Posted on 12/13/2015 8:30:27 AM PST by Kaslin
Yep—why do they need savings if they live with mom and dad?
And it’s not surprising that 2 out of the 7 who don’t live their parents also don’t yet have $1K in savings.
A lot of FReepers bashing this one I see. But consider for a moment that for many boomers...a savings account used to pay 5% compounded interest. Today, it pays less than 1%. Savings account? Why both having one?
My first few apartments, decent ones, rent was under $300. I could grocery shop for two people on less than $50 per week and eat good at home. We didn’t worry about being able to have gas for the cars, gas didn’t need more than $10 bucks to fill up.
There’s a lot of things dipping into that “savings” account that 2 generations ago we really didn’t even have to think about really.
So if all things are even...if inflation rose, wages have been pretty stagnant...then the subsequent savings would decrease.
You can’t worry about savings when the economy isn’t working properly.
I’m only mid 60s, I feel older than that but my kids say I look a decade younger.
We lived three generations together in the old family home, rebuilt in 1840.
A big old four bedroom house with running water. The septic system was added in 1964, so I spent my earliest years using the outhouse.
I grew up very rural. We were only five miles from the nearest town but that was a completely different world.
We only *went to town* once a month to get what we couldn’t grow, raise or make ourselves.
Coffee, tea, sugar from the grocery store. Cloth, buttons and sewing supplies from the variety store.
We did have space in the community frozen food locker. We put a couple of steers away every year.
There was the Farm and Home store for everything a farmer needed, from seed and fertilizer to gum boots and overalls.
Daddy made me learn how to plow and cultivate with the horses before he let me get on the tractor.
Many times he told me “don’t let those horses get too hot”. He never said anything about me getting too hot.
Now though, I am glad he did it. It taught me patience and care and gave me an experience that has served me well.
Other than my daddy, momma and my brother everyone around me was about two generations older. I grew up with their attitudes and beliefs.
It was almost a relief when I quit school to work full time because I had very little in common with my contemporaries.
I was raised to love and care for those around me and that family was family from birth to death.
Caring for an elderly family member wasn’t a chore it was an opportunity to return their love.
I have had a somewhat odd life.
But it has given me great and wonderful memories.
My dear old dad lived through the great depression. He was driven by an extreme fear of poverty. He was still living below this standard of living, recycling and fixing things, and still saving for his “old age” when he died at 87. His advise to me was to live within my means, save something back for a rainy day, pay cash, stay out of debt, and keep it in your pants.
Of course when I left home, I proceeded to straightaway ignore the old man’s advise. I soon learned he wasn’t as dumb as I thought and just maybe I could be wrong about some things.
It is a shame too many from all age groups tend to ignore the wisdom and experience of their elders instead of profiting from it. We are now in the digital age, but somethings never change. Many are doomed to repeat the past.
Not hardly (purchase $70K Ford Truck) but could if I wanted.
Back in the day welfare, food stamps, were for the trash of society who were too lazy to work.
Today it seems to have become commonplace for people to turn to the government for everything.
I hate this cowardly new world.
C’mon, just a thousand for inevitable emergencies.
Where is the temperature gauge on a horse? :)
Get married. Try to live on 1 income. In 5 years you can save $20k x 5 = $100k. Adjust amounts. Invest in stock.
You can save if you work out on paper what you pay every month. I have a sister who is on a fixed income who is always running out of money. She admitted to me she spends $200 a month feeding wild animals..... while she complains about the old shoes, clothes other things she wants etc. She so stupid!
Now for these Millennials I suggest cutting back on the big cable and cell phone bills. I have co-workers who brag about how fast their internet connection is such as 100mb at a higher price but they say it is worth it vs say 25mb they could be paying for at a lower price that is really just all they need. Netflix works at a much lower speed so money wasted on that higher costly speed. Those coffee shops are probably costing them big time too.
The hair gel to spike that hair in a don’t need to comb my greasy hair look costs too : )
“I have had a somewhat odd life.
But it has given me great and wonderful memories.”
More people envy you that than you probably realize.
I was the temperature gauge!
I could break a heavy sweat but not those horses.
Ever heard the term “don’t get all lathered up”?
A horse sweats enough to work up a lather you done worked that horse too hard.
From outhouses to Android phones it’s been a strange road.
I just want the next generation to experience the freedom and, at times, sense of wonder that I have experienced.
This truly is the greatest country in the world.
I only want it stronger and freer.
Relates to Horses....
Well, you learn something new everyday.
Thanks for that. :)
Mortgages are most certainly not evil. When not abused by idiot Presidents and community organizers they were the single biggest contributor to a nation where almost any middle class worker could afford to buy a home to raise a family in.
Families who rent a home pay far more out over time than the interest and taxes on buying with a mortgage. Over the long term if you buy in a decent place to live the increase in value of your property far outstrips the mortgage interest, basically allowing you to collect all of the capital gains on an asset that the bank owns most of during the first 10 years or so.
Yeah...you pay the value of the property two, three, maybe four times over.
What's the cost of the loan? Take the monthly payment, take it times the number of years, times twelve. Subtract the principal.
The problem is mortgages have normalized the purchase of far more house than one needs. Long repayments make it easy to commit to bigger, fancier, closer. Then one’s options are limited: the monthly payment must be made. Smaller sensible housing construction is demoted in favor of always a bit more, leaving few palatable options at low price points.
By the time most mortgage holders figure this out, they’re stuck. Real estate crashes don’t help.
Yes I’m bitter.
Well, no, I think that was my point.
I am not sure it was THE greatest generation. I am sure there were some truly great Americans that were part of it.
But if they were homogenously so great, why such an apparently poor legacy?
Yes you pay more than using cash, but the extra money is less than renting someplace else while you try to accumulate enough to pay cash for that property, and chances are you will have to pay two or three or four times as much for that property by the time you build up enough cash.
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