What sucks is every time I seem to get over a salary plateu some crazy world changing event happens and the price of goods goes up to where I feel like I haven’t gained a thing.
Chased $100k salary my whole young adult life. I am finally achieving it and that number. Which is great don’t get me wrong, but it’s not the finish line I saw at 16
Same. I came close this year to hit 100k, and I'm moving to second shift for next year to get there, but damn, it still feels like I can't afford anything my dad could when he was my age.
He had a four bedroom home with a pool, two cars, and supported a wife and two kids on a entry level factory job with no college education. Granted, the house was in a pretty rural part of Ohio, but I'm still in a one bedroom apartment.
My grandfather was a forklift mechanic at the GM factory in Youngstown from 17-65. Retired with a great pension. Had a lot of health troubles towards the end and he never had issues with money. Two kids and a wife, beautiful suburban two story home with a pool.
“Record profits” can kiss my ass. I think everyone would be okay with paying more to go out to eat when you have an actual patio and bbq grill at the house as an alternative .
There's a beautiful century house on almost 60 acres the next street over from ours. I decided to look into the history, as the house as intrigued me since we moved to the area. Came upon an obituary of the gentleman who bought the house and land the '50s. He was a factory line worker, supported a wife and four children.
The property is currently valued at $1.8 - 2 million. What factory line worker salary today is going to buy that and support a wife and four kids?
In the 1950s, the world was still decimated from WWII and the US cornered every industry. Japan was a decade away from getting back on its feet. China was over 4 decades away from joining the WTO. Now, Americans are competing against the world but aren’t good at anything except maybe tech and pharmaceuticals, two very gated industries.
It’s not what you make, but rather how much you save/invest. I agree that things were certainly much more affordable in the past, but make a budget that includes investing and you’ll be shocked at how much money you can get!
This is what I was trying to avoid with my comment. I almost didn’t post it because I don’t want to gloat.
I am incredibly grateful to make the money I do, and it pains me to see others struggle more that work just as hard as I do. Millienials are now the glue at a lot of small businesses…It’s just wild how far the goalpost has moved for all of us.
I know that feel I stayed somewhere for 18 years and I left making $36k to go to a job making $38k 😅
Now I make $56k, but I work M-F and 7a-3p, which I will fight tooth and nail to keep that schedule. I don’t even have kids. I just like being able to do shit and get home before it gets super late
My exes Boomer parents tried to relate - about how they didn’t feel they had breathing room until breaking $30k a year in their second or third year working after graduation - in 1973
I’d never made $30k in a year before, and this year I’ll make around $75k, and I only got my promotion in July. Shit can change quick. I went to a community college.
Same here. Finally got a decent payrate, had some savings, and then Covid and super inflation happened, and now my dream salary is pennies again and I'm back to square one.
Yeah, what sucks is doing the math on a six figure income and realizing that take home is so low that after the cost of living you'll never be able to save enough to retire. Oh and that cheap house that you bought for $110,000 in 2017 is now worth two and a half times that so your taxes are as much as the mortgage was when you bought it but you can't sell it because even downsizing at this point would cost twice as much because of interest rates. I'm really not trying to complain because my parents, and many others have had it worse. Just seems like the goalposts keep moving.
That cheap house for 110k in 2017... Where I'm at in Utah, actually went up by 4x. I really wish I was joking. My parents bought their house for 120k. It was recently appraised at around 500k now. Home ownership isn't even a dream anymore.
I wish it felt better knowing there’s a lot of us. But I feel like we just got swindled when we were too young to know what was going on lol. The boomers lifted the bridge after they crossed and Gen X has been sweeping up whatever scraps they can.
I swore when my wife and I made $60k a year together we'd be able to at least pay off some debt. Now I make that on my own, but rent is closing in on 2k a month and these two kids ain't getting any cheaper as they age (although thank god we are completely past diapers and pull ups).
That 3k on the credit card is just gonna have to stay there a bit longer...
Born in 88, working since 9 years old, on my own since 16. I lost everything in Hurricane Sandy, including my job. Started working at a cookie store for minimum wage in April 2013, and have never made more than ~$60-70k.
Landlords and renting practices are horrible, even in cities where tenants are protected, In cities where a huge portion of the central city housing is co-ops, like NYC, there are insane financing rules.
Costs of commodities has done nothing but increase, medical bills have gone up, and insurance fucks with you and of course is tied to employment.
I'm currently a millionaire, because I invested my money diligently and continued to do so the entire time, especially considering 2010 through today has been one of the biggest bull markets in history. Compound interest is a beast, so DCA combined with some small bets on speculation have led to massive windfalls.
Unless you dealt with major medical issues or caring for family members that aren't children (condoms were invented hundreds of years ago), there's no excuse for being destitute when the opportunities were there.
100k used to be this goal where I thought I could do whatever I want within reason.
It's barely breathing room.
It's a gently used car. It's weekend road trips as a vacation and MAYBE every other year I can get on a plane and go someplace domestic for a few days. MAYBE.
You still spend half your income on rent and try so hard to save for a down payment you allow yourself nothing. By the time you get it, you realize you did nothing with most of your 20s other than grind. Oh and in that decade houses doubled or tripled or quadrupled in price. Or interest rates spiked up. Or you saved 100 bucks a week but groceries have gone up so you save 50 a week now. Wait, a fat orange pedophile started a war, now you save nothing at all.
I feel you. I am there but live in a HCOL area, so I'm seriously cutting back to afford winter this year. My family is considering moving somewhere cheaper in the next 5 years, but the job market is insane.
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u/ChickenNPisza 7h ago
What sucks is every time I seem to get over a salary plateu some crazy world changing event happens and the price of goods goes up to where I feel like I haven’t gained a thing.
Chased $100k salary my whole young adult life. I am finally achieving it and that number. Which is great don’t get me wrong, but it’s not the finish line I saw at 16