Study: 60% of millennials making 6 figures feel they live paycheck to paycheck

we turn now into a segment of the population some are calling henry's that stands for higher earner not rich yet a recent study found that a majority of them feel like they live paycheck to paycheck alex prashay spoke to some who say a six-figure salary may not go as far as you think we are the typical millennials i've been able to really expand those horizons and take the trips around the world i mean like i'm very very lucky they're young successful and making good money some call them henry's short for high earners not rich yet they make more than a hundred thousand dollars a year usually in their 20s or 30s the american dream except when you factor in their student debt rent and personal spending many say that six figure salary doesn't go nearly as far as you might think you're looking at the end of the month and you're kind of like whoa it costs this much to live a recent study found 60 percent of these so-called henrys feel like they're living paycheck to paycheck mind you for reference the median household income in the u.s is about 70 000 a year man i haven't seen you since high school ben god is actually from my hometown of marietta georgia now he works as a technology consultant in atlanta making between one and two hundred thousand dollars a year i'm curious had you ever heard of the term henry before we discussed it no i hadn't it's a position that i always wanted to be in but not rich yet is not a part that i expected to really have a delay on for ben a big part of that delay was due to a six-figure student loan debt i don't want to make any sort of mistake there's no struggle involved it's been really really fantastic but there's still work to be done to get to those goals that i had built up in my mind of what would happen at that point in new york 30 year old turner kohl's has a similar story student loan debt sometimes eats up so much of his income it feels like he's paying a second rent if this is how i'm feeling oh my god what is somebody who makes the poverty line feeling according to education data.org the average student loan debt in america is nearly 40 000 priya milani is the founder of stash wealth a financial planning firm that works exclusively with henry's the average henry comes to us with around 80 000 in student debt they've accumulated additional degrees they've been in school longer and so they have greater debt 34 year old courtney nichols doesn't have high student loan debt but even with the three hundred thousand dollars she and her husband make annually in virginia they feel like they have to watch their spending when you look at all the tables on paper it's like oh they've got a lot of money but in essence for instance six years ago we were hit with a tax bill of almost ten thousand dollars it's like as soon as you get ahead or you take a few steps forward you take a few steps back the henry's we spoke to weren't looking for sympathy and recognize they're better off than so many struggling americans but many feel like the benchmark for upward mobility has changed when we were in high school if somebody was making a hundred thousand dollars a year they were like driving a ferrari or at least that's what it seemed like right that's it's not the reality what used to be the american dream in an environment like the one in which we live where you see inflation up more than five percent this year uh it's hard to think of that number in the same terms as previously something else to account for sky-high living cost the median price for a home has spiked 19 percent in just one year and it's particularly high in cities where many henries live san francisco los angeles new york and washington dc some told us they want to be able to enjoy some luxuries for their hard work there's also social elements like fomo culture there's a certain degree of what's known as lifestyle creep the lifestyle i want to create and what i believe that is out there for us and what's possible to attain that i believe that's where the pressure comes from we're seeing all of our friends doing all these amazing things buying homes upgrading their car and we as financial advisors see the credit card debt to back it up but you don't realize that your friends have credit card debt and so you just think wow if they can do it i should be able to do it too and it becomes this cycle that's very very difficult to break jennifer castillo is a 34 year old lawyer and blogger from washington dc she calls herself a henry bringing in about a hundred and thirty thousand dollars a year she says she's never felt the squeeze and is looking to redefine the term it may appear that i sort of subscribe to this like buy it all do it all lifestyle right with my budget but it really is a highlight reel so for the gucci belt it took me two years to be like well you could wear with this outfit you could wear with that so i would you know sort of like put money away towards it nothing that i buy is like on a whim i'm always like planning for my purchases think about it from your standpoint what are your goals is your goal to be debt-free is your goal to be able to take vacations and go out to dinner without having to always think twice make those goals a priority otherwise it's death by a million cuts for jennifer the upcoming birth of her first child is her financial priority i've been looking at costs and daycare's expenses and nannies are expensive experts say financial counseling can also make a huge difference courtney reached out to stash wealth last year i know every month how much i can spend on my credit card like to the exact penny no matter how they get there the henries we spoke to believe that financial freedom is within their reach my favorite part of the acronym is the not rich yet part because it speaks to the future potential of someone that's a high earner what i see for our future and our our vision like we're reaching for the start you know like we're going past nasa and you know we're getting past space alex abc news atlanta henry who knew our thanks to alex brichet hi everyone george stephanopoulos here thanks for checking out the abc news youtube channel if you'd like to get more videos show highlights and watch live event coverage click on the right over here to subscribe to our channel and don't forget to download the abc news app for breaking news alerts thanks for watching

Channel: ABC News

Views: 99,026

Keywords: abc, abcnl, costs, debt, employment, henrys, high, living, millennial, news, p_cmsid=2494279, p_vid=news-79002823, paycheck, prime, student, to

Id: 7PFZyaVbo6c

Length: 6min 41sec (401 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 22 2021