Not a whole lot new here for those of us well familiar with S&H's work but Howe had a nice interview with the St. Louis Fed here:

http://www.stlouisfed.org/household-...-interview.cfm

They did mention about how risk averse Millennials have become with investment. I would wonder that if they do invest, they'll do so with index funds like from Vanguard. That would seem to fit that archetype well, at least in the short term.

Millies are astute at sensing which investment games are rigged in favor of the house and they also have a great sense of which investments are ones for the herd (a year late) and which ones are less emotionally driven.

Originally Posted by Bronco80

The generation/turning aspect of Neil's latest Forbes piece doesn't show up until near the end, so I'm only going to post that bit here:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/neilhowe...herefore-i-am/

Google Knows Me, Therefore I Am

Indeed, I quite agree that the Next Prophets are going to have a field day bashing this type of values regime.

It could also mean that Xers, who have been careless in their use of the Internet and social media, could find themselves frozen out of public life in the next 1T because of embarrassing pictures and comments from decades before, leaving the field clear for Millennials who were more careful as to what they posted.

Originally Posted by Drunken Scouser

It could also mean that Xers, who have been careless in their use of the Internet and social media, could find themselves frozen out of public life in the next 1T because of embarrassing pictures and comments from decades before, leaving the field clear for Millennials who were more careful as to what they posted.

By the 1T Xers will be entering elderhood, so they may have more problems than people judging them for youthful indiscretions. Also, the internet and social media weren't widespread enough during Xers' really wild times in the 3T for much of it to stick. I always think about the kinds of trouble some of the older Xers I know would have gotten into if we were a turning ahead in technology!

Not too sure what to make of this article. Neil does make a decent point about Millennials tending to "trust 'the system'". But this article seems to cut a bit against his previous ethos of "technology doesn't define generations, instead generations define technologies".

http://www.forbes.com/sites/neilhowe...fe-skills-101/

Millennials Struggle to Pass Life Skills 101

According to the new book Beyond Texting, Millennial teens are in dire need of guidance on face-to-face communication. It’s one among many life skills parents and educators believe could use polishing. In recent years, for example, a growing contingent has advocated for the return of mandated “home ec” and shop classes in schools.

Millennials are genuine achievers when it comes to structured classroom knowledge. Today, a record share of 25- to 29-year-olds possess degrees from four-year colleges (33%) and high schools (90%). The number who pass AP exams every year has more than quintupled over the past decade. On campuses, they take “smart” drugs to boost concentration—where older Boomers and Xers once took “dumb” drugs to mellow out.

But when it comes to basic life skills, let’s be honest: Older generations are often astonished by how little Millennials know. Consider cars. Young Boomers spent endless afternoons tooling around with their tie rods and carburetors. But today’s Millennials spend more time perfecting the trip playlist than ever looking under the hood—if they even know where the latch is. As Forbes columnist Larissa Faw reports, most Millennial drivers don’t know how to check their tire pressure and only half have read their car’s owner manual.

Cooking is another practical skill that has dropped by the wayside. According to a recent marketing report, Millennials are far more likely than older generations to order food from restaurants for delivery or carry out. They’re also driving the rise of “grocerants”: grocery stores that provide ready-made meals. Fully 78% of Millennials have purchased these prepared foods in the past 30 days, compared to 68% of Xers, 60% of Boomers, and 57% of Silent.

In fact, Millennials are unfamiliar with a broad range of life skills. They are less likely than older generations to know how to sew, make basic home repairs, or drive manual-transmission cars. With GPS always at their fingertips, many never really learned to use physical landmarks to guide them. Some can’t even imagine how people functioned before mobile IT. One Millennial wrote an article asking older people how they used to look up information, meet up with friends in public places, and handle getting lost without smartphones. A Boomer responded that he visited the library, scheduled meet-ups, and learned to read a road map.

Several factors have driven this drop in life skills. On one level, tech advances have rendered many of them obsolete—like penmanship and reading maps, for example. Constant access to the Internet also makes younger generations feel like they don’t need to know how to do certain things themselves. (I can always just look it up or ask Siri.)

Generational traits are also contributing to this attitudinal shift. Millennials tend to trust “the system” and don’t mind relying on digital infrastructure for everything. Boomers and Xers are more likely to think that one day it might fail them. So they have backup plans. As one “modern survival” blogger put it in a post about the younger generation, if and when everything goes wrong, “there are so many that will just be so clueless. No common sense and no skills.”

The controversy over practical skills is related to a different debate over how Millennials’ constant technology use is changing the way they think. Some claim (see: The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans…) it is stunting their development and making them less creative. Others argue the opposite (see: Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today’s Popular Culture is Actually Making Us Smarter). Unquestionably, it is preparing them for a future in which more of us will be interfacing digitally with the world—whether we are pouring molten ore in a factory or flying stealth weapons in enemy airspace.

Yet neither side in this debate focuses on a more important issue: the changing relationships between body, mind, and environment. In a digital world, young people lose a crucial element of sensory feedback. Millennials grew up more likely to make their Sims mow digital lawns than to feel the mower against their hands in their own yards. The shift is escalating for young Homelanders, who are trading in books and toys for iPads and experiencing less kinesthetic learning—playing through physically touching and doing—than any generation before them.

The replacement of sensory-analogue with command-digital feedback is changing these younger generations in ways that have yet to be fully explored. Older generations memorized facts, internalized spatial “maps,” and developed muscle memory for physical tasks. What will happen as Millennials and Homelanders grow increasingly removed from this type of learning? Will they lose an internal sense of space and geography? No one has truly sorted out the costs and benefits of this disembodiment.

To be sure, the disappearance of physical feedback is a question of degree. The march of technology is always distancing people from once-common physical experiences, like flipping a light switch instead of starting a fire. But the digital revolution has escalated this process dramatically.

Even Millennials themselves have qualms about it. Whether it’s joking that their generation wouldn’t survive a zombie apocalypse or signing up for collegiate “life skills” classes, young people are thirsty for lessons in the basics. One Minnesota high schooler recently argued that her curriculum should have included cooking, car repair, and budgeting. An emphasis on practical skills could even pay off in the workplace: The wages of high-skill, blue-collar positions are starting to rise rapidly.

Meanwhile, old-school physical activities and items have retained a retro-allure for the young. DIY and Pinterest culture is big among Millennial moms. Popular blogs like A Beautiful Mess and Young House Love share know-how on crafting, home improvement, and cooking. Millennials are also complementing their iTunes playlists with vinyl records and gathering after work to play board games. So Millennials aren’t letting themselves go entirely digital. They still enjoy doing some things by hand. Just don’t ask them to calculate the tip without a calculator.

Originally Posted by Bronco80

By the 1T Xers will be entering elderhood, so they may have more problems than people judging them for youthful indiscretions. Also, the internet and social media weren't widespread enough during Xers' really wild times in the 3T for much of it to stick. I always think about the kinds of trouble some of the older Xers I know would have gotten into if we were a turning ahead in technology!

What happens in the 3T stays in the 3T!

Originally Posted by mockingbirdstl

What happens in the 3T stays in the 3T!

So true!

The message you have entered is too short. Please lengthen your message to at least 10 characters.

Originally Posted by mockingbirdstl

What happens in the 3T stays in the 3T!

Really -- in about everything - what happens in the 3T is best left in the 3T.

Looks like Neil is about to start a major series on the financial stories of the generations, from GI to Millennial:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/neilhowe...merican-dream/

I'm guessing a lot of this isn't going to be terribly surprising for members of this board, but we shall see.

The G.I. Generation and the "Triumph of the Squares" (Part 2 of 7)

http://www.forbes.com/sites/neilhowe/2014/07/30/the-g-i-generation-and-the-triumph-of-the-squares-part-2-of-7/

His assessment of generation Xer managers is pretty spot on, no wonder Millennials are the largest unemployed bracket. With their current business techniques we'll never get a job anywhere.

Sometimes I feel like a majority of my Millennial peers are a bit clueless when it comes to certain things. I, thankfully, am nothing like that. I know how to cook, bake, I prefer reading a map over a stupid smart phone (don't even own one). Although I don't know how to sew, I studied vocational agriculture in school and do know some vocational skills such as small motor repair, carpentry, map making and gardening.

I think my generation is weary about socializing because we always feel as if we're walking on eggshells. Xers have created this extremely tense environment out of fear. It's hard to relax when you're constantly being scrutinized every second of your life.

Originally Posted by Felix5

His assessment of generation Xer managers is pretty spot on, no wonder Millennials are the largest unemployed bracket. With their current business techniques we'll never get a job anywhere.

Sometimes I feel like a majority of my Millennial peers are a bit clueless when it comes to certain things. I, thankfully, am nothing like that. I know how to cook, bake, I prefer reading a map over a stupid smart phone (don't even own one). Although I don't know how to sew, I studied vocational agriculture in school and do know some vocational skills such as small motor repair, carpentry, map making and gardening.

I think my generation is weary about socializing because we always feel as if we're walking on eggshells. Xers have created this extremely tense environment out of fear. It's hard to relax when you're constantly being scrutinized every second of your life.

Good for you. Those supposed-to-be-dead skills are still valuable. And I agree that business schools are teaching new business majors to be brutal. Eventually, they will fall when their own techniques are applied to them. What follow is up to your generation.

Now it's the Silents' turn.

The Silent Generation, "The Lucky Few" (Part 3 of 7)

http://www.forbes.com/sites/neilhowe...w-part-3-of-7/

Also, another Forbes writer gives us a Millennial take that will be in their print edition:

The Recession Generation: How Millennials Are Changing Money Management Forever

http://www.forbes.com/sites/samantha...ement-forever/

There is one quote in here from Howe, and it looks to flatly contradict one of those things that another writer claims S&H got wrong in Millennials Rising:

Ironically, this generation of digital natives intuitively understand disruptive technology, making them better positioned than any before it in human history to launch businesses of substance (with the Mark Zuckerbergs and Kevin Systroms becoming fabulously wealthy as a result)–yet taken as a whole, they’re too risk averse to leave a good job for a risky gig. Last year, with the job market recovering and the number of “involuntary” entrepreneurs falling, 20- to 34-year-olds had the lowest entrepreneurial startup rate of any age group–a rate which was just half that of 45- to 54-year-olds. In fact, the startup rate in 2013 for young adults was the lowest since the Kauffman Foundation began tracking it in 1996. “They feel constantly obsessing over making money is no way to live,” says Neil Howe, likely America’s biggest expert on generations.

Originally Posted by Drunken Scouser

It could also mean that Xers, who have been careless in their use of the Internet and social media, could find themselves frozen out of public life in the next 1T because of embarrassing pictures and comments from decades before, leaving the field clear for Millennials who were more careful as to what they posted.

You mean just like some Boomers and early X'ers with Hippieish pasts were called to account, such as Bill Clinton's "I didn't inhale"? Of course during what I often refer to as the Golden Age of Hedonism few if any of us thought about this possibility. Is such scrutiny merely a generational thing, coupled with the intensity of the "politically correct" culture? Do you see any of this passing anytime in the foreseeable future? What about drug testing as a condition for employment damn near everywhere?

The Boom Generation, "What a Long Strange Trip" (Part 4 of 7)

http://www.forbes.com/sites/neilhowe/2014/08/20/the-boom-generation-what-a-long-strange-trip-part-4-of-7/

Originally Posted by Bronco80

The Boom Generation, "What a Long Strange Trip" (Part 4 of 7)

http://www.forbes.com/sites/neilhowe...p-part-4-of-7/

RE: 'Boomers are a lot more likely than prior generations to say that giving their kids “good values” is more important than providing them with a material inheritance. Even high-end Boomers agree with this.'

No doubt. And this is one of the reasons why the Millies are so screwed. The above mindset has contributed strongly to the current sad situation. To be fair, the Boomers did not invent this point of view, it actually started with the Silents (my parents were prime examples of this BS). Values schmalues, just give us the money!

Now for the downer...
Generation X: Once Xtreme, Now Exhausted (Part 5 of 7)

http://www.forbes.com/sites/neilhowe/2014/08/27/generation-x-once-xtreme-now-exhausted-part-5-of-7/

His last sentence is one that I've seen him hammer home in other places--and he's right.

Originally Posted by Neil Howe

Helping this generation get back on track economically is one of most important policy challenges America faces over the next decade.

In fact, Millennials are unfamiliar with a broad range of life skills. They are less likely than older generations to know how to sew, make basic home repairs, or drive manual-transmission cars. With GPS always at their fingertips, many never really learned to use physical landmarks to guide them. Some can’t even imagine how people functioned before mobile IT. One Millennial wrote an article asking older people how they used to look up information, meet up with friends in public places, and handle getting lost without smartphones. A Boomer responded that he visited the library, scheduled meet-ups, and learned to read a road map.

What bothers me here is that Smart phones have only been around for like 5 years, how can these people not know how to navigate without them?? That point makes no sense....we still had to learn to drive using landmarks rather than GPS systems. I'm less inclined to believe this just because realistically over time people start to recognize their own environment. If you've been to a restaurant more than once, you'll probably be able to find it. I believe my generation isn't as savvy with spatial recognition, but I believe this is simply because we were not raised to express this very much. Just like many Boomers and Xers weren't raised to be mathematicians or scientists.

Yet neither side in this debate focuses on a more important issue: the changing relationships between body, mind, and environment. In a digital world, young people lose a crucial element of sensory feedback. Millennials grew up more likely to make their Sims mow digital lawns than to feel the mower against their hands in their own yards. The shift is escalating for young Homelanders, who are trading in books and toys for iPads and experiencing less kinesthetic learning—playing through physically touching and doing—than any generation before them.

They're missing the point that this is still what we were raised with. We did not grow up with ipads. They've only been around for like 5 or 6 years! When I was 5 in 1993, there were no digital toys with the exception of video games with fairly simple graphics. I played with the same things my parents played with, stuffed animals, dolls, bats and balls, easy bake ovens. The one exception would be electronic toys, specifically books where you push a button and hear a noise. I wonder if those are still around...


People forget that Most millennials did not grow up in a digital world, we just happen to be young adults at the time. In fact did not even grow up in a world surrounded by computers. Only 50% of the population had computers in the year 2000. This is a statistical fact. That means that most millennials born between 82-92 were raised in a world that was pretty much the same as their parents.

I find it funny because Howe wrote a blog about how not much has changed in the past 50 years. Joking about how he has to sit in the same line of traffic as he did 30 years ago.

So why do people act like we're aliens?? or grew up in a different world.

The people growing up, totally immersed in this digital world, are actually the new silent children. Maybe some of the later Millennials, but for the most part we grew up in a totally different world as well.

Originally Posted by Felix5

The people growing up, totally immersed in this digital world, are actually the new silent children. Maybe some of the later Millennials, but for the most part we grew up in a totally different world as well.

I still see kids today play with dolls, toys, stuffed animals, and books. It's not like they sit in front of the iPad all day, at least not the ones I've seen. Usually the parents these days set some sort of time limit, usually an hour or two. My eight year old cousin gets bored with his iPad after about a half an hour and then he'll go play with legos or play outside.

Originally Posted by Bronco80

Now for the downer...
Generation X: Once Xtreme, Now Exhausted (Part 5 of 7)

http://www.forbes.com/sites/neilhowe...d-part-5-of-7/

His last sentence is one that I've seen him hammer home in other places--and he's right.

Exhausted ... check!

I've been exhausted since I was 23 years old.

In fact, Millennials are unfamiliar with a broad range of life skills. They are less likely than older generations to know how to sew, make basic home repairs, or drive manual-transmission cars.

1) I can make my own clothes. I need to get a sewing machine other than the old foot pump antique to use though... I'm afraid I'll break the thing and that they wouldn't sell the parts for that specific machine to fix it for sale... though there's always ebay...

2) I know a few but I probably could learn more. This one really is just about having the right "motivation" more than anything else, plus the right book to reference, and just fiddling around and figuring things out for yourself.

3) I prefer a manual to automatic--far cheaper on gas.

~Chas'88

Originally Posted by Chas'88

1) I can make my own clothes. I need to get a sewing machine other than the old foot pump antique to use though... I'm afraid I'll break the thing and that they wouldn't sell the parts for that specific machine to fix it for sale... though there's always ebay...

~Chas'88

A side effect of the theater I take it? You know, even that has a unique usefulness in a post or pre electric world. Without such devices, the theater and other live events would become the medium for entertainment and even education. As an absurd example, I can't help but think of the theater in "Escape from New York".

Originally Posted by Time Mage X

A side effect of the theater I take it?

Working in a costume shop of some sort for six years will do that to a person.

You know, even that has a unique usefulness in a post or pre electric world. Without such devices, the theater and other live events would become the medium for entertainment and even education. As an absurd example, I can't help but think of the theater in "Escape from New York".

A pattern I've noticed is that Reactive/Nomad generations tend to fare the worst financially, while Adaptive/Artist generations get the long end of the stick. If that's the case we can probably start to see the youth financial situation improve as we go into the 1T and the Homelanders come of age (probably not as good as the Silents since they got to ride on one of the few developed economies not destroyed in WWII, but better than their Xer/early Millennial parents did or their children will).

Originally Posted by Kelly85

A pattern I've noticed is that Reactive/Nomad generations tend to fare the worst financially, while Adaptive/Artist generations get the long end of the stick. If that's the case we can probably start to see the youth financial situation improve as we go into the 1T and the Homelanders come of age (probably not as good as the Silents since they got to ride on one of the few developed economies not destroyed in WWII, but better than their Xer/early Millennial parents did or their children will).

This assumes a successful 4T. If the 4T results in muddling through, then the 1T will be somewhat to very austere. The Homies will just be another declining generation. Of course everything is relative, and the Next Nomads will have the unenviable title of bottom-of-the-barrel. If not for Lincoln, the South may have faced this pattern after the ACW.