Quote:
Originally Posted by opendoor
Technological advances will always ensure that by some objective standards, life is always getting better. Medical advances, improved consumer goods, etc. will always make things better in a sense. But in broader terms, when I look at my parents' trajectory, it's pretty clear to me that there's a significant difference between then and now.
They were born in the mid-1950s to working class families and their lives basically went like:
-graduate university at 22 with almost no student debt (despite their families not really being able to contribute much) and walk into solid careers upon graduation
-buy a house at 23 which cost about $210K in today's dollars. Yes, rates were higher, but even at peak rates their mortgage payment would have been about $2K in today's dollars. And yeah, it was a relatively modest house, but today that exact same house is worth well over $1M and would require a mortgage payment of about $5K.
-have kids starting at 25
-upgrade their house a couple of times in their 30s and 50s to their current 5,000 square foot ocean-view house.
-retire in their mid-to-late-50s with very generous pensions
-buy a vacation house in California in their mid-50s and spend 1/3rd of the year there during their (long) retirement.
Is that doable for someone coming out of high school now with similar effort and aptitude? Not remotely. Yeah, if you're a high enough earner, but my parents had normal jobs. Their trick was generally living modestly in their 20s -> 40s and saving money, but housing has become so expensive, that you simply can't pull that off through saving.
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How many university educated couples today even want to start raising kids at 25?
I agree with your observations. But enjoying 15+ years of child-free adulthood before starting a family vs 5 years is a pretty big green check in the Pro column for younger generations. I’m not anywhere close to financially secure as my parents were at my age, but I had
way more fun in my 20s than they did.