure of zero-hours contracts, because it’s so difficult to say no to your employers when you want to be the first person available when a shift comes up. ‘It’s a constant worry when there are months where I won’t get much money at all. It varies so much month on month. Up until February, I was also on a zero-hours contract as a cleaner when my employers suddenly laid me off. They said ‘we’ve found someone who can do it cheaper’ and that was it. It really is as insecure as people think it is.’ – . Wait, there’s more. Let’s talk a bit more about housing for millennials. Here’s more evidence of how the world really is today for younger people: “For those like Karkhanis, that means nothing because what qualifies as affordable depends on who you ask. An average one-bedroom apartment in the areas the Maharashtra government has identified for releasing land costs at least Rs 70 lakh, according to listings on property portal 99acres.com.” – . That was just India. Here’s Hong Kong: “But in Hong Kong, the emerging sector is only still being viewed as a short-term solution to the city’s housing problem, offering affordable homes to those who could otherwise only afford to stay in the family home, share a rented flat or live in the city’s notorious subdivided flats, according to international property consultant JLL. ‘For those locked out of the residential market, the emergence of the co-living model offers an affordable housing solution’ said Denis Ma, JLL’s head of research. New projects such as Bibliotheque, SynBOX and Mini Ocean Park Station have emerged mainly to serve students and young professionals struggling to rent decent-sized flats around the HK$10,000 (US$1,280) per month mark.” – . And don’t think this is because “Hong Kong is one of the most expensive cities” because as you can see in the article below, everybody is struggling to pay housing/rent. Everybody. Everywhere. Especially millennials. Finally, there’s one more article I want to show because it said the same thing I did, almost in the same words: “But the reality is more prosaic: ‘As more and more schooling becomes necessary for a good middle-class job, marriage gets pushed later and later, leaving more young people (men and women!) companionless and lonely’ writes Stone. He notes that this is an effect replicated around the world with different cultures. The rise of young male sexlessness isn’t about Chads and Stacies; it isn’t primarily about Tinder or Bumble; it’s not mostly about attitudinal shifts in what women want from relationships; and it’s not mainly about some new war between the sexes. It’s mostly about people spending more years in school and spending more years living at home. But that’s not actually a story about some change in sexual politics; instead, it’s a story about the modern knowledge economy, and to some extent exorbitant housing costs.” – . Got it? Show all this to whoever doesn’t understand the reality millennials are living today because they clearly know nothing. And show too. Maybe they’ll understand someday. Thanks for reading.
