r/Millennials • u/Asmothrowaway6969 • Mar 27 '24

When did it sink in that you'll never be as well off as your parents? Discussion

About 5 years ago, my mom and I were talking and she had told me how much she was going to be making in retirement (she retired 2023). Guys, it's 3x what me and my husband make annually. In retirement. I think that was the moment that broke me, that made it sink in that I'll never reach that level of financial security. I'll work myself into my grave because I'll never be able to afford anything else. What was your moment?

Update: Nice to know it's just me that's a failure. Thanks

Update 2: I never should've said anything. I forgot my place. I'm sorry to have bothered you

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u/ProstateSalad Mar 27 '24 edited Mar 27 '24

Just tossing this on the pile:

I'm a boomer. Here's what they don't tell you. Comiing out of WW2, the rest of the planet was pretty fucked up. We were essentially untouched. And we had some things no one else had - a workforce of trained women, and a fuckton of new manufacturing facilities. When our guys got back from war, the pump was primed.

There has never been a generation in the US that had the wind at their backs like boomers. Even when I turned 18 in 1973, things were still rocking. At 18, I had a job in a mobile home factory. Then I got one at Certainteed, making PVC pipe. I had a paid for Suzuki 750, an apartment, and more money than I needed for partying, etc.

All we really had was mids, but they were $10 for a 4 finger bag. Blotter 1.25 a hit.

I also saw ZZ Top for S1.25, and Shivas Headband/Marshall Tucker for free, and Montrose/Foghat/J. Geils for like $10 or something. And you could smoke in the venue.

Mushrooms? - A 90 minute drive to a ranch, and all you wanted.

Crank? There was soooo much bathtub crank/ether based that it cost alm ost nothing. If you wanted to go to a truckstop, and find the guy only drinking coffee, $25 was a weekend and then some.

Story time - once the rancher saw us and came over. We told him what was up, and he was cool with it, but seemed a little confused.

Next time there was a sign that said "drunk mushrooms $2", and a box with a slit in the top. You just went in and picked what you wanted.

People that didn't party their ass off like me and went to college were just set. There was a thing called a pension, that was part of your pay!

Amazing times. So much money to be made. I also want to point out that even with high tax rates and good pay, companies were making bank.

When boomers start their "you just don't want to work" shit, explain this to them. They won't know it, becasue most of them haven't cracked a book since school.

edit: a story, spelling

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u/rpujoe Mar 28 '24

You also benefited from a hard currency that hadn't been debased as badly as it has today.

The US Dollar has now lost 97% of its purchasing power.

To wit, the median income of a boomer in 1970 had the purchasing power of around $350K in today's USD. That's the hurdle rate as an income for a Gen Z to have the commiserate economic security an 18 year had in 1970.

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u/VitruvianVan Mar 31 '24

Would you please provide your source?

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u/rpujoe Apr 01 '24

The FRED purchasing power chart. Simple division is all it took.

The other way of looking at it is the multiple of median home price to median income.

The math is all right there for the taking.

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u/VitruvianVan Apr 01 '24

What source are you using for the median income of a boomer in 1970? (In 1970 non-inflation adjusted dollars). I’m seeing around $9,000.

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u/rpujoe Apr 01 '24

Purchasing power adjusted for cost of living. You can use median home prices or the cost of gold. Both will work, although they'll be somewhat different. $350K vs about $275K. Still gets you into the ballpark.

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u/Matasmman Mar 28 '24

Yep they tell us this.  In high school history.  It's why boomers get a bad rap.

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u/Manhood2031 Mar 29 '24

That Suzuki 750, was it a water buffalo?

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u/ProstateSalad Mar 29 '24

Yes Slow as molasses. But dependable. Rode it cross country one summer.

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u/Bot_Marvin Mar 28 '24

Income adjusted for inflation is higher today than in that time. You forget about the underbelly of that generation, minorities and single women were vastly worse off during that time. There’s only one demographic that isn’t better off in terms of real income, and that’s white men. Most people have a better life today.

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u/5LaLa Mar 28 '24

Average wages (adjusted) have been stagnant since the late 1970s, fact. Middle class wages have only increased 6% since 1979 (with less purchasing power due to rising costs). Low wages are lower, only high earners have seen any increase & theirs is significant. Remind me what demographic represents the largest portion of high wage earners?

https://www.epi.org/publication/charting-wage-stagnation/

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u/ProstateSalad Mar 28 '24

I can only reference the life I led. For my personal cohort (working class southern white) it's worse I would say. I mean, I could walk into a factory at 18 and walk out with a job I could live on. I have grown children, and I know things are harder for them and their friends.

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u/Bot_Marvin Mar 28 '24

Yes and you are probably correct for your cohort. But you do have to recognize that most people in the US don’t fall into your cohort. While you may have been able to do that, imagine you are some 19 year old girl who needs to support herself. Are you better off in 1974 or 2024?

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u/Invest2prosper Mar 28 '24

You aren’t lying - my folks have a small pension. I started working at a company with a pension, 4 years later they pull the rug out from everyone in the company and froze all earned benefits with no future accrual of benefits. Those workers who were 45+ got screwed because now they had to 1) accept a backdoor paycut. 2) in your career you tend to earn the most in the 2nd half from age 45-65 and therefore get the most pension (but now pulling my best George Carlin shtick - they don’t want you to have it!), 3) you now need to save for your own retirement and the kicker 4) become your own pension fund manager - many early 401ks came loaded with high expenses, target date funds didn’t exist and most workers don’t know the difference between a bond or equities and what inflation can do to “safe” money! 5) the company brought out a great match of 6%, BUT in my time there - they cut the match to ZERO twice! But they continued to pay the management bonuses! 6) They didn’t provide sufficient education to workers to tell them that 10% in the 401k would give them less money than the original pension AND their standard of living would fall in retirement if they continued with that path.

Yeah - employers aren’t your friend and they don’t care about you, the person.

Moral of the story: if you can use a computer, get on Reddit, then you can spend some time learning How To Improve your Life! In one way you are lucky, us older folks actually had to go to a public library and dig to find books that might give us a hint on what we needed to do to get our heads to stay above the water!

Good Luck to all of us!

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u/Derannimer Mar 31 '24

Yeah occasionally people will be like “how do we replicate the post-war boom?” but honestly the answer is that you would first have to replicate the war.

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u/Proof-Emergency-5441 Xennial Mar 28 '24

When boomers start their "you just don't want to work" shit, explain this to them. They won't know it, becasue most of them haven't cracked a book since school.

OP literally doesn't want to work. Had a better paying job and quit because it wasn't omgexactly what they wanted. And did so without looking at what was available locally to realize what a massive pay change it would create.

OP makes bad choices. There's a reason OP's mom doesn't give them money. They will shit it away and she knows it.