Are you better off than your parents?

so its a Win Win

Draw your own conclusions..

eom

And I am more educated than both are/were.

My mom told me that she was making more doing piece work at a garment factory back in 50's than I make today (not adjusted for inflation.)

Those days are long gone.

with gold-plated supplemental healthcare policies. It's the lack of pensions that is and will be one of the most important differences between the generations. And this will in turn significantly affect the lives of the following generation when they discover that their elderly parents are sliding into old age with very little money to count on.

I was raised by a single (divorced) mom who literally pulled herself up by dint of hard work.
Life was somewhat of a struggle for us.

She died with breast cancer at 50.
I'm 70, in decent health, and never had to cope with being a single parent.
Still in a happy marriage since 1969.

Financially I'm better off, but I chose a career (airline pilot) that wasn't even available to her back then.

in poverty. The reason we didn't realize it was because most of our friends and neighbors in rural SW Missouri were pretty much in the same boat. Still, it was a happy childhood and we always had a roof over our heads and food on the table.

My children are better off than I am. They and their spouses work hard, own their own homes and can look forward to a reasonably secure future. I hope my grandchildren are able to do the same, but I'm not as confident about their future.

In no way am I better off than my parents. Over 40 with absolutely nothing... no assets and no hope of ever retiring.

In fact if it weren't for them, I don't know that my family would have survived the last 20 years.

Our parents did well, but we are better off than them.

If you look at the basics, it looks like I am about as well off as my parents. My father and I have similar education backgrounds (civil engineering degree vs computer science degree), work in the same industry (energy), and achieved similar career levels (middle management). Even our compensation packages compare fairly closely (good pensions, stock incentives, medical plans, etc). I get a little more vacation than he did (7 weeks vs 4-5 weeks), but mine includes sick time whereas his sick time was not counted as vacation. One other notable difference is that more of my pay is "at risk" in that it comes in the form of performance bonuses and equity compensation. Thus far, that has worked in my favor, but it could easily go the other way.

On the job, things are much better for me. The work environment is more relaxed. We don't wear ties. We refer to people by their first names. We aren't as limited by the corporate hierarchy in how we deal with other people. Although other things were better in his day. When he was on vacation, he never worked, whereas I keep up with e-mail, call in for a few meetings, and otherwise stay engaged.

Even our home lives are similar. We both chose medium sized suburban homes with roughly 1/4 acre lots. I enjoy more physical amenities (like having a pool), but that could easily be attributed to the cost and space savings of having only two kids instead of four.

The biggest difference, and what makes life so much better for me, is technological and quality improvements. The Internet has made a huge difference. TV is better (especially with DVRs). Whole new areas of entertainment exist - computer games being the most obvious at my home. Communication is better. As a kid, making a long distance call was a big deal, now I can call anyone without even thinking of the cost from virtually anywhere.

Stuff seems to work so much better. Our old tube TV was so bad that we had a maintenance contract with a guy. I think a new TV costs about as much as we paid for a year or two of maintenance. I remember routinely taking cars to the shop. Now, they last twice as long and need far less work. The cars themselves are hugely different - more comfortable, safer, easier to drive.

Other things have improved. We never flew on vacations because it was so expensive. Now we take our kids on a flying vacation virtually every year. I grew up in a virtually all white area filled with bigots. My kids are growing up in a multicultural environment and have friends from five different continents.

I guess my summary is that my father and I occupy/occupied very similar niches in the social/business/class world, so on that level, I am doing as well as he did. The world has gotten much, much better in the last 40 years, so I live much better than he did.

In fact, I would be living in my car, if it weren't for my parents' help. I am glad I don't have kids of my own, because if I make it to my parents' current age, I would never be able to help my kids if they wound up in the position I am in right now. Yeah, I have a pension from my old job. Don't know if it will be there, as it's a state pension in a state run by teabaggers. I'm vested with 20 years of service, but the thing no longer collects interest. And, I have a 403b, and who the hell knows what that will be worth in 20 years. That's if I'm not eventually forced to raid it for living expenses. I haven't been able to contribute to my IRA in years, but it's worth less than chump change, especially compared to what the GOP presidential candidate's IRA is worth.

when my parents were my age they both worked and made less then I do adjusted for inflation. My wife can stay at home and take care of the kids and do volunteer work... my parents had no such luxury

Now in the last couple of years my dad moved from growing up and being able to get food stamps to 1%er... I don't think I will ever do that... but don't really want to either... happy where I am...