Happier, maybe. My dad is an okay guy but they weren't happy together, my mom wanted out of the marriage for decades. Financially I'm so far behind, it's not even close.
My parents had three kids and owned a 150 m² house in the countryside. I earn more than they used to and I'm renting a single room in a house with four flatmates.
No. Close, but no.
Lol, no. They were able to have a house and multiple kids on one salary.
Oh, no. Hella worse. They were solidly middle class with two solid careers at this point. And kids, but I don't want that part so that's a wash. But nicer house, nicer stuff entirely. But me and my husband are in a better place relationship wise so I got that over them??
Mentally, yes. Financially, no.
I would say same standard of living but the difference is they had a kid and my wife and I don’t. We simply could not have the same lifestyle if we had children.
Same.
That's partly why I never married or had a family. I wanted all my time and money to myself and to have more freedom.
Yeah, kids are darn expensive. I'm damn happy my parents decided to have me despite that fact. :)
To answer OP's question, also doing better than them at the same age. Big part of it was investing early (time-value of money is a massive deal) and keeping the same car forever. My parents have spent quite a bit on cars over the years, it is probably their largest reducible expense. I bought a lightly used crossover a long time ago, and it's got a long life ahead of it.
Better in what regard? Fiscally all things adjusted and accounted for? Fuck no,
Progress as a person and self growth and development? Absolutely.
Also I will never breed, so always will be one up on my parents there,
Absolutely same
Yeah, my parents were from a small village without reliable running water and toilets and I'm an computer microchip engineer that lives in a house I own with clean filtered water and a bidet.
Hell no, but physical disability... I live in the USA where disability seems like a homelessness death sentence
I cannot own my own house. Something about I don't earn enough.
I am allowed to pay rent at nearly double what a mortgage would be and this is financially allowed.
Tbh owning yourself is not always better than renting. But Its always been kind of an adulthood milestone that does not work anymore, but it's stil looked at in the same way. so I see a lot of people feeling bad that they are STILL not owning their own home..
When my parents were my age, they left their country to move to the US in search of opportunities. Now that I'm that age, I'm leaving my country to move to another because of literal Nazis
Nope.
Part of me wants to think so; I'm making a lot more money than they did at my age, even accounting for inflation. Aside from my car note, I'm debt-free. All objectively good things.
They had each other though. I'm a few years older than they were when they had their first kid, and they'd been married for a few years before that. I'm alone, and after I had some bad experiences, I don't bother with dating. Whether that's "better" than what my parents did or not, I don't think it's fair for me to decide.
I'm so lucky you wrote this comment for me, so I don't have to do it myself. I assume you were transcribing from my mind?
I don't have kids, so yeah.
Edit: now that I scroll through the comments, I see this is a common theme.
Financially yes, psychologically, no.
I am thanks to a combination of my learning how credit should actually be used and careful budgeting as well as an excellent choice to get into information technology. I can actually support my adult son as well as take care of his brother and my disabled wife and living what would’ve largely been considered middle class by their standard. At this point they were getting mortgage calls for juggling payments and spending wrecklessly while living in a double wide mobile home in the rural appalachias.
Well, I managed to avoid my mother's mistake of marrying one of the first guys I seriously dated, so I haven't had to go through a divorce yet like she did. However, she'd owned two houses by now, and I'll be lucky to get one before 40. Seems like no.
In some ways, sure. I'm not religious, and I don't have children. In terms of finances, no.
Definitely. We lived in an old house without central heating, and I know what hunger is. My father died when I was a kid, after a long sickness, and taking care of him and us kids took a lot out of mum.
Now I can support my family from my income, with both kids at unversity without debts.
Yes, we are better off. But the way to here and now was hard.
Kind of? My dad died before he was my age and my mom told me "he died and I'd never had that much money in my life and all I wanted was him."
So financially I'm worse off than my mom was, but in other (and probably more important) ways, better off. And certainly better off than my dad.
Yeah, by a long shot. We didn't have a lot growing up but my parents made sure I went to school.
Only because my spouse’s parents are both dead (early, accidents) and he inherited several hundred thousand dollars and life insurance money. I personally have a negative net worth, and with divorce I’d probably only break even. I basically lucked out of not living with my parents/grandparents for the rest of their life. On the flip side though, I regret the marriage because he refuses to move to a country with better social safety nets should something go wrong; living knowing that should his nest egg dry up, that we’ll be on the street in retirement, is inherently really stressful [we live in the USA].
I have a BS, with probably no inheritance coming (I’ve been told so).
He’s a certified accountant and makes double what I do. He controls all the money for obvious reasons.
Financially maybe, my parents were probably still at university at my age. They'd make more money than I do afterwards though.
And they had already found each other, while I've never even had one relationship yet.
Not at all. And I'm doing extremely well.
Yes and no. I probably am a bit better off than my parents, but they raised 4 kids and I raised none. My Mom was mostly stay at home (went back to work after all us kids moved out). My spouse has a good career, which is an added bonus.
No, not even close.
My parents had a mortgage; car loans; and 4 children at my age, while I struggle to maintain employment and don't qualify for any type of financing because of it and all this despite having a very high demand skillet in tech; I'm not only doing worse than my parents, but worse than most of my peers.
To be fair: I don't fit the stereotype of an autistic person so people presume I'm neurotypical and that keeps long term employment out of reach for me.
Yes, because I didn’t have kids. Also, I’m in a happy partnership.
However the world was in a better place then, so I feel like I’m mentally in a worse place probably.
The world was always a shitty place, we are definitely facing new and frightening challenges but they can be overcome it will just be difficult.
Yes! But it's because our situations are very different. I don't have a child, but I was already a preteen when my mom was this age. I didn't have a deadbeat, abusive, drug addicted, , money draining spouse. I've cut off people (family) that I saw take advantage of my mother growing up. I don't have a sibling who is a manipulative, selfish, lazy, money grubbing piece of shit. Fuck, I don't have a daughter (me) that I've had to help for years while she tried to get on her feet.
I also have a wonderful mother who did what she could to set me up for success, trying to correct the mistakes of her childhood. My great aunt left me some money that helped with school (I'm still in debt, but could have been way worse). I have a good friend that talks me out of reckless shit, not egging me on to take advtage.
I'm also less social, so I'm not going out to lunch or parties and what have you. I live alone with one cat.
TL;DR: Yes, but is because I have less responbilities than my mother had at this age, and it's cheaper living a solitary lifestyle with one kitty cat.
Yes.
I have a home, a good job, and am able to save enough that it's possible I may be able to retire in my fifties.
The only responsible decision my parents made was to pay off their house. They had over a dozen kids and my dad literally roofed houses until he couldn't anymore physically. They're now in their 80's and driving for DoorDash, in a car they've "borrowed" from me for almost a year, that I'm certain I'm never getting back.
And, somehow, despite having no mortgage or car payment, they still aren't paying their bills on time. (But, to be fair, that's also a referendum on the US economy and capitalism in general, and none of us can get actual progressives elected.)
Sounds like my parents. I am younger but my dad is a alcoholic and drug addict that pissed away his retirement. He's 63 and just getting out of rehab for the 50th time.
Yeah, mine was an alcoholic for 25 years but inexplicably quit cold turkey one day when I was a teen.
I think it's just a ton of undiagnosed, untreated mental illness. My mom's mother was abusive and her loving father died when she was a teen. My dad's dad died when he was eleven and he became the breadwinner for his mom and siblings, and didn't stop working for another sixty-five years. (Well, he drives for DoorDash now, so I suppose he's still working, but it's a far cry from roofing.)
I actually feel a little bad for my dad. He worked his ass off his whole life and has almost nothing to show for it, but somehow, could never put his foot down when it came to my mom and adding more kids to the family. In most other countries his lifetime of work and owning a business would have meant a comfortable retirement, but not here. In America, no one gives a fuck.
Not really, but idc
Surprisingly, yes. I made some risky decisions between 2020-2022 that paid off significantly, though.
The pandemic turned my prior job to 100% remote and I got in writing from their HR that I could move anywhere in my province. This allowed me to find a house I was able to afford buying, so that's what I did with the support of my wife. About a year after that I got a much higher paying job local to my new home, which is when I beat or matched my parent's income at the time which certainly was more than when she was my age.
I lept into the unknown and didn't die, it's been great!
No. I'm not in a bad spot but definitely not as comfortable as I grew up.
I am very much so … but that’s only because both my parents were shithead drug addicts in their 20s. My mom got in AA and turned her life in to a better place but she was starting again from the bottom. My dad didn’t get help and was still using and dealing and struggling last time I heard.
Better: I live near the sea so I can easily cycle to the sea for a swim in my lunch break. My PC is a lot better than the one my dad had at the time and relative to inflation costs a lot less, even without inflation it isn't that much more. Worse: Pretty much every other way. I guess my job is safer but we both have to work while my mum didn't have to work. We don't have kids either.
Gosh no, not in Canada.
They paid 170k for a great house in one of the nicest neighborhood of Montreal in the 90s. I'll be paying 3x more for a super basic house in a shitty neighborhood. I was lucky enough to buy a house before the pandemic so I made a profit selling it, but even with that I won't even come close to their way of living.
Absolutely not.
Nope.
No.
Technically not since they were married, were renting small house, and had at least one kid by the time they were my age. I'm still in college.
Not even close
Nope, and the horrible thing is that I have a high earning job while they didn't even work, they got to live off of my grandparents' wealth (which was half from actual impressive entrepreneurship and half from just buying cheap land that over the years became very valuable) and then they mady terrible financial decisions (as rich kids often do) and now I get to earn my own money. I'm glad that I get to be independent, but sure would have been fun to have some family wealth as well...
Oh yeah
Yea, because I have a little more money saved for retirement otherwise I am about the same.
Much better, and certainly without them.
Me? Yes, but I am an outlier, and it's not because I'm doing "well". It's more because my parents were both horrible with money. 2 mortgages on the house, multiple car loans, mom was part of an MLM, and we were a family of 4 on a government worker's salary. One of my dad's complaints was that he couldn't go out to eat once a week with coworkers because we couldn't afford it. In addition they were horrible with credit and loans, took out as much as they could and then paid off things routinely late. I have no idea where they are now but last time I checked their credit score (for them, because they don't know how), it was in the low 400s.
We grew up poor. Well, I hesitate to say poor because I know there are those who had it worse, and I do blame them for their choices for a good chunk of it too.
yes
Absolutely. Both me and my siblings. My parents were in an okay spot at this point, but they supported us to do far better.
Times were pretty borked compared to now, at least in this country.
In terms of satisfaction? No. In terms of finances? Not sure. By my age, my parents were together, my mom had my sister and my dad became a step father to her, they had a lot of friends and were very popular. Me...not so much in any of those things. But I'm living comfortably in my own apartment, no kids or S.O. so I have a lot of spare cash and a lot of things I like. I don't know if my parents had the same pleasures as me at this age.
Yep. Low bar to clear
Absolutely yes. I'm very fortunate.
hell no. At least they had a car, a mobile home, and prospects for the future
Hard to compare in my case. I’m the same age as my mom when she had me, and we were multiple kids at that point. At the time we were probably smack dab middle class and were living comfortably. On the other hand I’m better off in the sense that I’m in another country that has a higher standard of living and way higher salaries, and we don’t have kids. So technically more money to spend than they did having to support kids.
