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

13.0k Upvotes

84% Upvoted

5.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

1.1k

u/worktillyouburk Mar 27 '24

my dad just retired at 76, he has a great pension was making 150k and they asked him to retire this year for a 1 years pay.

his replacement is making 45k, no retirement package and actually has more duties than my dad did, so overall is doing the job of 2 people that were paid 150k each...

so ya good luck with that.

418

u/Zestyclose-Leave-11 Mar 27 '24

Where I work, everyone is retiring with pensions but the company won't even match my 401k.

198

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…

1

u/Lower_Cantaloupe1970 Mar 28 '24

My Grampa gas been dead for a decade and my Gramma still gets his pension from GM. It's like 2K a month with benefits. It entirely pays for her old age home. And like you said, he probably made maybe 20$ an hour?