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I am definitely worse off than my parents are @ this age.

This quote in the Real Estate forum got me thinking - how do people perceive their economic health currently?

better but with explanation - he did almost as well with only a 6th grade education and wife stayed at home with a great home made meal every day - talking fresh bread, garden veggies, home made pasta.

www.myparentswereawesome.tumblr.com

My parents were awful with money. I'm in much better shape even though I started with far less.

Since my parents divorced when I was six, I would say better than my Mom and worse than my Dad, but I don't get two answers do I?

I own less things, but carry less debt so it's a wash.

My parents at my age still had 5 of 8 children at home and it was in 1973 with the last real recession just getting legs. My mother worked all day running a household and worked the night shift at the local nusing home as an RN. My father had just suffered through an apparent heart attack (false diagnosis) and was working 12 hours a day running his farm and consulting business.

The older children all had jobs at home and after school unless you were enrolled in a school sport. Saturdays were reserved for part time work for spending money if you had finished your home job assignments. Sundays were for the church. There was no extra money and we all could see my parents struggle to keep it together.

We got through it fine and like my father always said...."Hard times build character." Another favorite saying during those days was his refrain at the dinner table when we complained were were still hungry after the food was devoured..."We eat to live, we don't live to eat."

BTW...there was no childhood obesity in our family nor hardly any among my classmates at school.

NOwadays I'm never hungry and I do not work all day and all night(except to feed my TF addiction) but I can not really say I have it any better. LIfe is what you make it not what you have.

Snooze

My dad? No. I'd have been dead at least 12yrs ago to fare worse. He died in his early 40s.

My mom? She did well, after remarrying. Also got a nice monthly stipend for her service in the Dutch underground that lasted until she died a few years back.

So she did fine, her needs well met in a great retirement village, with lots of good friends.

I'll be fine too if the financial system remains intact to any livable degree. I'm counting on my ability to grow my nest egg through the turmoil, esp. by avoiding the large drawdowns (dodged '87, tech bust, and last year too). That will work only if we avoid abrupt and dramatic dislocations though.

My health so far is considerably better than either of theirs also.

My real concern is over our kids. They are bright, and still young enough to not have to worry about having adequate opportunities to get established for another 10-15yrs; hopefully they'll have a more sane foundation with which to start their adult lives than exists now.

Definitely worse off.I'm not poor by any standard but jobs like my fathers aren't around anymore that day in America has passed.An average hard working guy used to have a decent chance at working in heavy manufacturing and become a corner office upper management or division head kind of guy by working ones ass off from the ground up starting as a lowly floor sweeper.Not anymore,the heavy military manufacturing jobs are dying in America.

This is a good question...with a surprising answer for me.

I'm definitely at the lower end of the income spectrum, but consider my standard of living to be comparable to that of my parents...my dad was a lawyer/federal judge, definitely in the upper-middleclass-income bracket, with 4 kids to support, mom didn't work. We grew up with hand-me-down clothes and schoolbooks, but lived in a beautiful house in a great neighborhood.

Maybe it's cause I don't have any kids to support? Or maybe it's cause I grew up in the 60s/70s?

Maybe our "standard of living" and the resultant expectations have soared so much in the last 40 years that what was "rich" in the 60s/70s is considered "baseline" now?

Hmmmm......

I'm one of 5 children, we grew up in the 60s & 70s. My parents divorced in '76. We had a modest home and once the youngest kids were in school my Mom & grandma bought and ran a deli (until they put up a 7 - Eleven just down the road). Dad worked regular mans hours... but he always acted like we were poor, so I always thought we were.

We weren't (when I was a kid I thought that because lots of people in our neighborhood had boats and went away for the summer that everyone did).

Now married with kids of my own I see that even though I am better educated than my parents the types of jobs themselves are different.

Long story short...not as well off as my parents were at this time in their life.

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Or maybe it's cause I grew up in the 60s/70s

You're old...


They were/are better off in their 900sf house...one phone, one tv, one car, etc...

Right back at ya, bubba... ;)

My parents sold shoes for a living. They never made as much as 15k/yr--together. They grew up in the depression and because of it we lived a comfortable lower middle class life. Last Saturday I drove by the house I grew up in, all 1018 sq feet of it. Dakine and I probably grew up in the same neighborhood.

Worse, but I have no one to blame but myself.

However, given the current status of my parents retirement funds (which I found out recently they are throwing everything but the sink back into the market to make up for) and my very expensive school of hard knocks education, I expect to be better off in retirement than they are.

Worse,by this time my parents had their house paid for. They had a good amount of $$in the bank. Dad worked for the railroad, so good retirement ahead. Mom worked as saved and saved. I'm not sure they had much fun though. Seems like all they did was work. Now Dad is 92 and Mom 87 and they really don't have to worry about finances though I won't be that lucky.

Better off materially, but with significantly less hope for the future.

My house is cooler than my father's house, so I guess I'm better off.


N/basic

Mo' money...but mo' problems.....so....does that count as better off?

No, I'm better off. I'm 40 now and the first one from my family to finish college, work at NASA as an engineer. I make ~3X what my dad did in 2000 when he got layed off as a computer technician. At 40 he was a boozer, cheater, and a dumbass. Now thinks cars can run on water and white people are descended from aliens. Thinks W was a swell pres.

I have less money but am far more at peace with myself than they will ever be.

Elizabeth Warren did beautiful work on middle class living standards in the last 50 years.

If you think you're better off, you're not paying attention.

Much better off. I'm in my 60's; my parents never made it out of the 50's.

I am not better off materially. I grew up in the 1960/70 era. But then, I never thought money would make me happy and possessions are a trap. Until I got with my hubby around 10 years ago... my car was my most important possession and everything I owned fit in it, except for my book collection. Always wanted my own library.

I am much better off as far as being happy. I do not think my Dad was ever really happy. He did his duty and what he was suppose to do according to his southern baptist values. He grew up during the great depression. He died a bitter old man.

My Mom was paranoid and very distrustful of .gov and she worked in civil service over 20 years. She would fill out those grocery cards with fake names and addys. Said it was no business of .gov what groceries she bought. She got worse as she got older. I'm not as bad but close

I remember being almost 4 years old and Dad was lining a large wooden bowl with tinfoil and waiting for Mum to come home while he set up his new toy, a ginormous camcorder to record whatever event what about to unfold.

Turns out, they were burning their mortgage papers at the tender ages of 31. I'm 35, no assets worth mentioning (motorcycles don't count apparently) and unlikely to own a home before 40.

They divorced, my life got decidedly worse and I suffered immeasurable harm up until my mid 20ies being angry at the world and what not. Dad gets a cushy .gov pension when he finally cashes in in 2 years but Mom is currently working several odd jobs in her early 60ies to pay the bills.

Dad has every health problem in the book while Mom is the postergirl for community and will likely live like her Mom to past 90 years of age.

Sadly, my inheritance is likely to be my retirement package so I'd say worse than Dad financially and worse than Mom spiritually.