Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think most people learn from their parents. My parents were always frugal and good with money. They passed this down. I have done the same.

No. Just no. This doesn’t explain all the dynamics where one kid is great with money and the others aren’t. Just read the family relationship forum.

sigh, yea. I am frugal and have taught my kids to be. But, only one is like this. The other is "spend spend spend", though they are getting better about it - 17 yr old DC. At minimum, though, DC has been putting money away and saving, just not as much as I think they will need for spending money when they goes off to college.

Older DC, oth, has made and will make a lot from their internships. They will have like $100K by the end of this year saved, and they said that they don't have that much to spend on. Their only big splurge is skiing. They aren't even interested in buying a car right now. I think they are like me, they like to see their savings grow (and yes, it's invested).

Is more often than not the younger sibling with the less frugal habits? It’s definitely like that with my kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Debt and consumerism is pushed on us just like fast food and sports gambling. I refuse to get any store credit card. I just don’t see the point, but clearly people do it and carry a balance otherwise TJ Maxx and Ulta wouldn’t push it every time you bought something in the store. There are industries in this country that profit solely on the fact that a sucker is born every minute.

I moved to the US 2 years ago. I got a first glimpse of consumerism when I was watching a cartoon with my kiddo and there was a commercial that was telling kids "tell your parents you want blah blah..." I was like wow lol

I have a buddy who works at a European PE firm that owned one of the European high-end stroller companies (Bugaboo maker I think who was/is Dutch).

He said that you have to analyze the US market completely different from all other international markets...especially Europe. In Europe, a family will buy one of these $1,000 strollers and beat the shit out of it until all the kids are out of strollers and then look to resell it.

In the US, a family will buy three of these strollers...not because they have more kids...but because they keep one on the porch, they keep one in the car so they don't have to be bothered with folding the one on the porch, they will keep one at Grandma's house so they don't have to take the one out of the car and put it back in each time the kid is with Grandma, etc.

The same markets in the US are 2x - 3x the size per capita they are everywhere else (especially in the luxury markets).

I agree generally about the inescapable marketing drumbeat that we are constantly subjected to in the US. We lived overseas with our kids for years and was shocked by it when we returned to the US.

However, given this unprecedented barrage of ads aimed right at us, I think we do better than expected as a society. Not great but could be worse.

Who among us owns three $1k strollers? We own one $200 stroller.

I'm a new grandparent and we didn't buy the stroller because DD travels with it, but we bought a lot of other baby equipment and supplies so that it is easy for DD to visit with the baby. So we have a car seat, crib, high chair, bouncy chair, etc. So I guess this is playing out with 2x the items for one baby.

My kids were toddlers just when the Bugaboo first started showing up in the US. I remember we had a "nice" $150 stroller for the house and a complete, crap $25 stroller we kept in the car. We all thought it was crazy to pay $800 for a stroller.

Now, I walk around the neighborhood and while I am not a stroller expert, I see all these strollers with European names and assume they are all like $1,000+. It's now for every 20 strollers I see in the neighborhood, 19 will be these designer strollers and one looks like it costs like $250.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think most people learn from their parents. My parents were always frugal and good with money. They passed this down. I have done the same.

No. Just no. This doesn’t explain all the dynamics where one kid is great with money and the others aren’t. Just read the family relationship forum.

sigh, yea. I am frugal and have taught my kids to be. But, only one is like this. The other is "spend spend spend", though they are getting better about it - 17 yr old DC. At minimum, though, DC has been putting money away and saving, just not as much as I think they will need for spending money when they goes off to college.

Older DC, oth, has made and will make a lot from their internships. They will have like $100K by the end of this year saved, and they said that they don't have that much to spend on. Their only big splurge is skiing. They aren't even interested in buying a car right now. I think they are like me, they like to see their savings grow (and yes, it's invested).

Is more often than not the younger sibling with the less frugal habits? It’s definitely like that with my kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think most people learn from their parents. My parents were always frugal and good with money. They passed this down. I have done the same.

No. Just no. This doesn’t explain all the dynamics where one kid is great with money and the others aren’t. Just read the family relationship forum.

sigh, yea. I am frugal and have taught my kids to be. But, only one is like this. The other is "spend spend spend", though they are getting better about it - 17 yr old DC. At minimum, though, DC has been putting money away and saving, just not as much as I think they will need for spending money when they goes off to college.

Older DC, oth, has made and will make a lot from their internships. They will have like $100K by the end of this year saved, and they said that they don't have that much to spend on. Their only big splurge is skiing. They aren't even interested in buying a car right now. I think they are like me, they like to see their savings grow (and yes, it's invested).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think most people learn from their parents. My parents were always frugal and good with money. They passed this down. I have done the same.

No. Just no. This doesn’t explain all the dynamics where one kid is great with money and the others aren’t. Just read the family relationship forum.

Anonymous wrote:I think most people learn from their parents. My parents were always frugal and good with money. They passed this down. I have done the same.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Debt and consumerism is pushed on us just like fast food and sports gambling. I refuse to get any store credit card. I just don’t see the point, but clearly people do it and carry a balance otherwise TJ Maxx and Ulta wouldn’t push it every time you bought something in the store. There are industries in this country that profit solely on the fact that a sucker is born every minute.

I moved to the US 2 years ago. I got a first glimpse of consumerism when I was watching a cartoon with my kiddo and there was a commercial that was telling kids "tell your parents you want blah blah..." I was like wow lol

I have a buddy who works at a European PE firm that owned one of the European high-end stroller companies (Bugaboo maker I think who was/is Dutch).

He said that you have to analyze the US market completely different from all other international markets...especially Europe. In Europe, a family will buy one of these $1,000 strollers and beat the shit out of it until all the kids are out of strollers and then look to resell it.

In the US, a family will buy three of these strollers...not because they have more kids...but because they keep one on the porch, they keep one in the car so they don't have to be bothered with folding the one on the porch, they will keep one at Grandma's house so they don't have to take the one out of the car and put it back in each time the kid is with Grandma, etc.

The same markets in the US are 2x - 3x the size per capita they are everywhere else (especially in the luxury markets).

I agree generally about the inescapable marketing drumbeat that we are constantly subjected to in the US. We lived overseas with our kids for years and was shocked by it when we returned to the US.

However, given this unprecedented barrage of ads aimed right at us, I think we do better than expected as a society. Not great but could be worse.

Who among us owns three $1k strollers? We own one $200 stroller.

I'm a new grandparent and we didn't buy the stroller because DD travels with it, but we bought a lot of other baby equipment and supplies so that it is easy for DD to visit with the baby. So we have a car seat, crib, high chair, bouncy chair, etc. So I guess this is playing out with 2x the items for one baby.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Debt and consumerism is pushed on us just like fast food and sports gambling. I refuse to get any store credit card. I just don’t see the point, but clearly people do it and carry a balance otherwise TJ Maxx and Ulta wouldn’t push it every time you bought something in the store. There are industries in this country that profit solely on the fact that a sucker is born every minute.

I moved to the US 2 years ago. I got a first glimpse of consumerism when I was watching a cartoon with my kiddo and there was a commercial that was telling kids "tell your parents you want blah blah..." I was like wow lol

I have a buddy who works at a European PE firm that owned one of the European high-end stroller companies (Bugaboo maker I think who was/is Dutch).

He said that you have to analyze the US market completely different from all other international markets...especially Europe. In Europe, a family will buy one of these $1,000 strollers and beat the shit out of it until all the kids are out of strollers and then look to resell it.

In the US, a family will buy three of these strollers...not because they have more kids...but because they keep one on the porch, they keep one in the car so they don't have to be bothered with folding the one on the porch, they will keep one at Grandma's house so they don't have to take the one out of the car and put it back in each time the kid is with Grandma, etc.

The same markets in the US are 2x - 3x the size per capita they are everywhere else (especially in the luxury markets).

I agree generally about the inescapable marketing drumbeat that we are constantly subjected to in the US. We lived overseas with our kids for years and was shocked by it when we returned to the US.

However, given this unprecedented barrage of ads aimed right at us, I think we do better than expected as a society. Not great but could be worse.

Who among us owns three $1k strollers? We own one $200 stroller.

I'm a new grandparent and we didn't buy the stroller because DD travels with it, but we bought a lot of other baby equipment and supplies so that it is easy for DD to visit with the baby. So we have a car seat, crib, high chair, bouncy chair, etc. So I guess this is playing out with 2x the items for one baby.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Debt and consumerism is pushed on us just like fast food and sports gambling. I refuse to get any store credit card. I just don’t see the point, but clearly people do it and carry a balance otherwise TJ Maxx and Ulta wouldn’t push it every time you bought something in the store. There are industries in this country that profit solely on the fact that a sucker is born every minute.

I moved to the US 2 years ago. I got a first glimpse of consumerism when I was watching a cartoon with my kiddo and there was a commercial that was telling kids "tell your parents you want blah blah..." I was like wow lol

I have a buddy who works at a European PE firm that owned one of the European high-end stroller companies (Bugaboo maker I think who was/is Dutch).

He said that you have to analyze the US market completely different from all other international markets...especially Europe. In Europe, a family will buy one of these $1,000 strollers and beat the shit out of it until all the kids are out of strollers and then look to resell it.

In the US, a family will buy three of these strollers...not because they have more kids...but because they keep one on the porch, they keep one in the car so they don't have to be bothered with folding the one on the porch, they will keep one at Grandma's house so they don't have to take the one out of the car and put it back in each time the kid is with Grandma, etc.

The same markets in the US are 2x - 3x the size per capita they are everywhere else (especially in the luxury markets).

I agree generally about the inescapable marketing drumbeat that we are constantly subjected to in the US. We lived overseas with our kids for years and was shocked by it when we returned to the US.

However, given this unprecedented barrage of ads aimed right at us, I think we do better than expected as a society. Not great but could be worse.

Who among us owns three $1k strollers? We own one $200 stroller.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Debt and consumerism is pushed on us just like fast food and sports gambling. I refuse to get any store credit card. I just don’t see the point, but clearly people do it and carry a balance otherwise TJ Maxx and Ulta wouldn’t push it every time you bought something in the store. There are industries in this country that profit solely on the fact that a sucker is born every minute.

I moved to the US 2 years ago. I got a first glimpse of consumerism when I was watching a cartoon with my kiddo and there was a commercial that was telling kids "tell your parents you want blah blah..." I was like wow lol

I have a buddy who works at a European PE firm that owned one of the European high-end stroller companies (Bugaboo maker I think who was/is Dutch).

He said that you have to analyze the US market completely different from all other international markets...especially Europe. In Europe, a family will buy one of these $1,000 strollers and beat the shit out of it until all the kids are out of strollers and then look to resell it.

In the US, a family will buy three of these strollers...not because they have more kids...but because they keep one on the porch, they keep one in the car so they don't have to be bothered with folding the one on the porch, they will keep one at Grandma's house so they don't have to take the one out of the car and put it back in each time the kid is with Grandma, etc.

The same markets in the US are 2x - 3x the size per capita they are everywhere else (especially in the luxury markets).

I agree generally about the inescapable marketing drumbeat that we are constantly subjected to in the US. We lived overseas with our kids for years and was shocked by it when we returned to the US.

However, given this unprecedented barrage of ads aimed right at us, I think we do better than expected as a society. Not great but could be worse.

Who among us owns three $1k strollers? We own one $200 stroller.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Debt and consumerism is pushed on us just like fast food and sports gambling. I refuse to get any store credit card. I just don’t see the point, but clearly people do it and carry a balance otherwise TJ Maxx and Ulta wouldn’t push it every time you bought something in the store. There are industries in this country that profit solely on the fact that a sucker is born every minute.

I moved to the US 2 years ago. I got a first glimpse of consumerism when I was watching a cartoon with my kiddo and there was a commercial that was telling kids "tell your parents you want blah blah..." I was like wow lol

I have a buddy who works at a European PE firm that owned one of the European high-end stroller companies (Bugaboo maker I think who was/is Dutch).

He said that you have to analyze the US market completely different from all other international markets...especially Europe. In Europe, a family will buy one of these $1,000 strollers and beat the shit out of it until all the kids are out of strollers and then look to resell it.

In the US, a family will buy three of these strollers...not because they have more kids...but because they keep one on the porch, they keep one in the car so they don't have to be bothered with folding the one on the porch, they will keep one at Grandma's house so they don't have to take the one out of the car and put it back in each time the kid is with Grandma, etc.

The same markets in the US are 2x - 3x the size per capita they are everywhere else (especially in the luxury markets).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Debt and consumerism is pushed on us just like fast food and sports gambling. I refuse to get any store credit card. I just don’t see the point, but clearly people do it and carry a balance otherwise TJ Maxx and Ulta wouldn’t push it every time you bought something in the store. There are industries in this country that profit solely on the fact that a sucker is born every minute.

I moved to the US 2 years ago. I got a first glimpse of consumerism when I was watching a cartoon with my kiddo and there was a commercial that was telling kids "tell your parents you want blah blah..." I was like wow lol

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think most people learn from their parents. My parents were always frugal and good with money. They passed this down. I have done the same.

No. Just no. This doesn’t explain all the dynamics where one kid is great with money and the others aren’t. Just read the family relationship forum.

Anonymous wrote:Yes, this board is full of people born on third base who thought they hit a triple. I’m from a normal middle class background. Single mom, first in my family to graduate from college, took out student loans, paid them back. My kid also has student loans and will pay his back. Even if we cut every corner, I still don’t have enough to pay for everything. I always pay off my credit card debt but until I stop paying for college, it is super tight every month.