{"id":612432,"date":"2026-04-29T02:45:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T02:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/612432\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T02:45:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T02:45:12","slug":"how-gen-z-and-millennials-can-overcome-survival-spending","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/612432\/","title":{"rendered":"How Gen Z and Millennials can overcome &#8216;survival spending&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ROCHESTER, N.Y. \u2014 The joys of home ownership are out of reach for most young people. According to the  National Association of Realtors, the median age of first-time homebuyers is 40 years old. <\/p>\n<p>RELATED: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whec.com\/?p=1010228\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">\u2018Impossible\u2019: Rochester real estate agent Mark Siwiec on the challenges of 20 and 30 year-olds trying to buy a home<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A recent survey by Operation Hope, a financial literacy nonprofit, found that 80% of millennials admit to survival spending, being forced to stretch their budgets to meet basic needs. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cMany young adults are dealing with high fixed costs that eat up most of their paycheck before they even have a chance to get ahead. So it\u2019s the rent, the groceries, the student loan debt, the childcare,\u201d said Dr. Erika Rasure, Chief Financial Wellness Advisor at Beyond Finance. <\/p>\n<p>The situation was dramatically different for their parents. In 1990, the median age of first-time homebuyers was 28.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor a lot of Gen Z and Millennials, the prior generation left a blueprint that has very high expectations that a lot in these generations now aren\u2019t able to meet,\u201d said Dr. Rasure. <\/p>\n<p>In fact, 57% of young adults surveyed believe their generation was set up for financial failure. But experts say financial wellness can be achieved with consistency.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFocusing on small repeatable actions like contributing to an emergency fund, even if it\u2019s only five dollars, do that five dollars right now. A little bit is better than nothing,\u201d Dr. Rasure said. <\/p>\n<p>Experts also recommend not being afraid to get help tackling debt. There are a number of nonprofits that can help, like Consumer Credit Counseling of Rochester, the National Foundation for Credit Counseling and GreenPath. <\/p>\n<p>RELATED: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whec.com\/top-news\/consumer-alert-how-to-tackle-credit-card-debt\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Consumer Alert: How to tackle credit card debt<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cSupport exists and progress is still possible. You are not behind. You are not alone. You are just getting started. Give yourself a chance,\u201d explained Dr. Rasure. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ROCHESTER, N.Y. \u2014 The joys of home ownership are out of reach for most young people. According to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":612433,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[28,101],"class_list":["post-612432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}