Business

Kid$ not alright

Well, at least they have their youth.

That’s about the only thing going for the generation under 40 here in the US, according to a new study on wealth building over the last 30 years.

The average wealth of Gen Xers and Yers now is 7 percent lower than that of their parents when they were in their 20s and 30s back in 1983.

“Even before the Great Recession, younger Americans were on a strikingly different trajectory, due to their own debt burdens.

“Now, stagnant wages, diminishing job opportunities and lost home values may be merging to paint a vastly different future for Gen X and Gen Y,” according to an Urban Institute report.

And this “lost generation,” despite its relative youth, may not be able to make up the lost ground over time.

John Vento, a Staten Island financial adviser and author, agrees that young Americans today are going though their own version of the Great Depression, one that rivals what their grandparents went through.

But Vento adds that they also can overcome their problems by learning the lessons of past generations.

“Just as our grandparents learned from the Great Depression, so, too, I believe many young people are now going to be smarter about money,” says Vento, the author of “Financial Independence: Getting to Point X.”

“There’s no shame in [moving in with family] as a way to pay off debts,” Vento says. With average student-loan debt at about $26,000, according to the Economic Policy Institute, Vento believes it is a mistake to for students to keep pursuing advanced degrees and piling up more debt in the hope that, by staying out of the work force longer, there will be more jobs when they graduates.

Anthony Ogorek, a certified financial planner in upstate New York, says this problem could reach all the way to the altar.

“Today, young people must think more carefully about marriage than in previous generations,” Ogorek says. “When you marry someone, you are marrying their debts. You have to think about whether you will be able to afford their expensive tastes.”

Vento also advises young people to learn how to manage finances in difficult times. He suggests they talk to their grandparents to learn how they survived.

“They lived through a time when there were no guarantees,” Vento says. “They learned not to take things for granted and were less materialistic and didn’t buy all the things they wanted on credit.”