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Post by FuzzyMutt on Oct 6, 2023 0:04:37 GMT
I also want to point young people are trying to get more politically active and those in power are trying to block it. How many idiots are taking about raising the voting age to 21? How many republicans are passing legislation to limit voting rights? How much gerrymandering is blocking real change? And the “what are you going to do besides complain about it” crap kills me. I’m not just “complaining” about it. I’m trying very hard in small areas where my voice may be heard to talk about it and raise awareness. Because this thread is ample evidence that there are a lot of people who benefit from the status quo and stick their hands in the sand and pretend that the only change needed is for “young people” to lower their expectations and skip a couple of Starbucks visits and all their money problems will disappear with hard work. I vote, I encourage others to vote, but I still ended up with my bodily autonomy taken away, my student loans continuing even though I’ve paid more than double what I borrowed and I worked through the pandemic but thank god Congress have PPP loan forgiveness to the truly needy like Tom Brady and Reese Witherspoon. I can’t like this enough.
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Post by refugeepea on Oct 6, 2023 0:06:34 GMT
Thank you, it has torn his world apart. I'm so sorry to hear that. Follow Robert Reich on Instagram. He’ll explain the buying power then vs now. It’s not even close. The corporate greed is staggering. I really like him!
Now, for my very lengthy post. The initial post with the story was just odd. Why didn't the parents just say upfront "your grandmother left you $1500. She wanted to contribute to you buying a home someday." IF she had ranted about such a low amount after that, yeah I'd think what a brat. But the build up of the back and forth between the parents..why? I would have thought it was going to be a significant amount.
It's hard for me to relate to anything in this thread. We are lower income, sometimes we have hit middle income status. I have one kid couch surfing and two special needs kids that will always live with us. My oldest has... issues. College or any vocational type of training are likely NOT going to happen. I'm very worried about his future, but he's determined to make it on his own.
My husband is a federal employee and our insurance is crap. This year, my son was finally taken off of a Medicaid waiver list, so now we can do things like sedation dentist appointments on a more frequent basis. It was seriously getting scary for OUR family and we've been in this home since 2007. Medical bills were killing us. If we were to sell, we could have possibly downsized to a town home, but there's additional fees with those. If we had chosen to sell and rent, it would have been close to double our mortgage payments.
I cannot even imagine how Gen Z kids are making it without any higher level of education. I think I read that in the U.S., just 38% of people have college degrees. There's plenty out there.
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Post by Merge on Oct 6, 2023 0:07:10 GMT
Merge For some reason I could not reply to your last post to me. Had to do it this way. I do not disagree with anything you have said. How do we accomplish that? We could line up old people at 70 years old, make them drink the koolaid, and then pass their worldly goods to the next generation. A much better idea is the young people who are affected by the price of goods get politically active. Energetic, intelligent, young people need to start grassroots movements. Support candidates they agree with, fund raise, lobby congress, volunteer in political offices and vote in huge numbers. The corporations are not going to rein themselves in, they have to be forced by law. I saw that happen with the Vietnam War (again big corporations making big bucks). There was a lot of violence and major protests but the then young people (boomers now) brought that war to an end. And let me tell you the old people hated the young protestors. Complaining will change nothing. We are out of the “every kid gets a trophy even if they lose” era. The young ones need to organize & fight. What is your idea to accomplish change? Amen. They need to participate if they want changes. And they need the help of older generations in voting for change. But here they're mostly just getting contempt and derision. The younger generations are finishing school, establishing themselves in careers, starting families, etc., but they're being told that if they want change, they need to make it happen. By a group of people who currently have nothing more pressing to do than complain about "kids these days" on the internet. Y'all could help out instead of sitting there looking smug.
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Post by belgravia on Oct 6, 2023 0:08:55 GMT
That’s the boomer mentality encapsulated right here : my husband’s salary doubled so too bad it offends you. We aren’t offended that your husband is well paid and your daughter won’t struggle. We’re offended that you think that because you don’t struggle, anyone who does just isn’t as smart or as worthy as you. We’re offended because you can’t see that you’re lucky and not everyone has had the same opportunities. The whole “I got mine so too bad you can’t get yours without an imaginary starter home and a roommate or six and two jobs” is the epitome of entitlement. Well said! The "I got mine so to hell with the rest of you" is what is wrong with this country. Thank Christ I don’t live in your country.
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pinklady
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,563
Nov 14, 2016 23:47:03 GMT
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Post by pinklady on Oct 6, 2023 0:11:56 GMT
I also want to point young people are trying to get more politically active and those in power are trying to block it. How many idiots are taking about raising the voting age to 21? How many republicans are passing legislation to limit voting rights? How much gerrymandering is blocking real change? And we just had a thread not too long ago that these millennials are wanting to vote 3rd party because change isn’t happening quick enough. Well there’s that instant gratification rearing its ugly head.
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scrappinmama
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,885
Jun 26, 2014 12:54:09 GMT
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Post by scrappinmama on Oct 6, 2023 0:13:08 GMT
Young people ARE doing all those things. They’re protesting and working against the gun lobby that enables gun violence, literally protesting for their lives. Protesting and working to win back, or retain their bodily autonomy. Protesting and working for their rights no matter which gender they identify with or who they love. What aren’t they fighting for? I’m seeing Millennials and Gen Z have to fight for everything, things that people older than them took for granted. College kids are waiting in line for HOURS in the cold to vote. Have you not seen these things? Clearly we’ve moved on to the “just vote harder” portion of the Boomer mantra. I'm so impressed by young voters. And we need them! We have to outnumber boomers in voting. We have to fight against gerrymandering. We need to encourage young voters and partner with them on voting in candidates that truly will work with the best interest of struggling Americans. Just look at some of the comments on this post. There is a lot of work to be done to change the tide. What is really upsetting is that it was boomers who fought in the 60's and 70's. They were vocal in supporting women's rights, pro-choice, women in the work place, etc. What happened to those women who are now voting to strip away everything they fought for decades ago? The people that they were all those years ago would have wanted better for the younger generation. Now that they are older, they have become the old people yelling "get off my lawn." What the hell happen to the hippie generation?
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quiltz
Drama Llama
Posts: 6,714
Location: CANADA
Jun 29, 2014 16:13:28 GMT
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Post by quiltz on Oct 6, 2023 0:14:48 GMT
I just read this to my finance and investment professional husband and he laughed. Well, if you are laughing, good for you BUT $1,500.00 is better than NOTHING!
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Post by mollycoddle on Oct 6, 2023 0:18:11 GMT
Amen. They need to participate if they want changes. And they need the help of older generations in voting for change. But here they're mostly just getting contempt and derision. The younger generations are finishing school, establishing themselves in careers, starting families, etc., but they're being told that if they want change, they need to make it happen. By a group of people who currently have nothing more pressing to do than complain about "kids these days" on the internet. Y'all could help out instead of sitting there looking smug. I completely agree. And this thread has been eye-opening. In a good way.
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The Great Carpezio
Pearl Clutcher
Something profound goes here.
Posts: 2,936
Jun 25, 2014 21:50:33 GMT
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Post by The Great Carpezio on Oct 6, 2023 0:18:56 GMT
I watched her TikTok and I did not get "entitled brat whining." I got, "this was mildly humorous/sad commentary, and I thought it was an interesting, so I am sharing."
She isn't saying that her Gma was a stupid witch or her parents are cruel or that it "wasn't enough" money from her Gma. I don't think she was really even talking about her Gma/the amount of the inheritance; she had $1500 more than she did before.
To me, it seemed more about how her parents were hyping it up like it was life changing and trying to decide if she could really even handle getting the money, etc...that showed how out of touch THEY were. The parents should have known that wasn't going to go far...they could have told her that Gma would want her to use it for something fun/special/practical---and not act like $1500 would change her life in any substantial way.
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Post by nightnurse on Oct 6, 2023 0:26:24 GMT
I also want to point young people are trying to get more politically active and those in power are trying to block it. How many idiots are taking about raising the voting age to 21? How many republicans are passing legislation to limit voting rights? How much gerrymandering is blocking real change? And we just had a thread not too long ago that these millennials are wanting to vote 3rd party because change isn’t happening quick enough. Well there’s that instant gratification rearing its ugly head. Well, when we don’t get instant gratification, we get things like the repeal of Roe. I don’t really want to wait around to see what a second trump presidency might bring. Also interesting that this was the one point you chose to respond to, another chance to smugly say “see they want instant gratification so it’s their own fault they’re suffering.”
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snyder
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,994
Location: Colorado
Apr 26, 2017 6:14:47 GMT
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Post by snyder on Oct 6, 2023 0:31:58 GMT
I just read this to my finance and investment professional husband and he laughed. Well, if you are laughing, good for you BUT $1,500.00 is better than NOTHING! I really haven't read all the thread, but saw this last post as I came to read more from where I left off this morning.
You are so right $1,500 is better than nothing.
I am a boomer, and I would not in any way think that would make a remarkable dent in buyimg a home, but I could see my 93 year old mother in beginning demention thinking that. She is some aware of how expensive it is today, but still sometimes thinks in the past. She would give grandkids $25 and I finally told her, mom, I think you need to up that to at least $50. Can't buy much with $25 these days. This also reminded me that my grandmother would give each of the grandkids $3 for Christmas. Yes, one could probably find some small toy for that price, but that's all she could afford, so it was so appreciative that she even recognized the grandkids.
Heck, when I had a small child, worked and needed to pay a sitter, it was approximately 10% of my paycheck to pay for that sitter full time. Now a days, its 50-70% of one paycheck earner. For me house insurance was $500 a year, now $3,000, car insurace was $35 per month, now its $120, health insurance was $45 per paycheck, prior to my Medicare it was $930 a month, a combo meal at the major fast food joints was $2.99, and easy $15.
And yes, I say, the younger generation doesn't have a chance in hell to experice the American Dream and that is fricking sad.
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Post by epeanymous on Oct 6, 2023 0:33:16 GMT
Now, for my very lengthy post. The initial post with the story was just odd. Why didn't the parents just say upfront "your grandmother left you $1500. She wanted to contribute to you buying a home someday." IF she had ranted about such a low amount after that, yeah I'd think what a brat. But the build up of the back and forth between the parents..why? I would have thought it was going to be a significant amount.
It wasn't the main point of the thread but I will say when I read the story it sounded like her parents were kind of manipulating her, like "if it seems like you're responsible enough to handle this big pile of money we'll get it to you" by intimating that it was downpayment-type money, which it pretty clearly is not. I've had this happen a zillion times in my family -- people promising inheritances and threatening to withhold inheritances and trying to string people along with inheritances when the actual amount of money in question is relatively modest.
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Post by femalebusiness on Oct 6, 2023 0:36:42 GMT
I don't like pitting generations against each other but the thing is when you make an accusation that the younger generations are entitled, just as my story goes above, you've got to own that your generation raised them. Now that she is sober and taking her meds (growing up finally) it's now the time that I'm reckoning with how I did in raising her, good or bad, things made an imprint. And as she explores things in therapy, there are realizations and there are questions I've got to answer. My boomer parents have a very hard time (complete denial?) In addressing how the way we were raised impacts us today. I think that's really what the younger generation wants femalebusiness they want acknowledgement. They want to be heard. They want older generations to advocate for them in policy. As I said above the younger gens think the boomers are entitled and are the reason the younger ones are struggling. It would behoove them to stop with the OK Boomer shit and enlist the help and advice of those boomers. Whining is not going to solve the problems but action has the ability to make change. I do vote for younger more progressive candidates when given that choice and so do my friends my age. I think those old bought and paid for politicians need to go. The citizens need to organize and vote. The problem is that our politicians, both young and old, ARE bought and paid for. I am a boomer and raised a daughter who put herself through school, earned her degree, saved her money, bought a house and paid it off. She lived with us rent free until she was almost 30 but that is what it took for her to save up for a down payment. She is my best friend. I have a big ol' pat on the back for younger people who find a way to succeed. It is hard but I do know young ones who have done it. As much as us older ones are supposed to acknowledge the struggle of the younger ones, the younger ones need to stop with the jealousy and the whining and get to work. It is not up to boomers to do the hard work that the younger generations want done. Support yes, doing it for them, no. Just as it won't be that generations job to support their grandchildren just because times are difficult. It doesn’t work that way.
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Post by sideways on Oct 6, 2023 0:40:42 GMT
I just read this to my finance and investment professional husband and he laughed. Well, if you are laughing, good for you BUT $1,500.00 is better than NOTHING! It’s not nearly enough to do anything meaningful towards buying a house. It’s not nothing, but it’s not significant. Certainly not worth being talked up to be used toward something significant in life.
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Post by katlady on Oct 6, 2023 0:41:18 GMT
What is really upsetting is that it was boomers who fought in the 60's and 70's. They were vocal in supporting women's rights, pro-choice, women in the work place, etc. What happened to those women who are now voting to strip away everything they fought for decades ago? The people that they were all those years ago would have wanted better for the younger generation. Now that they are older, they have become the old people yelling "get off my lawn." What the hell happen to the hippie generation? The hippie generation is now 80+ years old. Hippies will always remain hippies. There are probably not a lot of them still around. 😆 The ones trying to take away women’s rights are the 30-50 year old conservative Christian’s.
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lizacreates
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,856
Aug 29, 2015 2:39:19 GMT
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Post by lizacreates on Oct 6, 2023 0:46:28 GMT
I’m a Boomer with grandnephews and grandnieces in their 20s. Every single one of them is still renting, and struggling to pay student loans and their portion of employer-provided health insurance premiums on top of all the other daily living expenses like food. And those student loans were heavily augmented by their parents’ savings. If they had not gotten college degrees, hell, they’d be in much, much rougher state.
[Just taking education costs alone, the increase in tuition from the time my generation was in college to what it is now (or what those much younger than us have paid) is startling evidence of why young people in general haven’t attained the same markers of middle class life my generation had attained at roughly the same age. I and my siblings were already in college in the late ‘60s to early ‘70s. I was at Colgate, my brother was at Univ of Chicago, and my sister was at Duke. Our tuition was about $3,000 per year, more or less for each of us. Today? Colgate is $66,000/year. University of Chicago is $60,000/year. Duke is $63,000/year.]
Buying a brand new vehicle or a home? They dream about it, that’s all. They don’t live in my state where the cost of living isn’t as outrageous as others, but even if they did, it would still be a dream with their current circumstances. There’s a new development a couple blocks from my neighborhood and one-bedroom condo units start at half-a-million. For a freakin’ one-bedroom condo!
They’ve told me they hustle all the time (and I know for fact they do), and they cannot seem to get ahead. One of them works a full-time job, a part-time job, and whenever he can, walks dogs for some extra cash. Another runs an Etsy shop when she gets home from her full-time job and babysits during the week-ends. On any month when they’re not skint earns them a brief reprieve until the next month, hoping nothing else breaks down in their jalopies, and their landlords don’t yet again raise their rents, and their health insurance doesn’t yet again increase in the meantime.
Their parents and their grands help when asked; I’ve had a share of embarrassed calls from some of them asking if I can help when times are really tough, and I always do. These are responsible, hardworking young adults who are just doing their level best to exist and get ahead somehow.
Their expectations aren’t too high. If anything, their expectations are already too low because they face a grim reality. The struggle is real.
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Post by sideways on Oct 6, 2023 0:50:35 GMT
As I said above the younger gens think the boomers are entitled and are the reason the younger ones are struggling. It would behoove them to stop with the OK Boomer shit and enlist the help and advice of those boomers. Whining is not going to solve the problems but action has the ability to make change. I do vote for younger more progressive candidates when given that choice and so do my friends my age. I think those old bought and paid for politicians need to go. The citizens need to organize and vote. The problem is that our politicians, both young and old, ARE bought and paid for. I am a boomer and raised a daughter who put herself through school, earned her degree, saved her money, bought a house and paid it off. She lived with us rent free until she was almost 30 but that is what it took for her to save up for a down payment. She is my best friend. I have a big ol' pat on the back for younger people who find a way to succeed. It is hard but I do know young ones who have done it. As much as us older ones are supposed to acknowledge the struggle of the younger ones, the younger ones need to stop with the jealousy and the whining and get to work. It is not up to boomers to do the hard work that the younger generations want done. Support yes, doing it for them, no. Just as it won't be that generations job to support their grandchildren just because times are difficult. It doesn’t work that way. “Jealousy and whining?” You want the “Ok Boomer” to stop, yet you say this? It’s up to all of us to create a better society. If you’re not going to help, get the fuck out of the way.
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Post by mollycoddle on Oct 6, 2023 0:54:21 GMT
Clearly we’ve moved on to the “just vote harder” portion of the Boomer mantra. I'm so impressed by young voters. And we need them! We have to outnumber boomers in voting. We have to fight against gerrymandering. We need to encourage young voters and partner with them on voting in candidates that truly will work with the best interest of struggling Americans. Just look at some of the comments on this post. There is a lot of work to be done to change the tide. What is really upsetting is that it was boomers who fought in the 60's and 70's. They were vocal in supporting women's rights, pro-choice, women in the work place, etc. What happened to those women who are now voting to strip away everything they fought for decades ago? The people that they were all those years ago would have wanted better for the younger generation. Now that they are older, they have become the old people yelling "get off my lawn." What the hell happen to the hippie generation? As someone in their late 60s, I was one of those people. I am mad as hell about the fact that conservatives are taking away rights-which will affect young people the most. My friends are all pissed too. And we do our part to get the word out. And we always, always vote. I see a lot of older folks on social media who are royally pissed off too. The people who are trying to take your rights away are your state legislators, most of whom are middle-aged men.
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quiltz
Drama Llama
Posts: 6,714
Location: CANADA
Jun 29, 2014 16:13:28 GMT
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Post by quiltz on Oct 6, 2023 0:56:04 GMT
Well, if you are laughing, good for you BUT $1,500.00 is better than NOTHING! It’s not nearly enough to do anything meaningful towards buying a house. It’s not nothing, but it’s not significant. Certainly not worth being talked up to be used toward something significant in life. Well, if it's not nearly enough to do anything meaningful towards buying a house attitude, you would get NOthiNG from me. Be grateful for every gift of money because it all starts with a penny towards savings.
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Post by femalebusiness on Oct 6, 2023 0:57:50 GMT
As I said above the younger gens think the boomers are entitled and are the reason the younger ones are struggling. It would behoove them to stop with the OK Boomer shit and enlist the help and advice of those boomers. Whining is not going to solve the problems but action has the ability to make change. I do vote for younger more progressive candidates when given that choice and so do my friends my age. I think those old bought and paid for politicians need to go. The citizens need to organize and vote. The problem is that our politicians, both young and old, ARE bought and paid for. I am a boomer and raised a daughter who put herself through school, earned her degree, saved her money, bought a house and paid it off. She lived with us rent free until she was almost 30 but that is what it took for her to save up for a down payment. She is my best friend. I have a big ol' pat on the back for younger people who find a way to succeed. It is hard but I do know young ones who have done it. As much as us older ones are supposed to acknowledge the struggle of the younger ones, the younger ones need to stop with the jealousy and the whining and get to work. It is not up to boomers to do the hard work that the younger generations want done. Support yes, doing it for them, no. Just as it won't be that generations job to support their grandchildren just because times are difficult. It doesn’t work that way. “Jealousy and whining?” You want the “Ok Boomer” to stop, yet you say this? It’s up to all of us to create a better society. If you’re not going to help, get the fuck out of the way. I vote and have paid my dues in many ways but if you want to blame me personally for hard times go right ahead. That will definitely help the young ones buy a house.
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Post by sideways on Oct 6, 2023 1:01:38 GMT
“Jealousy and whining?” You want the “Ok Boomer” to stop, yet you say this? It’s up to all of us to create a better society. If you’re not going to help, get the fuck out of the way. I vote and have paid my dues in many ways but if you want to blame me personally for hard times go right ahead. That will definitely help the young ones buy a house. If you took it personally, that’s on you.
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Post by sideways on Oct 6, 2023 1:05:43 GMT
It’s not nearly enough to do anything meaningful towards buying a house. It’s not nothing, but it’s not significant. Certainly not worth being talked up to be used toward something significant in life. Well, if it's not nearly enough to do anything meaningful towards buying a house attitude, you would get NOthiNG from me. Be grateful for every gift of money because it all starts with a penny towards savings. 😂😂😂😂😂😂 Ok, Boomer. It’s not “attitude”. It’s fact. $1500 isn’t enough to do anything meaningful to buy a house. Do you think houses still cost $20,000? Where did she say she wasn’t grateful? She said her parents were out of touch with how much things cost. It sounds like you are, too.
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Post by padresfan619 on Oct 6, 2023 1:07:37 GMT
I said I was going to stop coming back here but I was talking about this thread with my husband over dinner, a dinner I made with groceries I bought! And he reminded me that we bought our house from the estate of a single woman who worked as a cashier at a grocery store. She never married or had kids, her brother handled the sale of the house. When we bought our house we were DINK (dual income, no kids) and in less than a decade we’ve been priced out of our own home. It was a small fixer upper that we are making improvements on, it wasn’t supposed to be a forever home but it quickly is becoming ours.
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quiltz
Drama Llama
Posts: 6,714
Location: CANADA
Jun 29, 2014 16:13:28 GMT
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Post by quiltz on Oct 6, 2023 1:08:19 GMT
$1500 isn’t enough to do anything meaningful to buy a house. Do you think houses still cost $20,000? It is still better than $0.00.
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Post by sideways on Oct 6, 2023 1:10:13 GMT
$1500 isn’t enough to do anything meaningful to buy a house. Do you think houses still cost $20,000? It is still better than $0.00. It’s fun money. Not life changing money. Are you missing the point of the thread on purpose?
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Post by sideways on Oct 6, 2023 1:12:40 GMT
Well said! The "I got mine so to hell with the rest of you" is what is wrong with this country. Thank Christ I don’t live in your country. Apparently, it’s what’s wrong with Canada, too.
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Post by crazy4scraps on Oct 6, 2023 1:15:21 GMT
I’m not going to call that girl entitled. I totally get it. I’m early Gen X and DH and I went through some of that with his mom. She had the financial resources where she could have totally paid off our first house and SIL’s first house without even making a dent in her net worth. More than once, DH told her that she should be holding the mortgages on our houses instead of the bank and we could pay her instead and she said no, because she didn’t want to be in the position of having to kick her kids out of their house. 🙄 So instead we and SIL paid thousands upon thousands of dollars in interest to the banks over the years that no one would ever get back, all at a time when we could have used the most help financially. All that did was pushed us to wait until we were in our 40’s to have our kid because we knew damn well we couldn’t have afforded one before that. And just for the spreadsheet, our first home was a tiny one bedroom fixer upper in a not awesome neighborhood a couple blocks from where DH was going to school. We paid $55K for that house at about 10.5% interest (😳!!) back in 1989. I just looked on Zillow now, and that same house has an estimated value of $255K. Granted, we did do some work to it and added a two car garage, but still. It’s gone up in value by about $100K since we sold it to my brother on a contract for deed in 2012. Our neighbors at that house did it right. The dad bought the house next door to us and rented it to his kid and a friend while they finished medical school. After that kid got married and moved out, then his younger brother moved in. That right there is how you build generational wealth. I cannot believe that one would expect (or ask) this from one’s parent(s) no matter their net worth. In my world we call that ballsy and entitled. He didn’t expect it, he suggested it. We would have rather have paid all that interest to her instead of a bank, that’s all. That’s what our neighbors did and it worked out very well for them.
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Post by Zee on Oct 6, 2023 1:15:53 GMT
I don't know anybody who goes to Starbucks every day, and most of the people I know have a phone at least a few generations old. I think you're the one making up fictitious people. Or perhaps hanging around with the one-percenters, which is fine, but please know the rest of the world doesn't live like that. I get the feeling some of you spend all your time watching reality TV and confuse it with real life. So because you don’t “know” them, they must not exist? I can assure you they do. One of my friends has 35 Hermes bags. Another bought a $25,000 Ligne Roset sectional. This is every day normal life for them. The world is a big place.
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quiltz
Drama Llama
Posts: 6,714
Location: CANADA
Jun 29, 2014 16:13:28 GMT
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Post by quiltz on Oct 6, 2023 1:18:23 GMT
It’s fun money. Not life changing money I guess I don't know what fun money is. Any money given to me is "life changing money", as it is something that is unexpected and will help me a little bit more along the way. I don't waste money so I don't have fun money.
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Post by Clair on Oct 6, 2023 1:20:25 GMT
It gives her $1,500.00 that she didn't have before to put towards a house. Put this money in a good investment account and let the beauty of compound interest do the magic. She is ungrateful for the money that was put aside for her. I won’t argue the merits of compound investment.. but my tradesperson son was doing exactly that, and he has witnessed nothing but distress. These are the years he’s been in the market. He couldn’t drink enough Monsters (no coffee for him) to keep up with the rate at which the money he LABORS FOR everyday, has left his account. It’s not just that he’s not making anything. The principle has been streaming out. I had some company stock that I gave him since I didn’t have to use it to send him to college. The caveat was that it had to stay invested in the account. It has literally gone down from over $125k and may be hovering around 90-100k at any given time this year. It turns my stomach. In fact, even though I amassed it in an ESPP, with a 10% discount, it’s worth less than I put in. This kid is 22. The condo we live in was purchased 4 years ago. One in our neighborhood with the same configuration sold a few months ago for nearly double what I paid. Nearly a half a MILLION dollars. The apt (2nd floor, neglected, and no ac… but I have a dog, so whatever) I was renting while I was house hunting? I was paying $1200/month in 2016 when I signed the lease. Two of his friends just rented it last year and it’s $2400 a month. It’s a two bedroom. When is that $1500 going to help her buy a house lol in 2067? And it’s possible, between inflation and the games our government plays, it will be worth much less then. Do you know what that 100-ish k that I invested in after tax money could have done in 2018 to buy the kid a house? Compared to today?? And I want to go on record saying I’m glad I am able to help my son. And I honestly don’t mind the fact he’s 22 and still at home. I’m proud he’s building his life and I’d rather he be at home rather than lining some landlords pockets. The only other “investment” that seems foolproof is getting in on SS when the pay in was cheap as hell and you get to enjoy a longer retirement with regular increases too. Plus a pension. Geeze. I wonder how many folks here are landlords? ETA: I have and for the foreseeable future will advocate that he bank on the historic performance of the markets. But I do think we all can all agree these are strange times I believe I’ve said it before here - I’m a landlord. I’m a mom & pop landlord in California which is not for the faint of heart. Most landlords aren’t rolling in cash - taxes and expenses eat up the majority of rent - we also need reserves for when tenants don’t pay because it’s difficult (almost impossible) to evict. The laws that protect tenants as well as rising repair costs and taxes force landlords to keep increasing rents. There are some unscrupulous landlords out there but most landlords hate to raise rents but we need to. I think the issue is the shrinking middle class. It seems almost as if it’s non existent in many areas. There are no moderately priced homes in starter neighborhoods these days. There are no middle pay type jobs for college grads coming out of school - most are making almost nothing but a few making astronomical salaries. Few reasonably priced cars. The cost of goods and services is skyrocketing. Younger adults are getting hit from every direction. Every age is getting hit but the long term impact on young adults is huge. We need to somehow figure out how to get the middle back. I have no idea how we achieve this.
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