Reply to Are you richer than your parents?

Forum Index » Money and Finances

Reply to "Are you richer than your parents?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]Interesting question.  I honestly don't know if I'm better off than my parents.  My father is a first generation immigrant who grew up very poor - didn't have indoor plumbing and he used an outhouse.  He enlisted in the military when he was 21, went to college after his four year enlistment then became an officer/pilot in the Air Force.  My father scrimped and saved, married later in life and was 40 when I was born (I'm the oldest.)  My dad didn't buy his first house until he was 42.  He retired from the military after 20 years and became a commercial pilot.  I know he saved 100% of his military retirement for the next 15 years while he still worked as a pilot.  He was forced to retire at 60.  My parents divorced a few years before my dad retired and my mom told me that he had amassed over a million in savings (and this was early 1980's.)  He paid for my private college.  He bought me my first car and gave me some money when I had my children.

We never lived lavishly, (I always knew he was very stingy with money) but because he was a pilot, we were able to fly for free or at greatly reduced prices.  By the time I was a teenager, I had been all over the world (we also did live in France and Japan while growing up.)  But that also meant sitting around airports waiting for space on a flight and not being able to travel together as a family.  My dad is now 94 and suffering from dementia.  He lives in a very comfortable memory care home.  We don't have to worry about how we are going to pay for his care.   He remarried 20 years ago and his wife takes care of his finances so I haven't seen his accounts but I know he still has money.

I started working at a well paying job right out of college and bought my first home (a condo) when I was 26.  My DH and I bought a very comfortable single family home when we got married at 33.  I became a SAHM at 38 but because I had saved the max in my 401K while I was working, it is now worth 400K.  My husband has over 1 million in his 401K.  We  have an additional 1 million in investments.  Plus 240,000 in 529's.

I did not drastically improve my standard of living like my father did. I think in some ways, I'm better off than my dad was at the same age, but in some ways I feel like he had saved more money.  I think in terms of day to day lifestyle, my children have a very similar upbringing.  We are currently paying for college.

According to a calculator I found online, $1,000,000 in 1980 is worth $3,275,000 today.  If my dad did have $1,000,000 in 1980 then I'm not doing as well he did since we only have $2,650,000.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics