The latest 2017 report by Wendy Way and W. Bradford Wilcox confirmed the results of the 2009 Brookings Institution study by Ron Haskins and Isabel Sawhill.
Both studies show that those doing the following things in the following order are almost guaranteed to avoid a life of poverty : 1. Graduate high school ; then 2. Get a full time job ; then 3. Get married and ONLY after doing the first three , have kids.
55% of Millennial parents have children BEFORE getting married. Only 25% of Baby Boomers did so.
86% of young adults ( 28-34 ) who married before having kids are in the middle or top third of earners. Only 53% of those who had kids first are in the middle or top 1/3 of earners.
71% of 28 to 34 year olds from low income families who married first and then had kids are in the middle and upper 1/3 of earners. Of children from low income households who had children first only 41% are not in the bottom third of earners.
According to the previously cited 2009 Brookings study only 3 % of everyone who followed all 3 steps in sequence are poor by the time they are in the 28 to 34 age range. The latest study shows the very same thing. However, more than half of millennials who didn't follow the sequence are in poverty and so are their children.
Neither study took note of a fourth factor i.e. staying out of jail but previous Yale and Princeton studies did. Finish high school ; get a full time job ; get married before having children and stay out of jail and you are almost guaranteed not to be poor by age 30.
Why is this such a big deal now ? Maybe because for the first time it has been reported all over the web and national T.V. Where were they in 2009 ? And before that when the Yale and Princeton studies were published ?



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