Reply to Why do people think Boomers had it so good?

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[quote=Anonymous]I think there are many ways to look at the issues that show the challenges. I'm early GenX.  My grandparents' generation had one earner who topped out at a GS-12 and was able to support a family and buy a single family house in Silver Spring. My parents generation had it a little less good, but you could get a quick summer job to pay for a year at college, and a degree wasn't really needed for most jobs. My mother still did not have to work for us to afford a single family house in a better part of Long Island. I went to an Ivy League and I probably couldn't have paid for all of it with a summer job, but my middle class parents were able to pay for it for me except for about $10k in loans which we paid off in about a year once I got a job.

I'm a topped out GS-15 single parent, and I live in a townhouse that I can afford mostly because I got on the property ladder about 15 years ago and I had taken assignments where my housing had been paid for and I banked all of that rent for a downpayment and I got a boost from the grandparents. I have one kid approaching college age, we have about $200k saved, and I still can't afford to pay for a private university for them and we're in the FAFSA bubble (and I don't really want them burdened with tens of thousands in loans). I"m more fortunate than many because I still have a full pension coming for me, but that's because I got on the LEO retirement FERS plan. I also had to fund a Thrift plan, but it's not as critical as most of my friends who have to sock it all away themselves

It's also getting harder to find smaller starter houses inside the beltway (see my GS-12 previous generations) that aren't immediately scooped up and torn down to build something huge.

So it really isn't about the avocado toast (although Millenials and GenZs could do a bit more tempering of expectations, especially about being fresh out of school and getting an apartment on your own -- even in my generation many people stayed in roommate situations until they got married) but what it is reasonable to expect you can get at certain milestones in your life.[/quote]

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