At 26, Jessica* is on her fourth job and is making no more than $30,000 a year. She has a bachelor's degree in art education and is financially independent, but she says she's saved a lot less than she expected.

"I was being told that [you should] do what you love and the money will follow," she says. "That's not really true anymore."

Looking back at the past few years, Jessica, who lives in New England, says she should have moved to a different city or state after college because it's been so difficult to find a good job where she lives.

"There are too many people trying to get the same jobs," she says. "I enjoy my job; however, I do not enjoy my salary associated with my job. It's frustrating to work hard, find a job related to my major, and still be living paycheck to paycheck."

In a recent survey, Cosmopolitan.com asked nearly 800 twentysomethings to consider how their expectations of post-college life compared to the reality they faced after graduation and found that, although some are satisfied or optimistic, 73 percent of Millennial** women and 58 percent of Millennial men felt they were doing worse than expected in at least one aspect of their life: their living situation, their career, or their savings.

Much has been written about crushing student debt and twentysomethings moving back into their childhood bedrooms and the lack of job opportunities for those entering (or at least trying to enter) the workforce, but the Cosmopolitan.com survey revealed not just that these circumstances exist but how much they caught the members of this generation off guard.

Knowing what they know now, 41 percent of the female respondents and 38 percent of male respondents in the survey said they would have changed how they approached their education, either by choosing a cheaper college, picking a major with a better chance of landing a job, or skipping college altogether and getting a job straight out of high school.

"It's Safe to Say That My Expectations and My Current Reality Are Two Very Different Things"

Josh*, 29, expressed dismay at where he ended up. Even though he's making more than $100,000, he says he's doing somewhat worse than he had expected. He's already had nine jobs since graduation, making him a perfect example of the twentysomething described in the 2012 Forbes article "Job Hopping Is the 'New Normal' for Millennials" — the piece cited a study that found that 91 percent of Millennials expect to stay in a job for fewer than three years.

Josh wanted to be a coach or teacher, but, realizing it was a "completely unrealistic goal" if he wanted to live in the San Francisco area, he moved into sales instead. Though he says he would have attended the same college, he, too, would have majored in something with a higher job placement ratio or higher starting salary.

The 'trophy for trying' generation that the baby boomers produced is a complete and utter failure.

"Our generation was raised by a bunch of imbeciles who told us we could do anything we want when in reality what we should've been told was a famous quote from the TV show Mad Men: 'Not every little girl gets to do what they want. The world could not support that many ballerinas.' The 'trophy for trying' generation that the baby boomers produced is a complete and utter failure for the most part," he says. "If we truly want to move forward and survive and be a flourishing society once again, we need to stop lying to our children and telling them that they are unique and special snowflakes when in reality they are just another tiny speck in a huge universe and they need to work their tails off to get anywhere."

Josh says he hopes to make enough money that he can one day go back to his original plan of being a teacher or coach, but he doesn't expect that to happen anytime soon. "The light at the end of the tunnel is very far away and probably won't be realistic until my 50s," he said.

Anna*, 27, said she's glad her parents encouraged her to study what she was interested in, but she didn't necessarily think through where her psychology major would lead her.

"I wish [my parents] would've emphasized more how much it actually costs to live and how little I would actually be making based on my career choices," she said. "My dad was a doctor, and, as a result, our family was very blessed and enjoyed many luxuries. I guess I naively thought I would be able to afford that kind of lifestyle for myself one day, even though I wasn't going into the medical field, but that will never happen with my current degree. It's safe to say that my expectations and my current reality are two very different things, and it has been a hard pill to swallow to say the least."

Anna, who lives in the South, makes over $45,000 but no more than $60,000 a year, and she says she's doing somewhat worse than she expected to be doing professionally at this point in her life. She's saved $5,000 or less, and if she could do it all over, she would major in something with a higher job placement ratio or higher starting salary.

"I feel a lot of people in my generation are struggling to grasp that American Dream that came more easily to our parents and grandparents straight out of school," she says. "For earlier generations, the idea of owning your own home, a brand-new car, and still being able to save for a cushy retirement while only holding a college degree was very attainable. Now, most people with only a college degree are lucky if they'll ever even own a home."

Unsurprisingly, debt came up again and again in participants' write-in responses. According to the Institute for College Access & Success's Project on Student Debt, 71 percent of graduating seniors in 2012 had student loans, with an average debt level of $29,400 — nearly 25 percent more than the average debt level in 2008 of $23,450. Cosmopolitan.com's survey revealed that many Millennials didn't anticipate how difficult their debt would be to pay off. Of the 27 percent of respondents still receiving financial support from their families, nearly a quarter said their student loan payments were at least part of the reason.

Jennifer*, 28, works as an instructor at "a top-ranked state university" and wishes she had gone to a school like that for her undergraduate degree rather than the private university she attended. She now has approximately $30,000 in student loan debt and doesn't know when she'll be able to pay it off.

No one my age is spending money that could stimulate the economy because we're nearly all drowning in student loan debt.

"I did not really understand what I was getting into when I signed for students loans at 18 to 21 years old. My mother didn't understand these things either," she says. "If people wonder why the economy's so bad, this is one of the reasons: No one my age is spending money that could stimulate the economy because we're nearly all drowning in student loan debt."

Of course, twentysomethings like Jennifer couldn't have predicted how bad the economy would be. A 28-year-old would have likely started college in the fall of 2004, and the Great Recession didn't begin until December 2007. He or she couldn't have known at the time of enrollment what the job market would be like four years later and that the lack of opportunities would make it that much harder to make enough money to pay back loans.

Sarah*, 26, has a graduate degree in counseling and is working part-time in the mental-health field. She lives in the Midwest and says she's doing much worse than she expected in terms of both her work and living situations. She gets up to $250 a month from her family because she doesn't make enough to cover basic living expenses, and she blames student loans, at least in part, for putting her in this position.

"I am terrified of my financial future, given that even when I do make more than enough money for basic needs, the remainder will go to my student loans," she says. "I love my job but hate that I had to go into six-figure debt (after interest) to get it. I should have just stayed a minimum-wage slave. It is cheaper that way, and at least then I could pay my bills."

"I Wouldn't Trade the Friends Made and the Experiences for Less Debt"

Yet despite the worry about the future, the outlook among Millennials isn't all gloomy, as some survey participants expressed a feeling that they were merely going through a rough patch. Thirty-two percent of Millennial women said that, even though that they were doing worse than expected in at least one aspect of their lives, they wouldn't change anything about their education or where they chose to start their careers. Nearly a quarter of Millennial men said the same.

And some participants indicated in their write-in answers that they believe they're doing OK right now, even if they weren't doing as well as expected in some aspect of their lives. They weren't just hoping things would work out one day — they actually feel good about their current situations, sometimes due to decisions they made and sometimes due to luck.

These attitudes aren't completely surprising, given that the optimism found in a 2014 Pew "Millennials in Adulthood" survey. More than 80 percent of Millennials in that survey indicated that they either had enough money to lead the lives they want now or expect to in the future.

Laura*, 26, majored in U.S. history and Russian, and has held three jobs since graduation. Now, however, she's pursuing a master's degree and has been living with her parents for more than three years, even though she expected to be home for no longer than a year and a half. Laura isn't putting away any savings but says she wouldn't have altered her path.

"Financially, it would've been much better for me to have gone to a cheaper college," she says. "If faced with a similar decision now, the more financially mature me would choose differently, but I can't say I regret my college decision because I had great experiences and [it] led me to where I am now. I wouldn't trade the friends made and the experiences for less debt."

Though he wishes he had saved a little more, Michael*, 27, says his career turned out a lot better than expected overall. He's had seven jobs since graduation, but he attributes his success to the opportunities he had at his first job, which he did for less than three months and which paid no more than $15,000 a year.

"My first job had essentially subsistence pay but took me abroad and into the field I love," he says. "My skill set from that and the next job let me get scholarships, and with a willingness to work multiple jobs at a time, let me put myself through a master's program with no additional debt that's different but complementary to my major. And that's let me make more money than I need."

More people my age need to prioritize and plan for their futures sooner.

Michael says he would have done everything exactly the same. "I'm very lucky and privileged in what were essentially random choices at the start of college," he says.

Mary*, 23, is already a homeowner, something just 22 percent of Millennials under the age of 25 can say, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. (The homeownership rate is just 33 percent for Millennials ages 26 to 29.) She worked "close to full-time" at jobs and internships throughout high school and college, and lined up a full-time job before she even graduated. Her parents do still cover her car payments and car insurance, but she says she's saved somewhat more than she expected and would have done everything the same in her education and career.

"I developed a long-term plan in high school to buy a house right out of college. I don't believe in paying rent, so I lived at home and saved money all through college," she says. "I purchased my first home shortly after graduation and am looking forward to closing on it shortly. Everything worked out because I worked very hard and planned for it. More people my age need to prioritize and plan for their futures sooner. I wish I could share my story with more people to help them realize that financial independence is possible and important."

The word "entitled" is frequently tossed around when describing Millennials, but Cosmopolitan.com's survey indicated that this greatly oversimplifies the situation. What it found instead was a group that is willing to work hard but has learned this willingness isn't always enough.

* Not participant's real name. Quotes based on survey write-in responses.

** National survey of 20- to 29-year-olds, conducted by SurveyMonkey.

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Lori Fradkin executive editor Lori Fradkin is the executive editor of Cosmopolitan.com.

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