Why do people think Boomers had it so good?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I purchased my first home in 1986 with a mortgage rate of 11%.

Mortgage rate doesn’t matter all that matters is the price you paid. Your rate might have been high but your prices were WAY lower then.

Better to spend 90k on a house with 11% than 600k on a house with 3%

Then, why is everyone complaining about mortgage prices now?

[Anonymous]

My parents bought their house in suburban Boston in 1970. They sold in 1996 for 11 times what they bought and had upkept the house but did not add or significantly renovate. DH and I bought in 1996 - and we renovated extensively. We are about to sell for 4 times what we bought. Housing prices have not gone up as much in the past ~25 years as much as they did in the previous ~25 years. Both houses are in highly sought after neighborhoods.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I purchased my first home in 1986 with a mortgage rate of 11%.

Mortgage rate doesn’t matter all that matters is the price you paid. Your rate might have been high but your prices were WAY lower then.

Better to spend 90k on a house with 11% than 600k on a house with 3%

Then, why is everyone complaining about mortgage prices now?

Because prices haven't gone down as rates have gone up. In the 80s, the prices reflected the rates, now they don't

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Look, it's all being able to look through the rearview mirror and then make the determination that Boomers had it good.

However, if you were to magically transport back to 1981, you would never envy the Boomer generation.

The Dow was 9400 in 1965...and it was 2700 in 1982...can you imagine living through 17 years where the stock market collapsed by 71%? It was a slow-moving trainwreck. Inflation was also nuts...like over 10% per year.

Now, between 1982 and today the Dow went almost straight shot from 2,700 to 40,000. All those boomers that just left their accumulated savings in the market made a fortune.

Also, the WSJ just published an article saying that housing affordability today is essentially the same as it was in 1984. It become significantly more affordable between 1984 - 2015...then zoomed higher to unaffordable through today.

The big differences are that both college and healthcare as a %age of income were way lower back in the day. You could go to Harvard for literally $650 in 1955...which would only be like $10k in today's dollars.

Only the very wealthy had money in the stock market. Middle class boomers and their pensions and cheap houses and were pretty comfortable. They had housing, [/b]affordable medical car, and cheap colleges, [b]and one spouse didn’t have to work to make this happen - so no childcare camps. Maybe they don’t travel as much or have fancy phones? But millennials recognize that giving up a phone and avacado toast is not going to close the gap on housing costs. The income to housing ratio has been terrible for 20 years.

Link to that WSJ article about housing affordability?

Medical care was adorable because it was more basic car and fewer technologies and treatments.

College is still affordable if you attend state schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Look, it's all being able to look through the rearview mirror and then make the determination that Boomers had it good.

However, if you were to magically transport back to 1981, you would never envy the Boomer generation.

The Dow was 9400 in 1965...and it was 2700 in 1982...can you imagine living through 17 years where the stock market collapsed by 71%? It was a slow-moving trainwreck. Inflation was also nuts...like over 10% per year.

Now, between 1982 and today the Dow went almost straight shot from 2,700 to 40,000. All those boomers that just left their accumulated savings in the market made a fortune.

Also, the WSJ just published an article saying that housing affordability today is essentially the same as it was in 1984. It become significantly more affordable between 1984 - 2015...then zoomed higher to unaffordable through today.

The big differences are that both college and healthcare as a %age of income were way lower back in the day. You could go to Harvard for literally $650 in 1955...which would only be like $10k in today's dollars.

Only the very wealthy had money in the stock market. Middle class boomers and their pensions and cheap houses and were pretty comfortable. They had housing, [/b]affordable medical car, and cheap colleges, [b]and one spouse didn’t have to work to make this happen - so no childcare camps. Maybe they don’t travel as much or have fancy phones? But millennials recognize that giving up a phone and avacado toast is not going to close the gap on housing costs. The income to housing ratio has been terrible for 20 years.

Link to that WSJ article about housing affordability?

Medical care was adorable because it was more basic car and fewer technologies and treatments.

College is still affordable if you attend state schools.

Public college is extremely cheap if you go to the local state school. In NY, tuition and fees are $0 if parents make under $125k. Considering there is a state school in NY less than a 30min drive for 99% of the population means your only expense is the commute and books!

Other states have similar programs if not quite as generous or convenient.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Look, it's all being able to look through the rearview mirror and then make the determination that Boomers had it good.

However, if you were to magically transport back to 1981, you would never envy the Boomer generation.

The Dow was 9400 in 1965...and it was 2700 in 1982...can you imagine living through 17 years where the stock market collapsed by 71%? It was a slow-moving trainwreck. Inflation was also nuts...like over 10% per year.

Now, between 1982 and today the Dow went almost straight shot from 2,700 to 40,000. All those boomers that just left their accumulated savings in the market made a fortune.

Also, the WSJ just published an article saying that housing affordability today is essentially the same as it was in 1984. It become significantly more affordable between 1984 - 2015...then zoomed higher to unaffordable through today.

The big differences are that both college and healthcare as a %age of income were way lower back in the day. You could go to Harvard for literally $650 in 1955...which would only be like $10k in today's dollars.

Only the very wealthy had money in the stock market. Middle class boomers and their pensions and cheap houses and were pretty comfortable. They had housing, [/b]affordable medical car, and cheap colleges, [b]and one spouse didn’t have to work to make this happen - so no childcare camps. Maybe they don’t travel as much or have fancy phones? But millennials recognize that giving up a phone and avacado toast is not going to close the gap on housing costs. The income to housing ratio has been terrible for 20 years.

Link to that WSJ article about housing affordability?

Medical care was adorable because it was more basic car and fewer technologies and treatments.

College is still affordable if you attend state schools.

Public college is extremely cheap if you go to the local state school. In NY, tuition and fees are $0 if parents make under $125k. Considering there is a state school in NY less than a 30min drive for 99% of the population means your only expense is the commute and books!

Other states have similar programs if not quite as generous or convenient.

You’re posting on a Washington DC based forum. Why would you think New York’s education policies are relevant to most people here?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Health insurance is a good point, too. HDHPs and PPOs are touted like some type of wealth building policy, but they are not. I just finished paying 8k OOP for healthcare with a PPO that costs 5K/year for a family. All in network doctors, employer provided insurance from a national company. In years where none of us become severely sick or injured, our premiums subside Boomer coworkers on prescriptions and in need of continued care who don’t retire until they are 70 or older.

It is absolutely not a good point. The advances in health care, both in pharmaceuticals and procedures, are absolutely mind boggling. There is so much more available now. In addition, Americans have a much less healthy lifestyle now than they did then, even factoring in smoking. So there's a lot more to treat now, and a lot more ways to treat it.

If you would like to go back to the health care available in the 70s, then you can have the health insurance and cost of health care that covered that health care completely. You can't pick and choose, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a hard insight issue and the tricky part is that it's impossible to know if the comparison is fair because not enough time has passed.

Yes Boomers dealt with Vietnam, stagflation, and much more restrictive banking policies that made home ownership more challenging. However that turned around and Boomers then enjoyed perhaps the single most prosperous two decades in the US during their prime earning years. The homes the bought in the early 80s with 12% interest rates and that they had to scrimp and save for to qualify at all, doubled, then ,tripled, then quadrupled in value. Their salaries also increased by multiples. The stock market exploded and they wound up on the ground floor of that rocket.

So yes, in 1982, boomers as a generation were struggling. But in 2024 they are not. They have immense wealth, plus social security is still solvent and medicare is actually functioning better than ever thanks to work on prescription drug prices and supplemental plans. They made it.

Millennials have different challenges. Yes mortgage rates are lower and the rules around mortgages are looser (though not quite as loose as they used to be and that's a good thing). Millennials have more debt starting out thanks to education costs, and unlike boomers they have zero faith their own children will be able to self-fund college. The economy is stronger but the job market is more competitive thanks to globalization and American workers must compete with more highly qualified workers.

Maybe it will all work out like it did for boomers. I hope so! One challenge millennials face is that they continue to lack political power as the political landscape remains dominated by Boomers with a continued focus on Boomer concerns. Key millennial issues (cost of college and cost of housing) still lack consensus and addressing them has been an uphill battle.

To top it off, when millennials advocate for policies that would relieve these key pressures, they are called entitled and whiny and told "hey boomers had high mortgage rates and it was hard to even qualify." But this ignores the fact that *those circumstances changed because they were bad.* Policies shifted to make it easier to buy a home and boomers profited wildly from it. The reason mortgage rules were relaxed and rates brought down over time was not dome gift to millennials. These were policies intended to help boomers. And they did.

This made me chuckle. Sure, they dealt with the ravages of war but it's NBD. Such a millennial post.

My dad is a Boomer. Served during the Vietnam era. I don't think he'd shrug it off so lightly. My grandfather was greatest generation and served in WW2. He came back deaf and a changed man. I don't think younger generations quite understand the long-lasting effects that these wars had on these generations - particularly those that served, which constituted a huge portion of the population.

Millennials only focus on how much money they believe Boomers have now - in their retirement. And no, they're not looking at struggling boomers in middle-America but their own white, wealthy parents. My darling millennials - your worldview is skewed. Of course white, wealthy boomers have money now after 50 years of savings. You, too, will have more money after investing for 50 years. This is basic math.

But lucky you that you will likely never have to serve in war as every generation before you, and you have significantly more physical, food, and political security than any prior time in history. I know that they don't believe that but just open a history book to any random year in the 19th/20th century and do a side-by-side. Plus, most of what I hear complaints about are not buying a 3500 sq ft house. Ok. Check avg housing size in 1950 and then get back to me.

Imagine thinking Vietnam was the last war. Who do you think went to Iraq? Afghanistan? Those silly millennials who have only known peace, I guess.

Vietnam was the last war to have a draft. Being drafted for a war and electing to pursue a military career are two very different paths. Plus, 1 out of 10 servicemen in Vietnam died. There were nearly 60K US deaths with only 4K in Iraq. You cannot compare the two, or their impact on the general public.

Back to millennials not understanding basic US civics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a hard insight issue and the tricky part is that it's impossible to know if the comparison is fair because not enough time has passed.

Yes Boomers dealt with Vietnam, stagflation, and much more restrictive banking policies that made home ownership more challenging. However that turned around and Boomers then enjoyed perhaps the single most prosperous two decades in the US during their prime earning years. The homes the bought in the early 80s with 12% interest rates and that they had to scrimp and save for to qualify at all, doubled, then ,tripled, then quadrupled in value. Their salaries also increased by multiples. The stock market exploded and they wound up on the ground floor of that rocket.

So yes, in 1982, boomers as a generation were struggling. But in 2024 they are not. They have immense wealth, plus social security is still solvent and medicare is actually functioning better than ever thanks to work on prescription drug prices and supplemental plans. They made it.

Millennials have different challenges. Yes mortgage rates are lower and the rules around mortgages are looser (though not quite as loose as they used to be and that's a good thing). Millennials have more debt starting out thanks to education costs, and unlike boomers they have zero faith their own children will be able to self-fund college. The economy is stronger but the job market is more competitive thanks to globalization and American workers must compete with more highly qualified workers.

Maybe it will all work out like it did for boomers. I hope so! One challenge millennials face is that they continue to lack political power as the political landscape remains dominated by Boomers with a continued focus on Boomer concerns. Key millennial issues (cost of college and cost of housing) still lack consensus and addressing them has been an uphill battle.

To top it off, when millennials advocate for policies that would relieve these key pressures, they are called entitled and whiny and told "hey boomers had high mortgage rates and it was hard to even qualify." But this ignores the fact that *those circumstances changed because they were bad.* Policies shifted to make it easier to buy a home and boomers profited wildly from it. The reason mortgage rules were relaxed and rates brought down over time was not dome gift to millennials. These were policies intended to help boomers. And they did.

This made me chuckle. Sure, they dealt with the ravages of war but it's NBD. Such a millennial post.

My dad is a Boomer. Served during the Vietnam era. I don't think he'd shrug it off so lightly. My grandfather was greatest generation and served in WW2. He came back deaf and a changed man. I don't think younger generations quite understand the long-lasting effects that these wars had on these generations - particularly those that served, which constituted a huge portion of the population.

Millennials only focus on how much money they believe Boomers have now - in their retirement. And no, they're not looking at struggling boomers in middle-America but their own white, wealthy parents. My darling millennials - your worldview is skewed. Of course white, wealthy boomers have money now after 50 years of savings. You, too, will have more money after investing for 50 years. This is basic math.

But lucky you that you will likely never have to serve in war as every generation before you, and you have significantly more physical, food, and political security than any prior time in history. I know that they don't believe that but just open a history book to any random year in the 19th/20th century and do a side-by-side. Plus, most of what I hear complaints about are not buying a 3500 sq ft house. Ok. Check avg housing size in 1950 and then get back to me.

Imagine thinking Vietnam was the last war. Who do you think went to Iraq? Afghanistan? Those silly millennials who have only known peace, I guess.

Vietnam was the last war to have a draft. Being drafted for a war and electing to pursue a military career are two very different paths. Plus, 1 out of 10 servicemen in Vietnam died. There were nearly 60K US deaths with only 4K in Iraq. You cannot compare the two, or their impact on the general public.

Back to millennials not understanding basic US civics.

Plus, Iraq War was 2003 to 2011. That's GenX

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The oldest boomers were getting their first job and getting married in early to mid 60s. The 1970s were hard for working families. I am old enough to remember thinking the lines at gas stations and grocery stores were normal. I remember living in a house, but didn't think it was odd that the rooms weren't furnished for years, and "shopping" at garage sales to find a bed. My dad build my desk out of found materials. We wore clothes re-made out of material scavenged from Goodwill clothing. We made our curtains, grew and canned food, kids were sent on "adventures" into the woods to forage for berries, crab apples, and mushrooms. And we were privileged. We knew we were not poor, as my parents had good white collar jobs, and we lived in a nice middle class neighborhood, but all the money went into that home ownership, food, and gas so my parents could carpool to work. We were mostly latch key feral kids in our neighborhood (my mom was a non-contract teacher (so not pension eligible) so everyone ended up at our house after school); no one had nannies or after care or camps or club sports. No one went to restaurants. Vacation was camping (using Dad's old GI gear). No one had or needed multiple cars or electronics or giant metal mugs or fancy tennis shoes or cable TV or the myriad other things we think of today as "necessities." There was no extra money to be saving from age 22 on, and no, these boomers didn't have pensions either.

Is that how your white collar life is right now? Would you be willing to live that way to get the house of your dreams? Because that's what a lot of Boomers did.

I think the people who complain about Boomers must come from truly wealthy and privileged families. Further to a PP's pension story, my uncles retired with healthy pensions too, until the companies let the pension funds go bankrupt and left them with literally nothing to live on (pre-1974 PBGC). They and their wives did not go golfing, they went job hunting in their late 60s-early 70s. Not everyone had it as easy as your family. And not a lot of jobs had pensions in the first place.

I was born in the 70's. My brother and I wore hand me downs. My parents had one car, and that was a stretch. A holiday was a once per year visit to the grandparents. If we did extra curricular activities they were the free ones in the community. My parents lived in the same house for 30 years.

Some millennial would have a panic attack at wearing hand me downs as a teenager. No big holiday - what?? Or parents of young kids running to every activity going. So many are unwilling to make the sacrifices it took to get Boomers where they are. They want everything NOW. The new house, 2 new cars, multiple big screen tv's etc. Then they wonder about retirement.

[Anonymous]

Being a boomer was genuinely the best thing ever. Buy a home in 1975. Buy an index fund in 1978.

No one had it easier than the boomers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a hard insight issue and the tricky part is that it's impossible to know if the comparison is fair because not enough time has passed.

Yes Boomers dealt with Vietnam, stagflation, and much more restrictive banking policies that made home ownership more challenging. However that turned around and Boomers then enjoyed perhaps the single most prosperous two decades in the US during their prime earning years. The homes the bought in the early 80s with 12% interest rates and that they had to scrimp and save for to qualify at all, doubled, then ,tripled, then quadrupled in value. Their salaries also increased by multiples. The stock market exploded and they wound up on the ground floor of that rocket.

So yes, in 1982, boomers as a generation were struggling. But in 2024 they are not. They have immense wealth, plus social security is still solvent and medicare is actually functioning better than ever thanks to work on prescription drug prices and supplemental plans. They made it.

Millennials have different challenges. Yes mortgage rates are lower and the rules around mortgages are looser (though not quite as loose as they used to be and that's a good thing). Millennials have more debt starting out thanks to education costs, and unlike boomers they have zero faith their own children will be able to self-fund college. The economy is stronger but the job market is more competitive thanks to globalization and American workers must compete with more highly qualified workers.

Maybe it will all work out like it did for boomers. I hope so! One challenge millennials face is that they continue to lack political power as the political landscape remains dominated by Boomers with a continued focus on Boomer concerns. Key millennial issues (cost of college and cost of housing) still lack consensus and addressing them has been an uphill battle.

To top it off, when millennials advocate for policies that would relieve these key pressures, they are called entitled and whiny and told "hey boomers had high mortgage rates and it was hard to even qualify." But this ignores the fact that *those circumstances changed because they were bad.* Policies shifted to make it easier to buy a home and boomers profited wildly from it. The reason mortgage rules were relaxed and rates brought down over time was not dome gift to millennials. These were policies intended to help boomers. And they did.

This made me chuckle. Sure, they dealt with the ravages of war but it's NBD. Such a millennial post.

My dad is a Boomer. Served during the Vietnam era. I don't think he'd shrug it off so lightly. My grandfather was greatest generation and served in WW2. He came back deaf and a changed man. I don't think younger generations quite understand the long-lasting effects that these wars had on these generations - particularly those that served, which constituted a huge portion of the population.

Millennials only focus on how much money they believe Boomers have now - in their retirement. And no, they're not looking at struggling boomers in middle-America but their own white, wealthy parents. My darling millennials - your worldview is skewed. Of course white, wealthy boomers have money now after 50 years of savings. You, too, will have more money after investing for 50 years. This is basic math.

But lucky you that you will likely never have to serve in war as every generation before you, and you have significantly more physical, food, and political security than any prior time in history. I know that they don't believe that but just open a history book to any random year in the 19th/20th century and do a side-by-side. Plus, most of what I hear complaints about are not buying a 3500 sq ft house. Ok. Check avg housing size in 1950 and then get back to me.

Imagine thinking Vietnam was the last war. Who do you think went to Iraq? Afghanistan? Those silly millennials who have only known peace, I guess.

Vietnam was the last war to have a draft. Being drafted for a war and electing to pursue a military career are two very different paths. Plus, 1 out of 10 servicemen in Vietnam died. There were nearly 60K US deaths with only 4K in Iraq. You cannot compare the two, or their impact on the general public.

Back to millennials not understanding basic US civics.

Plus, Iraq War was 2003 to 2011. That's GenX

Millennials were born between 1986-2011.

Someone born in 1986 was 17 years old in 2003, and 25 in 2011. There were definitely millennials in Iraq.

Also, US service members were dying in Afghanistan as recently as 2021-even Gen Z were killed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Being a boomer was genuinely the best thing ever. Buy a home in 1975. Buy an index fund in 1978.

No one had it easier than the boomers.

Oh, honey.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a hard insight issue and the tricky part is that it's impossible to know if the comparison is fair because not enough time has passed.

Yes Boomers dealt with Vietnam, stagflation, and much more restrictive banking policies that made home ownership more challenging. However that turned around and Boomers then enjoyed perhaps the single most prosperous two decades in the US during their prime earning years. The homes the bought in the early 80s with 12% interest rates and that they had to scrimp and save for to qualify at all, doubled, then ,tripled, then quadrupled in value. Their salaries also increased by multiples. The stock market exploded and they wound up on the ground floor of that rocket.

So yes, in 1982, boomers as a generation were struggling. But in 2024 they are not. They have immense wealth, plus social security is still solvent and medicare is actually functioning better than ever thanks to work on prescription drug prices and supplemental plans. They made it.

Millennials have different challenges. Yes mortgage rates are lower and the rules around mortgages are looser (though not quite as loose as they used to be and that's a good thing). Millennials have more debt starting out thanks to education costs, and unlike boomers they have zero faith their own children will be able to self-fund college. The economy is stronger but the job market is more competitive thanks to globalization and American workers must compete with more highly qualified workers.

Maybe it will all work out like it did for boomers. I hope so! One challenge millennials face is that they continue to lack political power as the political landscape remains dominated by Boomers with a continued focus on Boomer concerns. Key millennial issues (cost of college and cost of housing) still lack consensus and addressing them has been an uphill battle.

To top it off, when millennials advocate for policies that would relieve these key pressures, they are called entitled and whiny and told "hey boomers had high mortgage rates and it was hard to even qualify." But this ignores the fact that *those circumstances changed because they were bad.* Policies shifted to make it easier to buy a home and boomers profited wildly from it. The reason mortgage rules were relaxed and rates brought down over time was not dome gift to millennials. These were policies intended to help boomers. And they did.

This made me chuckle. Sure, they dealt with the ravages of war but it's NBD. Such a millennial post.

My dad is a Boomer. Served during the Vietnam era. I don't think he'd shrug it off so lightly. My grandfather was greatest generation and served in WW2. He came back deaf and a changed man. I don't think younger generations quite understand the long-lasting effects that these wars had on these generations - particularly those that served, which constituted a huge portion of the population.

Millennials only focus on how much money they believe Boomers have now - in their retirement. And no, they're not looking at struggling boomers in middle-America but their own white, wealthy parents. My darling millennials - your worldview is skewed. Of course white, wealthy boomers have money now after 50 years of savings. You, too, will have more money after investing for 50 years. This is basic math.

But lucky you that you will likely never have to serve in war as every generation before you, and you have significantly more physical, food, and political security than any prior time in history. I know that they don't believe that but just open a history book to any random year in the 19th/20th century and do a side-by-side. Plus, most of what I hear complaints about are not buying a 3500 sq ft house. Ok. Check avg housing size in 1950 and then get back to me.

Imagine thinking Vietnam was the last war. Who do you think went to Iraq? Afghanistan? Those silly millennials who have only known peace, I guess.

Vietnam was the last war to have a draft. Being drafted for a war and electing to pursue a military career are two very different paths. Plus, 1 out of 10 servicemen in Vietnam died. There were nearly 60K US deaths with only 4K in Iraq. You cannot compare the two, or their impact on the general public.

Back to millennials not understanding basic US civics.

Plus, Iraq War was 2003 to 2011. That's GenX

Millennials were born between 1986-2011.

Someone born in 1986 was 17 years old in 2003, and 25 in 2011. There were definitely millennials in Iraq.

Also, US service members were dying in Afghanistan as recently as 2021-even Gen Z were killed.

It’s actually 1981-1996 according to the vast majority of published resources so in fact a majority of the Iraq/Afghanistan deaths were Millennials.

[Anonymous]

Millennials voluntarily purchase the latest cell phones, multiple expensive TVs for a single home, expansive cable selections plus streaming, not satisfied with smaller starter homes (linoleum can't be kept! Only the most expensive marble), clothing (no one makes their own anymore), only the most precious foods and beverages will pass their lips, etc., etc., etc.

Your parents failed. They raised entitled little brats who fail to appreciate that boomers saved and struggled for decades (when is the last time gasoline was rationed? Not in a millennial lifetime). It is time for you people to grow up and see if you can't avoid being know as the Whiniest Generation.