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"Financial conversations over time"
Love you, too
Does anybody else have financial struggle conversations with older generations who understand the current financial situation to be the same as when they were our age? I mean same proportions? The gap between income and cost of living. Anybody?
Couples that get messy together, stick together
My dearly departed Grand mother had a good saying... "Keep an eye on the pennies, pounds will look after themselves." In her youth, family values were high. Kids went to school unafaid of violence, it didn't happen. Debt was low, every penny precious, plenty to go around. Kids did chores before and after school, helping out with a deep sense of value, belonging and respect. A tram ride to the seaside, 11kms, cost her sixpence, as did an evening cinema, food and drink, and a ride home, total expense, two shillings, or 20 Cent. Family dinner out costs $ 100 bucks today, or more.
In 2023, we stand on the edge of our own pit of destruction. Money's the God of our universe, mankind caring not for future generations welfare, thousands starving and destitute, without hope. The wealthy few control the starving and destitute masses, passing one billion suffering human beings. Greed and thirst for power determins who lives well and who suffers and dies.
Not all bad news, one day we'll cease to exist, all because of the love of money, the root of all evil...
Poverty, famine, disease and death, heaped upon us all, because of a manufactured valueless paper or metal trinket, called money.
In 2023, we stand on the edge of our own pit of destruction. Money's the God of our universe, mankind caring not for future generations welfare, thousands starving and destitute, without hope. The wealthy few control the starving and destitute masses, passing one billion suffering human beings. Greed and thirst for power determins who lives well and who suffers and dies.
Not all bad news, one day we'll cease to exist, all because of the love of money, the root of all evil...
Poverty, famine, disease and death, heaped upon us all, because of a manufactured valueless paper or metal trinket, called money.
R.A.
I have a hard time with those conversations. The people I talk to can't understand why people are living pay check to pay check. Then I get to hear about the two jobs they had and how they made things work. Or about how we just waste money on things instead of spending wiser. The home ownership thing is big too. One thing they don't realize is that the cost of living to pay scale they had has not kept up and has shrunk considerably.
WildThang said: Does anybody else have financial struggle conversations with older generations who understand the current financial situation to be the same as when they were our age? I mean same proportions? The gap between income and cost of living. Anybody?
All the Time!! The way I put it into perspective is it all balances out in the end. Depending on how it's viewed, I honestly believe everything is hyper inflated because of the cost of living in other countries went up while the work force decreased, creating shortages. I live in California and I noticed a lot of out of country investors hyper inflated housing here to keep up with the demand of their cost of living where they live. However, it will all coming crashing down because at the rate we are moving is not sustainable. I study the real estate market for a living because I work in property management for affordable housing and this some of the observations (things I've speculated ) during my time. It's tough now all around, but eventually there will be a shift, just as there has always been throughout time.
Short answer is yes. Not true of all of a certain age, but definitely some. Some just don't get it, but others willfully stick their head in the sand.
My experience is of the UK but from what I read online the situation in the US is similar. At the start of the 1990's average house prices were about 4 times average earnings and they are now over 8 times average earnings. There are hundreds of other stats which are needed to tell the whole story, but that's the easiest one to point to.
My experience is of the UK but from what I read online the situation in the US is similar. At the start of the 1990's average house prices were about 4 times average earnings and they are now over 8 times average earnings. There are hundreds of other stats which are needed to tell the whole story, but that's the easiest one to point to.
We do what we love. If you love it that's a plus.
the love of money, the root of all evil...
Rarely do I see people get that quote right
Don't usually talk about my personal life, but I haven't worked since the end of July (which really put a snag in our summer sploshing plans). Supposedly there are lots of jobs out there, but the reality seems to be the opposite. At least not ones that pay well. Luckily we had some savings to live off of for a while, but that safety net is running low. As much as I loathe doing it, I may have to go back to my old job which has a 5 hour commute on top of a 12 hour shift
My parents can't wrap their heads around this employment situation because they never experienced the conditions we currently face. The cost of living has skyrocketed while pay has been relatively flat with inflation... -JD
I feel you JD. While I have not been through the job hunt side in a couple years, I know that my company is constantly looking for people. We are getting people who are over qualified for the positions and it is surprising. Most people we are interviewing are from the west coast. The sad part is that while they meet some of the requirements, they are not meeting all of the requirements. It is almost like during the great resignation during COVID people went through mass education and got a ton of certifications, but don't have the experience or knowledge that you should have with those certs. Then they are mad when their pay does not equal what they were fed would be the expectant pay for having those certs because no one talks about the experience part.
On the job hunt side, one thing I found that really pisses me off is fucking HR departments. Those fucking idiots don't know shit about the skill set required for the jobs they are advertising. They want skill set A and B when the job requires skill set C. They also use filtering on resumes and if you do not have the magic fucking word of the day, your resume does not even get looked at. Even if you have the experience and qualifications. For example, some of the job postings I would see for IT work would include your typical networking knowledge for a mid tier job, but then add in shit like network architecture and technical writer. Those should not be in a mid tier job posting. Architecture is more senior tier and technical writer is a separate position all together if you want good documentation. Then they toss in all the buzz words that you would find in any generator. It is an absolute shit show from both perspectives.
On the job hunt side, one thing I found that really pisses me off is fucking HR departments. Those fucking idiots don't know shit about the skill set required for the jobs they are advertising. They want skill set A and B when the job requires skill set C. They also use filtering on resumes and if you do not have the magic fucking word of the day, your resume does not even get looked at. Even if you have the experience and qualifications. For example, some of the job postings I would see for IT work would include your typical networking knowledge for a mid tier job, but then add in shit like network architecture and technical writer. Those should not be in a mid tier job posting. Architecture is more senior tier and technical writer is a separate position all together if you want good documentation. Then they toss in all the buzz words that you would find in any generator. It is an absolute shit show from both perspectives.
dalamar666 said: They also use filtering on resumes and if you do not have the magic fucking word of the day, your resume does not even get looked at. Even if you have the experience and qualifications
I am well aware of that trap. When I got the job I am currently trying not to go back to, my department head said she would never had seen my resume if my mentor in the medical field hadn't personally called her and told her about me, the hospital's HR system had not filtered my resume out as one to give to her. That was 8 years ago, I'm sure it has only gotten worse post pandemic.
-JD
I love getting the recruiters wanting me to be a bus driver. I am like dude - I am Sr. Infrastructure Engineer and Systesm Administrator. How do you get bus driver out of that? Anyway I also did get some certs and training as well during COVID but I was employed the whole time also but I knew full well it really wasn't going to get me much more than just something on my toolbelt. All of my real certifications are outdated but I have a ton of experience in all different corners of IT so IT managers like how I see the whole picture and how everything connects and is supposed to work together. I think that is the best advice I can give for anybody seeking a career in IT.
But to tie that with the original conversation - I make a heck of a lot more than my parents did when I was growing up. So because of that, they think I am rich. Unfortunately, they don't understand the cost of living has skyrocketed well past their $40k salary that made them middle class in the 80s and 90s. You cannot buy a house on that anymore. A friend of mine asked me to look up the value of my childhood home now. My parents bought that house in a suburb of Chicago (1 hour drive away) for $40k. Zillow now has it listed at $227k. I laughed because that is crazy. That house is 2 bedroom and 1 bath and detached garage. Nothing special about it. I wouldn't even be able to purchase that house now.
Thanks for the feedback and I appreciate your advice. I don't think this is a cycle that is going to come back down though. If you didnt buy a house yet, you probably will have a very difficult time ahead. We were planning on moving but those interest rates kept going up and up so we just stayed put. We bought our tiny house at the bottom of the housing market crash and so we are sitting pretty well if we dont move or touch the mortgage. But I know a lot of people were not so lucky.
But to tie that with the original conversation - I make a heck of a lot more than my parents did when I was growing up. So because of that, they think I am rich. Unfortunately, they don't understand the cost of living has skyrocketed well past their $40k salary that made them middle class in the 80s and 90s. You cannot buy a house on that anymore. A friend of mine asked me to look up the value of my childhood home now. My parents bought that house in a suburb of Chicago (1 hour drive away) for $40k. Zillow now has it listed at $227k. I laughed because that is crazy. That house is 2 bedroom and 1 bath and detached garage. Nothing special about it. I wouldn't even be able to purchase that house now.
Thanks for the feedback and I appreciate your advice. I don't think this is a cycle that is going to come back down though. If you didnt buy a house yet, you probably will have a very difficult time ahead. We were planning on moving but those interest rates kept going up and up so we just stayed put. We bought our tiny house at the bottom of the housing market crash and so we are sitting pretty well if we dont move or touch the mortgage. But I know a lot of people were not so lucky.
Couples that get messy together, stick together
WildThang said: I love getting the recruiters wanting me to be a bus driver. I am like dude - I am Sr. Infrastructure Engineer and Systesm Administrator. How do you get bus driver out of that? Anyway I also did get some certs and training as well during COVID but I was employed the whole time also but I knew full well it really wasn't going to get me much more than just something on my toolbelt. All of my real certifications are outdated but I have a ton of experience in all different corners of IT so IT managers like how I see the whole picture and how everything connects and is supposed to work together. I think that is the best advice I can give for anybody seeking a career in IT.
But to tie that with the original conversation - I make a heck of a lot more than my parents did when I was growing up. So because of that, they think I am rich. Unfortunately, they don't understand the cost of living has skyrocketed well past their $40k salary that made them middle class in the 80s and 90s. You cannot buy a house on that anymore. A friend of mine asked me to look up the value of my childhood home now. My parents bought that house in a suburb of Chicago (1 hour drive away) for $40k. Zillow now has it listed at $227k. I laughed because that is crazy. That house is 2 bedroom and 1 bath and detached garage. Nothing special about it. I wouldn't even be able to purchase that house now.
Thanks for the feedback and I appreciate your advice. I don't think this is a cycle that is going to come back down though. If you didnt buy a house yet, you probably will have a very difficult time ahead. We were planning on moving but those interest rates kept going up and up so we just stayed put. We bought our tiny house at the bottom of the housing market crash and so we are sitting pretty well if we dont move or touch the mortgage. But I know a lot of people were not so lucky.
But to tie that with the original conversation - I make a heck of a lot more than my parents did when I was growing up. So because of that, they think I am rich. Unfortunately, they don't understand the cost of living has skyrocketed well past their $40k salary that made them middle class in the 80s and 90s. You cannot buy a house on that anymore. A friend of mine asked me to look up the value of my childhood home now. My parents bought that house in a suburb of Chicago (1 hour drive away) for $40k. Zillow now has it listed at $227k. I laughed because that is crazy. That house is 2 bedroom and 1 bath and detached garage. Nothing special about it. I wouldn't even be able to purchase that house now.
Thanks for the feedback and I appreciate your advice. I don't think this is a cycle that is going to come back down though. If you didnt buy a house yet, you probably will have a very difficult time ahead. We were planning on moving but those interest rates kept going up and up so we just stayed put. We bought our tiny house at the bottom of the housing market crash and so we are sitting pretty well if we dont move or touch the mortgage. But I know a lot of people were not so lucky.
I don't miss those days when I was looking for a job, as for the housing thing my wife and I have ABSOLUTELY out grown our condo, especially with her working from home full time. So we've been looking for a house and in our price range we would either live in a less desirable neighborhood or a complete gut almost tear down hoarder house. In a perfect world we would be heading out of state but that's not in the cards right now.
Always looking for friends... So dont be shy.
Ugh, this is the most frustrating conversation to have. When comparing our current economics with past ones, for me it becomes increasingly obvious that the cost of living is increasing but the rate of pay isn't moving. There's a major flaw in the distribution of pay based on the success of the company. Corporations are making billions now, and yet their lowest ranked employees are scraping by living paycheck to paycheck and unable to afford to buy a house. Meanwhile, the guy at the top has 5 mansions in every country. But the argument is if they did pay more equally across the board, they'd only be making millions instead of billions. The owners of Walmart wouldn't be able to be successful if they didn't have the people stocking the shelves. They wouldn't be able to go to every single location and keep them going and run every store and be as successful if it weren't for the people doing the work. And yet they make such little pay they have to work multiple jobs for multiple billionaires to get by. It's totally fucked.
Another issue is that there's no legislation or regulation on certain industries that keep raising their prices, like real estate, making low earning income impossible to afford housing. There's absolutely no reason for houses in Los Angeles to cost a million dollars. When Wamfan and I were house hunting, we were shocked at how random the pricing is. A 940 sq ft house that was in serious disrepair in a pretty unsafe neighborhood was over $900,000. I want answers. What makes it worth that much money? Why is a house of the exact same design less than half of that same price in another state?
People are allowed to just price at what they want, but not at what it's actually worth. It's totally fucked. And don't get me started on Airbnb fucking over and displacing low income families. There's nothing stopping people from pricing these things fairly to what they're actually worth. Shit, you're not even getting the water and mineral rights for these prices on housing. It's totally fucked.
Another issue is that there's no legislation or regulation on certain industries that keep raising their prices, like real estate, making low earning income impossible to afford housing. There's absolutely no reason for houses in Los Angeles to cost a million dollars. When Wamfan and I were house hunting, we were shocked at how random the pricing is. A 940 sq ft house that was in serious disrepair in a pretty unsafe neighborhood was over $900,000. I want answers. What makes it worth that much money? Why is a house of the exact same design less than half of that same price in another state?
People are allowed to just price at what they want, but not at what it's actually worth. It's totally fucked. And don't get me started on Airbnb fucking over and displacing low income families. There's nothing stopping people from pricing these things fairly to what they're actually worth. Shit, you're not even getting the water and mineral rights for these prices on housing. It's totally fucked.
CreamMeAgain said: Ugh, this is the most frustrating conversation to have. When comparing our current economics with past ones, for me it becomes increasingly obvious that the cost of living is increasing but the rate of pay isn't moving. There's a major flaw in the distribution of pay based on the success of the company. Corporations are making billions now, and yet their lowest ranked employees are scraping by living paycheck to paycheck and unable to afford to buy a house. Meanwhile, the guy at the top has 5 mansions in every country. But the argument is if they did pay more equally across the board, they'd only be making millions instead of billions. The owners of Walmart wouldn't be able to be successful if they didn't have the people stocking the shelves. They wouldn't be able to go to every single location and keep them going and run every store and be as successful if it weren't for the people doing the work. And yet they make such little pay they have to work multiple jobs for multiple billionaires to get by. It's totally fucked.
Another issue is that there's no legislation or regulation on certain industries that keep raising their prices, like real estate, making low earning income impossible to afford housing. There's absolutely no reason for houses in Los Angeles to cost a million dollars. When Wamfan and I were house hunting, we were shocked at how random the pricing is. A 940 sq ft house that was in serious disrepair in a pretty unsafe neighborhood was over $900,000. I want answers. What makes it worth that much money? Why is a house of the exact same design less than half of that same price in another state?
People are allowed to just price at what they want, but not at what it's actually worth. It's totally fucked. And don't get me started on Airbnb fucking over and displacing low income families. There's nothing stopping people from pricing these things fairly to what they're actually worth. Shit, you're not even getting the water and mineral rights for these prices on housing. It's totally fucked.
Another issue is that there's no legislation or regulation on certain industries that keep raising their prices, like real estate, making low earning income impossible to afford housing. There's absolutely no reason for houses in Los Angeles to cost a million dollars. When Wamfan and I were house hunting, we were shocked at how random the pricing is. A 940 sq ft house that was in serious disrepair in a pretty unsafe neighborhood was over $900,000. I want answers. What makes it worth that much money? Why is a house of the exact same design less than half of that same price in another state?
People are allowed to just price at what they want, but not at what it's actually worth. It's totally fucked. And don't get me started on Airbnb fucking over and displacing low income families. There's nothing stopping people from pricing these things fairly to what they're actually worth. Shit, you're not even getting the water and mineral rights for these prices on housing. It's totally fucked.
I couldn't of said any of this better myself. Especially on the housing topic.
As for the ultra rich, I feel like there shouldn't even be such a thing as a billionaire.
I feel a LOT of people can't quite wrap their head around just how much 1 Million vs 1 Billion is. I've always liked this brain nugget:
A million seconds is 12 days. A billion seconds is 31 years.
Slime...more slime!!!!!
The Man and The Wife said:
I feel a LOT of people can't quite wrap their head around just how much 1 Million vs 1 Billion is. I've always liked this brain nugget:
A million seconds is 12 days. A billion seconds is 31 years.
I feel a LOT of people can't quite wrap their head around just how much 1 Million vs 1 Billion is. I've always liked this brain nugget:
A million seconds is 12 days. A billion seconds is 31 years.
Suddenly Elon spending 44bil on Twitter seems so much worse than it already did.
WildThang said: Does anybody else have financial struggle conversations with older generations who understand the current financial situation to be the same as when they were our age? I mean same proportions? The gap between income and cost of living. Anybody?
As a millenial... ALL. THE. TIME. In fact, I often got told "how much better we have it" and it's just not the case. No offense to any other generations here because everyone has struggles but the mudslinging (and not the good kind) is the worst.
PS Eat the rich (not to be confused with Rich)... or at least pie them!
ChocolateCakeFan said: "how much better we have it"
I think people say things like that because they are under the delusion that they made things better for the next generation, when in fact, they did not make it as much better as they thought. As a Gen Xer I know that we did not make things financially better for Millennials. We like to think that we had it so much harder than the next generation and it just is not the case. A lot of Gen X was burned out by the time they became adults because they had to raise their siblings as latch key kids. Or because we spent our teenage years fighting for things we felt was oppressing us. Fighting against a system that was not fair, fighting against antiquated perceptions of things by the Boomer generation. By the time we became adults we said fuck it. We will try not to pass on generational trauma, but even some of that we fucked up. I look at the things that the current generation of youth are doing and compare that to what we did and it seems like nothing. Millennials fighting against school shootings, climate change, the patriarchy, the right to be who you are comfortable being. We announced we were fighting against the establishment, but how much fighting did we really do?
I feel very sorry for the younger generations. As a Baby Boomer my first 20 years of life were not about learning anything but realizing how important money is! I think I had it easier, now at 66 years old I have a paid for 4 bedroom solar powered beach house in s. Florida, a bad ass Harley and antique Porsche 911. If I was starting my journey again there is no way I could do what I did again in these times.
Phil
Phil
ChocolateCakeFan said:
As a millenial... ALL. THE. TIME. In fact, I often got told "how much better we have it" and it's just not the case. No offense to any other generations here because everyone has struggles but the mudslinging (and not the good kind) is the worst.
As a millenial... ALL. THE. TIME. In fact, I often got told "how much better we have it" and it's just not the case. No offense to any other generations here because everyone has struggles but the mudslinging (and not the good kind) is the worst.
You'll get no criticism from me.
This particular older gal (me) is looking at the situation for today's young people with cold, clammy horror.
If somebody said, "I can wave a wand and make you 20 again!", I don't think I would do it if it mean I had to cope with today's economy, today's prices, today's workplaces, today's housing crisis -- and a bunch of other stuff.
Like raising kids.
Well, I never had any. And I have no regrets. But I had a childhood, which I remember. And it was simple, inexpensive, and basic compared to how things are now.
I'm especially glad that there was no such thing as social media when I was a teen.
Nessie
WildThang said: Does anybody else have financial struggle conversations with older generations who understand the current financial situation to be the same as when they were our age? I mean same proportions? The gap between income and cost of living. Anybody?
Yes actually it's kinda weird was on a hike and talked about the cost of living with this man about his son living at home
Paint with play and surrender
