How many feel they're financially better off than their parents?

dseag2

dseag2

Dallas, TX
Location
Dallas, TX
There is so much talk about each generation being better off financially than the previous one. However, there is now talk about Millennials, with huge student debt, little savings and the inability to buy homes, being worse off than their parents.

Just wondering how many of you feel you are better off financially than your parents? I will start by saying that my quality of life and wealth is pretty much equal to that of my parents. The one big difference is that they worked their way up from having very little. My father lived in a boarding house when he was young and my mother drew water from a river for bathing, but as they got older they moved up and lived a very comfortable, privileged life. My Dad worked really hard to get to there. He made it possible for me to live a comfortable life from the beginning, so I feel very fortunate.

I do worry about the opportunities for future generations.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/09/millennials-own-less-than-5percent-of-all-us-wealth.html
 

I have more money than my parents, but I’m not sure that I’m better off in real terms.

I believe that every generation has the same opportunities. The priorities and willingness to take advantage of them is what changes.

I regret wasting the first fifteen years of my working life before I finally settled down and developed a comprehensive financial plan.

IMO future generations will figure it out and come up with their own definition of success and financial security.
 
I think my paternal grandparents were relatively well off and had a large family, who enjoyed varying degrees of success. Unfortunately my father was one of the less 'get up and go' types, getting by as best he could. I and my siblings, therefore started at a low base and climbed the ladder, each enjoying success in their own differing fields.

So, my parents were less well off than their parents. I, my brother and sister are considerably better off than our parents. Our respective families are at least on par with their parents.
 

Nope, my parents were better off than me. They were hard workers, savers and practical with their money. No credit. They even paid cash for their homes and cars. I regret many of my life choices, which usually involved marriage instead of employment or education. I just make the best of it now.
 
Our goals were different as are those of our children.
Grandparents were lucky to get through the depression.
Parents wanted a nice 3 bedroom house, one bath, paid for in full.
We wanted a 3 bed, two bath and a rec room in the basement, with reasonable payments until it could be paid off before retirement.
Kids want 5 bed, 4 bath, totally renovated kitchen, etc, etc. Hope to meet mortgage payments.
 
I'll be having around 25% less money in retirement than my mother did, and when my father was alive I think they had more.
And what I do have is substantially augmented by inherited wealth (not that it is really 'wealth' but I think that is just the terminology), I haven't tried to figure out what my net worth would have been without parents, but pretty sure I'd have to work until 70 and then squeak by financially.
As it is I will be retiring 10 years older than my mother was when she retired, and 3 years older than my father was.

My parents were very good at saving and investing. Also they were in the generation that got pensions. My work life was completely in the 401k era, and the financial advice I read over and over in the news (and still do) is to be sure to contribute enough to get any matching amount from the employer. Never did any of these articles point out that a person really needs to save more than that amount in order to have sufficient money for retirement.

My brother has done much better than me financially (though even he benefited from 'inherited wealth' sort of, because they loaned him a substantial amount to help him buy a business, and the loan principal was set to not need to be paid back when they died).

I could have done as well as my parents (I think), if I'd been focused on saving and investing instead of spending. But I have such mixed feelings about it, I got a lot of joy out of spending money on horses.
 
katlupe said:
Nope, my parents were better off than me. They were hard workers, savers and practical with their money. No credit. They even paid cash for their homes and cars. I regret many of my life choices, which usually involved marriage instead of employment or education. I just make the best of it now.
Click to expand...
I am in a similar boat to you as I am sure you are aware. I regret many of my life choices as well. And those choices involved marriages as well-two, to be specific. I am still married to my second husband.

But I cannot compare my status to my parents. My parents children were not disabled. And while they did well for the first 17 years of their marriage, with money, it was because of World War 2, and the boom after the war.

They divorced and finances became a challenge. Before the divorce, they were a nightmare. As a teenager, I was so relieved when he left. One nasty piece of work was enough to deal with
 

How many feel they're financially better off than their parents?​


Hard to nail that one down

I've got better gizmos
and I'm financially fit (Dad liked to play the edge with investments)

But, my grand folks were The Grapes of Rath people
They coulda starred in that movie
Poor as dirt
But came into their own with hard work

I may have learned a thing or two from them
 
I'm better off than my parents were, we were middle class working but my father was the only one who worked, my mother was a housewife did her best to manage the money we did have and save a bit. I'm better off because I didn't have any kids, and they had four, and both my husband and myself worked full time and saved for retirement.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top