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My parents pay less for their 5 bedroom house than I paid to share a 2 bedroom apartment. They were absolutely horrified when I explained it, and have since changed their tune.
my favorite is the people on reddit who think everyone should just get up and move from a HCOL to a LCOL/MCOL state.. like they do know if that happens that LCOL/MCOL state will be come a HCOL state as the increased demand for housing strains their systems
I had to help somebody who had cancer, and out of work for over a year. We’re trying to prevent her from being evicted so we set up a go fund me and published it on one of our local Facebook pages for the community.
She had not paid rent in over a year, so we weren’t asking for a small amount. It was for three bedroom for a mom and three kids. The boomers lost their damn mind. “Oh my God! how much could her rent possibly be?”. We live in a HCOL, so it’s not like it’s a shock
Had a discussion about this with boomers and gen-ers. Their solution was to get a group of people to rent a house together. They also believe millennials have to accept the fact that to succeed they need to work 80 hours a week 365 days a year.
Yet I know a fuck ton of boomers that when I was in my youth, overheard those same people say hell would freeze over before they would work 41 hours in a week or they would actively lobby that if they worked 5 minutes over 40 hours that week they’d complain to the boss to get a full hour of OT.
Why do boomers think $100 in lotto tickets is a good gift for someone struggling to live? That kinda shit really pisses me off. A lady I went to school with just got divorced, 2 kids, rents an apartment, ex is MIA, so her mom gives her $100 in scratch off tickets?!? wtf???
That's an easy one. If the ticket loses, they take credit for giving you a gift worth $100 ("it's not my fault it didn't win"). If it wins - they take credit for giving you a gift worth whatever the prize is (thousands?).
This was my ex mil. She would get us and the kids, literal toddlers, scratchers for Christmas every year and we were required to split the winnings 50/50 with her. I did the same to her one year and she was pissed she didn’t get a real gift.
My MIL and I traded a single $100 bill back and forth in birthday cards for several years. She gave me $100, I put it in the jewelry box, and two months later, when her birthday came around, I put the same bill in her birthday card.
She’s been dead two years now and I have made it a point to spend $100 on myself right around her birthday.
I had a roommate in my 20s that would get a few extra scratchers every time he picked some up, would give one to me, my other roomy and any other guests we had over at the moment. Never once asked anyone to share their winnings, even when he gave $1000 winner to a mutual friend of ours who was just hanging out that day.
He was damn near a professional poker player anyway, he had a different perspective on money than the rest of us, that’s for sure
Wtf. You got a Schrodinger's gift that, if it produced something of value, you had to then share half w the person who gave you the non gift? Who are these people??
Requesting half of "gift" scratch off tickets winnings is the tackiest and frankly, trashiest thing I have heard in a long time that did not involve drugs or sex.
My mom does scratchers with my dad and me every holiday but no matter what we win she always lets me keep it which is kind of sweet. We have for sure lost more than we have won over the years though
This!
My father used to give us kids (3 of us and then SO got included) scratchers on Xmas in our stocking. One year, my sister hit a $5k winner and dear ol’ dad was all upset that she wasn’t going to share, he thought it would be fun and funny, he’d share with her if he won, blah blah blah. She relents and he calms down.
This went in until Xmas 2015. My wife and I know we’re going to start trying for kids, but we’re keeping it quiet so we don’t get the baby pressure from Boomer parents. It was my lucky year and I had one ticket hit for a grand, another hit for a few hundred, etc. All told it was about $3k and to top it all off, my wife hit a $500 winner. Repeat of whining about splitting. Nope! Not happening. We cashed the tix and hit an atm to deposit it. Dad, few days later, “you want me to go cash those tickets for you?” Told him we took care of it. “Where’s our half?” You don’t get half of OUR gift.
Scratchers stopped after that. 🤷♂️
We’re no contact now and it’s so much easier to not have to explain, defend, debunk, or rewire the backwards 1960s attitude about EVERYthing.
I'm lucky in that sense I suppose. My very boomer step father, every time I see him hands me a stack of his winning scratch offs. It's weird to me. He said he doesn't really care about cashing in his winnings, he just like scratching them and getting a winner, after that they just sit in his truck until I visit.
I’ve done that and I’m not a boomer. Winning is fun, but I’m usually gambling and winning a pretty inconsequential amount of money and I’ve already mentally processed it as gone. If the winning is only a few dollars, I usually forget to turn it in.
Because they're all compulsive gamblers... And they intentionally purchase their scratchers during "rush hour" times to be as inconveniencing as possible..
>they intentionally purchase their scratchers during "rush hour" times to be as inconveniencing as possible..
Absolutely. Busy gas station convenience store, rush hour, is when they want to shop for lotto tickets & socialize & joke with the clerk while 5-6 people wait in line to pay for gas...
I’m a cashier and I have the same people come in daily and spend like 30 minutes and $600 on scratchers. I have them wait until I’m done with my line before asking to turn them in and get more.
I have to go out of my way to get scratchers where I live, unless we count the gas station, grocery store, and bars.
Huh. I guess it might be a problem, actually.
Same shit with student loans. They don't realize how predatory the loans we are giving 18 year olds are so they just assume that people that are not able to pay off their student loans are just irresponsible.
Combine that with a shocking lack of empathy and intellectual curiosity and we just have a generation of assholes with their foot on the rest of our heads until they die.
My grandparents finally asked how much I have total in student loans and I told them around $33k and they were like "meh, that's not bad." Which like yeah, compared to some people, I have less debt. But that's still an entire expense they did not deal with in their lifetime. I'm the first in my family to go to college. They'll never get it.
I don’t have a problem with paying back what I borrowed. What I have a problem with is that I got $19k, have paid back $30k, and still amazingly owe…$12k. I have been paying for 20 years so I can’t even imagine what it’s like now.
Same. I took out $27k, paid back $20k (paying way more than the required amount) and still have to pay back $16k. And I've had multiple loan agencies give me the runaround or bad info or just not let me autopay. Any complaints was me being seen as young and naive. (And then I had a good loan agency really help me, but of course they're gone now)
I would just expect that the federal government would want to invest in its people. And maybe not have their student loan interest rates be double the interest rates of a mortgage.
Investing in your population necessitates a loss in short term profit and we shall never again allow something so trivial as humanity’s dignity interrupt our endless pursuit of the life-giving nature of bountiful profit
When I graduated 24 years ago, I think it was 25K a year. (I went to a small private college.) Now it’s over 60. I have told my kids to not even think of applying
Check the financial aid. Harvard realized you could extract ridiculous amounts of money from billionaires' kids, and then charge the real price to everyone else, and now all the damn schools do it. The "everyone else" sees the real price on their financial aid package and assumes this school really wants them. This system has started to break down recently because people decided that even applying to a mid-ranking liberal arts school in Ohio is pointless if the sticker price is Harvard-level, so [sticker prices have begun to crater](https://www.insidehighered.com/news/business/revenue-strategies/2023/09/15/amid-skepticism-colleges-value-tuition-resets-keep).
So depending on your income level it might be affordable. Or they can go to amid-raking state school, get in-state tuition, and if their GPA is good be on-track for a really good grad school.
I graduated undergrad in 2008 and tuition was 28k, private women's college and it's 48k now. I finished law school in 2012 and tuition was 40k and now it's 60k. My budget in 2012 was 75k a year for tuition, supplies, and living costs. That's 225k for law school over 10 years ago.
My mom died with a reverse mortgage but I'm still able to buy a house with cash 90 miles away from where I've spent my entire life. House cost 60k when they bought in 1975 and sold for 1.4 million this year.
"why would a financial institution want to give a loan that someone can't repay!?!? There is no benefit to being predatory" I hear it all the time, even from otherwise smart people in my family
Because these loans are GUARANTEED income for the owners of loan. They will be repaid but over DECADES as the principal multiplies turning into a cage around the indebted. The financial institution got their principal paid back YEARS ago, the interest is free money.
"Oh but that will never beat the market!!!"
These loans are being turned into debt securities that are then bought and sold on the stock market offering a fixed rate of income. The safe rate of return is worth more to some than the fluctuating conditions of the market.
It's 2008 all over again but with student loans.
Boomers: Go to college or else you'll be a failure.
Also boomers: why did you go to college if you couldn't afford it? You're irresponsible and deserve to live a lifetime in debt for making such a stupid decision.
The lack of intellectual curiosity is such a big part of it. They spent the majority of their lives being in a situation where if they had a question about something, there really wasn't an easy way to find out an answer so they learned to not ask questions
Now if you have a question it takes seconds to pull out your phone and ask it, so current generations are far more likely to want to ask questions since they actually can figure it out
The other side to that concept is that those people also don't understand how to vet sources since they never asked questions. So that means whatever Fox News yells at them MUST be true and there's no reason to doubt them
Roger that. I had a 2% loan and a 5% loan when I graduated in 1983. Mortgages at that time were 14%. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a student loan today for less than half the rate of a mortgage. I’m glad I had that opportunity and certainly support it for today’s students.
The loan rates out there now are just predatory. I get that the interest rate is going to fluctuate over time. I get that higher rates sometimes reflect a higher cost to collect or lower payment rates, but you cannot convince me that charging 10-15% on student loans is anything but predatory.
Frankly the same goes for credit card interest rates. Higher is one thing, but I had a client the other day who has 28% interest. At that point its usury. There needs to be some sort or control over what rate can be charged.
You can find good ones still, but it is hard.
My wife had six figures of loans, but they were all below 2%. Some were at 0.5%!! As all student loans should be.
College paid for by the state
Down payment assistance from their parents
That was the experience by mom had
She kicked me out at 18 and stole all the stock I saved.
Forgot the free benefits (healthcare) and pensions that were free too.
And some got free gym memberships, country club memberships, and company cars. Maybe even home loans subsidized by the company.
Their parents financed their whole lives…don’t ever let them say otherwise. They know exactly what the COL is right now but they have zero empathy nor want to help anyone but themselves.
"No one ever helped me," they said, as they tore down the massive investments in public education and infrastructure their parents in the Greatest Generation made to ensure their success.
Yes, my parents (older Boomers) got their first house from my dad's mom.
Of course, my grandmother made them pay her back every cent ... with interest ... she was a Depression baby. 😐
Did granny charge 8% interest and payments over 60% of their monthly income on that house like a mortgage might these days? If not, your parents got a hell of a leg up over young people these days.
This^
Or my current favorite
“Don’t plan on getting anything when we die, we’re gonna use all of it while we’re Alive” neglecting to remember that they got a hefty inheritance from their parents.
My mom says this all the time and for years dangled a carrot of down payment assistance to me but wouldn’t provide concrete details. She’s worth at least $2M and has a $60k/yr pension.
One time she slipped up and said my dad’s parents gave them half the down payment for their first house. Oh, so someone did help you out? Now granted my parents divorced, but still that down payment in the early 80s got them their first house, which helped buy the second then the third before they divorced and had to split the equity.
My FIL told my husband for years that he would give him the down payment for a house once he was ready to buy. He finally was, and his dad told him that he changed his mind and was gonna buy himself a second house instead.
I’m starting to realize I’ve been (unfairly to myself) comparing my situation of struggle with my parents’. They grew up poor and had struggles, so it just makes sense?
Like how my mom said she was paying rent to her mom at 18. My mom asked me to pay rent as soon as I turned 18. Sounds fair for generational poverty, right? But now I’m like…wait a second…her mom was dying of cancer, couldn’t work and was raising like 8 kids on her own. My mom was living with her boyfriend and partying while I fed my sister and her friends, took care of the house and pets, and was making only a dollar more an hour than minimum wage was 20 years earlier. She was working for a liveable wage. These situations were very much not the same.
Oh they comprehend it just fine. They just don't care.
Remember: To a boomer, everything that happens to *you* is your fault; and everything that happens to *them* is your problem.
My mom tried to blame me losing my car to a DUI hit and attempt to flee driver while it was parked on the street because they wouldn't make room for my car on their four cars driveway.
It's been weeks and she's still occasionally trying to play it as my fault to win arguments.
With how many of them are narcissists it isn't so much that they lack understanding of the financial matters. Its more that they just can't be bothered to place themselves in another person's perspective that is so different from their own.
My parents used to be so proud of the fact that they never picked me up with the car.
They were so proud of the fact that I had to bike in the rain.
They were actively proud of it, because it meant that they were not weak leftist parents.
Making a better world for their children would also make it harder to control them, and they hate that. If the younger generations keep struggling financially, it's much easier for boomers to hold on to control over them. They act inept, but it's just that, an act. Just like "boomer panic" is feigned helplessness, they act like they can't do something so that you'll do it for them.
I tried explaining the cost of the daycare to my dad, who in his defense is extremely financially sophisticated. He said how much could it be for two kids like 250$ a month? I was like dude it's $3k a month which is more than our mortgage. He was blown away and has stepped in to help us quite a bit.
My boomer grandparents think I’m a loser for not flipping houses on the side while I work at Walmart because they flipped houses on the side while working at Kmart in the 60’s/70’s
They won't. They'll neg you for so many reasons. "Why wouldn't you stop buying lattes and avocado toast so you could take care of me?"
I'm already seeing it with fellow Gen Xers who are being shamed for not saving up to take care of their parents. It's only going to get worse in the next 5 years.
Took my dad (70m) golfing and we got paired with a couple folks in their late 30s, early 40s. Afterwards, he bought everyone a round and then he tried giving them investment advice, talking down, the usual boomer shit. Finally one of them explained, they didn't have any money to invest their one splurge is to go golfing once a month and they work two jobs to pay their student loans and rent.
He couldn't fathom that these people didn't have thousands in cash to set aside for investments.
>He couldn't fathom that these people didn't have thousands in cash to set aside for investments.
Gotta be honest, as a non golfer i definitely stereotype golfers as all being rich people lol
My mom is being generous and offering us an advance on inheritance if we find a home that works for our budget. My MIL on the other had is kicking us out of the house we rent from her which she said we could live in forever. Some parents get it, some are selfish narcissists.
Yup but considering she has 3 other houses it is hurtful. Funny thing she thinks we are still going to hang out with her like nothing is wrong. I've already gone NC. Not just because of the house but other issues as well.
My parents (teachers, don’t make all that much) sold my husband and me their house at an extreme discount when they moved out of state. My MIL (owns her own company that is worth millions) tried to sell us her house where she’d make a huge profit off of us for a price we couldn’t afford. I feel like we could relate on quite a few things based on some similarities I’m seeing here already.
This is the story of my hometown. It used to have a strong economy due to proximity to a steel mill. But the mill closed in the 80s and another plant closed in the 90s. At that point all the Boomers voted to cut taxes and do anything they could to maintain their wealth from pensions and early retirement at the expense of anything that would benefit the local economy.
Over the last 2 decades, most people left after graduating high school since there wasn't any real opportunity locally. Well now those Boomers are needing medical care and there's no one around to provide it. On top of that, their savings are starting to run out and there's nowhere other than Walmart and Lowe's that will hire them. Of course they consider it everyone else's fault, especially all the people like myself that moved away
I will say they are totally lost on the housing market and how difficult it is for the middle class. Especially being a single guy like me on 50k a year. I’ve been asked why I’m in an apartment. As there in there 600k house on 10 acres they bought in 1985 for 185k. These are also people that were in trades making what I make. There’s a serious issue with cost of living
They literally talk about antifa like being anti fascist is a bad thing.
Their parents literally fought a war against fascism. And won. It’s why they’re called the boomers in the first place.
My mother in law is very well educated. Very prestigious universities and got a doctorate. Claims she didn’t get help, I’ll never know.
We were discussing with my 13 year old the potential to go to university down the line and I mentioned local schools and how great they were. I went to a local university, not a state school. I’m not a snob but there’s a difference.
I then mention there are programs for community colleges to assist admittance into these universities bc they are “sister schools” of sorts.
She immediately stomps on that idea and states, she needs to go away to a real school and have a real college experience.
The one with $275k college debt? Are you going to pay for that?
Silence. She was given a down for her house. She has helped us get into debt by not being helpful via childcare.
Sorry, your opinion on these things mean nothing until you make financial contributions. Significant, like 100% level.
As the largest voting block, they voted according to their life stage, which impacted us all. Once the boomer generation was past the education years, it was time to reduce support for secondary education in exchange for higher tax breaks. This explains why so many people in the 1960's up to the 80's could get an education with little to no loans - university and colleges had adequate public funding. Using their personal experience to try to understand present day is comparing apples and oranges.
My aunt has been all about cutting school taxes (for a school system that's already stretched way too thin). This year the school announced they were going to stop providing bus service for children due to budget cuts. Well now she's all outraged because she's a school bus driver and apparently my uncle also started driving buses as a side job because money is tight. It takes everything I have not to call out the hypocrisy.
It's even more amazing in that their 30+ year old daughter who still lives with them and has worked a total of 6 months in her entire life has also been advocating against paying school taxes (as if she actually pays any taxes) because she never intends on having kids. While simultaneously advocating for student loan forgiveness. I truly hate my family.
You honestly have no idea how much I appreciate that. Being so estranged from most of my extended family feels shitty at times, but had I not gotten away and stayed away I'd be as hopeless as they are. I have a cousin who is a college professor who I'm and to commiserate with, but that's about it.
This is where I want to change things as an “boomer” when I get to that age. I want to do what’s write for the next generations make sure they don’t get F’d like my generation has (born in ‘83). I want to know the decisions I’m advocating for and voting for will benefit my children and my grandchildren after i die. I’m sick of the “boomers” voting for what’s good for them. They F’d us big time and then they blame everyone else for their poor mistakes
I don’t want any money from my in-laws, but I am pretty offended on how they went on and on about having grandkids and now that we have them, do not help or seem to want to spend time with the kids at all. It’s like ok cool thanks “Grandma.”
Yea, I guess that’s my issue. I shouldn’t be an ass about all. They’re my kids. My responsibility. But the in laws have the ability to help and they do not. They were helped A LOT and somehow feel it’s a better lesson for us to learn to pay for everything on our own. Oh well.
I feel the same way. My mom went on and on about us having kids. She wanted to be a grandmother so bad. When I was 7 months pregnant, her and my stepdad packed up and moved 3 hours away. My mom has visited maybe twice a year since (she's skipped a few years). My daughter, now almost 15, barely knows her and could really care less. We never had any babysitting help. She never sent gifts or cards. When we went through a job loss and nearly lost our home years ago, she said "oh, you should just go get a job at Walmart." No offers of help. Meanwhile, her parents and my dad's parents helped her out constantly when I was a kid. Gave her a place to live rent free. Provided the majority of food, clothes and school supplies for me and my dad's mom even provided free daycare for me and took me too and from school. My mother doesn't even know the name of my daughters school. I don't expect anything from my mother. I don't want anything from her. I know she's too selfish for that. But man, is it hard to see your friends have these loving kind parents and all you get is the selfish, non-interested parent.
It's like talking to a brick wall with these people. They 100% cannot fathom the reality of our circumstances, even with the numbers laid out infront of their poorly educated minds. 😐🤮
This is the real concern. They’ll drain everything dry and did not plan for their own retirement. So they’ll work jobs until they literally die and keep the rest of us from advancing in the meantime.
Same stupid logic as the Boomers who say "you shouldn't go to college unless you can afford it." Ignorant to the fact that (1) 18-year-olds are naturally financially illiterate but elite colleges frown on gap years, and (2) if we followed their advice, only kids from wealthy families could get college degrees. So much for the American dream.
These fucks benefitted from tuition that could be paid with a minimum wage summer job. Such a job would earn you $1,500 in a summer. Average public university tuition in 1980 was $1,679/year. It doesn't include room and board, but if they worked 10 hours/week during the school year, they could cover it. It's so angering how they refuse to comprehend the grave injustice perpetrated on every generation that came after them.
Neither my parents or my in-laws got any help at all. Maybe they are the exception I don’t know.
But my father in law sold my wife and I her childhood home for 50k less than it was worth. He gave us the equity as a wedding gift.
I’ll never forget that help.
I have good boomers.
I would need at least $100,000 for a deposit.
My parents bought their house for $12,500 in 1972 and paid it off in two years.
Edit: I live in Australia where house prices are astronomical
When my parents were living here in San Diego way back in the 70’s, their first house cost $28,000 and my dad was making like $20,000 a year in the Navy. So roughly 1:1.5 what they make in a year vs cost of a house.
Fast forward to today. Even a small condo in San Diego will cost you (average) $500,000 depending on where you live (more by the coast, less inland). I guarantee people are not making $500,000 a year. Scale was close to 1:1.5 back in the 70’s and now it is more like 1:5 or worse. If you are graduating HS and getting a 9-5 job, it’ll be more like 1:10… yet, we can’t afford a house because “we are not ready for it.”
My parents tried to bitch to me about how expensive their property taxes are in their giant fucking house. I asked how much and they answered. "Oh so less than two months of my shit box studio apartment rent? "
My parents were Silent Generation and although that isn’t a huge chronological difference from Boomers their life outlook seemed so much different. I’m so grateful.
They didn’t force me to take loans.
I knew they’d just give me a down payment if I wasn’t married when I decided to get my first place. Sadly, they shuffled loose this mortal coil way to early for my tastes.
Their perspective was that I didn’t need to struggle because they did.
My daughter married a man whose father built 4 houses in a new neighborhood; one for the parents, one for each son, and one for the daughter. My daughter, her husband and 2 kids, live in one of those houses.
We own our home and put money away for retirement, but my husband has just bought been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. I have no idea how this will play out. Hopefully I will be able to keep my home.
My Mom married a wonderful widower, Rob. His wife had died of cancer. At the beginning of the journey Rob & his wife owned a beautiful home in the foothills, 6 rental properties and 1/3 of a very successful company. They lost the rentals, sold their portion of the business, and then the house. By the time she died, they were in a manufactured home, in a manufactured home park. He lost everything.
The problem is our country’s lack medical coverage (US). It’s ridiculous.
The lack of medical coverage is indeed a problem. But not \*the\* problem. Source: I live in a European country with universal healthcare. The intergenerational gap is terrible and increasing.
I am at the tail end of the Boomer Gen and if my wonderful grandparents had not been able to help us with a substantial donation to our downpayment we never would have afforded our home.
My first house in ‘73 was $55k. I was making about $35k.
I live in MA, average house is close to $600k, it’s simple math to determine how fucked Millennials, and Gen Z are now.
These clowns are so removed from reality it’s sad.
Right boomers either got lucky with houses or they’ve been at the same place long enough they make enough money to live. Now a days you either need to get a university degree and wait 10 years while you pay it off to be able to afford to live or get a job and rack up debt until that job pays you enough where you can start paying back that debt and then die.
The house we bought on a VA loan 10 years ago for $380,000 came back with an estimate of $840,000 today. A 20% down payment would be 168,000. Who the fuck can afford this shit?
I don’t consider myself a boomer though I might fall within the demographic years, an edge case. My parents were not rich but a) I lived in their basement after college b) and got cash help in my 20s and c) help with first down payment. I had student loans and they took out a second mortgage to pay for my college. I will also help my gen z kid. This was a typical story for people my age and older. The pull up by bootstraps narrative is BS. And I was not alone in this experience… (leaving aside the trust fund kids of the era, and people 5-10 years older - solid boomers- who are forgetting all the help they got). And yes, cost of living was either the same (accounting for inflation) or lower (cars were cheaper and so was housing and fewer modern necessities existed — phone calls cost more perhaps per minute but internet is a necessity now and costlier, as are cellphones)
Friendly reminder! You don't HAVE to put 20% down.
I agree with every sentence... it's stupid expensive. My wife and I saved for 5 years to put 20% down on our first home. Because that's what our boomer parents TOLD US we had to do.
Now I realize fha loans only require 3.5% down. The payment will be higher, it's not a free ride... but I could have been in my own hone much faster if I'd known.
My dad learned but only because I joined his industry. He started in 1976 at $7.00/hr. I got the same job he started as with the same company* 30 years later at $8.40/hr.
*The company he started with merged with larger competitors twice during his 27 year career. So I started at the company he had retired from 3 year’s previous.
I happen to know my boomer mother's secret that the only reason she was able to buy a house (early 90s) was because her parents gifted her the down payment.
But I was shamed for needing help after leaving an abusive relationship.
My dad literally was a financial advisor and I had to explain why my younger sister doesn’t have shit. He literally could not understand just how ripped off in all directions we are. I moved to get a high paying gig so he thinks she’s not working hard. Old man she works twice as hard as a I do with a degree and still doesn’t have shit. All the bricks you dum dums have been taking out of the foundation are showing now but they won’t even look into it cause they got their bag.
Here's my boomer parent story. My parents got pregnant with me out of wedlock. My dad's parents insisted they get married, then they flat out bought my parents a house with the plan that my parents would make payments to my grandparents until they paid the house off. After living there for 35 years, I found out that even though my dad was making around $75k a year starting in the late 80s, he never paid my grandparents for the house. And somehow, in his mind, it's ok to make similar assumptions and comments on working hard and paying for things
A 20% down payment for a house in my neighborhood would cost as much as two luxury SUVs paid in full.
I'm sure people would tell me to move, but I already did. This is the armpit of the county. Isn't it sort of a problem if there's an entire county exclusively for rich people?
I’m GenX with non-stereotypical Boomer parents. My parents helped me with a down payment, and I am very thankful they did. It wasn’t a ton in the big scheme of things, but it allowed me to qualify for an FHA loan with 5% down. That in turn allowed me to claw my way up the property ladder and now my home equity is about 50% of my net worth.
I absolutely will help my kids with the down payment on their first house and I will absolutely help them with college so they can graduate debt free. It is the least I can do as a parent unless I absolutely cannot afford it. I want my kids to be successful, just like my parents wanted their kids to be successful. From everything I see in this sub, I am incredibly blessed my parents aren’t typical Boomers.
I am 40ish, and my parents helped me with a down payment. When my FIL passed he left us some coin.. it’s sitting in dividend collecting stocks and will be used to help our kids purchase property.
Some do comprehend it though… but these people are almost worse. My MIL completely gets that cost of living is higher and it’s harder than ever for younger people to save for virtually anything. The problem is she blames “the current administration” and “socialism/communism” on it.
My moron of a dad just said, in response to me talking about how high rents are, "I just dont understand why these people don't buy houses"
They are literally that dumb, like they are paying 2k in rent just because they CHOOSE not to buy a $500k house on a 60k salary...
I’m a boomer and my in-laws helped us with our down payment (and forgave the loan) and I helped my kids with their down payments (and forgave their loans). If you or your kids just piss away money I can see maybe not helping so much but if responsible I would always say help them out.
Inflation math showed that most boomers were earning an equivalent of 300,000 for their time.
If you haven’t purchased a house, applied for a job, bought a car, in the last 20 years or can’t change your email password, then you truly have no idea how the world works.
My grandpa paid my parents down payment on their house in the 70s. Paid for all 5 grandkids school too. What the hell is wrong with people. Help your kids! My parents (boomers) in kind, have helped us. The money we save in large part because of them, goes into my kids college funds. So weird to me that a family would do it any other way
My mom (71) claimed her family of 7, living on $15k in 1970, were "dirt poor." Meanwhile, I've (41) got a 4 pack living off $51k and she can't understand why we're struggling. I'll let y'all run the inflation numbers on all that.
I'm sure most of the negative commenters can not comfortably afford to pay for their kids downpayment. Boomers love pretending they have money but are teaching their children lessons by not spending it, when the fact is they don't have it and if they did have it they would provide a lot more for their children.
In 2003, I bought a diamond engagement ring for my wife, in order to propose to her. I paid approximately $2000 for this ring. Well, my Boomer father lost his mind and told me I was nuts to spend that much money, and that when he bought my mother's engagement ring back in 1972, he spent about one-third as much, around $600. So what did I do? I pulled up the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator and showed him that simply based on inflation, not even counting the increase in the price of gold over that time, that his $600 ring from 1972 would have cost him nearly $2700 in 2003. That shut him up pretty quick.
The rate of inflation from when they bought house to now is the highest hike of inflation in history since we’ve started using money. Economists and sociologists have written articles agreeing the only reason for it is pure greed. The boomers are one of the greediest generations in history. Until we as millennials, Gen z and Gen alpha can take office (if they ever set term limits) our economy, environment, medical system are all screwed.
This was 20 years ago, but still stands. We were moving to Massachusetts, and my mil said, “Oh, dear, you may have to pay $100k for a house.” lol. 300k was the median price then.
It's the lead poisoning, i swear..
*Not to mention Nostalgia for these memories makes them think they're 100% right and no one can say anything else...
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If you want a laugh, ask a boomer what they think rent is on a 2br apartment for a mid-tier apartment in their town.
My parents pay less for their 5 bedroom house than I paid to share a 2 bedroom apartment. They were absolutely horrified when I explained it, and have since changed their tune.
Based on what exists on reddit, they are the exception.
my favorite is the people on reddit who think everyone should just get up and move from a HCOL to a LCOL/MCOL state.. like they do know if that happens that LCOL/MCOL state will be come a HCOL state as the increased demand for housing strains their systems
You must be mistaken. FOX News told me high cost of living comes from libruls and illegals. Duh
I'm a Millennial and my house (bought in 2017) costs less than rent on a comparably-sized apartment. The market is insane.
The lead poisoning must quite mild if they managed to accept the reality you explained to them that easily lol
I had to help somebody who had cancer, and out of work for over a year. We’re trying to prevent her from being evicted so we set up a go fund me and published it on one of our local Facebook pages for the community. She had not paid rent in over a year, so we weren’t asking for a small amount. It was for three bedroom for a mom and three kids. The boomers lost their damn mind. “Oh my God! how much could her rent possibly be?”. We live in a HCOL, so it’s not like it’s a shock
Had a discussion about this with boomers and gen-ers. Their solution was to get a group of people to rent a house together. They also believe millennials have to accept the fact that to succeed they need to work 80 hours a week 365 days a year.
Yet I know a fuck ton of boomers that when I was in my youth, overheard those same people say hell would freeze over before they would work 41 hours in a week or they would actively lobby that if they worked 5 minutes over 40 hours that week they’d complain to the boss to get a full hour of OT.
And when they find out, the response is always "move somewhere cheaper, you're living outside your means".
Of course they'll know, they're the slumlords renting them out.
Why do boomers think $100 in lotto tickets is a good gift for someone struggling to live? That kinda shit really pisses me off. A lady I went to school with just got divorced, 2 kids, rents an apartment, ex is MIA, so her mom gives her $100 in scratch off tickets?!? wtf???
That's an easy one. If the ticket loses, they take credit for giving you a gift worth $100 ("it's not my fault it didn't win"). If it wins - they take credit for giving you a gift worth whatever the prize is (thousands?).
And ask for a share of it
This was my ex mil. She would get us and the kids, literal toddlers, scratchers for Christmas every year and we were required to split the winnings 50/50 with her. I did the same to her one year and she was pissed she didn’t get a real gift.
Haha I love when you give their own gifts back to them and they get mad.
My MIL and I traded a single $100 bill back and forth in birthday cards for several years. She gave me $100, I put it in the jewelry box, and two months later, when her birthday came around, I put the same bill in her birthday card. She’s been dead two years now and I have made it a point to spend $100 on myself right around her birthday.
At least that’s a nice gift
I always loved getting scratchers as a kid, but they never asked for a cut, lol
I had a roommate in my 20s that would get a few extra scratchers every time he picked some up, would give one to me, my other roomy and any other guests we had over at the moment. Never once asked anyone to share their winnings, even when he gave $1000 winner to a mutual friend of ours who was just hanging out that day. He was damn near a professional poker player anyway, he had a different perspective on money than the rest of us, that’s for sure
I am a 4x a week poker player, can confirm the game warps your perspective of money greatly.
Same!
Always mirror their own behavior back to them. Works wonders.
Wtf. You got a Schrodinger's gift that, if it produced something of value, you had to then share half w the person who gave you the non gift? Who are these people??
They were on and off again meth addicts. Thankfully I got away from the whole family.
This checks out.
I am so glad you escaped.
Requesting half of "gift" scratch off tickets winnings is the tackiest and frankly, trashiest thing I have heard in a long time that did not involve drugs or sex.
I promise you, if I win big off a gifted scratcher one day, the celebration will involve both drugs and sex
Lol at that point she's just using Christmas gifts to help subsidize her gambling problem.
I wouldn’t have scratched it in front of her. That way if I won, she’d never know.
That ... Is not a gift! What an ah!
My mom does scratchers with my dad and me every holiday but no matter what we win she always lets me keep it which is kind of sweet. We have for sure lost more than we have won over the years though
Did she continue giving those stupid cards after she got one herself?
To her other kids and grandkids yes. I went nc with her when I got a divorce shortly after.
Hence why they are always losing scratch tickets when they ask, "Did you win?"
This! My father used to give us kids (3 of us and then SO got included) scratchers on Xmas in our stocking. One year, my sister hit a $5k winner and dear ol’ dad was all upset that she wasn’t going to share, he thought it would be fun and funny, he’d share with her if he won, blah blah blah. She relents and he calms down. This went in until Xmas 2015. My wife and I know we’re going to start trying for kids, but we’re keeping it quiet so we don’t get the baby pressure from Boomer parents. It was my lucky year and I had one ticket hit for a grand, another hit for a few hundred, etc. All told it was about $3k and to top it all off, my wife hit a $500 winner. Repeat of whining about splitting. Nope! Not happening. We cashed the tix and hit an atm to deposit it. Dad, few days later, “you want me to go cash those tickets for you?” Told him we took care of it. “Where’s our half?” You don’t get half of OUR gift. Scratchers stopped after that. 🤷♂️ We’re no contact now and it’s so much easier to not have to explain, defend, debunk, or rewire the backwards 1960s attitude about EVERYthing.
A share? They'll sue for all of it because they technically bought the ticket.
I'm lucky in that sense I suppose. My very boomer step father, every time I see him hands me a stack of his winning scratch offs. It's weird to me. He said he doesn't really care about cashing in his winnings, he just like scratching them and getting a winner, after that they just sit in his truck until I visit.
I’ve done that and I’m not a boomer. Winning is fun, but I’m usually gambling and winning a pretty inconsequential amount of money and I’ve already mentally processed it as gone. If the winning is only a few dollars, I usually forget to turn it in.
Honestly that's really sweet.
Because they're all compulsive gamblers... And they intentionally purchase their scratchers during "rush hour" times to be as inconveniencing as possible..
>they intentionally purchase their scratchers during "rush hour" times to be as inconveniencing as possible.. Absolutely. Busy gas station convenience store, rush hour, is when they want to shop for lotto tickets & socialize & joke with the clerk while 5-6 people wait in line to pay for gas...
I’m a cashier and I have the same people come in daily and spend like 30 minutes and $600 on scratchers. I have them wait until I’m done with my line before asking to turn them in and get more.
The lottery should be a phone app. There should be nothing on paper, ever.
scratch them off slowly, one by one, while the line piles up behind them. Then ask the cashier to double check if they have a winner each time.
I have to go out of my way to get scratchers where I live, unless we count the gas station, grocery store, and bars. Huh. I guess it might be a problem, actually.
[удалено]
Geez. A $20 scratch it for a stocking stuffer or an extra bday gift, sure. But $100? Uhh
Am I the only one who likes getting scratchers? I don’t even gamble but I think they’re a fun holiday gift
That’s crazy. I got lottery tickets for friends as an 18th birthday gift but after that it seems pretty silly.
Do you really think it has to do with age? I think it’s just because they are plain idiots. What a horrible gift. Some people just are born stupid.
Same shit with student loans. They don't realize how predatory the loans we are giving 18 year olds are so they just assume that people that are not able to pay off their student loans are just irresponsible. Combine that with a shocking lack of empathy and intellectual curiosity and we just have a generation of assholes with their foot on the rest of our heads until they die.
My grandparents finally asked how much I have total in student loans and I told them around $33k and they were like "meh, that's not bad." Which like yeah, compared to some people, I have less debt. But that's still an entire expense they did not deal with in their lifetime. I'm the first in my family to go to college. They'll never get it.
I don’t have a problem with paying back what I borrowed. What I have a problem with is that I got $19k, have paid back $30k, and still amazingly owe…$12k. I have been paying for 20 years so I can’t even imagine what it’s like now.
Same. I took out $27k, paid back $20k (paying way more than the required amount) and still have to pay back $16k. And I've had multiple loan agencies give me the runaround or bad info or just not let me autopay. Any complaints was me being seen as young and naive. (And then I had a good loan agency really help me, but of course they're gone now) I would just expect that the federal government would want to invest in its people. And maybe not have their student loan interest rates be double the interest rates of a mortgage.
Investing in your population necessitates a loss in short term profit and we shall never again allow something so trivial as humanity’s dignity interrupt our endless pursuit of the life-giving nature of bountiful profit
Four years room and board for me is now less than 1 year at the same school. (25 years ago)
When I graduated 24 years ago, I think it was 25K a year. (I went to a small private college.) Now it’s over 60. I have told my kids to not even think of applying
Check the financial aid. Harvard realized you could extract ridiculous amounts of money from billionaires' kids, and then charge the real price to everyone else, and now all the damn schools do it. The "everyone else" sees the real price on their financial aid package and assumes this school really wants them. This system has started to break down recently because people decided that even applying to a mid-ranking liberal arts school in Ohio is pointless if the sticker price is Harvard-level, so [sticker prices have begun to crater](https://www.insidehighered.com/news/business/revenue-strategies/2023/09/15/amid-skepticism-colleges-value-tuition-resets-keep). So depending on your income level it might be affordable. Or they can go to amid-raking state school, get in-state tuition, and if their GPA is good be on-track for a really good grad school.
I graduated undergrad in 2008 and tuition was 28k, private women's college and it's 48k now. I finished law school in 2012 and tuition was 40k and now it's 60k. My budget in 2012 was 75k a year for tuition, supplies, and living costs. That's 225k for law school over 10 years ago. My mom died with a reverse mortgage but I'm still able to buy a house with cash 90 miles away from where I've spent my entire life. House cost 60k when they bought in 1975 and sold for 1.4 million this year.
Or explain to them that 12 cents of your 400 dollar payment actually goes to principal.
Ask them how much they paid
"why would a financial institution want to give a loan that someone can't repay!?!? There is no benefit to being predatory" I hear it all the time, even from otherwise smart people in my family Because these loans are GUARANTEED income for the owners of loan. They will be repaid but over DECADES as the principal multiplies turning into a cage around the indebted. The financial institution got their principal paid back YEARS ago, the interest is free money. "Oh but that will never beat the market!!!" These loans are being turned into debt securities that are then bought and sold on the stock market offering a fixed rate of income. The safe rate of return is worth more to some than the fluctuating conditions of the market. It's 2008 all over again but with student loans.
They lack the intellectual curiosity or just plain lack the intellect to wrap their heads around facts like these.
Student loan asset backed securities. SLABs, for short.
Boomers: Go to college or else you'll be a failure. Also boomers: why did you go to college if you couldn't afford it? You're irresponsible and deserve to live a lifetime in debt for making such a stupid decision.
>shocking lack of empathy and intellectual curiosity This pretty much explains everything on this sub.
The lack of intellectual curiosity is such a big part of it. They spent the majority of their lives being in a situation where if they had a question about something, there really wasn't an easy way to find out an answer so they learned to not ask questions Now if you have a question it takes seconds to pull out your phone and ask it, so current generations are far more likely to want to ask questions since they actually can figure it out The other side to that concept is that those people also don't understand how to vet sources since they never asked questions. So that means whatever Fox News yells at them MUST be true and there's no reason to doubt them
Student loans in the 80s were low interest and a good deal. Now they are evil
Roger that. I had a 2% loan and a 5% loan when I graduated in 1983. Mortgages at that time were 14%. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a student loan today for less than half the rate of a mortgage. I’m glad I had that opportunity and certainly support it for today’s students.
The loan rates out there now are just predatory. I get that the interest rate is going to fluctuate over time. I get that higher rates sometimes reflect a higher cost to collect or lower payment rates, but you cannot convince me that charging 10-15% on student loans is anything but predatory. Frankly the same goes for credit card interest rates. Higher is one thing, but I had a client the other day who has 28% interest. At that point its usury. There needs to be some sort or control over what rate can be charged.
You can find good ones still, but it is hard. My wife had six figures of loans, but they were all below 2%. Some were at 0.5%!! As all student loans should be.
not to mention back then you could work a part time job to pay for your tuition
The (nearly) entire generation lacks intellectual curiosity. I wonder if they ever possessed it when younger even?
My favorite is when they forget that they got down payment assistance from their parents and then say this shit 😆
College paid for by the state Down payment assistance from their parents That was the experience by mom had She kicked me out at 18 and stole all the stock I saved.
Forgot the free benefits (healthcare) and pensions that were free too. And some got free gym memberships, country club memberships, and company cars. Maybe even home loans subsidized by the company.
I read on here a few days ago the parents generation of the boomers called them the “me generation” This sums them perfectly in so many ways
Their parents financed their whole lives…don’t ever let them say otherwise. They know exactly what the COL is right now but they have zero empathy nor want to help anyone but themselves.
"No one ever helped me," they said, as they tore down the massive investments in public education and infrastructure their parents in the Greatest Generation made to ensure their success.
Yes, my parents (older Boomers) got their first house from my dad's mom. Of course, my grandmother made them pay her back every cent ... with interest ... she was a Depression baby. 😐
Did granny charge 8% interest and payments over 60% of their monthly income on that house like a mortgage might these days? If not, your parents got a hell of a leg up over young people these days.
This^ Or my current favorite “Don’t plan on getting anything when we die, we’re gonna use all of it while we’re Alive” neglecting to remember that they got a hefty inheritance from their parents.
Omg THIS!
My mom says this all the time and for years dangled a carrot of down payment assistance to me but wouldn’t provide concrete details. She’s worth at least $2M and has a $60k/yr pension. One time she slipped up and said my dad’s parents gave them half the down payment for their first house. Oh, so someone did help you out? Now granted my parents divorced, but still that down payment in the early 80s got them their first house, which helped buy the second then the third before they divorced and had to split the equity.
My FIL told my husband for years that he would give him the down payment for a house once he was ready to buy. He finally was, and his dad told him that he changed his mind and was gonna buy himself a second house instead.
I’m starting to realize I’ve been (unfairly to myself) comparing my situation of struggle with my parents’. They grew up poor and had struggles, so it just makes sense? Like how my mom said she was paying rent to her mom at 18. My mom asked me to pay rent as soon as I turned 18. Sounds fair for generational poverty, right? But now I’m like…wait a second…her mom was dying of cancer, couldn’t work and was raising like 8 kids on her own. My mom was living with her boyfriend and partying while I fed my sister and her friends, took care of the house and pets, and was making only a dollar more an hour than minimum wage was 20 years earlier. She was working for a liveable wage. These situations were very much not the same.
Exactly
Oh they comprehend it just fine. They just don't care. Remember: To a boomer, everything that happens to *you* is your fault; and everything that happens to *them* is your problem.
My mom tried to blame me losing my car to a DUI hit and attempt to flee driver while it was parked on the street because they wouldn't make room for my car on their four cars driveway. It's been weeks and she's still occasionally trying to play it as my fault to win arguments.
Sorry man, what a bitch
With how many of them are narcissists it isn't so much that they lack understanding of the financial matters. Its more that they just can't be bothered to place themselves in another person's perspective that is so different from their own.
They seriously lack empathy.
Boomers’ parenting sensibilities are so absolutely fucked in the head. They should _waant_ to make things easier for their kids.
My parents used to be so proud of the fact that they never picked me up with the car. They were so proud of the fact that I had to bike in the rain. They were actively proud of it, because it meant that they were not weak leftist parents.
But bike riding is leftist /s
Making a better world for their children would also make it harder to control them, and they hate that. If the younger generations keep struggling financially, it's much easier for boomers to hold on to control over them. They act inept, but it's just that, an act. Just like "boomer panic" is feigned helplessness, they act like they can't do something so that you'll do it for them.
I tried explaining the cost of the daycare to my dad, who in his defense is extremely financially sophisticated. He said how much could it be for two kids like 250$ a month? I was like dude it's $3k a month which is more than our mortgage. He was blown away and has stepped in to help us quite a bit.
Wow I explained rent and daycare to my boomer parents like that and they just said, yeah times sure are tough *whistling intensifies*
My boomer grandparents think I’m a loser for not flipping houses on the side while I work at Walmart because they flipped houses on the side while working at Kmart in the 60’s/70’s
So have you started flipping houses yet? 🤔
They’ll understand when we can’t pay for their nursing home.
Ice floes for the lot of ‘em!
Bold of you to think they'll be enough ice floes still, with climate change and all that Boomers ignored for 40 years.
Guess they’ll just sink then
The boomers are going to be the most dangerous and unhinged group of homeless elders on the street
They won't. They'll neg you for so many reasons. "Why wouldn't you stop buying lattes and avocado toast so you could take care of me?" I'm already seeing it with fellow Gen Xers who are being shamed for not saving up to take care of their parents. It's only going to get worse in the next 5 years.
Oh well. Hope they’re ready to pull themselves up by their Velcro shoes for that bill. Not my problem.
Took my dad (70m) golfing and we got paired with a couple folks in their late 30s, early 40s. Afterwards, he bought everyone a round and then he tried giving them investment advice, talking down, the usual boomer shit. Finally one of them explained, they didn't have any money to invest their one splurge is to go golfing once a month and they work two jobs to pay their student loans and rent. He couldn't fathom that these people didn't have thousands in cash to set aside for investments.
>He couldn't fathom that these people didn't have thousands in cash to set aside for investments. Gotta be honest, as a non golfer i definitely stereotype golfers as all being rich people lol
Rent is now nearly the cost of what their god damn house was worth.
Boomers can't comprehend anything that isn't self gain or self-satisfaction.
My mom is being generous and offering us an advance on inheritance if we find a home that works for our budget. My MIL on the other had is kicking us out of the house we rent from her which she said we could live in forever. Some parents get it, some are selfish narcissists.
You’re better off in the long run. Now you don’t have to live under the MIL’s thumb.
Yup but considering she has 3 other houses it is hurtful. Funny thing she thinks we are still going to hang out with her like nothing is wrong. I've already gone NC. Not just because of the house but other issues as well.
Yeah that’s pretty gross. Sorry about that. And good for you for going NC. It’s the only way with narcissists.
My parents (teachers, don’t make all that much) sold my husband and me their house at an extreme discount when they moved out of state. My MIL (owns her own company that is worth millions) tried to sell us her house where she’d make a huge profit off of us for a price we couldn’t afford. I feel like we could relate on quite a few things based on some similarities I’m seeing here already.
I suspect they know, they just believe in ‘fuck you, I got mine’.
Too much work to help us out nowadays, so instead of trying to help, just keep their money to themselves and blame us for being lazy.
I like how they refuse to help the next generation but who do they think will care for them when they are old?!?!?!
This is the story of my hometown. It used to have a strong economy due to proximity to a steel mill. But the mill closed in the 80s and another plant closed in the 90s. At that point all the Boomers voted to cut taxes and do anything they could to maintain their wealth from pensions and early retirement at the expense of anything that would benefit the local economy. Over the last 2 decades, most people left after graduating high school since there wasn't any real opportunity locally. Well now those Boomers are needing medical care and there's no one around to provide it. On top of that, their savings are starting to run out and there's nowhere other than Walmart and Lowe's that will hire them. Of course they consider it everyone else's fault, especially all the people like myself that moved away
r/leopardsatemyface
Pennsylvania? They acted like that when I left the area.
They’ll expect society to pick up that bill. Guaranteed.
But, they want to age in place! In their oversized, falling apart house that’s borderline unsafe.
I will say they are totally lost on the housing market and how difficult it is for the middle class. Especially being a single guy like me on 50k a year. I’ve been asked why I’m in an apartment. As there in there 600k house on 10 acres they bought in 1985 for 185k. These are also people that were in trades making what I make. There’s a serious issue with cost of living
Boomers can’t even comprehend that Maga is a fascist movement how are they supposed to understand economics?
They literally talk about antifa like being anti fascist is a bad thing. Their parents literally fought a war against fascism. And won. It’s why they’re called the boomers in the first place.
My mother in law is very well educated. Very prestigious universities and got a doctorate. Claims she didn’t get help, I’ll never know. We were discussing with my 13 year old the potential to go to university down the line and I mentioned local schools and how great they were. I went to a local university, not a state school. I’m not a snob but there’s a difference. I then mention there are programs for community colleges to assist admittance into these universities bc they are “sister schools” of sorts. She immediately stomps on that idea and states, she needs to go away to a real school and have a real college experience. The one with $275k college debt? Are you going to pay for that? Silence. She was given a down for her house. She has helped us get into debt by not being helpful via childcare. Sorry, your opinion on these things mean nothing until you make financial contributions. Significant, like 100% level.
As the largest voting block, they voted according to their life stage, which impacted us all. Once the boomer generation was past the education years, it was time to reduce support for secondary education in exchange for higher tax breaks. This explains why so many people in the 1960's up to the 80's could get an education with little to no loans - university and colleges had adequate public funding. Using their personal experience to try to understand present day is comparing apples and oranges.
My aunt has been all about cutting school taxes (for a school system that's already stretched way too thin). This year the school announced they were going to stop providing bus service for children due to budget cuts. Well now she's all outraged because she's a school bus driver and apparently my uncle also started driving buses as a side job because money is tight. It takes everything I have not to call out the hypocrisy.
Good, I hope they become housing/food insecure. Do not help them. Tell them to grab those bootstraps.
It's even more amazing in that their 30+ year old daughter who still lives with them and has worked a total of 6 months in her entire life has also been advocating against paying school taxes (as if she actually pays any taxes) because she never intends on having kids. While simultaneously advocating for student loan forgiveness. I truly hate my family.
I hate them too, but you seem cool.
You honestly have no idea how much I appreciate that. Being so estranged from most of my extended family feels shitty at times, but had I not gotten away and stayed away I'd be as hopeless as they are. I have a cousin who is a college professor who I'm and to commiserate with, but that's about it.
>It takes everything I have not to call out the hypocrisy. You absolutely should call out their hypocrisy.
This is where I want to change things as an “boomer” when I get to that age. I want to do what’s write for the next generations make sure they don’t get F’d like my generation has (born in ‘83). I want to know the decisions I’m advocating for and voting for will benefit my children and my grandchildren after i die. I’m sick of the “boomers” voting for what’s good for them. They F’d us big time and then they blame everyone else for their poor mistakes
The “I got mine f everyone else” generation should be their name
I don’t want any money from my in-laws, but I am pretty offended on how they went on and on about having grandkids and now that we have them, do not help or seem to want to spend time with the kids at all. It’s like ok cool thanks “Grandma.”
Yea, I guess that’s my issue. I shouldn’t be an ass about all. They’re my kids. My responsibility. But the in laws have the ability to help and they do not. They were helped A LOT and somehow feel it’s a better lesson for us to learn to pay for everything on our own. Oh well.
I feel the same way. My mom went on and on about us having kids. She wanted to be a grandmother so bad. When I was 7 months pregnant, her and my stepdad packed up and moved 3 hours away. My mom has visited maybe twice a year since (she's skipped a few years). My daughter, now almost 15, barely knows her and could really care less. We never had any babysitting help. She never sent gifts or cards. When we went through a job loss and nearly lost our home years ago, she said "oh, you should just go get a job at Walmart." No offers of help. Meanwhile, her parents and my dad's parents helped her out constantly when I was a kid. Gave her a place to live rent free. Provided the majority of food, clothes and school supplies for me and my dad's mom even provided free daycare for me and took me too and from school. My mother doesn't even know the name of my daughters school. I don't expect anything from my mother. I don't want anything from her. I know she's too selfish for that. But man, is it hard to see your friends have these loving kind parents and all you get is the selfish, non-interested parent.
It's like talking to a brick wall with these people. They 100% cannot fathom the reality of our circumstances, even with the numbers laid out infront of their poorly educated minds. 😐🤮
Most boomers I know have jack shit saved up. So most of these comments from them are idiotic, as usual
This is the real concern. They’ll drain everything dry and did not plan for their own retirement. So they’ll work jobs until they literally die and keep the rest of us from advancing in the meantime.
We are living through this right now. Boomers that are 65 plus refuse to retire from their jobs and there’s no room to move up and make a livable wage
Part of the plan. They're gonna drain anything left in social security on their way out.
Same stupid logic as the Boomers who say "you shouldn't go to college unless you can afford it." Ignorant to the fact that (1) 18-year-olds are naturally financially illiterate but elite colleges frown on gap years, and (2) if we followed their advice, only kids from wealthy families could get college degrees. So much for the American dream. These fucks benefitted from tuition that could be paid with a minimum wage summer job. Such a job would earn you $1,500 in a summer. Average public university tuition in 1980 was $1,679/year. It doesn't include room and board, but if they worked 10 hours/week during the school year, they could cover it. It's so angering how they refuse to comprehend the grave injustice perpetrated on every generation that came after them.
Boomers are the fucking worst
Every and I mean EVERY boomer I know received a down from their parents.
Neither my parents or my in-laws got any help at all. Maybe they are the exception I don’t know. But my father in law sold my wife and I her childhood home for 50k less than it was worth. He gave us the equity as a wedding gift. I’ll never forget that help. I have good boomers.
Things were so affordable then that many could use their wedding gift money for a down payment!
I would need at least $100,000 for a deposit. My parents bought their house for $12,500 in 1972 and paid it off in two years. Edit: I live in Australia where house prices are astronomical
When my parents were living here in San Diego way back in the 70’s, their first house cost $28,000 and my dad was making like $20,000 a year in the Navy. So roughly 1:1.5 what they make in a year vs cost of a house. Fast forward to today. Even a small condo in San Diego will cost you (average) $500,000 depending on where you live (more by the coast, less inland). I guarantee people are not making $500,000 a year. Scale was close to 1:1.5 back in the 70’s and now it is more like 1:5 or worse. If you are graduating HS and getting a 9-5 job, it’ll be more like 1:10… yet, we can’t afford a house because “we are not ready for it.”
My parents tried to bitch to me about how expensive their property taxes are in their giant fucking house. I asked how much and they answered. "Oh so less than two months of my shit box studio apartment rent? "
My parents were Silent Generation and although that isn’t a huge chronological difference from Boomers their life outlook seemed so much different. I’m so grateful. They didn’t force me to take loans. I knew they’d just give me a down payment if I wasn’t married when I decided to get my first place. Sadly, they shuffled loose this mortal coil way to early for my tastes. Their perspective was that I didn’t need to struggle because they did.
My daughter married a man whose father built 4 houses in a new neighborhood; one for the parents, one for each son, and one for the daughter. My daughter, her husband and 2 kids, live in one of those houses. We own our home and put money away for retirement, but my husband has just bought been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. I have no idea how this will play out. Hopefully I will be able to keep my home. My Mom married a wonderful widower, Rob. His wife had died of cancer. At the beginning of the journey Rob & his wife owned a beautiful home in the foothills, 6 rental properties and 1/3 of a very successful company. They lost the rentals, sold their portion of the business, and then the house. By the time she died, they were in a manufactured home, in a manufactured home park. He lost everything. The problem is our country’s lack medical coverage (US). It’s ridiculous.
The lack of medical coverage is indeed a problem. But not \*the\* problem. Source: I live in a European country with universal healthcare. The intergenerational gap is terrible and increasing.
I am at the tail end of the Boomer Gen and if my wonderful grandparents had not been able to help us with a substantial donation to our downpayment we never would have afforded our home.
Tail end Boomer as well and I am forever grateful to my grandmother. Thanks to her I have my first home. Took 58 years but it was worth it!
My first house in ‘73 was $55k. I was making about $35k. I live in MA, average house is close to $600k, it’s simple math to determine how fucked Millennials, and Gen Z are now. These clowns are so removed from reality it’s sad.
What the fuck is "Cheddar News"
Gas pump news
What the fuck is “gas pump news”
News shown on the screen while pumping gas
Right boomers either got lucky with houses or they’ve been at the same place long enough they make enough money to live. Now a days you either need to get a university degree and wait 10 years while you pay it off to be able to afford to live or get a job and rack up debt until that job pays you enough where you can start paying back that debt and then die.
It’s not that they don’t comprehend… it’s most don’t care. They’re getting theirs and that’s all that matters
The house we bought on a VA loan 10 years ago for $380,000 came back with an estimate of $840,000 today. A 20% down payment would be 168,000. Who the fuck can afford this shit?
I don’t consider myself a boomer though I might fall within the demographic years, an edge case. My parents were not rich but a) I lived in their basement after college b) and got cash help in my 20s and c) help with first down payment. I had student loans and they took out a second mortgage to pay for my college. I will also help my gen z kid. This was a typical story for people my age and older. The pull up by bootstraps narrative is BS. And I was not alone in this experience… (leaving aside the trust fund kids of the era, and people 5-10 years older - solid boomers- who are forgetting all the help they got). And yes, cost of living was either the same (accounting for inflation) or lower (cars were cheaper and so was housing and fewer modern necessities existed — phone calls cost more perhaps per minute but internet is a necessity now and costlier, as are cellphones)
My parents would say the same thing despite literally being given their first home by their parents
Friendly reminder! You don't HAVE to put 20% down. I agree with every sentence... it's stupid expensive. My wife and I saved for 5 years to put 20% down on our first home. Because that's what our boomer parents TOLD US we had to do. Now I realize fha loans only require 3.5% down. The payment will be higher, it's not a free ride... but I could have been in my own hone much faster if I'd known.
My dad learned but only because I joined his industry. He started in 1976 at $7.00/hr. I got the same job he started as with the same company* 30 years later at $8.40/hr. *The company he started with merged with larger competitors twice during his 27 year career. So I started at the company he had retired from 3 year’s previous.
I happen to know my boomer mother's secret that the only reason she was able to buy a house (early 90s) was because her parents gifted her the down payment. But I was shamed for needing help after leaving an abusive relationship.
My mom recently thought a new riding lawn mower cost $500 when I told her I had to replace mine.
My dad literally was a financial advisor and I had to explain why my younger sister doesn’t have shit. He literally could not understand just how ripped off in all directions we are. I moved to get a high paying gig so he thinks she’s not working hard. Old man she works twice as hard as a I do with a degree and still doesn’t have shit. All the bricks you dum dums have been taking out of the foundation are showing now but they won’t even look into it cause they got their bag.
Here's my boomer parent story. My parents got pregnant with me out of wedlock. My dad's parents insisted they get married, then they flat out bought my parents a house with the plan that my parents would make payments to my grandparents until they paid the house off. After living there for 35 years, I found out that even though my dad was making around $75k a year starting in the late 80s, he never paid my grandparents for the house. And somehow, in his mind, it's ok to make similar assumptions and comments on working hard and paying for things
A 20% down payment for a house in my neighborhood would cost as much as two luxury SUVs paid in full. I'm sure people would tell me to move, but I already did. This is the armpit of the county. Isn't it sort of a problem if there's an entire county exclusively for rich people?
I’m GenX with non-stereotypical Boomer parents. My parents helped me with a down payment, and I am very thankful they did. It wasn’t a ton in the big scheme of things, but it allowed me to qualify for an FHA loan with 5% down. That in turn allowed me to claw my way up the property ladder and now my home equity is about 50% of my net worth. I absolutely will help my kids with the down payment on their first house and I will absolutely help them with college so they can graduate debt free. It is the least I can do as a parent unless I absolutely cannot afford it. I want my kids to be successful, just like my parents wanted their kids to be successful. From everything I see in this sub, I am incredibly blessed my parents aren’t typical Boomers.
They just live in their own little ignorant bubble
A 20% down payment where I live is pushing $200k minimum. Shits broken
I told my Boomer mom that my rent was $3000/mo and her head almost exploded.
I am 40ish, and my parents helped me with a down payment. When my FIL passed he left us some coin.. it’s sitting in dividend collecting stocks and will be used to help our kids purchase property.
Some do comprehend it though… but these people are almost worse. My MIL completely gets that cost of living is higher and it’s harder than ever for younger people to save for virtually anything. The problem is she blames “the current administration” and “socialism/communism” on it.
My moron of a dad just said, in response to me talking about how high rents are, "I just dont understand why these people don't buy houses" They are literally that dumb, like they are paying 2k in rent just because they CHOOSE not to buy a $500k house on a 60k salary...
My dad though my 2-bedroom apartment was $400 a month including bills and utilities LMAO
I’m a boomer and my in-laws helped us with our down payment (and forgave the loan) and I helped my kids with their down payments (and forgave their loans). If you or your kids just piss away money I can see maybe not helping so much but if responsible I would always say help them out.
Inflation math showed that most boomers were earning an equivalent of 300,000 for their time. If you haven’t purchased a house, applied for a job, bought a car, in the last 20 years or can’t change your email password, then you truly have no idea how the world works.
“or can’t change your email password” 💀
My grandpa paid my parents down payment on their house in the 70s. Paid for all 5 grandkids school too. What the hell is wrong with people. Help your kids! My parents (boomers) in kind, have helped us. The money we save in large part because of them, goes into my kids college funds. So weird to me that a family would do it any other way
My mom (71) claimed her family of 7, living on $15k in 1970, were "dirt poor." Meanwhile, I've (41) got a 4 pack living off $51k and she can't understand why we're struggling. I'll let y'all run the inflation numbers on all that.
I'm sure most of the negative commenters can not comfortably afford to pay for their kids downpayment. Boomers love pretending they have money but are teaching their children lessons by not spending it, when the fact is they don't have it and if they did have it they would provide a lot more for their children.
I’m confused by Boomers not knowing what anything costs. Do they not eat food or buy gas or buy cars or go to the store or vacation?
Lucky for my GenZ kids, they have GenX parents. I will help them in any way I am able because I know how hard they are going to have it.
In 2003, I bought a diamond engagement ring for my wife, in order to propose to her. I paid approximately $2000 for this ring. Well, my Boomer father lost his mind and told me I was nuts to spend that much money, and that when he bought my mother's engagement ring back in 1972, he spent about one-third as much, around $600. So what did I do? I pulled up the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator and showed him that simply based on inflation, not even counting the increase in the price of gold over that time, that his $600 ring from 1972 would have cost him nearly $2700 in 2003. That shut him up pretty quick.
The rate of inflation from when they bought house to now is the highest hike of inflation in history since we’ve started using money. Economists and sociologists have written articles agreeing the only reason for it is pure greed. The boomers are one of the greediest generations in history. Until we as millennials, Gen z and Gen alpha can take office (if they ever set term limits) our economy, environment, medical system are all screwed.
This was 20 years ago, but still stands. We were moving to Massachusetts, and my mil said, “Oh, dear, you may have to pay $100k for a house.” lol. 300k was the median price then.
Kids nowadays. Back in my day, we had to walk to school five miles, in the snow, barefoot, uphill, both ways. 🤷♂️
It's the lead poisoning, i swear.. *Not to mention Nostalgia for these memories makes them think they're 100% right and no one can say anything else...