Shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations. Thatās the clichĆ© and it works because it is a little true. Statistically it has to be true, people and families are always going up or down the distribution.
There are always exceptions to the rule (think about the stereotypical blue-bloods) but the few families Iāve encountered that buck that trend have a really strong feedback mechanism built in. One family I know has had a large summer home on Torch Lake (Michael Moore is a neighbor) since 1910, but the requirement is that the family member that inherits it has to BUY it from the others at something like market price. The current owners are both college professor phdās. Their kids that I know of are both smart and successful, but in a middle-class fashion, there is no way they can pull off that transaction again. Maybe there are other cousins? Iām curious how it will play out, but I expect it will soon be sold outside the family. Still, 110+ years is a good run.
Letās take a poll, how are you doing financially compared to your parents?
ā¢ Much better
ā¢ A little better
ā¢ Same
ā¢ A little worse
ā¢ Much worse
How do you feel about that? Me, Iām doing a little worse and Iām ok with that, but it is disappointing to not be creating a legacy. My grandfather immigrated from The Netherlands in 1929, just in time for the great depression. He worked structural steel, buried one wife from cancer leaving him with 4 young kids, and while he was a kindly grandpa, he was a tough man living a hard life. His lifeās work netted him a paid off house and a pension of less than a thousand dollars a month, no idea of his savings but it wasnāt much.
My dad barely graduated high school, went to Viet Nam, came back and worked structural steel while going to college at night, rehabbed two houses while doing so, with kids (one of these paid for my and my sisterās college). He joined and worked his way up through a company, eventually becoming COO and serving on a board. He retired with five rental houses, a six-figure pension (worth several million dollars if it were an annuity), a 401k and a paid off house, and he and my mom earned every bit of it through disciplined spending, having savings to invest at the right time, and putting in the work to learn and execute a job growth strategy.
I had my college paid for, work as a software developer, non-management, and I sent over a quarter million out the door in a divorce. Iāve earned more in cash at every stage but wonāt come close his peak earnings and I donāt have the grit, the personal discipline or inclination to save and invest nearly as much, and where they made smart key decisions, I made sub-optimal ones. Iāll likely retire with mid-high five figures (annually) from a 401k, assuming it makes it that far, plus my own house, and it will fairly reflect my abilities, choices and the changed savings landscape.Ā
How are your kids doing or likely to do? I have three daughters, 20, 17 and 2. My 20 year old is blue collar again. Sheās a firefighter/paramedic and sheās doing just fine, but her total lifetime earnings are going to be less than half mine, probably much less, and she is unlikely to marry someone high earning, in the unlikely event that she marries (sheās just not interested). I hope that I have set her up for success (college savings, have cash, avoid debt, buy used cars, save/invest, invest in things you understand) but it is too soon to tell.
17 is on a university track and will graduate with no or minimal debt (assuming I remain similarly employed) but at this point wants to go to grad school in natural science. She is on her own for that and Iāve explained that she should not go unless someone else is paying but kids donāt understand that. As a biologist or scientist (or mom), her lifetime earnings will be substantially lower than mine. Neither displays the same level of planning or drive I or their mom had at that age and I had less than my parents, so it seems likely they will accumulate less overall. No idea where 2 will end up, she’s the smartest kid ever (for now) but I will be nearing retirement when she graduates high school.
What does it take to create a continuous upward trajectory for family? I dunno, I kind of failed for the older two.Ā I’m trying to get them involved in my financial planning and decision making so they can see what it looks like but they don’t care at this point, I should have started earlier. They are good at earning and saving but they still struggle with budgeting or even understanding why budget.Ā
They have not yet made the transition to planning and investing, but that took me about 15 years as an adult to get mostly figured out, with some major errors along the way. Being squeamish about what adults really earn/spend/save, hiding reality or where you are struggling doesnāt do your kids any favors, it means each generation must learn it anew and learns it too late. I think that learning personal finance early and in your bones is the only way forward and would have been a greater gift from my parents than my college degree.
Is there a larger point to it all? Not from me. This is America, the land of Opportunity. If youāre a penniless immigrant with a dream, you can make it. If youāre a brain-dead scion of a political dynasty, you can make it. But for every one of those, there is another of us, doing OK, or maybe drinking and slacking a little bit too much, without the right connections, or just looking at our lives and thinking it’s good enough. These stairs go both ways, itās OK to pick a level, theyāve all got big screen tvās and air conditioning these days.
Much worse, my parents had a great life, Me, not so much, My brother however won life’s lottery, an asshole, but good for him….
Much worse.
My dad was the president of a bank at my age. Not that I’m poor or anything, but he was a very smart guy who started out at the right time.
Better by some metrics, worse by others. I make more in adjusted $ than my parents did at the same age. However, I do not own my own house. Debt is about the same, most likely.
I’m happy to buy a used Mobile home at 57, it’s a home for Bella and I, good enough,
/if I can keep it…..
Aye. I’m really on my 3rd career, so never had the upward-earning track that a longer stint in one type of field tends to bring. So it’s only been within the past 5 years that I’ve actually started to earn OK money. Still nothing to yell about, but more comfortable and greater opportunities.
Only 3! you are too young, you need more careers, Back of De Bus Mon!
I finished HS at 18, BS at 22, 3 years work experience, Graduate school at 27 and have been working continuously since 28. I didnāt see the value in bouncing around aimlessly.
I’m a lazy cow. I only have one job, Mon!
Worse. Iām sustaining, but not excelling. My father went from literal rags to very upper middle class. My uncle actually went to full blown upper class, probably over fifty million in value, but he was a grade A narcissist asshole and now heās dead and almost all of his kids are scarred.
Iāve thought a lot about it, too much to type on an iPad. Maybe early tomorrow morning at work. Iāve made difficult career choices in order to have a family, and the weight of those choices hangs on me some days. Other days, Iām just thankful that I have had opportunities that most donāt and my kids donāt seem to hate me yet.
That was my direction, and we lived a Happy, broke life, Wendy is gone, but my kids and I have great relationships,
/love over money any day…
It you adjust for where Iām at vs where they were at my age, Iām way ahead. Possible ahead period. I donāt and wonāt have kids, so I die all time champion of life.
No kids? No legacy, Loser….
/that’s really my opinion, nothing personal
What’s a legacy? after two generations (at best) your kid’s kids don’t know you from Adam. Seems a silly metric to base ones worth upon.
Not necessarily true, if you live long enough and have kids early enough. I knew my great grand mother fairly well and I’m the third great grand kid. She even met her great great grand child.
My grand mother is still kicking and had known her great grandchild for 20 years.
Fine, four generations then , doesn’t change the fact that none of us will be “remembered” simply because we had a couple kids. And who gives a rats ass about that anyways? narcissists and children maybe.
Sure, but I can’t help but think I’ll have a lot of joy from playing with my grandchildren, God willing. probably won’t make it to great grand kids myself, too old already.
ārememberedā
I couldn’t care less. I don’t think that’s not why people have children. There are probably plenty of shitty reasons people have kids, but being remembered wasn’t one of mine.
delete “not”
Yusef brought up “legacy” I may have extrapolated a bit.
A great great grand didn’t die until I was 11. I heard Civil War stories second hand.
Imma have to give a thumbs up here.
Is it weird I donāt want to be remembered after death? It doesnāt interest me.
Heh.
I was going to say the opposite. I think financially and in terms of quality of life, I’m living better than my parents did, but they had 3 kids before I had my first (and so far only) which is a pretty big failing in my opinion.
IMG_6718.JPG
Try that again:
https://images.app.goo.gl/ohLbWSEADubmd3rb8
Ha!
I’m not knocking your choice just noting that what you considered a positive/goal is exactly what I am trying to avoid.
Itās more a joke. I didnāt have a great childhood so I donāt have any fuzzy warm memories I want to recreate.
*shrug*
I know my upbringing wasn’t as bad as many, but I was a very unhappy child. It’s not about recreating the old as much as making something new.
My goal was to be a better dad to my kids than my dad was to me.
I think I have done that, but it also wasn’t a very high bar.
“My goal was to be a better dad to my kids than my dad was to me.”
Yeah my dad was a very mixed bag. He was a decent dad when we were little kids, but he lost a good job when I entered middle school and crawled into a bottle and never crawled out again.
Letās take a poll, how are you doing financially compared to your parents?
That’s hard for me to fathom. My parents retired early via military pensions. My mom handled all the money like
oOPS.
…the frugal German she was. My wife’s and my income smash our parents’ income, but we both feel like we will never retire.
I was waiting for a GlibFin to ask the question: Did anyone else take a CRD (CARES Relief Distribution)? I did. We were on top of the world, until the election.
Some, but only to pay off our 401(k) loands. I asked my husband to take the whole thing, but he wouldn’t.
Did he say why? Expecting a stock market jump? That’s was my hesitation.
My thinking was the market will tank and it would do better in a 1% money market account than elsewhere for the time being.
His thinking was that we would end up spending it and not have it at all. This is not an unreasonable fear, but I’d rather spend it than lose it because the government decided it wanted our money.
I told him, “If Biden’s elected, you can kiss that goodbye.”
Now he’s a little twitchy and by the end of the year, he may be twitchy enough to do it.
Heh, and just tonight, I said, “I wish we could afford a massage.” He said, “You just don’t want to spend the money.”
No. No, I sure don’t.
My thinking was the market will tank and it would do better in a 1% money market account than elsewhere for the time being.
I was thinking the same thing.
His thinking was that we would end up spending it and not have it at all. This is not an unreasonable fear, but Iād rather spend it than lose it because the government decided it wanted our money.
If you are spending it paying off loans, that’s a good thing.
I told him, āIf Bidenās elected, you can kiss that goodbye.ā
There are people thinking there will be another BS Covid stimulus that will prop up the stock market.
Now heās a little twitchy and by the end of the year, he may be twitchy enough to do it.
I twitched so much, I have cramps.
Heh, and just tonight, I said, āI wish we could afford a massage.ā He said, āYou just donāt want to spend the money.ā
No. No, I sure donāt.
We? go on….
“I wish we could afford for ME to have a massage.”
They gotta pay that COVID stimulus with something and seizing people’s 401(k)s will be on the agenda. It was in 2008 and I was freaking out then that it would NOT happen while Obama was in office (too soon, trial balloons only), it WOULD happen eventually. I believe eventually has arrived.
I’m not going say it’s not possible, but even the leftists have 401ks. I can’t see them giving anything up just yet.
No. Thatās what savings are for.
I’m not sure what you mean. We didn’t piss the money away. We just paid off our house loan. I feel good that we have no monthly payment for the first time since we left the AF, but I wonder if we will miss out on any stock market gains.
It’s like we just transferred savings from one asset to another. I hope.
1. No interest payment.
2. We are using standard exemptions on taxes anyway. No itemizing.
3. No 10% penalty.
4. Since I anticipate taking a major pay cut, income taxes being spread over three years is a good thing.
Mortgage interest rate is 3 percent, average SP gain is 7-10 percent. Itās leaving 4-7 percent growth on the table.
You may be right, but at least I have no house payment. More importantly, I have no interest payment. Fuck the banks.
I am no big stock market annalist or anything, but I am pretty sure it is due for a massive correction. Which makes sense since the one thing I have going for me is I have been putting a bunch of money there with the current job I hate and shit just rolls that way for me as in lose a bunch of money.
Yes, because I ran out of savings and instead of finding a job I found myself in and out of the hospital this year.
I hope you have a better year next year.
?
Everything’s coming up roses since I found a job a couple months ago. The grind is already wearing on me but it feels great š
I wish well for everyone here. 2021 has to be better, right?
2021 has to be better, right?
Eight Ball Says: Too soon to tell.
Narrator: 2021 doesn’t look like it’s going to be any better.
I have hope that 2021 will be better than 2020 for most folks, including the resilient Glibs.
Rhy: You may already know this, but since you’re now smelling the roses, you have 3 years to repay your CRD if you no longer need it. Your future self may thank you for it.
Good lord, I can’t follow that…. tax time is going to suck for that next few years, I suppose.
Much better but it’s largely because I’m childless. It was a little rough growing up so I think I got the message about being thrifty and such, even though sometimes I wonder. OTOH I look at how some others throw money away and am aghast, so I do think my mom did right there.
Kids are expensive, but worth every minute and dollar spent,
Oh thanks, let’s show that Hail Mary against Buffalo a few more times. ?
I’m doing better, but I’m single with no kids.
Married no kids. Lost one before birth.
Sorry about the miscarriage.
That sucks. Wife lost one too. It was probably my daughter’s twin. I always wonder if it was a boy or a girl.
Thanks. Didn’t mean to get maudlin. Probably our one and only chance (age). Most days no biggie, but every now and then, WHAM, right between the eyes.
Better and worse.
My dad dragged himself up out of poverty but not by much. He died when he was 51, but he made 2 great decisions and 1 great sacrifice:
1) Bought universal life when he was young because of family history.
2) Bought mortgage insurance, the kind where if you die, the house is paid off.
3) Stayed at a job he loathed under lots of stress to make 20 years so my mom could have his pension when he died.
We are doing better than my parents were at the time my dad died, because his side hustle tanked suddenly, but when he died, my mom immediately did much better.
So the comparison is kind of valueless.
worse, but I’m still doing excellently.
My parents were both drug addicts and very low income. My dad spent his last 25 years living with his mom. Both died fairly early. I’m doing leaps and bounds better than either. I’m not rich, but I’m solidly middle class and with no formal education. My wife’s a lawyer and I make about twice what she does. She has six figure student loan debt. I still owe around 10k, but I haven’t had to pay on it all year because of the panicdemic. I’m more concerned with be happy than being well off. It’s not hard to make enough to get by. It’s not even much harder to make a little more than that. It’s way harder to keep your head on straight and not get all wound up about silly little things that don’t add up to nothing.
Btw, you can’t tell how your kid’s are going to end up. There’s lots of twists in life. Sometime people get sick of one thing and shift to another. Sometimes, a combination of luck and good decisions turn everything around on a dime. I gave up predicting things like that because it can’t really be done.
Much worse, but entirely by choice.
When you say “worse…by choice” what do you mean, if you don’t mind my asking?
Hype is an epic under achiever.
I work just enough to pay my bills, which I purposely keep low. I could make a lot more money than I do if I either A. worked more than 20 hours a week or B. applied myself and got a “real Job” but then I couldn’t decide to simply fuck off for three or four weeks every so often or tell an asshole client to pound sand. Don’t get me wrong I have a strong work ethic, if I tell you I’m going to do something I do it, but at the same time If I have three months worth of rent in the bank I’m not taking on the headache jobs.
That (with minor revisions, and a large helping of “Yeah I am lazy”) describes me. Yes, I am underemployed by choice. I have no dependents; if I had kids or a spouse I’d feel obligated to work on increasing my practice, which would not be terribly difficult.
Probably better from a net worth perspective at the same age. Likely going to keep ahead as well. Difference between one vs two incomes.
His house was paid off before he was 30, but he worked 10 days a week to do it in about 5 years.
We save more, but will still have ours paid off 8 years from it’s purchase date.
I hate typing on phones. Mystery enter key.
Also helps that we moved from the suburbs to a small town with small town costs and don’t have fancy taste in houses (just fancy car tastes)
I too paid off my first house in 8 years. I built my present house out of my wages and when I retired sold the first house and all the cash went into investments.
Not having a house payment is one of those things that even though the minimum payment is by no mean onerous, and maybe the last 5 years we’d have done better by investing, it will feel real good not having it.
30 more payments left at the rate we are paying. Bonus is that same month our youngest will be finished with daycare.
Much better, but I don’t have kids.
I would say a little better. My dad barely graduated high school and also got sent to Vietnam. My Mom stayed home with the kids so money was always tight. Remember government cheese?
I graduated from a local podunk university with an engineering degree. I don’t make a lot but we have no consumer debt and can have our house paid for in less than 2 years if we stay here and we have a little saved in retirement accounts.
I remember food stamps, if that counts. Divorced mom with four kids. I cannot even fathom how she powered through that. I don’t know if I could do it. OTOH, needs must and all.
One of the more vivid memories of 2020 for me will be looking out my living room window down at the long line of folks snaking around the corner to the food handout center every Tuesday and Friday I think it was. All those people were probably put out of work by Messrs. DeBlasio and Cuomo.
Big brown paper covered bricks that said USDA cheese. Commodities. That was the worst! Then people made joke commodity beer, weed and all kind’s of stuff.
Remember government cheese?
That’s how I fed my kids when we were in college.
5lb blocks of american cheese make a lot of mac&cheese.
I remember thinking it must be american cheese, but it was never specified. Just “cheese” I think that’s why I still, to this day, hate american cheese.
Yep
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_cheese
I ate uncounted #gubmint cheese sandwiches in my grandfolks double wide back in the day.
I have half a dozen means of preparing food with multiples of wood and steel cooking utensils, a fridge and deep freezer that I have a subconscious need to fill and keep filled*, a car that is fun/reliable/safe, a decent job that is stressful but not physically strenuous, decent house that is always as warm/cool as I need, etc and I am not even close to being rich**. That said I’d say I am doing as well as my parents were at the same time in their lives. The major downer is that student loan bill that is almost twice my mortgage payment every month.
*I catch myself buying food I don’t need…but sometimes I don’t…so this weekend I’m am going to be grilling shrimp that I recently found in the bottom of the freezer…
**middle-class by income, reasonably frugal.
I can’t tell you how much I love being able to afford to run the heat or AC so that I’m comfortable. It really is a luxury that I revel in.
I remember going to sleep with a brick heated in front of the fireplace sitting at the foot of my bed because we couldn’t afford proper heat in the winter. And though AC wasn’t a necessity where I grew up like it is where I live now, it was common enough with some of our better-off neighbors but unthinkable to me at the time. So yeah… proper climate control is a luxury I am very thankful for.
I have the same full-freezer need. It drives my wife nuts.
She doesn’t understand that an empty freezer growing up was a VERY BAD THING.
Both my husband and I need a “freezer full, all is well” feeling. We need it so much, we’ve had 2 big freezers most of our marriage. Both are full.
I can walk to my Publix. Why would I need a freezer?
Yeah, that’s kind of where I am and it unsettles me.
I’m probably living better than my parents at the same age though not by much, but most of that is because I married well. On my own I’m not a hustler, and so I don’t think I’d be doing better. My father was born during the Depression ,had to go to work as a teen because his father died (He had an unrelenting hatred for asparagus until the day he died from having to crawl around the asparagus fields as a kid). But he was frugal and he made a lot of money in the stock market and that money is taking care of my mother, who’s only in her 70s, so who knows what she’ll end up passing to me.
In this area there are so many adult children of parents who did well – the house is basically free, they have money, they don’t work – and then they get in trouble because of drugs or other stupidity. So you can see the ‘shirtsleeves’ happening in real time.
Considerably better eventually.
My dad’s parents were missionaries in S. America, my mom’s Dad was career military with retirement.
My folks were missionaries in SE Asia. However, unlike me, they have pretty good spending/savings habits – I’ve been pretty bad with impulsive spending even while I’ve been building up my 401(k) and working towards MIL retirement.
My folks have previously bought one (old) house and are trying to sell it since they’ve bought what they plan on being their final/retirement condo. I only just bought my first house as I try to get comfortable living in one place for more than a couple years straight.
My big plans once I take care of a couple debts and finish my 20 in the reserves involve buying a chunk of land in the middle of nowhere and building something vaguely unique. We’ll see if I manage that in the next 10 years.
And yeah…I’m single, have no kids and don’t really expect to ever have a family of my own…..still want to leave things to someone though.
still want to leave things to someone though.-
Why? I was left stuff from my grandfather that I donāt really want. Itās taken me years to get rid of that stuff, because of sentimental value, but still it takes up room.
Well, books, movies, etc. I want to pass on an appreciation of some older things. Hoping to get involved in a “local community” too – whether that means a library or something else….but not for a long time.
That sounds more valuable than leaving it to offspring. The community has a shared interest and reaches more people.
Better overall. No debt, retired relatively young (42); not rich by the age’s standards, but comfortable as long as our global financial system doesn’t implode (which, for all I know, could be next year at this rate).āBoth brothers would have been much worse off than me, but one “scored” (if you can call it that) from his wife dying relatively young with a huge insurance policy that’s given him more money than he knows what to do with (and he’s steadily alienating me and two of his three kids by being a suddenly-rich A-hole).āI’m content with my lot in life, and we were never able to have kids, so the good (or bad) luck ends with me, I s’pose…
“No debt”
‘Sup, unircorn?
*waves*
How you doin?
Not much.ā’Sup wit youse?āā;-)
We always have the month-to-month stuff, of course, but we pay it off every month.āEverything else we own free and clear.āNot that it’s going to matter much if our Moral And Intellectual Superiors in the global ruling class decide that, in order to usher in The Glorious World Of Next Tuesday, they’ll have to seize all our assets “for our own good.”
“You’ll own nothing, and you’ll be happy.ā(Or else.)”
“I want a hamburger… no, cheeseburger. I want a hot dog. I want a milkshake. I want potato chips. I want…”
“You’ll get nothing and like it!”
WTF? You retired at 42 and your retired ass can’t afford a fucking computer with a microphone that can connect to a Zoom happy hour?
ROTFL
The computer hardware’s awesome.āAs always, the software seems to be the Achilles heel.
Can’t figure out if it’s the microphone or the Windows 10 install.āI hate Win10.āIt’s about five years behind the stability curve that my Win7 machine was when MS stopped supporting Win 7.āBastards.
Go buy a Macbook Pro and your troubles will be over and you won’t have to deal with an evil OS.
And I’ll have to buy all-new software.āYeah, no thanks.
I would wager apple’s photography software is way better. Anything artsy is way better if it is apple. Hell their presentation software is better. I ackshully made a living that required doing a weekly presentation for awhile. When I had to do it on work computers of the PC evil that is power point it sucked. The Mac book though, I had people not required to come to the meeting come to the meeting just for my uncanny wit and excellent graphics.
I hear you. Boy, do I hear you.
That’s the ‘sloper I know and love.
I’m probably not quite as well set up as my parents are for retirement, but in terms of current income to either what they were making at my age or what they’re making now, I’m doing as well or better. I just don’t have an Army pension to lean on later. At least one of my siblings, however, is doing way better and makes easily twice what I do. Dad would be so proud; too bad she’s a militant part of the #resistance, and dad is an old school conservative, so she has almost entirely cut him off.
What a shame, your last sentence.
It really is. He has three other daughters though, and the rest of them don’t give a shit who he voted for because when it comes to family that doesn’t matter. So I’ll be seeing him for Thanksgiving and looking forward to it.
Better.
My mom picked a deadbeat for a husband. He left when I was in the 3rd grade.
We were so poor, that I remember eating store brand mac ‘n’ cheese every night for an entire week. It was $0.20 per box and easy enough for 11 year old pistoffnick to prepare it.
My first few bikes were hand-me-downs from neighbors. The next few were bikes I built by pulling parts out of the dump. The first bike I bought, I bought with money from recycling cans.
My first car was a hand-me-down from my mom (a 1970 Cutlass Supreme with a dent in the rear bumper that made filling the gas tank painfully slow). The first car I bought, I paid for with money made from recycling cans, detassling corn, hoeing soybeans, and stacking hay bales in a 120 degree barn).
The good choices I have made:
I went to community college my first 2 years, then transferred to a state college to earn my Mechanickle Enginerd degree.
I started a retirement account during my first year of a real job.
I worked hard. I have a standing offer to go back to two of my previous employers.
Learned quickly to pay off the credit cards every month.
The bad choices I have made:
I have never sold a house at a profit.
I seem to pick lemons for cars. (I just spent another $1800 on my truck last week)
I have a wife who grew up much better off than I and is accustomed to a certain level of luxury.
We should have the house paid off in another 4 years. One kid is halfway through her second year of college. One kid quit college and is trying to work (gov shutdowns means she just got laid-off again), and the third kid starts college next year. Somehow we are financing it all ourselves.
I had grand dreams of retiring at 45, buying a 50 foot sail boat (center cockpit ketch, please), and sailing around the world.
It might be time to grow up.
Meeeh, never give that up just change the age range with the required, “if I live that long”.
Much better than my parents or kids, even though kids had more and better opportunities. My Dad had a 4th grade Latvian education but was smart, Mom had 8th grade in country school but at the time was reasonably well educated. Hard working but always physical labor.
I was fortunate to have an easy time in school, even though I was lazy. Was able to take advantage of a military career during VN and retire as a field grade officer, divorced and custody of my kids. GI bill, only one in my generation with a degree. Started with a young retail company and quickly made my way up the corporate ranks, took advantage of stock options. Retired at 55 and turned my stock options into the mutual fund market. I was always thrifty and a saver.
My kids had the opportunity to go to college with no bills, 1 did, 1 didn’t. Both have had a tough time figuring out life and live pretty much month to month. I have structured my living trust to provide for my wife and when she goes to the kids/grand kids. Grand kids seem better at money handling than their parents. My kids seem not to care enough and they’re a little long in the tooth to put together a plan unless they hit the lottery.
My wife and I live comfortably with minimal health issues and no financial worries. I only wish my parents were still alive, they would be proud of their youngest kid and I could make their life easier as well.
He retired with five rental houses
This outcome is what I preach to any younger person who will listen to me. Buy a house, fix it, move to another rent the old one. I am way worse off than my old man in spite of making way more money in the same year spread. I didn’t buy rentals. He essentially retired at 45 with 12 or so rental units/houses/apartments. He paid those off when they were 70’s era loans with double digit interest rates and moved on with his life. Me, I could have bought them all for what he paid plus a bit but nooooooooo, sloper had dreams of traveling the world. Did a bit of that and now I have a job I hate, a worn out body and am getting by. Choices, we all make them and then we live with them.
I’ve always been fascinated by people who easily make large amounts of money. I saw it a lot when I was sober. A guy would get sober and make insane money, like millions within a year. Then, he’d start drinking again and lose every last bit of it. And then, he’d come back and get sober again only to make even more than last time. I’ve seen people do that through 3 or 4 cycles. It was like they were tempering themselves with drinking from taking over the world. I just wonder what magic way of thinking they had to make such a thing possible. I read Napoleon Hill, it never gave me that missing clue, dammit!
OCD? Obsessive worker, obsessive drinker. Iām a moderate drinker and a moderate worker. Seems to work.
We took two couples out for lunch today, 55th anniversary for one couple. The 3 men (myself and the other two) had some serious bad habits but all quit in time to work hard and luckily chose wives that were supportive (read demanding). All have done well with the renewed self discipline. Somehow too much booze doesn’t make a person too much smarter. The 3 guys were all high school classmates and went in different directions. Not surprising, there was some political talk and most in agreement reference the Covid BS.
My wife and I shopped Walmart today. There were a number of shoppers that were maskless. I had a bandana that kept slipping down and ended up as a neckerchief.
“I just wonder what magic way of thinking they had to make such a thing possible
Some people are just awesome and unpredictable.
You’re welcome.
I’m awesome and unpredictable, yet I have no idea how to rapidly make a million bucks. Well, unless I start with two million.
It all depends on your metrics.
My parents had a larger fraction of their lifetime earnings in assets than I do at 55, but in real net dollars I’m still ahead by myself than they were together. Dad didn’t finish high school; Mom finished a BS in accounting at 51.
They worked hard, saved, scrimped, and they were miserable: they were afraid, they struggled with health, they worked stupefying hours, and they cowered before their employers
so that I could fuck off and cruise through easy degrees and then lounge around the rest of my life. I worked some chump stuff in school but since haven’t done anything but design mechanical stuff (which is easy and fun), managed a few teams, ran some financials, flew around, drank coffee, and wrote emails. I was maxing IRAs when I was 21, and I got real lucky: I did some extra buying in 1990, then enjoyed the Kuwait run-up, cashed out half in 1999 and totally missed the meltdown; I’m probably 20% ahead of the strict buy-and-hold folk. My real estate has averaged 8% annual appreciation. On the other hand, I’ve missed out on a lot of the last year’s growth: I still don’t believe in it, don’t see any equities I believe in; I’m sitting on the sidelines.
I’m a lot like Hype. I fanatically minimize expenses and save because I need to be able to tell an employer to FO more than the average salary man does. Along that line, I haven’t cared about anything at work since I finished putting away my son’s college . . . twelvish years ago when I was 43.
A little worse. I have a nice house but minimal savings and investment. At this point mom and dad had a much bigger house and were set for retirement. They were savers and both worked (a draftsman and nurse manager). Mrs TOK stayed home with the kids and now works part time. We fell for the siren song of credit cards. Two of my kids will probably do worse because if their work ethic. The youngest is crushing it, I think sheāll go far.
Financially, way better. I made more than my father not too long out of school and I’m far beyond that now.
However, they had 4 kids to my none. Growing up was strictly paycheck to paycheck, lots of chicken for dinner (the cheapest, marked to sell chicken), clothes from Goodwill long before it was cool.
All that said, I’m deeply impressed by what my father accomplished – only child, my grandfather dies when my dad was around 6. Dad grows up to be a commercial fisherman, just like everyone else (Gloucester, yo). Drafted for the Korean War but step-father is killed right as my dad finishes Basic, so he’s granted a compassionate discharge. A family friend points out the ever-shrinking commercial fishing industry so my father takes the GI Bill and ends up as a 24 year old college freshman.
Smash cut to associate professorship at CUNY (to be clear – in phys ed), the worst house in the best neighborhood he could afford on Long Island (said house became one of the nicer ones, after lots of elbow grease) and 4 kids who all went to college and who are mostly doing reasonably well (my sister… well, we don’t all make good choices).
He also put away enough and invested it well enough that my mother hasn’t worked in many decades and will likely pass with a good size pile left (a lifetime of frugality has left her clutching the purse strings even when there’s a rather large sum in the bank).
Income aside, my father accomplished far more than I will in life, I suspect.
(my sisterā¦ well, we donāt all make good choices).
Pics?
Not the fun kind of “doesn’t make good choices”. More like “I’m gonna rack up foolish amounts of debt going to law school, then I’m never gonna use that degree. And I’m gonna get knocked up late in life”.
I mean, if you’re really into 4’9″ 50-something single mothers who live with _their_ mother, let me know.
Ya, ok that changes everything.
How much does she weigh ?
…asking for mĢ¶eĢ¶ a friend
Not that much – she was never skinny, but she’s in pretty good shape for her age.
Pics?
Pass. Trust me, I’m doing you a favor.
Much worse. On the other hand, I set the bar so low that I feel confident that my son will someday figure out how to turn it around and make it better. (Assuming better is possible after financial collapse)
Too bad. I broke a three generation shift my Dad’s family had going. Great grandfather an Irish immigrant coal miner from Ireland who died in a mine. My Grandfather who went from being an orphan to raising four sons (and one cousin) in a small two bedroom house in Virginia on a Milkman’s salary. Then my parents. Lower middle class, but only because they saved every penny. Then me. I guy who goes from making four times as much as them, to making less than a fast food worker, depending upon what year it is. Like a deranged grasshopper, I stopped accumulating assets after I lost all of mine in the divorce.
On my Mom’s side, pretty much the same story. Grandfather was also an orphan. He was raised on a small farm where he didn’t have shoes. He signed up for the Marines young, before the war, and due to his amazing mathematical mind, wound up being a pilot. Retired with his bird after being a test pilot when he wasn’t in a shooting war in Asia. Retired and went on to make his money by leasing an incinerator he designed for dumps.
It’s lucky, however, we got to live in one of those rare historical times where you get over a century or two where advancement was the norm.
lol no. Not only have I embarrassed the last name, I plan to end it. Then again if you are a cute blonde in her 20s with daddy issues I will totally leave it in…because I love you so much and stuff.
The great Tim Dillon on Covid detectives
Tim’s not a libertarian or anything but he is a breath of fresh air, and that’s what I like.
I also like blondes in their 20s with daddy issues. With a few bad tattoos. Maybe she’s really into Neil Young for some reason, I don’t know, whatever she wants.
Neil Young? That guy is so underappreciated. You have good taste.
At least the link worked, nerds.
Genetically passing down the family name is meaningless. You are a mixed of thousands of other names anyways.
Agreed. I just like bragging about ending it. I mean, victory.
High five fellow name killer!
Dudes rock.
My son had the temerity to produce two daughters. The family name dies when they marry and change names (old-school patriarchy for the win).
My daughter had two sons, but they don’t carry my last name.
But they carry ~25% of you.
Grandfather was a house painter.
Dad and his brother both went to college on the GI bill. First ones in the family tree to get educated.
Dad and mom raised five kids. Lived in a variety of houses, some better, some worse. They live in a small house in a residential neighborhood in a small Iowa town. He still runs his small advertising agency (at 86) but is down to a single client. So he’s 90% retired at this point. He plays golf 300 rounds a year.
My wife and I both went to college paid by a combination of financial aid including loans (way back in the 80s). We were married and had two kids (one in grade school, the other not far behind). So that was three years of complete poverty. We both got good jobs and paid back the loans while raising two teenagers.
In many ways, we gave the world about a decade headstart. So we are way behind anyone that graduated in the 80s while following the traditional path and graduating at 22 or.
On the other hand, we both have good careers; our combined income puts us above the 90th percentile. We live in a large house on a large lot in semi-rural Iowa and have three late model vehicles (two paid off). But the 401ks are very small. I plan to work till 70, and then keep doing contract engineering until I become senile.
My kids made many bad choices in life and are way behind where my wife and I are. But, still they are median or higher on the standard of living. They have good lives. They’re just not doctors, lawyers, or engineers.
My father has a 21-year-old great-grandson. He may hang around long enough to see a great-great-grandkid. Who knows.
Much better (spouse and me) – completely self-made. However, difficult to tell at this point given the generational theft. We are 100% committed to ensuring a legacy for our children – paid for education, matched dime-for-dime their earnings since HS in Roth IRA’s and company retirement matches.
Probably about the same as my parents, much better than my siblings, kids yet to be seen. My dad clawed his way up from poverty and is doing middle-class retirement okay, my mom and step-dad are both 30+ year California state employees with pensions that will outlive them. My siblings (all older, all female, I’m the only boy) either didn’t finish high school or barely did. My kids are smart but unmotivated, like I was, but without a parent on their ass to go to college (like my dad was for me). Who knows?
Mother’s side was blue collar. On dad’s side, grandpa was a c.p.a. and dad was a first generation IBM computer programmer for a major oil company.
I did better than either of them, but both my siblings did worse. My kids won’t reach my standard of living until they inherit what I’m going to be able to leave them. As for the grandkids, who knows what the Harris administration has in store for them.
Caption this photo
Blood rack, barbed wire
Politicians funeral pyre
Innocents raped with napalm fire
21st Century SCHIZOID MAN!
We are fucked.
“that fart was too wet”
Tea bag juice.
Nice
Arrrrrgh! ā You cursed brat! Look what you’ve done! I’m melting!
Worse, but it’s all my fault. If I had knuckled down, I would probably have been same or better.
Of course, I’ve got modern day Soma so who cares?
Sportsman Outdoors emailed me to say WE HAVE 9MM IN STOCK.
90 cents per round. I ain’t that stupid.
Where I live, $162.00 CDN (about $124 USD) for 500 rounds of American Eagle, 124 or 147 grain FMJ.āJust under 25 cents U.S./round.
I walked into a gun store today just for the reason that I had never walked into this one before. They asked: you looking for something in particular, I said, no I had just never been in there shop and thought I would stop by. I asked you guys have 9mm? Chuckles…….nope. Me: thought so.
I’ve been trying to get in with the guys at the local sports store… They know when the new shipments come in. They don’t mark up the ammo as much as the online folks do.
I’ll buy it from you at $0.30/round.
Oops…
“He lied, it all his fault! Not us not doing our jobs.”
The Chicom leadership must be laughing themselves silly to see the contortions the west is doing.
Police have since arrived at the pizza shop this afternoon following the dishonesty claims.
This should be headlines all over the free world. Too bad there is not a free world. Australia is lost.
I’ve recently began to understand how the Cultural Revolution could happen. Then how Stasi informeller Mitarbeiter could happen. Now I’m seeing how Jonestown came about.
Mostly better. I earn far more than my Dad did, but then my taxes and mortgage are far higher too. We live in the Bay Area. That said, my Dad inherited a decent amount from his parents. If you’ve ever driven down Lombard Street you’ve probably seen some of the houses he built. But my parents never lived like they had a lot of money. It wasn’t until I was filling out the financial aid application for college that I realized my parents had money.
Yeah, that was brutal. Part of the reason I didn’t finish college was because I couldn’t afford it, and my parents were adamantly against helping (because dad didn’t get any help with his so why should I?), and when I applied for financial aid I found out I still had to count my parents’ income until I was 24, even though I had been living entirely on my own hook since I was nineteen. It worked out the way they intended, though: I make a very good living doing what I want, I owe them exactly jack shit, and they I owe them nothing for getting there.
#dittoes
I was angry over that for years. Not that my parents had much income to give me but the financial aid people seemed to think they did.
My parents did, by government standards, but rightly figured there was no point in loaning me money to get a BA in English. Especially given that I ended up as a QA engineer, while I was bitter over the decision for many years (boy, did my college graduate friends look down on me), it worked out in the end and in such a way that I feel zero obligation to follow the wishes of either of my parents. I can do my own thing.
Yeah, other than a hundred bucks here and there – probably fewer times than the number of fingers on one hand – I got nothing and I’m probably better off for it. No hard feelings at all anymore. Of course, they’re long gone anyway.
Some of my siblings got various helping hands, some far more than others. It bugs my wife that “we” don’t get the same, but she also doesn’t want to do the sort of obligations that come with that. TANSTAAFL.
Yeah, my dad paid for my little sister’s tuition for her first year of college until she made the mistake of loaning our mother her car. Bing! Zap! That was the end of that subsidy, like he was just waiting for the first sign of disloyalty. Makes me grateful in the end that I did it on my own.
Fortunately for me, I had passed the 24-year-old threshold by the time I needed financial aid.
I got a lot of pressure in my earlier years to back up my instincts with credentials. That has faded somewhat with experience, but I still meet the occasional asshole that figures I’m not worthy because I don’t have a degree…. until I bust out a literary or artistic reference that has them heading to google to understand what the fuck I just said.
I get some of that shit because I don’t have a graduate degree. Or a degree of any kind in computer science. Or Microsoft certifications. Are you fucking kidding me? Yeah, I’m too old to give a shit about that stuff now.
Yep, I was independent at 17, making my way in the world. But the financial aid fuck ups didn’t agree. So I took out private loans at a higher interest rate.
In the end, I’m glad I didn’t end up borrowing against my future income to finance my college education, because the closest I do to ‘English’ in my job is checking for typos and grammatical errors in promo text I’m testing. My career ended up being far different from my formal education.
My parents did pay for college for me and my siblings, and they even helped pay for advanced degrees for my brother and sister. The only reason I was applying for financial aid was because I went to an expensive private college instead of a state school. I didn’t ask them to pay for my masters because I felt they had already paid enough. They also have paid for most of the grandchildren’s college.
You have either awesome and committed parents, or parents who make such a fuckton of money they don’t mind tossing those dolla dollar bills ’round. Either way, I’m vaguely jealous.
I chose my parents well. They are pretty well off, but not Trumps or Romneys or even Bidens. Mostly they are just cheap and managed to save up a good amount of money and didn’t blow what they inherited.
http://imgur.com/gallery/VH85hbA
Something missing here.
Fucking pricks.
Nalice, Alex Jones and Tim pool shoukd be # 165.
Regardless of what you like, that should be interesting as fuck to anybody who has a curious mind.
**HEAVY SIGH**
Yeah, the 21st Century is definitely not working out the way I expected it to.
I’ve shut down most of my “legacy” social media accounts; I still have a stripped-down FB account for family and a few close friends.āOn Insta, I just post my studio stuff, and unfollow anyone who gets political in my feed.āOn the flip side, I’ve signed up for Gab, Parler and MeWe, but I’ll shut ’em down at the first whiff of censorship or fuckwittery.
I imagine that in a couple of years, I’ll be back to e-mail as the one major “killer app” that I can’t live without.
Farg.
My folks were in a position to take advantage of the stagflation/inflation gains of the past 50 years or so. The house that they paid 18k for in 1964 probably sold for 250k in 2000. They built a home on the Clark Fork river for about 200k that is probably worth 750k today. Hard work and investments meant that they were able to retire in their 50’s and travel the country in their motorhome.
We retired in 2017 with virtually no savings and with a pension, social security, and income from a rental property. We are holding our own but if Biden’s promised tax increases and threatened gas price increases come through we could be hosed. Our travel plans have been cut short by the covid panic so our retirement might not be as convenient as we planned.
Our kids are going to be better than us, unless the economy turns belly up. One is a doctor of physical therapy, one has a Master’s and is teaching at the local trade school. The third is a pharmacy tech and will be watching her kids graduate high school in the next couple of years so she will be free.
I had figured that I would be a millionaire by age 35. At 35 I was in the middle of two years of unemployment. Real World/Ideal World interface.
I remember my parents had the first color TV in our neighborhood, or maybe on the entire planet as far as I knew. We had indoor plumbing and wall to wall carpet. My old man had a car and mum never worked.
I’ve been homeless since 1979 and then there was a boating accident.
The End.
At age 33, im doing worse than my parents, but dad is a medical doctor, so I’m not upset. Im nkt cut out for that business. As long as the dems don’t ban cars, I can continue to make a quality living in the SBQ steel bar market.
And what the hell, even if they do, i have a trade that us applicable to any industry. As long as we still manufacture shit in America, and manufacturers need their machines to run properly, im good.
Also, I have cows. So maybe I’m doing better than old pops was at this at this age.
20th Century Motor Company is always hiring.
-1 John Galt
Better-ish. Income is higher. Career goals are met earlier. But we’re currently renting and feel like we’re playing catch up on retirement and kids’ savings.
That said, the big differentiator will be if we can stay married. Divorce is a massive reset.
Futon and ramen. Whatās to fear of divorced man?
the big differentiator will be if we can stay married.
Whoa up with that shit right there.
If I cashed out all my investments, weāre way ahead of my parents. A good old financial crash/gubmint shakedown and Iām right back where the parents are. Iām worth way more dead than I am alive.
Best not to let the wife learn that.
Life insurance/Mutual fund investments up the ying yang. Suppose I should worry why the wife is so enamored with those things.
Life insurance is supposed to be an income replacement, not a jackpot. But she may already be aware of that.
Japanese love insurance. Life, supplementary health insurance (aināt mandatory public insurance great!), supplementary unemployment insurance (same crap as the public health ins), property insurance, etc. Itās usually packaged with a mutual fund investment, so you get 1~3% yield and your principle back after 20 or so years. *Shrugs*
When I was in Japan in 2000, the vast majority of personal funds were in post office savings account, paying some pittance. They’re still a risk-averse people, it seems.
Yes. We have CDs from the post office. The return is a joke.
The company I was working for at the time was trying to entice people into mutual funds instead of those post office accounts, as they had recently been some legal changes that made that possible.
There weren’t a lot of takers, as I recall.
Dead or Alive ?
That song deserved a much better video.
Ya, I liked that song but the video deserves a kick in the nuts.
I luv the eighties but if there is one song that was way overplayed….
80s
Though I had the urge to listen to this bit of extremely 80s music the other day:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzmidE4wFsc
I may have to update my ringtone.
That had to be an homage to the Beverly Hills Cop soundtrack.
Heh totally dated, and awesome.
Same guy, Harold Faltermeyer. He did Beverly Hills Cop in 1984, Fletch in 1985, Top Gun in 1986.
This has been my ringtone for a bunch of years now, but it may be time for a refresh.
That was your ringtone? You must really dislike the people around you. (Good song, but not something you want accidentally blaring out during a meeting)
I’m reminded of one of my favorite soundtracks from that era.
It’s less goofy but has a lot of the same eighties-ness in places.
I would never be so churlish as to leave my ringer on during a meeting.
Plus I’ve worked from home for a decade, so people are lucky if I’m wearing pants during a meeting.
It’s a distinctive ringtone, so I always know it’s my phone.
I had a couple of Tangerine Dream albums on cassette, back in the day.
I’m not familiar with that movie.
I think everyone knows this Tangerine Dream song
Heh. Iām definitely that churlish. This is my ringtone.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LRZI3S6Rc5M
Goddamn, is that a great movie.
The wife was not as taken with it when I made her watch it a few years ago. Possibly grounds for divorce. We’ll see after I make her watch “Breaking Away”.
My ringtone.
Get familiar with it. It’s awesome.
I think this is what straffin-san is more like to be singing.
https://youtu.be/L-2UsCOdJyY
Another argument (re: better off):
My kids had much less freedom growing up than I did.
Me and my bicycle had about a 20 mile radius range. I remember passing cars in the rock cut on the way to Lake City, no helmet, no cares. I’d ride to Lake City to dive off the high diving board in Lake Pepin, fuck around with my friends, and then ride home with enough time to make dinner before my mom got off work.
My kids had maybe a 1 mile radius. Their bikes have less than 100 miles on them.
They have never known meeting your loved ones at the gate after a long plane ride. I remember running to catch a plane at SEA-TAC with a butane soldering iron and 3 4 foot long valve handles in my pack. We made it just before the doors closed.
I remember buying cigarettes from a vending machine as a 16 year old.
I remember buying beer as a 16 year old (“You boys aren’t 18, are you?”, “no”, “Well just don’t tell anybody.” Narrator- “They told all their under age friends”)
When the drinking age raised to 21, I remember driving to Canada, (and crossing the border without a passport), because the drinking age was still 18 in Canada.
I bought chewing tobacco as a minor. I had successfully argued that the law specified cigarettes couldn’t be sold to minors and that therefore, it was legal to sell chewing tobacco to me. After that, it was never a problem at our corner pharmacy.
I remember buying real fireworks.
I was a kid in the late 90s early 2000s. I work with kids now. It absolutely astounds me how neurotic and paranoid parents are, and these are parents who live in vastly safer neighborhoods than mine was growing up.
I remember when Montana had no daytime speed limit.
I remember my mom driving me and my brother across Nebraska, Wyoming, and Utah at 100+ mph in a Gran Torino.
We had a Gran Torino. I loved that car.
351 Cleveland FTW, plus laser stripe.
My grandpa bought a Ruger Redhawk .357/.38 and both calibers of ammunition at Ace hardware in 1976. I used to have the receipt.
And the gun *sigh*
I wish I had that gun back.
My Dad bought a .22 at the corner Walgreens in San Francisco when he was a teenager.
I let my kid cruise the whole neighborhood. He knows everyone. Literally everyone. Every once in a while, I have to go look for him. I stop and ask strangers if they’ve seen a black kid on a bicycle, they all say, “you mean Vincent?” I say yeah. He has all kinds of adventures that I know nothing about. I want him to grow up one day, and that ain’t gonna happen locking him in the house. He’s had friends, lost friends, learned how to get home by dark, all kinds of stuff. I take him to skateparks and concerts ( before the zombie nation crap) and he is learning how to be an individual. He’s eight.
That’s awesome.
He’ll be a rare breed, I’m afraid.
You are a good dad.
*smiles*
I have a 10 year old daughter and a 14 year old son and both of them have the full run of the neighborhood on their bikes. The only things I ask of them are that they 1) be home by sundown and 2) stick together if they’re going into town itself. At 14, my acceptable exploration range was a good 3 mile radius from the house. I can allow my children no less freedom.
I used to range all over our mid-size city – around 250,000 people – and always on my own. I had like zero friends as a kid. I put a lot of miles on that bike.
And now you have us!
I make less in real dollars (by choice – I quit a well paying job in 2006 to do what I love), but thanks to strong financial lessons (debt is the enemy) and being taught about investment and compound interest, I’m probably ahead of my parents. I’ve always been a saver and it’s served me well.
Would you be willing to start again at zero if the great reset meant getting libertopia? I would.
I think the chances of getting libertopia from that are about the same as getting new soviet man.
āIfā. Realize thatās not gonna happen.
?
My grandfather (who was the only male presence in my life, since I never met my dad) retired from the Bridgeport, CT fire department as Deputy Chief in 1973 after 37 years in service. He packed up the family and moved to Florida when it became clear that his hometown was going to be too vibrant and diverse for him and his family. I recently saw the letter from the City Council at the time, who had accepted his resignation and agreed to a retirement income of just over $13k per year — about $76,000 in today’s dollars.
My mother, after flunking out of two colleges, managed to get a degree from Florida Southern in Lakeland, Florida. She married twice, for one year each, the second of which produced me. She worked a series of menial-to-low-management jobs pretty much until she retired. Mom had some serious physical disabilities, however. It was due to my grandparents’ bullheadedness and Mom’s grit that she was part of larger society instead of being institutionalized and forgotten.
When I was fourteen or so, the Old Man started greeting me at the breakfast table by pushing the front section of the Wall Street Journal (this was in the early 80s, before the WSJ got woke) and saying “Kid, learn this stuff. You’ll need it.” I resented it, but he was right.
To make a longer story shorter, the Old Man died of a massive heart attack on Christmas Day 1994. The things he taught me… not only investments; but foresight, love of family, perseverance, temperance (well…), and hard work (okay, he tried) meant that I could take care of my grandmother and mom in their dotage.
I am, in both real and inflation-adjusted dollars, way better off than either my grandparents or my mom ever were. I have a pair of commas in my bank account (though there will never be a third, absent the US going full Zimbabwe), and retired at 52. But having had a triple bypass at 40, and a heart attack last month at 53, I sometimes wonder if the thrift and industry that got us where we are was worth it.
Shit man, take care of the old ticker.
Jeez, bury the lede there. Hope you’ve found a good cardiologist.
I got my seeds today, now I’m off and running, good plants on the way..
Probably about the same. Pater retired in his early 50s, and has done pretty well in the markets. So itās not apples to apples. For both, not lavish wealth, but enough to be comfortable without too much worry.
in 6 weeks they will need to be cloned and sexed, you dont want Males in the mix, but you don’t know til they bloom, so clone early, and kill off the males,
You need to ask them if they are male or female, Transphobe.
Worse, I guess? Dunno. Anyway, dad was a prof. First in his family to go to college, his dad had to turn down a full ride to Stanford on account his father was a conman. Mom comes from a long line of profs. Her grandfather was the first Jewish prof at UC Berkeley. Although her dad hated school and became a machinist. I got that gene. Drifted around colleges until I ended up working at a used bookstore and never went back after that. Found my dream job, regardless of how little it paid. But, then comes divorce, child support, and a realization that I needed to make money. So, I moved over to logistics. And did very well until the Obama era. Got caught out financially and was never able to get back to where I was, no matter what I tried. And while working for the phone company as a field tech, screwed up my back. Thought everything would work out after that. Bought a small business, everything was going pretty well. And then the MS diagnosis, and now Covid is screwing up my clients pretty bad (most antique dealers are pretty old and scare easily). So, the wife and I had a conversation the other day, and I guess I am retired. 49. She stumbled into a pretty good career, makes a solid six-figure income in a semi-rural area, which puts us up pretty nicely. Couple that with her parents dying before they were 70 and being an only child, that help on the back end for us.
But I always feel like I am kind of a failure when it comes down to brass tacks. That I never lived up to the people in my family. And I worry that my son picked up that gene also, as he is 26 with a good degree but has never had a real job, just working whatever gets him by. My brother is an architect making a ton of money, and it always felt that I was just missing something. Drive maybe. Dunno.
Seems like back, knees, or hips are the common one in the industry. Back is usually an accident. Knees are the retirement bonus.
Believe this guy got the most votes ever?
https://nitter.kavin.rocks/tomselliott/status/1329538268518551553#m
Not him. Kamala. Geez.
*throws hands up*
Without even campaigning, no less. Anybody thinks this was just another US election is fucking crazy or stupid. This should have been 1984 part two, and it was on one side. The other? I ain’t buying none of it. Pretty sure the massive overreaction was mostly to tank the economy and force mail in voting. The rest of the world just followed our lead. I got sent home in March for three months. Before that, they already knew it was only fatal to .5 or less of the people who got it. Only deep blue assholes did this at first. It’s all bullshit and it’s bad for you.
Carlin would be 83 this year, and probably ever crankier.
I love my Mom and Dad but fuck them, they taught me nothing in the ways of life, And I have suffered ever since, my own fault for listening,
Was scrolling through the photos on our phones on Tuesday night. Iāve got thousands of pics with the kid and I. I was the one to pick her up from daycare, elementary school etc. I get home early enough to do stuff with her after school and take care of her on Saturdays. All these pics of us two at the park, Mr. Donuts, the playground. The wife really missed out on a lot of that stuff, but she wanted the career. Income went from mine being way ahead to both of us about equal now. The feminist movement benefited me and hurt the wife. Iāll take it.
Thankfully you’re not bitter.
Iām not bitter at all. Worked out for me, but I could understand why the wife may be a bit bitter.
Q: Why dont cannibals eat divorced women?
A: Too bitter.
And still a bit salty from the ex.
Depending on what she did the night before.
Woo hoo! Plates shipped today. Should be here tomorrow.
My first thought was “china?” but then it clicked. Significantly more useful than china.
I’d totally take Level III+ in Cornflower Blue or Butterfly Gold.
Sage Green
I have a lot of Limoges china, if anyone is interested
We’re better off than my parents were, not as well off as my in-laws were. Our house is paid for, and my only ongoing debt is my car payment. I’d be more motivated to pay it off, but the interest rate is only 2.44%, and the fund I picked for my 401(k) has been returning more than 5% over 1, 3, 5, and 10 years. I am, though, pondering strategies to try to get it out of reach of the gubmint without taking too much of a tax hit.
My brand new furnace just shit a circuit board, now I’m freezing, brand new place, under warranty, but still tonight, fuck
I suspect that’s more infuriating for a HVAC guy than for a regular civilian. Sorry, Yusef. Dangerously cold or just annoyingly cold?
+1 check engine light in the mechanic’s car
Yikes! Snuggle up with Bella!
More details of Ohio’s new curfew released today:
It was kind of DeWine’s handlers to add that line.
Well, he is DeWino
Not quite as bad as Gavin “Cant You Just Forgive Me” Newsom, but a contemptible POS regardless.
The obvious solution is for everyone to start a blog and become a “journalist.”
Better, I think.
Note: My parents divorced when I was very young.
My mom never remarried, worked as a secretary, and made decent money for a secretary I guess, but never made much money. She’s not good with money – fortunately not so bad that she runs up a lot of debt she can’t pay off, but she never saved or invested any money ever and instead blew any extra cash she had on stupid shit.
My dad was an attorney with his own private practice, but he was also terrible at running a business. Around the age I am now, he was in the process of wrapping everything up and going to work for the government for a steady paycheck and a pension. He lived in a nicer house than what I have, but that was my stepmother’s house that she bought with her first husband, so IDK if that really counts, since if he hadn’t married her he probably would have been living in a one-bedroom apartment.
Better than my parents?
Heh, heh, heh, ha, ha, ha, Ha. HA. HA! HA!! HA!!! Aaaahhhhaaaa!!!!…Every family has a Black Sheep.
As an aside for you Glibs: Say you have some younger neighbors who are only a PBR away from a domestic dispute that screams “I’m White Trash and I’m in Trouble”.
Then say those neighbors drink far too much PBR and are in trouble so often that they disrupt your sleep on a fairly regular basis…so one day you knock on their door in the middle of the usual screaming match and say: “Look, I’m not the guy who reflexively calls the cops when my neighbors piss me off but, I gotta say, your little domestic disputes are getting old, please take it down a decimal or two”.
Sweaty faced/probably coked out or a tweeker…my gut says tweeker/kid responsed with a quick nod and a profuse apology…so, being prepared, I ask him: “You smoke?”…He nods a quick yes, so I hand him a bag full of nearly an ounce worth of shake and roaches I haven’t touched in nearly a week and say: “Dude, take this, and calm the fuck down because you’re upsetting everyone within earshot”. He and his old lady apologize profusely, give thanks, then drive separately drive off in their cars to take the edge off. Why they didn’t just smoke in their home, no idea.
…So, to my long-winded point: One of them hasn’t returned yet. If the worst should happen, should I feel guilty about basically being the “Bartender who gave a free drink to the idiot who ended up killing themselves via my generosity, or ascribe to my principles and shrug with an attitude of “Personal Accountability, Bitch”.
Cuz, to be honest, I feel a touch guilty.
U R not to blame.
You didn’t tell them to go drive drunk, so ima say not your fault they’re dumb.
I always wondered how people get caught with drugs. ..
Not your fault, whatever happens.
Not your fault, and I think going their separate ways was a smart move because having some time and space is good medicine for such disputes. What are the odds they wrecked versus just crashing at a buddy’s place for a few days after a big row? The chances are they’re fine, and even if they’re not, they made the choice.
ā Official sources say this cartoon is false
I would have to say the same-ish. I am 7 years out from retirement, still paying a mortgage, but should be done with that in 4 years. Should have a decent 401K that would mean I should never be a burden on my kids. My dad paid $8000 cash for the house in LA that my brothers and I grew up in. Never mode a mortgage nor car payment. We didn’t live extravagant lives, but never wanted either. He always bought used cars, fixed them himself. Our vacations were car trips back to Denver where the grandparents were, or camping trips in California or other drivable western states. As frugal as he was, and working 37 years as a metallurgical engineer/shop manager I sometimes think he and my mom should have ended up with more, maybe rental property. Typically he died within a couple years of his retirement, and my mom was able to live as she pleased – new cars, lots of travel, though nearly all of it in the US.
When my Old Man passed, his widow was in shock for a few months, then finally started getting her life back together. She kept playing golf, having cocktails, and eventually going on cruises and vacations with her circle of friends who were in her age group and/or had been widowed too.
She went on some hella cool vacations with her widowed pals during that time. Thailand, European river cruises, basically wherever she wanted to go.
Never drove a car fancier than a Toyota, though. Her husband had drilled that into her, and she stuck to it.
I realised that my parents will probably never travel now. Since in the UK the covid fear and compliance is so strong, and they are full believers in the whole lockdowns, shutdowns, and masks kabuki, they will likely never do the trips they wanted to. I don’t think my dad is particularly interested in traveling but I don’t know. He did express an interest in visiting Japan. I just don’t see an end to the “new normal” here, and I see the profound effect that has had on some older, but relatively healthy people who are now far too risk averse, and crucially, compliant, to ever live the lives they wanted or have the retirements they saved for.
I don’t think this question counts in Romania
Counterpoint.
It’s kind of a shame that the only way to dance to that for many years was shuffling side to side zombiacally while staring at your shoes. It’s pretty groovy. I think the sassy head weave and upturned campy finger snaps go a long way to improving the enjoyment of it.
This chick rocks.
https://twitter.com/xXshink3nXx/status/1329506814350733313
I didn’t eat this much good steak growing up, so I guess that means better.
*shrug*
Not having kids goes a long way on having more daily luxuries.
On the plus side, I’m going to see my parents this weekend and drop off some birthday presents. Token gifts, but it’s the thought that counts.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=58w2Pvqg4Wg&list=RDjFx_56GIXGE&index=6
?
Kanuckistani state propaganda rock? That’s a new genre to me, unless old Bryan Adams was secretly reprogramming us all these years, eh buddy?
Much worse than my folks. They done good, very hard working and careful with the pennies. I am a failure in comparison and the status anxiety is probably quite real.
Emily Jashinsky has 12yo boy voice. The Federalist podcast series is pretty hit and miss, but the ones I don’t skip through I like to imagine being hosted by a weird kid who is too young to vote but still understands more about the swamp than most voting age people.
Here I am, alone, on the tail end of the nighty night bedtime links, as the sun rises over the Midwest.
I’m here too. Waiting for the US to wake up and the links to drop.
Have an appetizer link before the main course. Would.
And another. Might.
https://www.wfmz.com/news/area/pennsylvania/lawmakers-respond-after-pa-house-votes-to-require-additional-audit-of-2020-election/article_50b2e1d2-2ad6-11eb-8c9e-db711229305d.html
Fuck Wolf. If he’s against it, I’m all for it.
He can huff and puff all he wants but can he really blow the house down on this one?
/sad horn
???
Florida man.
That could have been the best Festivus ever for Florida Man.
Waiting on the Heating guy, it’s 63 in the house, so she held temps alright, but it only went down to 48 outside, furnace isn’t a year old…… grrrr
*puzzled look*
warranty work, no touch
https://www.ndtv.com/offbeat/man-becomes-overnight-millionaire-after-meteorite-crashes-through-his-roof-2327321