The millennial lifestyle has been accused of 'killing' about everything and we are often viewed as lazy. In reality, we don't want to spend our entire lives stuck working 8-5 in a cubicle so we can live a mediocre life we have watched our family and peers live. I'm sorry, but working for someone else under a big corporation is not how humans are supposed to spend their time on this earth. I don't know how we've gotten so far from the core of our human nature but we have.
Many of us have joined the van life or tiny home movement in order to eliminate our debts and required income. Why is this a bad thing? A much worse thing sounds like wasting 5 years in college and graduating with 50k+ in debt then buying a 250k+ home to be in more debt and more debt and more debt and more debt. Then you retire when you're 65 and spent you're entire living in a never ending cycle of debt.
Anyway, here are some tips for millennials for start investing today. Also, no affiliate links because I really don't care to bother. If you're 18-25 you can retire by 40-45 and live a better life on less money than you ever imagined.
Betterment - https://www.betterment.com/ - The most simple and all inclusive investment account you can setup and they'll do all the work for you.
Acorns - https://www.acorns.com/ - Round up purchases and invests your spare change automatically
Stash - https://www.stashinvest.com/ - Invest with as little of $5 into ideas
Motif - https://trader.motifinvesting.com/4qo5f8st/home - People create their own ETF’s (great for research and finding new ideas)
Personal Capital - https://www.personalcapital.com/ - Use to track all bank accounts, retirement accounts, assets, and most importantly your net worth
Ally savings - https://www.ally.com/bank/online-savings-account/ - Use ally bank for savings account 1.25% interest
Vanguard - https://investor.vanguard.com/mutual-funds/index-funds - Hands down the best and easiest retirement fund is a vanguard index fund comprised primarily of tracking the S&P 500
All these tools can help you save and that's really as simple as it gets. Our human nature makes it hard for us to manually do it so when done automatically it ensures our success.
Use this retirement calculator and see how saving $5,000 $10,000 a year over 20 years can impact your life. Believe me, people who make $50,000 can manage to save 50% of their income.
The point of life is to enjoy experiences both alone and with others. Society has rewired our brains with news, social media, internet and so on. We are further now than ever from living a life with meaning. Money isn't the answer but lifestyle is. By saving a big portion of the money you earn and limiting you spending, you will have the lifestyle you've always wanted.