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Sometimes, the big picture that frames your life can just happen without much thought, mostly by luck. I guess not everyone who has good fortune like this will admit anything other than hard work and true grit got them to where they are now. Take myself; I claim some credit for what I’ve achieved, but I had a lot of good tailwinds that certainly helped immensely.
I was part of the last UK generation eligible for free higher education. I entered the housing market when prices were still reasonable and just before the property market ballooned. During my young adulthood, the UK economy experienced a strong economic boom, well above historical norms. I had no input or influence on these things; they just happened at the right time, and I was in the right place to benefit from the lucky tailwinds I stumbled into.
Recognizing luck and external factors doesn’t diminish your achievements. I believe in myself it has fostered a humbleness that extends to being able to recognise the much harder conditions the current generation has encountered in trying to thrive financially.
There seems to be a very judgmental narrative in play, for reasons I don’t understand but possibly a lack of awareness of systematic shifts in the world. I’ve had a lot of contact with today’s generation, through employing them, to the children of friends and my own children, and while I have great reservations over the digital/influencer social media elements of the group, I don’t recognise the generational stereotype used to depict them—lazy, no ambition, financially irresponsible, etc.
Of the millennials I know, most have identified the need to purchase over renting and have made a first step onto the property market or are renting and trying to save for a deposit. The landscape around pensions has changed to an emphasis on personal responsibility over employer responsibility.
They face challenges I never did, like inflated property prices, less security in employment, and tighter restrictions around lending. The shadow of covid loomed large and stunted their early social and educational life. With these challenges, I can understand why emotional wellbeing is an issue; when you have little control over your future, it must manifest somehow.
I try to mentor, support and give helpful advice where I think it will be useful and where I have some competence or lived experience to share. I think it’s a duty to help a generation that has certainly not had the tailwinds that eased my journey. I would urge you to take time to gain more understanding of a generation that has had a hard start to adulthood.
Mark, I agree with your comments about how hardworking the younger generations are. We see this on our street with our younger neighbors, who have befriended us. And also with our children and their friends. I have great hope for the future with these good folks. Chris
I’m only going to comment on my salary vs my house cost (thanks to Quicken).
When we bought our house in 1971, it was about 5 times my annual salary. In 2009, my last year of full time work, my house having increased about 8 times in value (including a significant addition), was still appraised at about 5 times my salary. Since I haven’t worked in well over ten years, I don’t know how my salary would compare to my house value today, but my house has roughly doubled in value since 2009.
So, while I agree there may be unique challenges for the current generation, most of us went through some tight times financially in our early years.
Thanks Mark. I completely agree with your sentiments. My Dad was born in 1919, in Michigan, so he had to grow up in the depression, then serve over 4 years in the Navy in WWII. As a result of these circumstances, he was satisfied with a very modest lifestyle. He reached his “enough” easily in retirement, although he only lived on about $28K a year, yet had a great life. I started investing in 1987, at the age of 26, and greatly benefited from the long bull market. It’s made saving for retirement and the educational needs of 4 kids so much easier. That’s luck. My fear is that, going forward, it’s going to be harder for my kids. And now for some real perspective. In the fall of 1984 I stepped off a CG Cutter in Port au Prince, Haiti and took a walk to the Iron Market. I’d seen poverty before, but nothing like that. The feeling was almost overwhelming that just because I was born in the U. S., to great parents, my circumstances in life were so much better.
Patrick, I totally agree with your final sentiment. It was only after I took my first walk through a Chinese hutong, and then later got off a train in the Chinese countryside, that I truly understood how much I had won life’s lottery by being born where I was, into the situation I was, and at the time I was. So many of the circumstances of our lives are dependent on factors we have no control over – the conditions under which we come into the world.
My husband and I attended a University of California campus when tuition was $192 per quarter. I lived on a $200/month allowance from my grandfather’s trust, out of which I paid my share of the rent (I shared an apartment with 3-4 other girls), utilities, and groceries. 28 years later when our firstborn went to a UC, it cost about $25K/year including tuition (around $12K/year), housing, and other expenses.
My husband also was fortunate to be admitted to a UC law school at a time when they were charging “regular” grad school prices, about $5K/year in the early 90s. A few years later, they upped the prices considerably for professional schools. We were able to get him through law school without taking on debt.
We bought our first home in the early 1990s with $10K down gifted from my father-in-law for $129,000. We bought our second home in 1998 for $237,500. The first house in the same town now sells for over half a million, and the second home, which we sold in 2019, now is valued at over a million. Taking those fact patterns together, we went to school and got into the housing market at points that were a lot more accessible than they are now.
I also got my PhD in a field that was relatively new, so I didn’t have much competition on the academic job market relative to later generations. I’ve been on a lot of hiring committees over the decades, and I’ve often thought that I was glad I didn’t have to compete with these highly qualified individuals. I’m not putting myself down. I was smart and I worked hard to get my degrees and build my career, but I’ve known more than a few people who were just as smart, accomplished, and hardworking who never got the opportunities I did because they entered the market a decade or two after I did.
I can think of other ways that we weren’t especially “lucky” in life, but when it comes to education, career opportunities, and housing, I feel that we were generationally fortunate.
It’s remarkable how your experiences in the US echo the “lucky tailwinds” I described in the UK. It really highlights that these generational shifts are a global phenomenon. Thanks for sharing your insightful perspective. It certainly helps validate my article’s core premise.
Read my writings here and you will see I agree and credit the absence of misfortune for much of what I have even though I feel I earned what I have with the help of several mentors.
However, every generation has its challenges and now is no worse than others, perhaps easier. My life was interrupted by the Viet Nam war and being called to active duty a month after the first date with the woman who would later be my wife. Back then I thought my life was over.
Today I see too much looking for excuses and something or someone or some group to blame.
I read about billionaires taking from us, the lack of opportunity as if there is a limit to the economic pie.
You’re right, every generation faces unique challenges; your Vietnam experience powerfully illustrates this. Myself for example had to contend with the devastating bombings and civil disorder in my homeland. My article focused on how systemic economic shifts (housing, education) present different, significant barriers now, not that they’re worse than historical adversities. I acknowledge hardship is diverse across time.
Just because you can count up more and more dollars doesn’t mean the economic pie is unlimited… Those dollars represent real labour and real natural resources. I would say there’s probably a limit to our economic model. Hopefully we can figure out space mining before it’s too late.
How many wives have you had? 😄
“…after the first date with the women who would later be my wife.”
funny, Randy!
What an odd language we have. To make woman plural we do the same as for the male, but the first syllable changes pronunciation instead of the one with the changed letter.
Just one, past 56 years
“My life was interrupted by the Viet Nam war…”
You have mentioned a number of times being in the military, but I don’t recall how long you were in active duty, or what your position was. Is there a past article on HD where you shared your experience? Were you stationed in Viet Nam?
My military service was neither spectacular nor heroic.
I joined the national guard in 1964 I spent six months on active duty. In 1968 my unit was activated for an unknown period and we were shipped to Alabama. I was a truck diver, but when it was learned I was in HR in real life, was made battalion personnel sergeant.
i got orders for Vietnam in January 1969, a month after were married, but at the last minute they were changed because my allergies prevented me from taking required injections.
I then spent until September 1969 in Alabama. Many of my friends in the company did end up in VietNam two subsequently died from the effects of agent orange.
As I said, nothing special, but I was lucky.
I appreciate your explanation about military service, and anyone who did serve is to be thanked, regardless if they experienced active war time duty or not. Since you didn’t actually step foot in Vietnam, how did that interrupt your life?
I’m also confused by your comment to the OP where you said, “My life was interrupted by the Viet Nam war and being called to active duty a month after the first date with the woman who would later be my wife.
In your reply to me you state “I got orders for Vietnam in January 1969, a month after were married”
Your two comments contradict each other. You either got your orders a month after your first date, or you got the orders a month after you were married.
My brother actually stepped foot in Vietnam and fought at the DMZ. He never would talk about his time there because of all the real life action. I won’t share the health details he had to endure the next 50+ years after his discharge and until his death last week. His obituary shows a picture of him proudly in his military uniform. My family will miss him and know that he honored his country.
Our first date was February 1968, I was activated May 1968 and left for Alabama. We were married in December 1968 while I was in the army- 10 months after our first date. I got orders for Vietnam in January 1969, a month after we were married.
Being unexpectedly called to active duty, leaving your job, and family and not knowing the future would interrupt anyone’s life I suspect. There was no guarantee your job would be held back then. Mine was though.
Many guys in our company with families and mortgages, even businesses had a very tough time.
It’s good to know everything turned out well for you; job, marriage and no military action, but the best part is that you got to serve your country.
Thanks for clarifying when you got your active duty notice and meeting the love of your life. It was a puzzle for me, but not as difficult as the puzzle on the card table you mentioned in another post. Hope you had a good 4th of July at the Cape.
Perhaps my complimentary response to RDQ was a puzzle to the common reader and that’s why I got down arrows? It’s really too bad this site refuses to show who gives up/down arrows like most other forum websites.