Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
How big of a role did joining the military have in your success?
While I didn't finish HS I was a go getter and hard worker, and just plainly out performed others. I started working as a bag boy at Winn Dixie grocery store in FL at the age of 17. By 18 I was the Grocery Manager. By 19 I was the Assistant Store Manager, but I got bored with it and wanted something different. The Military was challenging and it played a huge role in my success. It was hard getting into the Military with a GED, but after 9/11 it was easier. I chose a Technical career in the Army and later changed jobs to another even more Technical career with specific skill set. Veterans benefits also helped a lot. I deployed to Iraq 3 times so there was a lot of sacrifice involved with my service.
I'm better off than my parents were and will likely retire a decent amount better off than they did. Not a big jump in class status but somewhat more secure than they were.
This isn't saying much great about me, and more a commentary on my dad's lack of financial management. He inherited significant amounts of property and just kind of let things trickle away. Ended up selling the property piece by piece and never invested the money. Just spent it down. He didn't even try to manage his money. He spent money as it came in and cut back when money was tight. When money was tight he worked on making more money. When it came in, he did the things he wanted to do. When it was spent, he cut back, started working on making more. Spend it down over time. He lived that way his entire life. Technically speaking my dad should have been a millionaire several times over given what my grandfather left him. He didn't throw money away, gamble, drink, etc... but he just never thought about the future ahead of a few months and never had a growth mindset.
I'm not the greatest at managing money but have managed to grow what I have.
Did you like the fact that you never got to take a vacation or travel when you were growing up?
Many people would consider that to be a deprivation.
Growing up I understood the economics behind not going on vacation. I didn't like or not like that I never went anywhere. As they say today, it is what it is.
I rebounded nicely though. I got a job working for an extremely wealthy uncle. Uncle Sam. He shipped my happy behind all over the globe. I visited 45 countries while I was in uniform. I saw the best & the worst of the world.
Now how does this compare to someone that grew up higher up the class ladder? Is it easier for someone from meager means to find financial contentment when compared to someone who was more of a silver spooner? If you land lower on the socioeconomic ladder when compared to your parents, is that underachieving?
I grew up with little money and retired with a lot, yes I have "financial contentment" that neither parent achieved. That's a pretty simple equation.
Silver spooners do seem to have higher hurdles to financial contentment but they also may inherit money.
Their worst scenario is feeling rich as children but never making much money as adults and not inheriting either, maybe due to parents long term care cost or maybe the second (or third) wife gets it all.
What is hard to understand are silver spooners who became financially successful and are not financially content. More is not enough for them.
I think there are pros and cons in any financial situation. Overall, I'd say the higher you are on the economic ladder, the more advantages you have. But there are always drawbacks. There are certainly some upper middle class and rich kids who will never do much with thelr lives (financially or otherwise) because things came too easily and they're not used to putting the required effort into things to be successful at anything. This extends to things like relationships as well as finances. I've seen this happen. A lot of times their parents are propping them up well into adulthood. It may not look as bad as being poor, but when everything is hard for you because things came easy, I'm not sure your life is really better just because your parents are propping you up in a better lifestyle.
I do think it's easier for people who grew up with lesser means to be happier with less stuff. But it can go the opposite way, too. Some kids who grew up without stuff go crazy with spending if/when they get a good income. So there's a danger of being a high income broke person. They can also go the other way and sell themselves short in terms of expectations in life.
Agree with this.
Although it's odd these days. My kids only care(d) about two things. Internet time and books. Never into clothes or much else which is odd because I am a bit of a shopper.
I do agree that kids who don't struggle just don't get it. I sometimes think my kids would have been better off struggling more. My older daughter has a disability so I don't really know how that will come out. I might be supporting her for a long time, especially because we live in a $$ area. She does work, but she has trouble managing her life/schedule.
My younger daughter loves her job but doesn't seem to think about the future much. (Still in high school). She is not academically inclined at all but loves food, so I have suggested culinary school and she is interested.
I sometimes think about those guys like Rockefeller, Carnegie, Hershey and many of the others who grew up dirt poor and were determined to succeed because of it.
I do think we make our kids lives (generally) too cushy. We took our kids on a few nice trips to Europe. We haven't travelled much lately thought because of my kid's schedules and my younger daughter is still in school. I told my husband we don't need to be taking them to expensive restaurants anymore. We need then to learn to get used to living within THEIR means and not ours.
How big of a role did joining the military have in your success?
I've got the usual "middle class makes good" story so I'll just answer that question.
While not the only factor in my "success" it was certainly a big one.
I was not much of a student. Managed to make it through high school but flunked out of college after a year and a half.
Got drafted and spent two years in the Army.
After getting out I worked a couple of dead-end jobs and decided to go back to college. Veteran's educational benefits paid for it so I didn't have to borrow money. I moved back in with my parents which, obviously, saved me a lot of money. This time around I wanted the business degree, worked my butt off and graduated with honors. Being a veteran also got me some points in job hunting.
Next advantage was buying my first house with a VA loan. No down, low rates. Would have been stuck as a renter without the VA loan.
Those two factors at the beginning put me a little bit ahead of the game. Reasonably frugal living, smart decisions, and a little luck and I'd say I was better off financially now than my parents were at the same age.
Now, in the twilight of my life, comes the third advantage - VA health care. That's a lot of money that I don't have to spend on medical care or medical insurance.
Fourth advantage, though I'm not in a hurry to claim it, is a free spot in the VA cemetery. Have you checked the cost of cemetery plots these days?
I've got the usual "middle class makes good" story so I'll just answer that question.
While not the only factor in my "success" it was certainly a big one.
I was not much of a student. Managed to make it through high school but flunked out of college after a year and a half.
Got drafted and spent two years in the Army.
After getting out I worked a couple of dead-end jobs and decided to go back to college. Veteran's educational benefits paid for it so I didn't have to borrow money. I moved back in with my parents which, obviously, saved me a lot of money. This time around I wanted the business degree, worked my butt off and graduated with honors. Being a veteran also got me some points in job hunting.
Next advantage was buying my first house with a VA loan. No down, low rates. Would have been stuck as a renter without the VA loan.
Those two factors at the beginning put me a little bit ahead of the game. Reasonably frugal living, smart decisions, and a little luck and I'd say I was better off financially now than my parents were at the same age.
Now, in the twilight of my life, comes the third advantage - VA health care. That's a lot of money that I don't have to spend on medical care or medical insurance.
Fourth advantage, though I'm not in a hurry to claim it, is a free spot in the VA cemetery. Have you checked the cost of cemetery plots these days?
I'm happy someone has something nice to say about the VA.
Grew up in a large family with a single wage earner. I never went to bed hungry but we never took a family vacation either. No credit card in the home. Everything except a vehicle was paid for with cash. I knew not to ask for frivolous things because the answer was going to be no.
Left home and joined the military service. Hung around long enough to earn a pension. Lived within my means most of the time. I delayed a lot of gratification. My friends said I was cheap. But I was actually thrifty.
Nearing retirement age, I have no loans. I got a few bucks in the bank. I travel often. Home is paid for. So are both the vehicles. Occasionally I regret not spending money when I was younger. But lacking a crystal ball, I didn't realize that things would work out OK in the end.
Now how does this compare to someone that grew up higher up the class ladder? Is it easier for someone from meager means to find financial contentment when compared to someone who was more of a silver spooner? If you land lower on the socioeconomic ladder when compared to your parents, is that underachieving?
And how about reaching down? Should parents intervene when their children struggle financially? Or is the struggle part of the learning process?
I grew up in the 50s and 60s, we never knew that we were poor (other than we didn't have new clothes all the time like our friends, But, they were always clean and ironed)
My mom never worked until I got to high school ( a very minimum wage job gift wrapping boxes in a department store). Dad was a commissioned salesman selling anything he could get his hands on (soft goods, hard goods, gift items, hats, etc. He traveled KY, OH, WV, usually staying with the general store owners that he sold to). I'd bet my last dollar that they never made more than 10-15K any year in their life. Probbly the lower end
I started working around 10, cutting grass and shoveling snow. (I used to pray for snow days so I could freeze my ass off shoveling)
WE always had 3 meals a day with a hot dinned every night. The 4 of us sitting at the dinner table. (Very Leave it to Beaverish)
Mom and dad only bought a car when they had cash to cover it. When I got my drivers license at 18 (they wouldn't let me get it at 16) I still never got the car to use (even though I had been driving at work, maintenance and promotions at a local shopping center since they told me to grab the truck and deliver flyers when I was just shy of 16)
When I went to college in 63, they gave me the 1952 Chevy that dad had been driving for his job. The odometer broke 3 or 4 years earlier at 157,000 miles, so I'm sure it had way over 200K. I delivered flowers to pay for college my self (when I transferred into the College of Pharmacy in 65 I became a Pharmacy Intern for $1 an hour while still delivering flowers)
The point is, we had no money, we never missed a meal, our "vacations" were 100 mile trips to see my relatives, we never wanted for anything and we never ever wanted for love!
As for MrsM (she also grew up never knowing that they were poor) and me, we've been married going on 55 years. Yep, got married in college with no money to our name other than college savings and what we got for our wedding (minus what we took out to pay for our honeymoon) we worked hard, did very well, instilled responsibility into our kids, paid for their college then sent them on their way, bought a home, always took great vacations and saved as much as we could (when 401Ks started, we ALWAYS MAXED out our accounts as well as MAKING OUT Roths while dabbling in some stocks (usually buy high sell low)
Something worked!!!!!!!!!!!
And, it can work for anyone as long as they work hard to make it happen. The jobs are there
I grew up in a middle income family in Brooklyn, NY. For the bulk of my life, we lived in a single income household as my mother left work to homeschool us kids. Due to the size of my family, however, we lived paycheck to paycheck, especially when considering the hefty mortgage payments. Vacations weren't really a thing, but we had food on the table and the necessities were provided for. I contrast this to when both my parents were working and they owed multiple homes at one point and we went on vacations more often (to include to Bermuda and Florida). Even with my mother choosing to leave work and that making our financial outlook less secure, I also saw clearly that my parents didn't handle spending very well and racked up substantial credit card debt on things that were not necessary.
As a child, I was almost always told "no" to things that I wanted but didn't need, which had somewhat of an impact on me as I saw some of my classmates and friends having the latest gadgets. That said, this also grounded me and taught me how to deal with less.
When I was in college, my parents could not afford to pay anything for my tuition; luckily I qualified for substantial need based aid, but I still had to take out loans to cover my expected student and parent contribution. Even though I worked in school (cafeteria job, library, etc.), there were days when I was hungry as I couldn't afford a regular meal plan. One time a professor--whom I consider a great friend and mentor to this day--offered me $1,000 to help me get through things. I declined and "toughed" it out, but I remain grateful to his generosity to this day.
Fast forward to today, I am a mid grade military officer (and married to another military officer). We live very, very comfortably, and are able to save significant sums of money while also doing what we want to do. Due to my experiences throughout life, however, I make sure that my wants and desires don't lead to reckless financial decisions. In other words--apart from saving for the future and still living within my means--I make sure that I look for deals wherever I can find them, etc.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
