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.
I think, for the most part, this is true. I grew up in the 50's, am now 75. Father and mother, born in 1912, mother from immigrant parents, father 2nd generation, both probably never graduated high school. We managed, but just barely. He worked for the postal service. Dad intelligent and voracious reader but surely hamstrung by parentage, the Depression, and other life events. I left home and did better - although no college - which wasn't essential to financial stability at the time although, of course, a professional career would surely have changed my life dramatically. My son, of course, did college. So, we're getting there.
Yabut, you had pretty darn good life materially and a huge leg up socially and educationally from those not brought up in professional homes. Snobby intellectual is far better than ignorance and stupidity.
I'm like MJ. When money is always a obstacle and colors every decision - you do what is necessary to change that.
We're actually starting to see outright class inversions. The norm through much of American history was, kids reached and often exceeded the same class as their parents, unless substance abusers, criminals, maladjusted or simply enormously unlucky. It is no longer that way in many cases. To put it more bluntly than I did earlier, my parents came from lower-middle to middle-middle class backgrounds. As adults they skirted the upper-middle - lower-upper region. I will never be lower-upper, unless I hit an IPO or some such.
I'm not sure economics is to blame. I got my first good paying job in 1970 at $10,000 per year. A new Mustang or Firebird cost $1,800. Rent for a one bedroom apartment was $140 a month. A new house cost $35,000. When I retired in 2008, everything cost 10x as much. But I never got to $100,000 a year in salary after 38 years of working for just three companies. In real dollars my salary pretty much stood still. But I did retire with a big 401K and a pension, a paid off house and no debt. I just took my first IRA mandatory withdrawal at age 70. I never spent a penny of it and it's still growing, though probably at a 1% rate these days. My kids make much more than I ever did and barely make ends meet.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BayAreaHillbilly
My parents spent way more money than me and DW will ever hope to spend. Some of it was necessary. They had kids whereas me and DW are child free. They lived the "normal" suburban life in two successively larger ranch homes built respectively in the 50s and 60s. They went on more vacations and bought more expensive toys. They also had excellent wage growth until very late in their careers. They experienced unreal appreciation in real estate. Etc, etc.
My big spending (if you can even call it that) was limited to a short stretch of my 20s. I've had a 401K since I was a new grad, plus other areas of saving. Still, my cash flow balance never was, is not and likely never will be as positive as my parents' during a vast portion of their adult lives.
Anyone who's paying attention to macro economics should find none of this surprising. Wage growth for most people hit an inflection point in 1973 or there abouts. My parents were very lucky their own wage growth continued until nearly the end of the 20th Century. Mine hit the skids not much later, but that was relatively early in my own career vs the careers of my parents.
You can really see generational differences on this thread.
The oldest set of cohorts mainly have / had parents who were poorer and less educated than they were. So they don't want to copy their parents for obvious reasons.
Then there is a slighly younger set of cohorts, 2nd wave "Disco" Boom I reckon, whose parents did Leave it to Beaver and this set of cohorts were able to copy the best parts of that. Granted there were fewer SAHMs but in general the middle American life of plenty was attained. This is where I see the comments about being somewhat like the parents.
Then, you hit X and younger. Unless we came from the hood or some sort of struggling 1st generation immigrant background, or became super stars in our fields, we are not able to equal or best what our parents obtained. So we don't want to be like our parents because if we did, we'd all be broke. We don't have as much relative cash flow as our parents did and therefore have had to adopt a very different pattern of living.
I guess I'd qualify as hood. While I'm not setting the woods on fire by any means, many local residents are working to lower class. If you get an average degree and move to a major metro area, you can do better than that.
No, because I'm a different person than they were and they did well in a small town although my father could have done bigger things and that bothered him at times.
However, they've lived a golden life in total, it just wasn't the life for me.
They have great friends, are still together after 50+ years, all of their grandkids are pursuing high end educational goals and they have excellent relationships with their kids and grandkids.
They have enough money that they don't have to worry about paying bills and have enough left over to do some fun things too.
I hope I emulate much of what they have accomplished especially in terms of relationships with grandkids and that's one of my top goals in my remaining 30ish years on this rock give or take.
P.S. Since people are discussing it, I make probably double to triple what my father made after adjusting for inflation.
I'm not sure economics is to blame. I got my first good paying job in 1970 at $10,000 per year. A new Mustang or Firebird cost $1,800. Rent for a one bedroom apartment was $140 a month. A new house cost $35,000. When I retired in 2008, everything cost 10x as much. But I never got to $100,000 a year in salary after 38 years of working for just three companies. In real dollars my salary pretty much stood still. But I did retire with a big 401K and a pension, a paid off house and no debt. I just took my first IRA mandatory withdrawal at age 70. I never spent a penny of it and it's still growing, though probably at a 1% rate these days. My kids make much more than I ever did and barely make ends meet.
Sounds like you did very well...
Around the SF Bay Area it is not uncommon to find 20 somethings making more right out of the gate than their parents ever did...
I work with a lot of nurses and many are or Filipino heritage and many of these 25-28 year olds make double or more than their parents ever have...
They are also getting married and buying homes and progressing nicely...
They've (parents) done well for themselves and did a good job raising their children. They made wise decisions, and that's what I tried to emulate. I was fortunate, I guess, in that I was dealt a good hand compared others here.
I copied father's decision to make the military my career, getting an advanced education, investing wisely, living within my means.....
Uhhh...no, because I can't imagine a life as a female who did not have to work for a living, and not have access to birth control.
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.
