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2. Income problem meets house that is too expensive for their income.
3. Income problem meets living beyond their means.
Solution to income problem = scalability of home ownership = tiny house on tiny lot = more liberty, less government, low earners live within their means and enjoy self-sufficiency.
Did some mysterious third party come along and wreck their credit rating?
Medical issues come along and trash millions of credit ratings. Low earners tend to have inadequate - if any - health insurance and inadequate employment benefits; so medical issues deliver the double whammy of out-of-pocket costs plus loss of wages, each of which alone can wreck credit ratings. (Whose fault is this, you ask?)
Truly; I cannot speak for the OP & my personal issue is not that I married a Boomer.
More so; I married the WRONG Boomer.
But there might be some significance in the revelation made several years ago that "Generation-X ... would be the first generation in the history of the USA that would NOT be able to do better than their parents generation."
I remember thinking to myself when I heard that ..."You know; that is very significant."
That "standard" is something Americans seem to have held very near & dear since there was an America.
And supposedly, the conditions that factored into this reality were set into motion a long time ago. In other words; we did not create this & we would not be able to fix it (in time for us) either.
Maybe ... we did not grow up with the same pressure a Boomer may have had to "do better than".
"He who dies with the most toys; wins." ... Was not a fight we would be bringing a dog to.
Maybe ...We, as a generation, re-defined what "winning" meant. For us & for us only (as nobody seems to know for sure yet where the Millenials will "rank").
Maybe the Boomers will be the LAST generation to measure up to that "do better than your parents generation" yardstick. And I think the possibility does exist that this could impact interpersonal relationships between Boomers & Generation X.
Maybe. I don't know; just sort of thinking "out loud" here!
Medical issues come along and trash millions of credit ratings. Low earners tend to have inadequate - if any - health insurance and inadequate employment benefits; so medical issues deliver the double whammy of out-of-pocket costs plus loss of wages, each of which alone can wreck credit ratings. (Whose fault is this, you ask?)
A medical crisis can strike anyone at anytime. Just like a lightning strike, it can happen to anyone.
While there are some whose fall from prosperity came as a medical crisis, there are many others who have not had such a crisis.
... the revelation made several years ago that "Generation-X ... would be the first generation in the history of the USA that would NOT be able to do better than their parents generation."
The '20s were a prosperous time for many. The people who came of age in the '30s were generally impoverished by comparison.
It took my parents most of their lives to regain the stability that their grandparents and parents had in the 20s.
Quote:
... Maybe the Boomers will be the LAST generation to measure up to that "do better than your parents generation" yardstick. And I think the possibility does exist that this could impact interpersonal relationships between Boomers & Generation X.
I am a late boomer [1959].
When I turned 18 I stood much better than my parents did at 18. I had an education, a job and I was living in a time of relative prosperity. At that age my parents were still homeless migrant farm-workers.
Today I am in my 50s. I still have all of my teeth, I have a selection of aches and pains, and i have been through one cancer already. My grandparents and parents at this same age were all using dentures, and they had very significant health problems.
I see no reason why my children can't do at least as well as I have done.
I'm a 'cusper', my husband is a 'boomer'. We've been married 32 years.
He's always been a saver and I've always been a spender, though never in debt for it.
It's funny how opposites attract. I think God puts opposites together because they need each other. Spenders need a saver in their life so they can retire without having to eat Alpo for dinner. Savers need spenders in their life so they will have a life!
It's funny how opposites attract. I think God puts opposites together because they need each other. Spenders need a saver in their life so they can retire without having to eat Alpo for dinner. Savers need spenders in their life so they will have a life!
This is true....but savers get very tired of constantly reining in the spender and feeling that THEY have to be even tighter with their money to make up for the spender! As a moderate saver I feel stuck - just when I want to loosen up a bit my other half does something that makes me feel that I'd better not.
A friend told me once to be sure that the thing that brings the two of you together is not the thing that tears you apart - when we try to compensate our own behavior with someone else's that can create problems....and finally, Bob Dylan wrote "You shouldn't let other people get your kicks for you."
I have never bought into this "do better than the generation before you," even though I have, by every measure. That completely depends on who the generation before you was, and how many generations were behind them. Not everyone's grandparents were poor immigrants to the U.S. What if the generation before you did pretty well, why would it be a dream or hope to do better/more?
I consider that I did better because I've had steady work, no lousy marriage, no mentally ill kids. I haven't stayed with the wrong man too long, or dropped the right man too fast, or had unplanned pregnancies. In bits and pieces, I paid for education and professional status, although it was steady income that I was after, not "status." In fact, I still consider myself working class in values, some attitudes, and the fact that I am paid hourly like any line worker.
I do think all this generational labeling is 99 percent from market research and advertising. The actual baby boom demographic event was each yearly cohort being larger than the one before it. This started, I think, on 1946 (as soldiers were coming home) and ended in 1957 (when those families were complete) or maybe 1960, when the birth control pill came on the market. All labeling, including an 18-year span called "boomers," comes from marketing. Heavens, someone born in 1946 could well birth or sire an offspring born in 1964. So much for "a generation."
I am 63. I think the American Dream is to be able to live however YOU want (within reason) and have enough income for a pleasant home, reliable transportation, good food, and maybe a nice vacation once a year -- and then to retire with enough savings to continue to live comfortably until you die. Many people don't realize that the foregoing is just a dream for many people on this planet.
Different people have different levels of contentment -- but the above pretty much sums up what I have always wanted (and, fortunately, achieved).
I think one problem with a two-generation marriage is that the husband and wife are in two different stages of life. When I was in my 20's to early 30's I was very happy with quite minimal possessions and a simple home and modest vehicles. In my late 30's to 40's I started to earn more and my desires grew to fill my available cash flow...larger house, newer and better vehicle, and a desire for more upscale clothes, furnishings, vacations, etc. When I hit my late 40's I was focused on saving and preparing for retirement and started to really do the math in earnest. Now in my late 50's I am retired and I can choose how and where to spend my retirement money. I am shifting my priorities from possessions to experiences. I don't want to accumulate any more and am divesting myself of things I've been dragging with me for years. When one spouse is still in the era of low expectations and they marry someone in the accumulation phase, or in the pre-retirement phase there will naturally be conflicts.
My sister was in a bi-generational marriage (she late 30's, he mid 50's) and while she was still a fairly young and vibrant person, he was ready for retirement, then he fell ill and my sister became his caretaker for many years before his death. I can't help but feel that she gave up some of the best years of her life sitting in hospital rooms worried sick.
I think it's very important to spend a lot of time together before marriage (over a year) and recognize that things like money attitudes and visions for a particular type of future should correspond or you will probably not make a happy match. I don't necessarily recommend waiting as long as we did to get married (eight years!), but we know each others thoughts on such things and they align really well. We often don't even have to ask to know what the others response will be to financial issues that arise.
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