Cars, Houses, And other Millennial Milestones

Millennial milestones! We hit them, sometimes, just differently than our parents did. For example, Nicole of the Toast bought a car — over email:

Figure out exactly what car you want to buy. Do this online. Do not walk into a dealership. The internet is literally stuffed with rankings and reviews and Best Mid-Price Blue Sedans lists. “Shouldn’t I test drive some cars?” No. Can you drive a car? You’re set. … Say “Hi! I’ll be doing this over email. I would like to purchase a 2014 Model X with the extra-fire package. What is your best price on that?” At this point, I received a very rapid response from each of my two dealers. Dealer One said: “That model is retailing for Money, I can offer you a discount which will bring it down to Money — $1000.” Dealer Two said: “I would have to order that in for you special, so it would probably cost Money.” NOW THE DANCE BEGINS.

Her full account, festooned with pictures of American hero Kathy Bates in various cinematic guises, is charming, full of advice about how to both spend as little money as possible AND how to avoid having condescending car-selling dudes mansplain financing to you, in part by eschewing phone conversations altogether. Bonus: she bought this vehicle with money earned from being a misandrist ladyblogger. What’s more millennial than that?

Oh, I don’t know, how about buying your first house with your friends? Perhaps you remember Rebecca, the bride from a couple of months ago who discussed her unorthodox housing arrangement with us. Well, her partner Ari has now made the practical and emotional case for cooperative living in a piece titled “Two Couples, One Mortgage.”

Yes, all four of us are on the deed and, yes, we share the 30-year mortgage and food and maintenance expenses. No, there’s no division of the house into separate sections. And no, all four of us are not all having sex with each other. (Why do many people assume that if adults are willing to share a kitchen, they probably also want to share a bed?) We are just two couples who plan to live together and raise children in one household, hopefully for decades.

It sounds so cozy! In fact, I am jealous, since my toddler, like all toddlers, is a tyrant, possibly a witch*, and it would be amazing to be able to fling her in desperation at someone other than my husband for a change. TK: How Cooperative, Egalitarian, Two-Couple Households Do Money.

*Warning signs that your toddler may be a witch:

+While sometimes she arranges her dolls facedown in a line, as though they are worshipping Satan, sometimes she arranges them equidistant from each other in a square as though they are about to call the corners.

+ She refuses nourishing food and yet grows larger and stronger by the day. Is she feeding on the souls of less fortunate children?

+ She shrieks at the sight of water. Is that because, if she floats, she will prove she is lighter than a duck / made of wood, and reveal her true fiendish nature?

Having one’s own witch/toddler is a millennial milestone too FYI.

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