Millenials Are Spending Too Much According To New Study

Millennials are financially worse off than generations before them, according to a new study by Deloitte, an accounting firm. The average Millennial has a net worth of only $8,000 dollars, an astoundingly low number compared to their parents’ generation at the same age.

While it’s easy to blame Millennials’ foolish spending habits for the discrepancy, that’s not the whole story, the researchers found. The average Millennial is paying far more for education, housing, and even food and transportation. According to The Washington Post, “Education expenses have climbed 65 percent in the past decade. Food costs have jumped 26 percent, health care is up 21 percent, housing jumped 16 percent and transportation rose 11 percent. And there are now expenses that most consumers didn’t have to account for 20 years ago, including smartphones and data plans.”

The study found Millennials’ spending habits and priorities aren’t much different than previous generations. But the cost of living has gone up, but average incomes have remained stagnant. On top of that, Millennials are still suffering the after-effects of the 2008 market collapse and subsequent recession. Wealth inequality is growing–in the last 10 years, people making more than $100,000 dollars saw their incomes increase 1,305 percent more than people making less than $50,000 a year.

“The vast majority of consumers are under tremendous financial pressure,” Kasey Lobaugh, the lead author of the study, told the Washington Post. “That is particularly true for low-income Americans and Millennials.”