I am not doing too bad but I feel I will not achieve my folks level of economic success. I am keeping the lights on and have a few bucks for my hobbies so I can't complain too much. I hope you are fairing alright.

Lost my job, medical problems, big fight with Mom - it's been weird.

is doing better than me ,about the age I made more than my parents.

The Union is a very good thing.

some Guthrie for you -

"Well, I used to be a pretty fair organized feller
Till I turned a scab and then I turned off yeller
Fought ev'ry union with teeth and toenail
And I sprouted a six-inch stinger right in the middle of the tail
And I growed horns
And then I cut 'em off, I wanted to fool you
I hated union ever'where, 'cause God likes unions and I hate God"

The above is from Mean Talking Blues and I recommend everyone give a listen!

I am only jesting, I am happy for you!

My wife and I plan on having four or so, but only now that we are getting settled in our new careers. Having kids doesn't put a speed-bump in your life if you make sure you can afford them first. My parents started before they really got rolling. I think that's the main difference. Horse before the cart and all that.

along a few years later. My wife and I do not have kids and I am over 40 and she will be there soon. That said, we likely still won't achieve their level of success and they were both teachers.

"Things are breaking up out there, high water everywhere"

Thank you to those that have participated!

Edit : I am curious to hear from some of the younger folks here.

My Dad worked for the railroad for 42 years. He was drafted for WWII and came back alive (his two cousins did not) and came back to his job with the railroad. He had a good UNION job with a retirement. Upon retirement, he actually got a GOLD Hamilton pocket watch.
My dad raised a family of 4 kids, bought a new modest 3 bedroom home in Spokane, WA., (with a full basement) bought a new Ford (always blue) station wagon every 7 years , took us all on family vacations every summer camping and exploring. He bought a small 6 unit apartment house and rented it out. I don't know how the hell he did it all, I really don't.
He worked graveyards, swings and days, always rotating. He never got much sleep. My mom would pack his steel lunch box every day and always included was a piece of home-made pie or cake.
He worked his ass off and raised a family in the 50's and 60's on his single income. Amazing.
I think those days are over. I miss and respect my Dad so much.

Your father sounds pretty awesome to me. Raising a family on a single income is almost unheard of today. I know there are people that do it - I don't know any people that do.


Cheers!

When I was younger (like say 20-25 or so) I thought I was going to eclipse my parents in earnings and do quite well for myself. As the years passed and one set back after another came and went I realized that I was mistaken. I think that may be just the way it is when you are young and land a decent job but for a lot of us reality comes knocking after a few years. I think I was around 32 or so when I just knew, barring some windfall, that I wouldn't be able to achieve their level of success. It wasn't for a lack of trying.

I still try and try hard but I ain't kidding myself no more.

Then I got sick, and it went downhill from there - I can work, I can't find work.

Funny that you don't hear a whole helluva lot about it on the MSM.

We have so many willing to work and so many that would like to retire - I think a lowering of the age of SS benefits is in order.

I hope you are doing alright at least and can find some comfort in your family and friends.

Cheers!

Fewer food and housing expenses and much higher medical expenses, even with Medicare.

COLA is a joke nowadays - I can't believe I missed that.

I hope you are doing alright. However, would you say (if you are on SS) that you are doing better or worse than your parents did at your age? Perhaps they didn't reach your age and if so I am sorry. I don't mean to be rude.

And we grew up poor, so the question does not really apply for me. From that perspective I am doing a lot better,

What DOES apply is the issue of my parent's generation, where one wage earner could support a family,
and that lasted up into about 1990.
Assuming a decent income since then, the cost of living has far outpaced the relative prices my parent's generation had to pay.

Really really concerned about my grown children's future in this country.

at my age (I'm 68), but we're doing okay.

My father had two retirement incomes (he retired from NASA at 55 as a GS-13, then put in another 10 years at ITT Arctic Services), my mother had a teacher's pension and they both had Social Security, plus they did well in the stock market in the '90s. My father died in 1995 at 79, my mom in 1999 at 75.

My husband and I don't have near that amount of money, but he does have a union pension and we have SS, plus our rental income from the other half of our duplex, so we're okay. We also have some money in retirement accounts, but lost quite a bit in the 2008 crash.

It sounds like you two are doing alright just not as good as your folks did. I see it as trend where some of us are slipping rapidly, others not so much but just a few of us are progressing. It's a sad turn of events for a lot us. I hope you are well.

Have a good evening!

I changed it to other because at my age (42) my mom was a V.P. with a hotel company - 1989.

She was much higher up the food chain - but she never saw the kind of salary I've made. I think it's partially the boomer woman issue (working hard but way under paid) and partially due to the difference in industry (tech).

So on track - but to some degree . . . Doing better.

both my parents were union members, one UAW the other the Retail Clerks.

They actually could save money and do the middle class things like vacations every three years, or a new car on the same time track.
They put 5 kids through parochial school and bought 4 of them their first automobiles and 1 year of insurance. Sadly, none of the kids wanted to go to college.

money than my father.

He was a pieceworker and a member of the ILGWU.

I am better off than my parents were because I applied myself more. I am NOT better off than my parents were because I did not apply myself more. The poll seems cut and dried one way or the other and does not address the effort or the lack thereof in attaining ones current status. my opinion only that there is a difference in the past and present economy, but I believe this poll is not a good measuring stick if that was the OP's intent.

It's not that I have such a fantastic paying job. My dad's company went bankrupt when he was 50 (also the years when he should have been earning his highest salary) and my mom needed to scale back from her nursing job because of her ill health. She was a life long diabetic and suffered from diabetic nerve pain that left her unable to stand for long periods of time. Early in my career and before I was married, I did well enough to pay for some "extras." I suspect if either had lived beyond their mid-70s, they would have moved in with me.

with a bonus, a percentage of his salary monthly, and his social security; the survey is kind of a joke.

We're in our 60s nearing retirement and will depend on our savings plus social security. Our parents retired with social security and a pension plus health insurance and then Medicare supplement insurance after they turned 65.

between us makes little sense.

That's on me, though. Nobody's fault but my own.

I will be forced to work until I die. The. 01% have seen to that., and those that Promised to protect us, DIDNT.

Sure we're doing great but we only own 4 acres.

I can look at this. I am over 40 and doing way worse than my parents (plural) financially. In fact, I live with them because, although fully employed with a Masters degree, I can't afford rent in my area and have enough left over to make it worth getting out of bed except to go to work.

On the other hand, I am WAY better off then my mother, who, in the absence of my father, is unable to support herself either by working or, since she is well past retirement age, with social security.

Sooo...I am not dependent on anyone for survival needs and should be able to cobble together a retirement that does not involve a steam grate or cat food. I will be employable in my field way past age 65 as long as I am reasonably healthy. My parents together have a comfortable retirement and should not ever have to worry about money given that they are conservative spenders. My mother is totally dependent on my father's financial holdings for everything.

I feel I have done about as well as I can given that I am in a low paying field in a very expensive part of the country. Had I married I might be in a much better position, but I might be in a much worse position, marriage being a double edged sword financially. One thing I don't have to worry about is the guy who puts a roof over my head taking a hike. On the other hand, I have to worry about my job taking a hike, which it has several times, but I've gotten about as secure a position as I can under the circumstances.

Financially as they were.

We do own our home, they either paid rent or mortgage.
We own our transportations, they had car notes.
We dont have credit cards and only buy when we saved enough where they used credit cards.

But, they had much better job and retirement security and stability or let's just say we're not exactly in the same situation as they were.

I'd gladly trade some of the financials for more of financial security.

At this point in my parents life, my dad was finishing up his masters; that he was able to pay for himself without a loan. My mom was a stay at home mom, but worked a part time job because she wanted to, not because we needed the money. We had a vacation cabin in Canada that we would visit 4 weeks every summer. Plus, he was able to put 4 kids through college.

What did my dad do for a living?

He was a union mechanic for the dept of sanitation in NYC.

I can barely maintain myself on one income.

Boomers and GenX have extremely different experiences.

Their jobs: steel detailer/draftsman, waitress, logger and bookkeeper. DH and I both have engineering degrees and have been gainfully employed for our careers (except for me during our kids' early years, but that was by choice.)

My parents' and inlaws' middle-class lives allowed dh and I to go to college with with no or little debt. That gave us a heckuva leg up. Our own kids will graduate with no college debt. But if we'd chosen to not go to college or only made a normal middle class income, there is no way that we could provide for our kids in the same way that our parents did for us.

Except I know that this has not very much to do with me, my abilities, or other factors within my control. I had some tremendously lucky breaks in my life. I am a beneficiary of white privilege--doors were open to me that probably remained closed to others of equal or greater ability. I do work hard, and I've tried to make the most of the opportunities I was given. But those couple of lucky breaks (a wealthy relation paid off my student loans; a great mentor believed in me enough to offer me a job that I wasn't yet qualified to do) were what got the ball rolling for me. Yes, I'm smart, but dumb luck is also a big part of my story. Smart, dumb luck, and the right color. Take away any one of those, and who knows who or where I'd be.

My parents never had opportunities like that--or, the opportunities they were offered, were squandered. Foolishly, my father never took advantage of the GI bill when he returned from WW2. My mom was never able to rise above entry-level jobs, despite being smarter than most of the people she worked for. Health issues (mental and physical), lack of initiative, and, eventually, the poverty cycle, held them back.

That's why I'm never without 2 or 3 proteges. Be good to the people on the way up. You're likely to meet them on the way down.

I was the first of my family to go to college. And I married another college graduate (a PhD, in fact) and we're doing better than both our parents.

My sister, however, seems to be doing worse. :/

Not living in poverty, but my dad had a good union job for years with an excellent health plan, and now he and my mom enjoy a comfortable retirement.

My sister and I graduated from college with NO STUDENT LOAN DEBT. I remember a few times getting grants, not loans, for textbooks and the like.

My wife and I met as public school science teachers. Soon after, my wife returned to university as a graduate student, seeking the career she'd been sidetracked from by a severe auto accident, and she accumulated student loans larger than a previously "middle class" sized mortgage.

Today, student loan debt for our kids, medical debt and medical insurance, are greater than the mortgage on our home. We haven't had a credit score higher than "we know where you live" for many years now.

Few things to note:

I earn more than my father, even adjusted to inflation.
I am not married, my parents were married young.
They immigrated to the US, leaving their children abroad for years before bringing us to the US.
My health is better, since I don't smoke, drink much(it would be months before I get any alcohol in me, and probably only a smidgen), and I work out. My father was the complete reverse, he smoked, drank and didn't work out. (He passed away at the age of 54).

So, my parents had it hard around my age. They had to pay for children, deal with many things of that nature.

As such, I am doing quite a bit better in that sense.

However, as mentioned:

I am not married, no girlfriend, no relations of such sort, just a bunch of lady friends who I enjoy a platonic relationship with.
I don't have children.
I work longer hours, and more jobs, so that I do earn more(adjusted to inflation).
I don't have a support group of as many friends and their community, I only have a few close knit friends(who are all very busy with their own lives).

All in all, I think I'm ok.

Doing pretty well overall.

Yet, Austerity rules the 99-percent with bailouts and bonuses galore for Banksters.

Over 40, and doing better than my mom was at this stage, but far worse than my dad was.

They were both so desperately dirt poor that we were living without heat, proper food, or decent clothes 90% of the time. I have heat and food, and more income than they did. But I also have fewer resources and almost no family left. They had their parents and siblings to lean on. I have one sister who's worse off than I am...everyone else is dead.

I don't think people realize how lucky they are to have family members they can call on in an emergency. Without that resource, life is scary. Any mistakes or failures are disastrous. My grandparents were always there as a last resort when my parents had no money for food or rent. If nothing else, we could always go stay with them--and did, several times.

This is why we're trying to buy a mobile home right now. If the worst happened, there is nobody who could take us in. Nobody at all. The anxiety of living that close to the edge is soul-shredding...

It isn't because of anything I did, but thanks to my dad insisting that I get an education even when I didn't want to, and thanks to Uncle Sam (and my wife) for paying for a part of it, I had a background that equipped me for a profession that the country needed at the time (they still need it but nobody wants to pay for it anymore).

I was able to retire at age 58. I couldn't do that today. And either of my kids is in a position to retire anytime within the foreseeable future (they are currently 52 and 49).

My dad was a businessman and did pretty well. I don't like dealing with even personal finance much and sure as hell didn't want to deal with the ups and downs he went through so I made my career in education.

At 52, I'm probably doing a little better than my dad was. My salary is probably pretty close to his once you adjust for inflation, but I have greater job security (at 52, he was about to be forced into an early retirement by the breakup of AT&T) and greater prospects for ongoing advancement (even if AT&T hadn't broken up, he'd gone as far as he was going to go). He owned his own home, whereas I've got a mortgage (and will have for years); on the other hand, I have as much equity in my home now as his home was worth. I'm not sure which of us had the better savings/investment portfolio; he had much more cash on hand (bought a new car with cash every seven years, like clockwork, whereas I've never owned a new car) but I suspect I have the bigger retirement fund. So I guess I'm doing better, by a bit.

My daughter (25), on the other hand, is doing much, much better than either her mother or I were doing at her age. She's making considerably more money than either of us were making at that age and already has decent savings in a 401k. She's also debt-free, though that's our doing rather than hers.

So slow inter-generational improvements for us.

39 years old, so just at the edge of the "younger" demographic.

Dad was a doctor. Mom a teacher

My wife and I both do better than my mom, significantly, but not as well as my Dad. Together we do better than they did.

My father lost most of his pension when the company went bankrupt. I have a Government pension and healthcare and my wife has a partnership share.

Add to which, we never had children (cats cost a lot less).

At this point in her life, Mom was a paralegal with a major immigration law firm, and would soon move to its NYC office.

Me? Cube rat. $38K/year. Ivy League degree, no less.