Are You Better Off than Your Parents Were at Your Age?
- Thread starter Ralfakick
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Socioeconomically for one but I’m open for interpretation
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No.
Living a quality life where the husband is the sole provider is extremely hard for lower and middle class families.
Everything has at least doubled in cost, including food, cost of a home, and utilities just since COVID.
Medical care costs are insane.
College costs are astronomical.
AI is taking most of the entry level and middle class jobs.
Homeless people are on every corner begging for money.
Most food sold to Americans is poison.
Crime has went up, including murder rates.
The music SUCKS.
Living a quality life where the husband is the sole provider is extremely hard for lower and middle class families.
Everything has at least doubled in cost, including food, cost of a home, and utilities just since COVID.
Medical care costs are insane.
College costs are astronomical.
AI is taking most of the entry level and middle class jobs.
Homeless people are on every corner begging for money.
Most food sold to Americans is poison.
Crime has went up, including murder rates.
The music SUCKS.
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I'm doing better than my parents were at my age, not because of earning capacity but I was just more switched on with where to put my money from a very early age. I was investing in funds when I was still a teenager, first property at 20.... You didn't have to be financially literate to lead a good life in previous generations but you sure as shit do now. Everything has become a hustle.
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About the same but I'm in a two-income household that didn't have two kids who both went to college for four years so yeah... we had to make significant sacrifices just to maintain a similar standard of living. Boomers ratfucked every segment of the economy and now they're trying to burn it down on their way out.
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I earn what my parents did combined when they retired 10 years ago but have to live 30 miles away from them as their £120k house from 2001 is now a £600k house apparently.
One of the boomer arguments in the UK that standards of living when they grew up was lower (shared toilets tenement flats, rationing post WW2 in the 50s plus all food was bland AF, recycling and mending things was done out of necessity rather than green ego boasting) is probably legit for the older ones / silent generation, but then they are conveniently forgetting about the economic booms of the 60s, 80s, 90s…
Meanwhile I graduated with a near useless degree to a stagnant economy and it’s not really got any better in the 15 years since.
Meh, it is what it is. I don’t think boomers are necessarily malicious, but a lot of them have no idea how much the system is rigged against the younger generations and more critically against the notion that hard work brings fair rewards.
One of the boomer arguments in the UK that standards of living when they grew up was lower (shared toilets tenement flats, rationing post WW2 in the 50s plus all food was bland AF, recycling and mending things was done out of necessity rather than green ego boasting) is probably legit for the older ones / silent generation, but then they are conveniently forgetting about the economic booms of the 60s, 80s, 90s…
Meanwhile I graduated with a near useless degree to a stagnant economy and it’s not really got any better in the 15 years since.
Meh, it is what it is. I don’t think boomers are necessarily malicious, but a lot of them have no idea how much the system is rigged against the younger generations and more critically against the notion that hard work brings fair rewards.
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Holistically, I'd say "better." I don't have kids, was lucky to get a nice home right before the pandemic for a ridiculously low interest rate, and my partner and I have savings and investments that provide a decent cushion were anything to hit the fan - in which I never take for granted. I have a career I love (even if I don't enjoy my current place of employment), highly educated, and have good people in my life. I'm also quick to embrace new ideals and advancements, which my folks were always resistant to - mostly due to them being hyper evangelicals and thinking everything that doesn't come out of the preacher's mouth is from the devil.
The world is in a shit state of affairs right now, which makes things more challenging than in the 90's - I mean, I did not have "the US is being run by a ring of pedophiles, shit evangelicals, and literal cartoon villains" on my "I bet the 2020's will be awesome" bingo card growing up. But I feel I made better choices throughout my 20's and 30's than my folks that put me on a more stable path mid-life even with all the economic uncertainty and the looming "threat" of AI and people not understanding what it is or how the rapid advancements will impact us as a civilization, etc.
The world is in a shit state of affairs right now, which makes things more challenging than in the 90's - I mean, I did not have "the US is being run by a ring of pedophiles, shit evangelicals, and literal cartoon villains" on my "I bet the 2020's will be awesome" bingo card growing up. But I feel I made better choices throughout my 20's and 30's than my folks that put me on a more stable path mid-life even with all the economic uncertainty and the looming "threat" of AI and people not understanding what it is or how the rapid advancements will impact us as a civilization, etc.
Dr. Jigglin
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Yes but only by virtue of not having kids. If they had not had children then no, they would have been wildly better off financially. I'm also disregarding things like the comparison in size of my property to theirs, the fact of becoming a home owner at roughly the same age taking priority here in this day and age.
Unfortunately the same can not be said for lots of people in my millenial age bracket, a lot are still renting and may never own a home. What you have to earn today whilst raising a family to not worry about money or save for a deposit is fairly considerable going by my own income. If I had children I would definitely not be ahead on the mortgage nor would I be carefree at the supermarket.
My advice is this, even if you're like me and have no mind for investing, always live below your means (if you can) because you can easily become accustomed to the glitzy lifestyle and coming back down is hard like becoming obese and trying to lose weight. You should always be ready to live poor because you never know what will happen in the future.
Unfortunately the same can not be said for lots of people in my millenial age bracket, a lot are still renting and may never own a home. What you have to earn today whilst raising a family to not worry about money or save for a deposit is fairly considerable going by my own income. If I had children I would definitely not be ahead on the mortgage nor would I be carefree at the supermarket.
My advice is this, even if you're like me and have no mind for investing, always live below your means (if you can) because you can easily become accustomed to the glitzy lifestyle and coming back down is hard like becoming obese and trying to lose weight. You should always be ready to live poor because you never know what will happen in the future.
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My gran is 96, has been divorced twice, seen some shit in her life. Now has dementia but is fairly with it so long as you ask questions about 30 years ago and not about 2 hours ago.
Her life advise is “look after your health first and foremost, anything else can come after.”
Wise women. If you’re eating like a Glaswegian everyday and not looking after basic fitness, are you going to see the fruits of your labour later on in life? Probably not.
Her life advise is “look after your health first and foremost, anything else can come after.”
Wise women. If you’re eating like a Glaswegian everyday and not looking after basic fitness, are you going to see the fruits of your labour later on in life? Probably not.
Dr. Jigglin
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mate those chips looks fucking awesome
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It's hard to say. Outwardly yes, but growing up my parents always told us we had very little, every micro transaction was debated, every penny counted. He then retired at 50 and they've been on an almost continuous luxury holiday for the last 25 years. I have zero idea what he's sitting on, not my business.
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After 8 pints I reckon I could make a fair dent in that box.
But enough about @roker ‘s mum already.
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Too bad they reduced the sugar in Irn Bru which kind of ruined it.
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Yes and no. On the surface it would have seemed like my parents were doing a little better at this age, but in reality everything they had was bought with debt, while I tend to live a bit more simply but I actually own things and don't live paycheck to paycheck.
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Based StevenK Dad (and seemingly based StevenK too for not believing what belongs to his parents is in any way obligated to him).
You take care of your own retirement needs first, only then do you worry about your children beyond their needs. When you're in your prime years your earning potential is only waning from there while your children are just getting started.
Personally, I'd wager an easy argument that on average, everyone is easily much more well off than their parents. A statement that has been the case since at least the dawn of the industrial revolution and probably well before that. It might be true that your parents were an order of magnitude better off than their parents. But just because the pace has slowed, doesn't make it less true for you.
But constant pressure to be a victim and belief that high levels of consumerism is the only measure of success has led too many to think that they're in a hopeless position to emulate even a fraction of the success of the generation before them. This is rose colored glasses.
In reality, at this point you can live nearly for free in many modern Western countries, you face absolutely no imminent threat of starvation if you don't work. Housing is more expensive, but it is also much more house on average. Once expensive consumer goods are dirt cheap and available at thrift stores if you want them for 90% off.
In terms of piles of plastic garbage, everyone here is better off than their parents.
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2-income house here. Probably not doing quite as well as my 1-income parents, but we are doing decent. My parents were younger and had four kids. We got a very late start compared to other people in our age group. My wife and I lived in 1-bedroom apartments until we finally were able to buy our first house when we were 38.
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I'd say, overall, no if we're speaking socioeconomically.
I'd say it's about on par if we're talking spiritually and/or philosophically, but in different ways.
I am starting, more and more, to see the value in the kind of pastoral environment they grew up in. Simple village, lots of farmland, livestock to tend to and no real complications to speak of since they were living in BFGreece until they eloped to the USA in the 60s.
I think it comes down to values. Their lives took an upturn when they emigrated and became US citizens because they wanted more opportunity than was afforded to them in Kostarazi. But eventually, my dad wanted to go back but circumstances didn't make that possible. He was alone out here, no immediate family for many years until his brother, my uncle Nick, came with his own family about a decade or so later. But even still, this wasn't his world.
So 'life' isn't really, to my mind, simply about how well off you are financially. There are a lot of factors and no simple answers.
I'd say it's about on par if we're talking spiritually and/or philosophically, but in different ways.
I am starting, more and more, to see the value in the kind of pastoral environment they grew up in. Simple village, lots of farmland, livestock to tend to and no real complications to speak of since they were living in BFGreece until they eloped to the USA in the 60s.
I think it comes down to values. Their lives took an upturn when they emigrated and became US citizens because they wanted more opportunity than was afforded to them in Kostarazi. But eventually, my dad wanted to go back but circumstances didn't make that possible. He was alone out here, no immediate family for many years until his brother, my uncle Nick, came with his own family about a decade or so later. But even still, this wasn't his world.
So 'life' isn't really, to my mind, simply about how well off you are financially. There are a lot of factors and no simple answers.
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that's the one to get. Comes in glass bottles too, so you can feel like a proper member of society.Lol they just released a premium full sugar version based on the original recipe.
TopTierArcade
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well said
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We have a cure for these negative thoughts
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Obvious solution is wife as sole provider then?
I want to sit on my ass and get drunk all day.
