Everything Is Expensive and Nothing Makes Sense Anymore

If you’ve tried to buy groceries, fill up your tank, or pay rent recently, you already know: life is getting absurdly expensive. And for millennials and Gen Z, it’s starting to feel like the world expects us to survive on vibes and direct deposits that disappear the second they hit our accounts.

We were raised on a promise — work hard, stay in school, make smart choices, and eventually things would fall into place. But somewhere between recessions, a pandemic, and inflation that never slows down, that promise stopped matching reality. Now we’re watching prices climb while wages basically sit still, and it’s hard not to feel like the whole system is glitching.

A grocery trip used to feel like a normal errand. Now it feels like a financial gamble. Rent is even worse; people are paying more to live in small apartments than our parents paid for actual houses. And buying a home? Honestly, most young adults talk about it the way they talk about winning the lottery — technically possible, not super realistic.

These days, if you’re thinking of buying your first house, you’re probably older than millennials from just a few decades ago were. The median age for a first-time homebuyer in the U.S. hit a record-high of 40 years old in 2025. That’s a huge shift from the 1980s, when most first-time buyers were in their late 20s.

The wild part is that none of this is happening because people are being irresponsible. It’s happening because everything costs more, and paychecks haven’t kept up. Millennials have spent their adult lives trying to catch up from economic disasters they didn’t create. Gen Z entered adulthood during a pandemic. Both groups walked into a world where debt is the norm, savings are a luxury, and the price of just existing rises faster than anyone’s income.

Meanwhile, we’re still getting advice like “stop buying coffee” or “just save more,” as if skipping a latte is going to magically bring housing prices back down to earth. It’s easier for some people to blame bad budgeting than to admit that wages haven’t matched the cost of living in decades.

But even with everything stacked against them, young people aren’t giving up. They’re working multiple jobs, freelancing, sharing apartments, picking new career paths, and talking openly about money in a way older generations never did. They’re trying to build a life, even while the world keeps moving the goal post.

The truth is simple,  things are getting more expensive, wages aren’t rising to meet the moment, and many won’t be able to afford a home until the age of 40 — if they can manage that. Millennials and Gen Z aren’t asking for luxury. They’re asking for stability — the chance to build a future without feeling like everything is slipping further out of reach.

If anything, we’re  just tired of pretending this is normal.