Originally Posted by GomerPyle
Earlier in this same thread, some were bashing folks for living at home after finishing college. The alternative is to rent or buy a home. You have to have credit to rent, and you have to have credit to buy a home unless you're paying cash. Explain to me how a young adult can make and save enough money by the time they get out of school to buy a home in cash. They cannot. So their options are 1) live it home for several years while saving every penny and then buying a home in cash, or 2) build credit and rent or take out a mortgage.

I 100% agree that "old school financial principles (spend less than you make, save, invest, etc) are great and everyone should strive to follow them.....but you can't deny that "the system" is [intentionally] rigged against them because there is an enormous industry built on profiting from other peoples' debt.

I don't pretend to know everything about young people and their mindset, but it's not wise to paint with the broadest of brushes because there are exceptions. There are many young adults who live at home due to not having viable choices available to them. However, there are also many young adults who live at home because they are lazy and not willing to do what's necessary to begin an independent life. There's no universal truth about all young adults in this scenario.

The matter of credit is similar to training on other matters with parents. Knowing the landscape, as parents we need to teach our children about credit and help them learn how to build it. Not at the age of 22 or 23, but long before that age. The building of one's credit is easily done if someone is disciplined and has guidance along the way. In this way, life is certainly different than in times past, but it's up to us as parents to help teach/train our kids for this new environment. The same is true when it comes to college costs. If we know we want our children to go to college, we need to prepare for that in advance. Set money aside in a college account, shop tuition prices, understand FAFSA, etc. One thing I see living near Tuscaloosa is that many parents in our area are insistent that their children attend UA. They went to UA, were in a fraternity/sorority, graduated from ____ school, etc. and they want their children to have that same experience - even if they can't afford it or put their children in a horrible debt situation coming out of school. There are more economical college choices in our area, but for many it HAS to be UA. Those situations aren't about the economy, inflation, etc. They're about making sound fiscal choices and frankly, many simply won't exercise the discipline to say no.