How are you worse off than you parents?

49 comments

1. I’m not. I don’t have to work Saturday mornings like my mother used to have to do. We can afford haircuts for us and the children. We have protein with every dinner, as opposed to “rice with an Oxo cube” that we sometimes had when I was a kid.

2. Mortgages are definitely crippling compared to my parents era.

3. I’m not. There’s a ton of stuff that they saw as luxuries which are now standard – a car, computers, streaming services.

4. IMO you only really need to look at inflation to see how worse off we all though it does seem to have gone into overdrive since the 2008 crash ironically around the time i was starting to go into work. just over the last 5 years if i were to use the bank of england inflation calculator my wage is 2% behind what it should be and that doesnt really track personal inflation. we have had to specifically buy lower quality food just to keep to the same budget. its going to get to the point where no one can afford anything and it will all come crashing down.

5. Well, they were much richer than me, although you’d expect them to be given their professions— but the gap is still a fair bit greater than it would have been then.

   A much bigger thing is the absence of an endless parade of relatives to act as a support network. I think that’s the thing I feel more: that a poor society without connections between people is a very challenging place to be; I envy the family more than I envy the money

6. My dad retired before he was 60 on a healthy, final salary pension, earned in a career which peaked at a middle-management level.

   I will retire on whatever I have managed to personally save/invest and it sure as hell won’t be any sooner than 65. Maybe not at all if we have another GFC in the interim.

   Even with the above, I consider myself lucky compared to many people of my age and certain far better off than most Gen Z and younger are shaping up to be – at least I should have paid off the mortgage by then.

7. Depends on the context.

   I’m 25, and not a homeowner but my income out of university is more than their income is at age 60. Realistically I’ll be much better off over the long term.

8. I’d say I’m not. I’m considerably better off. As for Tupperware I don’t own any bar a cheese saver I was gifted. Prefer lock n lock.

9. I went to the shop the other day to get food for the week – £80. Even compared to 2 years ago that is sky high.

10. My dad retired at 55. Despite doing relatively well for myself I will never have the ‘gold plated pension’ he benefited from.

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12. its the opposite for me. Got a good future ahead of me. looking to buy a house in the next year. in the fucking south as well. Started saving 6 months ago. I have nice things, go on trips, see cool shit. they don’t and likely never will due to poor financial literacy and the terrible decisions they make over and over.

    My parents live further north where houses go for between 130k to 250k. only way they could buy a house is using my father entire pension when that comes into play in a few years. I fully expect them to spunk the cash away though

    Other peoples experience will vary wildly.

13. I’m not. I’m much better off than my parents were at my age. I’d say I’m better off than them now too; their mortgage was paid off 2 years ago, and we have about the same disposable income. Our mortgage is due to be paid off in ten years. I’ll be 12 years younger than my parents were when their mortgage was paid off.

14. Can’t buy a house yet have been to over 40 countries before I turned 30- when they hadn’t even left the country by then

15. Way, way better off. I grew up in a council house and my parents didn’t work or drive. I’m not living the high life but I’m doing better.

16. Because I pay the entire rent, I can’t move out without my mum becoming homeless, and she managed to move where every she felt like.

17. I’m much, much better off than my parents were at my age. They’re currently far richer than me, but the money only came much later in life for them (once Dad started his own company in his 40s).

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19. I’m much better off than my parents were at my age, but then they had 5 kids and I have none, so to be expected.

    I think the big difference will likely be in older age, the way pensions are looking I expect I’ll be working until I’m much older, and considerably less financially stable in my 60s.

20. I have 6 years to get mortgage to be on par with my parents.. But with prices now… My parents bought their house for 130k. Now it’s worth 355k. So yeah..

21. Far better off than my parents were. But I grew up in South Africa and things are tough out there

22. Walking into any job. Leaving a job and finding another the same day. Rent prices.

23. But tupperware is the same price as ice cream and you only buy it once so tupperware works out way cheaper in the end.

24. My parents could afford for my mum not to work, and be a stay at home parent to me and my sisters. We manage for me to be part time, but could never manage on one income. Saying that though, standards of living were different, we only had one car, holidays were in a tent at the seaside, clothes were handed down etc, so we do have a better standard of living now

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26. I’m measurably better off than my parent were at my age, all sorts of little reasons why.

27. I’d say I’m better off it my current situation than my parents, the biggest difference is I don’t have any kids, bought my house at 30 it took them until 36 and my job is paid better than what they were at that time.

28. Pensions. My parents both retired on full final salary, inflation linked pensions that mean they want for nothing in retirement.

    My personal pension would pay about 25% of theirs if a got an annuity (I won’t). My wife even worked in the *same job* as my mum in the NHS and her pension is still about 30% less than my mum got.

    A pension that pays for a good retirement is effectively gone now, and it only gets worse the younger you are.

29. I’m not. My mam had to work awful shifts as a cleaner and my dad was working on the night to get a HND to just get ahead.

30. I have a severe nut allergy

31. Household income is a good 50% higher than it ever was for my parents but their house is far bigger than mine with a much bigger garden. They bought it for ~£40k in the mid 90s and it’s now worth about £200k.

    They also both retired at 60.

    My in-laws have a bigger house again (worth around £400k and bought for ~£75k in the late 90s) and my FIL supported a wife and three children off just his income. MIL basically stopped working in her twenties and my FIL is in his mid 50s and his looking to retire this year.

32. My parents bought a 4 bed detached house in the Cotswolds in their early 30s, the house cost about 1.5x their combined annual salary.

    That same house is now about 8x the equivalent combined salary

    By their late 40s they had already paid off their mortgage and were planning for retirement. I won’t be in that situation till my mid 60s and I don’t have kids.

33. I rent my house rather than own. My parents bought a 3 bedroom house in London for £90k when I was a baby. Now that I have a baby, even if I *could* buy a house I wouldn’t be able to find one of a comparable size where I live (in one of the UK’s cheapest cities) for the inflation-adjusted equivalent.

    I’m on an insecure temporary job contract so have no professional security (in an industry where 30 years ago I’d have been guaranteed a job for life).

34. I’m not. We were immigrants living on the breadline as kids. I remember having to live in a hostel with other families while we waited for housing, our first meal was a few fried chips from an old chip pan a neighbour lent my mum. We ate them off kitchen roll on a bare floor with no furniture for the first week or so. We eventually got some old furniture donated and we slowly built up a home. As an adult I managed to work and save to get a mortgage with my wife. Am a homeowner now and earn a good wage, enough to pay all bills and have enough spare cash to go on holiday once a year and buy what I need and want (within reason). I am significantly better off than my parents ever were and super grateful for it.

35. My folks took us on foreign holidays every year and lived in a 3 bed, detached bungalow with a huge garden in Surrey on 2 mid-level salaries. That house is now worth >£800k…in comparison my husband and I had to move to the other side of the country to buy a semi-detached bungalow with a tiny garden. We’re using unexpected bonus payments to take our kids away on their first foreign holiday (our first foreign holiday since 2015).

36. Because pay has largely sat still, I notionally make a fair chunk more than my Dad did when he retired in 2007, but in real terms it’s about 20% less. Plus my house is vastly more expensive than the one I grew up in while not being nicer. I can’t give my kids the holidays etc that I had.

37. On the positive, easy access the warm water, food , clothing, entertainment.
    Negative, going out in public and having somewhere to live.
    In comparison to my parents, I have a better education which has allowed me to not be a labourer like them.
    Despite a “more respectful” job I am relatively less capable of paying for a home and then leaving the home, but a big TV and unlimited Internet is cheaper.

38. My parents were a factory worker and a cleaner, one old car, holidays were a caravan in the UK. Treats like pop and crisps/sweets were only for Friday nights. We never ate out or had takeaways.

    When my partner and I bought our first house we lived on baked beans with jacket potatoes on week nights for the first few years, we had 10 year old cars and holidays were camping. Hand me down sofa and cooker, old carpets etc. The first 5 years were really tough.

    But now I’m in my forties I enjoy a good life, foreign holidays, meals out, theatre etc. I think it’s worth going without for a few years to build a solid base, there is more of an expectation amongst 20somethings at the moment that they must have a new car, new phone, clothes etc, driven by advertising and social media.

39. Im doing significantly better than my parents financially.
    I have an excellent job, and own a family sized house in my 20s.

    However, my parents benefit from having much more time than I do, on account of my mum being stay-at-home.
    So their house is always clean and tidy, home cooked meals every day, clothes are clean, adult life admin is always completed on time.

    In general, they have a much more relaxed lifestyle because theyre not trying to ram all their chores and life admin into the few hours between the end of work and bed.

40. I’m not, but I’ve worked my arse off to make it happen. We lived in poverty – at times pretty bloody harsh poverty – and I don’t want my kids to experience that.

    We use washed out takeaway tubs rather than tupperware though.

41. I’m paying through the nose for rent with my partner, whereas they had a mortgage on a single salary. That key difference is what matters. I work more hours than they do and am far better qualified yet here we are.

42. I am better off than my parents were at my age. I have a partner whom I love and who loves me. My children are all settled with their work and with their partners. None are financially dependent on me. I am in control of my own destiny.

    ​

    Oh, and I have cats.

43. I grew up in a single household and it is scary how much better off I am then my mother because I’m literally the poster boy for Gen X being sent to university and then getting a good job and working up. I had a lot of the advantages the previous generation have that were not there for the millennials such as free education, small student loans, a booming economy at just the right time. I have a DB pension which is a solid part of my retirement planning but have more than tripple its value in DC contributions. I did not get bank of Mum and Dad but when my mum passed away I got larger inheritance than I expected so there is that.

    Its harder to compare with my father who I only connected with a few years ago but in a number of factors I am doing better than his other family who now live in Ireland.

    I worry about my young kids and if they will be worse off than me. I am an older father so I expect they will get a good inheritance if I die at before 80 but I don’t want them to have to rely on my death to progress.

    I am also very frugal which combined with a salary over £150k+ means that we tend to buy well and it lasts. I would get the Tupperware!

44. Back to my home country, my family was extremely poor. My parents resigned from their office job to run a sausage business. For about 30 years now, every morning at 1am, my mom would get up and go to local butchers to collect fresh meat, brought them home to start making sausages. My dad got up a bit later to start the machine and steaming system. When they made enough, my mom would take some to sell at the local market while my dad kept the process at home till all of the orders fulfilled. He then went to work his full time job. My mom returned home around 10am to clean the entire house and make lunch. They took a quick lunch nap before heading back out to work again. My mom would go to do side gigs like supplying for ceremonies, funerals, weddings, etc… with anything related to food. They would get back home around 5.30pm to make dinner. My sister and I were sort of forced to mature earlier than we should as we had to learn to take care of ourselves and each other very early on. We had dinner. My sister and I did our homework and self study from 7 till midnight while my parents sorted the orders for next days and prepared the equipments. They would go to bed around 10pm. During peak seasons like Lunar New Year, they would barely have more than 2-3 hours of sleep a day for a week straight. They did that for over 30 years to get us to where we are today. I’ll never ever be able to reach that level of hard working as them. Like, ever ever. Even though they didn’t raise me properly and I have some resentments towards them, I do love them with all my heart as their son, and respect them massively as an adult. My sister and I are doing ok for ourselves but my parents continue to do the job, but it’s a lot easier now with all the new technology and their ages. Imagining someone working in a rural area and still being able to afford a condo in London. I don’t think I can ever do that.

45. I’m much better off than my parents with a combined household income before 30 of 4x what my parents have ever been on. My mum owned a house at 21 on a bank clerk’s salary with my dad who worked on a farm.

    My partner and I are both professionals having been to university and we are years off buying a house ☹️

46. Parents had me and owned a home at my age. I can barely afford rent

47. I’ll likely never own a house and probably because of that never have a pet. All I want is a small house somewhere and a cat but that seems like an impossible dream.

48. My dad was from poverty so got a grant to go to university . He got a decent job but no university fees , he bought a house for £10000 that was a wreck – an entire house for far less than a years salary. He did it up and exchanged it for a modest house in the poshest area of the city, years later when he got to a more senior (but not crazy) level he extended it fairly heavily. He owns what could be considered a mansion having never had an inheritance or more than moderate to good professional role . He retired at age 60 with one of the boomer years generous pensions .

    These days you’ll pay £30-£50 k for the same education, the housing market in no way resembles what it did back then and you’ll be lucky if someone in government’s mate hasn’t stolen your pension before you retire at age 78

49. I feel people today (including myself) are pretty spoiled. A lot of the things my family eat / drink / do almost every week would have been a rare treat when I was a child..