Great aticle on how middle class is struggling and not saving enough

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Clearly the writer made poor decisions and is fully responsible for his poor choices and circumstances. That said, the reason he lives in the Hamptons is because of his job, not delusions of Wall Street grandeur. If you google him, he is a writing professor in South Hampton, which is a very solid job for a writer. The dumb move was buying a new home while the other had not sold. But living in the Hamptons is not itself a poor decision. Hopefully he has tenure and can keep working. Maybe coming out like this can lead to better decisionmaking.

His wife can choose to work or not, it might help their bottom line.

It would help a lot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Clearly the writer made poor decisions and is fully responsible for his poor choices and circumstances. That said, the reason he lives in the Hamptons is because of his job, not delusions of Wall Street grandeur. If you google him, he is a writing professor in South Hampton, which is a very solid job for a writer. The dumb move was buying a new home while the other had not sold. But living in the Hamptons is not itself a poor decision. Hopefully he has tenure and can keep working. Maybe coming out like this can lead to better decisionmaking.

His wife can choose to work or not, it might help their bottom line.

Actually, it's still not a wise decision, given his financial circumstances. People turn down jobs all the time because they can't afford to live in the area where the job is located. I know of a federal government job in Jackson Hole that has (or at least had, I haven't checked lately) gone unfilled because no one can afford to live in Jackson on a government salary. Further, there are places that are commuting distance to South Hampton that are not as expensive as South Hampton. His silly comment about how the "poor people" live in the Hamptons year-round (vs. the rich people only in the summer) shows that he understands that people will look askance at his choice.

But it's all fine -- his daughters got a fine education, and one of them has a high-paying job that allows her to pay his fuel bill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eh. I'm really not surprised that a seemingly rational and sane person puts himself in a precarious financial state keeping up with the Joneses. This is very similar to my family's story. My dad was a high ranking government official and because of whom we grew up and mingled with the world elite. The government perks made it so we were able to keep up with the Joneses and the prestige his title afforded us more than made up for our lack of actual funds. We wined and dined like the rich and lived like rich even though we had no savings no college funds no home. Ultimately dad retired and his pension isn't enough to keep us afloat. My younger siblings work part time in retail and attend NOVA. I have developed very elite tastes and find it hard to live a "normal" MC life. My parents have no retirement savings and no home. Its awful.

Where do your parent's live?
It's said that one shouldn't wander over to the luxurious side of life or it's hard to go back!!
Good luck to you.

Don't want to say for privacy reasons. It is really quite miserable. We all feel pretty shell shocked. I'm grateful I still managed to get my college paid for. My younger siblings are working retail and going to NOVA.

Ok, actually I didn't mean where as in location, I meant where do they live if they don't have a home - do you mean they are renting? Or at a homeless shelter? Hope they are adjusting, must be harder for them than it is for you because of their age I would think.

Are your parents living on the street?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eh. I'm really not surprised that a seemingly rational and sane person puts himself in a precarious financial state keeping up with the Joneses. This is very similar to my family's story. My dad was a high ranking government official and because of whom we grew up and mingled with the world elite. The government perks made it so we were able to keep up with the Joneses and the prestige his title afforded us more than made up for our lack of actual funds. We wined and dined like the rich and lived like rich even though we had no savings no college funds no home. Ultimately dad retired and his pension isn't enough to keep us afloat. My younger siblings work part time in retail and attend NOVA. I have developed very elite tastes and find it hard to live a "normal" MC life. My parents have no retirement savings and no home. Its awful.

+ 1 I struggle with the same. It's a form of child abuse in my opinion to grow up with pictures that just don't represent the real world in any way.
Good luck to you, don't let the anger eat you up. Jump over your pride. I dug myself out slowly but still feel like a fish out of water.

But what are you all doing as adults? OK, there are reasons to resent parents, but you, yourselves what are you doing to achieve the lifestyle that you want to have?

Well, I do not resent my parents. My parents went broke trying to provide for us the best of everything they had access to-at their own expense. Today they don't even have a home. I am forever grateful to them for introducing me to that world. Even now, people mistake me for an upper class person due to how I naturally carry myself and dress myself. I like to joke about how I am a kind of a white elephant. I relate more to the rich but cannot afford their life. I had to majorly downgrade my lifestyle upon my dad's retirement 5 years ago.

Part of being from that world was...I didn't go to college to earn a living. I studied Literature and am today a very poorly paid admin at a non profit in the area. My parents encouraged me to study what I wanted and to cultivate my mind and tastes and I had no idea that the rug would be pulled out of my feet upon graduation. I have tried to hold on to my old life by attempting to marry rich. HAHA. That did not pan out as my dh, although raised in a similar UC life growing up, also now has to fend for himself because his MC parents went broke financing his very expensive private education and vacations in France. We are both kind of confused, earning a MC living but living among and around the truly rich. I'd go back to school and earn a profitable degree but I have no money and do not want to get into debt. Its really quite a sick joke.

How old are you? Were your parents supporting you after college?

My parents were diplomats and we got to see a little of the lifestyle of the very wealthy. We definitely splurged on some things (vacations and restaurants, on occasion) and I was also encouraged to go to college and study whatever appealed to me. But my parents definitely saved and are in a good retirement situation now. It was a little bit of an awakening for me when I'd graduated from college and still had no idea what to do and realized the jobs I could get with my skills were admin-level work. I went back to grad school and got some hard skills and am in a better position now.

I am 27 years old. What did you go back to school for? I want to go back as well however, I really don't want to go into debt.

No one WANTS to go into debt. People make such choices to achieve a goal.

Grow up. Welcome to adulthood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
The recipe for success in America isn't that hard...get married

Yeah...if you're a woman.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why did the author empty his retirement plan to pay for his daughter's wedding? That's just dumb.

I agree, this was pretty god damn stupid. Should have told his spoiled brat to pay for her own god damn wedding.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He is finally admitting his problems to himself and he feels better that other Americans are in the same place.

Gets it

[Anonymous]

One thing that really stood out to me was how he was carrying two mortgages because he couldn't unload his co-op! What a moron.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:but I wanted to be financially secure so I went into law

Yeah, law! There's an industry that isn't restructuring at an incredible rate and has jobs a plenty and also all at six figures!

Fucking idiot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Eh. I'm really not surprised that a seemingly rational and sane person puts himself in a precarious financial state keeping up with the Joneses. This is very similar to my family's story. My dad was a high ranking government official and because of whom we grew up and mingled with the world elite. The government perks made it so we were able to keep up with the Joneses and the prestige his title afforded us more than made up for our lack of actual funds. We wined and dined like the rich and lived like rich even though we had no savings no college funds no home. Ultimately dad retired and his pension isn't enough to keep us afloat. My younger siblings work part time in retail and attend NOVA. I have developed very elite tastes and find it hard to live a "normal" MC life. My parents have no retirement savings and no home. Its awful.

Sucks to be you

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eh. I'm really not surprised that a seemingly rational and sane person puts himself in a precarious financial state keeping up with the Joneses. This is very similar to my family's story. My dad was a high ranking government official and because of whom we grew up and mingled with the world elite. The government perks made it so we were able to keep up with the Joneses and the prestige his title afforded us more than made up for our lack of actual funds. We wined and dined like the rich and lived like rich even though we had no savings no college funds no home. Ultimately dad retired and his pension isn't enough to keep us afloat. My younger siblings work part time in retail and attend NOVA. I have developed very elite tastes and find it hard to live a "normal" MC life. My parents have no retirement savings and no home. Its awful.

+ 1 I struggle with the same. It's a form of child abuse in my opinion to grow up with pictures that just don't represent the real world in any way.
Good luck to you, don't let the anger eat you up. Jump over your pride. I dug myself out slowly but still feel like a fish out of water.

But what are you all doing as adults? OK, there are reasons to resent parents, but you, yourselves what are you doing to achieve the lifestyle that you want to have?

How do

Well, I do not resent my parents. My parents went broke trying to provide for us the best of everything they had access to-at their own expense. Today they don't even have a home. I am forever grateful to them for introducing me to that world. Even now, people mistake me for an upper class person due to how I naturally carry myself and dress myself. I like to joke about how I am a kind of a white elephant. I relate more to the rich but cannot afford their life. I had to majorly downgrade my lifestyle upon my dad's retirement 5 years ago.

Part of being from that world was...I didn't go to college to earn a living. I studied Literature and am today a very poorly paid admin at a non profit in the area. My parents encouraged me to study what I wanted and to cultivate my mind and tastes and I had no idea that the rug would be pulled out of my feet upon graduation. I have tried to hold on to my old life by attempting to marry rich. HAHA. That did not pan out as my dh, although raised in a similar UC life growing up, also now has to fend for himself because his MC parents went broke financing his very expensive private education and vacations in France. We are both kind of confused, earning a MC living but living among and around the truly rich. I'd go back to school and earn a profitable degree but I have no money and do not want to get into debt. Its really quite a sick joke.

How do you define marrying rich? You sound miserable. Your poor husband- does he have any idea? Be thankful for what you've got.

[Anonymous]

I didn't really feel anything reading this article except - this guy got to make great life decisions. His wife didn't get to work so his children had a full time parent (highly educated at that - huge opportunity cost but awesome for the kids and him). He got to work in the profession he wanted. He got to live in highly desirable places. He got to provide his children with the 1% of education - even advanced degrees. On a more basic level - his children had food, shelter, clothing, loving parents, hot water etc. It appears that no one in his nuclear family has had any type of heath crisis.

What more did he expect out of life? A huge pile of money? He could have had that too. And can still have that - both him and his wife and work really hard for the next decade and stockpile money for retirement and be pretty comfortable. He is nothing like the working poor. Nothing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I didn't really feel anything reading this article except - this guy got to make great life decisions. His wife didn't get to work so his children had a full time parent (highly educated at that - huge opportunity cost but awesome for the kids and him). He got to work in the profession he wanted. He got to live in highly desirable places. He got to provide his children with the 1% of education - even advanced degrees. On a more basic level - his children had food, shelter, clothing, loving parents, hot water etc. It appears that no one in his nuclear family has had any type of heath crisis.

What more did he expect out of life? A huge pile of money? He could have had that too. And can still have that - both him and his wife and work really hard for the next decade and stockpile money for retirement and be pretty comfortable. He is nothing like the working poor. Nothing.

I really like this summary. I was left with a similar sentiment - you got a lot out of life, provided many privileges to your family (wife who didn't work, elite education etc) and now will have a very modest retirement.

[Anonymous]

I disagree with you - he can have a great retirement. As a writer, he should be able to work into his mid sixties. His wife should be able to work as well. He will get social security as will she. They can rent out their Hampton family house - should be able so score high rents in the summer months. I am estimating about $7K - $10K + a month in income. They should buy long term insurance though -

[Anonymous]

I found the house - it's assessed at $1.4M. The sale data is hard to find but it seems to have been purchased in 1999 for $731K.

For it to be worth less than he paid, he must have cash out refinanced hard. Neighbors are as or more expensive by the looks of it.