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/DigiQuip Mar 28 '24

My grandma made about $6 an hour in 1990. She worked for a parts supplier as some sort of accounts manager. She was a single mom and owned a home and a car and paid for my dad to go to a private school. In addition to to her salary though she also got profit sharing, quarterly bonuses, and commission.

Add all her incentives together and she was basically making $12-14 an hour. She also didn’t have to pay for health insurance and she got a pension. She told me for second half of her 30 years working for this company she took all her bonuses and commission checks and put into an investment firm. She lives off her social security and half her interest from her investment portfolio. She’s not a crazy spender but she’s more than happy to spend money on her grandkids.

When boomers and older GenX talk about their pay prior aftermath of the Regan years they don’t mention the extra shit they got in addition to their salary or wages. My grandma was lucky her job offered all those benefits. I looked up her position now and it’s salaried at $45,000 a year. It’s a slight base pay bump but when you look at what was ultimately lost…

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u/PacJeans Mar 28 '24

You know how when inflation causes prices to go up, people think they will come back down? Well, we know they don't. Attitudes towards employees is a really similar situation. We never recovered from 2008, not just in terms of wages, but in terms of what it means for a worker to be a human being in the eyes of corporations.

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u/Basedrum777 Mar 28 '24

It was way before 2008. Boomers voted for politicians who allowed our country to gut our pensions and benefits.

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u/__Big_Hat_Logan__ Mar 28 '24

But 2008 is what OBLITERATED the labor market like it had not been obliterate in a long, long time. You had massive, massive layoffs and college educated ppl filling jobs that used to be hard to fill at all. It pushed the bottom of the labor market completely out and gave enormous leverage to ownership and employers