S/O How old are you compared to your parents and how well off? - Page 3

[scrapadoozer]

Mom & dad got married when my mom was 23 and dad was 25.

DH & I got married when I was 22 and DH was 26.

Mom & dad were 24 and 26 respectively when I was born. 27 & 30 when my brother was born.

DH & I were 29 and 25 respecitively when dd was born. 34 & 30 when ds was born.

We are somewhat better off than they are now and much better off than they were then.

[elephantmargaret]

my parents were 21 (Dad) and 23 (mom) when they got married. Mom was 31 when my brother was born and 34 when I was born. DH's parents were early 20's getting married and had their first baby at 22-23 maybe? We're better off than either set of parents. My parents are college educated but did mission work for 20 years so they just bought their first house in 2001 and then moved in 2005-2006. They took on a lot of debt and have had trouble paying it off. DH's parents have had health issues (MIL) and although they are 1-2 years away from paying off the mortgage have huge amounts of debt (CC, medical etc) and live paycheck to paycheck. Neither has had any college and have worked pretty low paying jobs. Our only debt is a mortgage (we waited 5 years to have kids until we could afford a house and had my school loans paid off. DH went to community college and paid his way as he went, I went to a private 4 year college and we payed for it later. So we have considerably higher paying jobs than his parents, and not the debt/lack of equity etc of my parents.\

ETA I was almost 21 when I got married, DH was 23, I had DS at 25, DD at 27.

[mnnice]

My parents were married at 23 and 29 and had me (the oldest) at 25 and 30.

DH and I married at 30 and 31 and were both 32 when we had our first.

DH and I are more finiancially well of (my folks had an amazing social support network though) than my parents were at this age. We have definitely saved more in our thirties than they likely even made. My parents built their current house in 1988 and it was their first (and probabily only house they'll ever )own.

Currently, my parents have a much higher net worth than us, but really have accumulated a lot of it since my father has retired (my dad retired in 1998 and my mom retired in 2006). Their current lifestyle is pretty simple and living in a paid for house in a fairly low tax, low COL area sure helps.

[choli]

My parents got married when they were 35. They were recent immigrants to the US with 6th grade educations. My mother was a waitress before marriage, a SAHM after. My father was a blue collar worker. We did not live a lavish lifestyle, but we did go to parochial school and have a vacation in the Catskills every year. It was, I think, a fairly typical lower middle class lifestyle for the 60s.

However, my father died when I was 10. We went from there to getting by on Social Security Survivor Benefits. That was pretty poor.

My DH and I got married when I was 33 and he was 35. He is college educated, I have a hard neck and get the same jobs without the degree. Financially, we are better off than my parents ever were. His parents were both college educated, but we are still better off financially than they were. We make very good money, but have no debt and live relatively frugally, though I will admit that a lot of it is selective frugality. We live car-free, but we do travel abroad quite a bit. We save a lot, but we have a pretty hefty mortgage.

[Sk8ermaiden]

My mom and dad were 27 and 30 when they got married and had me a year later. They were both teachers and low income. Upper-lower class? - I believe they did own a small house, but they incurred a lot of debt.

My in laws got married at 18 and 20 and were extremely poor, living in a tiny apartment with milk crates for furniture. They didn't have DH until 11 years later, and BIL 13 months after that! FIL is the smartest man with money I have EVER met. I don't know how he does what he did. DH says life was really, really lean growing up. Somehow, on something that would be equivalent to a $30,000 salary today, MIL got to be a SAHM, FIL sent both boys to (an EXCELLENT) private school K-12, bought them both nice used trucks (DH is still driving his 10 years later!) and paid for their college. He paid off his mortgage very early, and didn't finance a car after age 30 (buying new). He funded an extremely nice retirement. Then when the boys hit high school he got a big raise and promotion and pretty much feels like he's living the high life now.

We got married at 23 and 24 and are having the first kid at 25 and 26. We make a nice living and live comfortably. We have a very nice house. It feels like the budget is really tight, but it reality it's not. When I realize I have $100 a month for home improvement, $130 a month for eating out, and $100 for clothes/whatever + an 8-month emergency fund, it hits home how blessed we are.

Really, we are doing so great though because of the traits DH learned from his dad. That and DH chose a career that makes him twice as much as either set of parents made when they got married.

[claddaghmom]

Originally Posted by Thystle

Ok how old were your parents when they married (or got together) and how old were they when they had you?



Now how old were you for both?




Are you better off than they are then or now?

my parents: 19 and 21. Mom was 20 when she had me. She stopped at an associate's and wanted to SAH. He went to an M through night classes while in the military.

his parents:22 and 24. 24 when she had dh. She stopped at a bachelors and wanted to SAH. He completed a law degree and is a practicing attorney.

us: 21 and 22. 22 when I had dd. He has a b in business admin/focus in finance. I have a b in psych. He is trying to complete an MBA and I'm farther behind...haven't even taken my GREs for clinical psych grad school.

Compared to then: we are doing better than both of them. My parents were dirt poor in the military and moved everywhere. His parents were dirt poor in New York and basically lived off a parental allowance b/c he was in law school.

Compared to inbetween and now: we are doing worse. We have a ton of student debt, we aren't done with our M's yet (about 1-1.5 years left if we don't slow down). I'm a SAHM. We want to stay in the area close to relatives so we're talking about HCOL housing. (not the highest, I've seen worse on MDC but definitely city COL).

[That Is Nice]

Wow, I'm really surprised reading through this thread how many people had parents with college educations and good jobs.

I'm a first generation college graduate.

No one in my family is really that educated nor did anyone really have a career of any sort. Most of them have odd jobs, and switch jobs frequently, if they are even working. They live very hand to mouth.

I think that is why I put such high importance on education and career.

My life has been drastically different than what I saw growing up because of a college education and corresponding career.

[Drummer's Wife]

My parents were 20/22 when they got married. 26/28 when my older sister was born. My mom was 29 when I was born, which is how old I am now, yet I have four kids already

My dad got a phD in Law and was a Judge for many years (after being a Lawyer, of course). Now, he teaches high school math and loves it.

My mom has two masters, both in nursing. She was an RN, then a nurse manager for many years and is now a midwife.

DH and I had our first baby at 20/21. Got married at 21/22. Neither of us have a college degree (yet) but now at 28/29 years old we are doing pretty decent DH worked hard (and got lucky) and he now makes more than my mom did when she got her 2nd masters, and certainly more than a teacher does. I am going back to school myself so that we can do even better, and b/c if something were to happen to DH's job, he would likely have a really hard time finding something equivalent salary wise w/o a degree.