My son was born in the overlap between millennials and Gen Z. His wife is definitely from Gen Z. They bought their house a year ago. They both saved money since they were teens. Her parents and his parents are Baby Boomers. We instilled the values of hard work, paying your own way, and saving money. They both needed loans to go to college, including graduate school. They both worked as many hours they could to pay off their loans. Within 3 years, all college loans were paid off. They started living together in 2019 and married in 2024. They then searched all over the country to find a place where they could get well paying jobs and the cost of living was lower. Both are from CA and made it clear, they were leaving CA.
They moved to Montana and within a year had enough money saved to put a 50% down payment on their house. They are still working as many hours possible because they want to pay off the house within 10 years. They are expecting their first child soon.
Both sets of parents are amazed. They are now in a better financial position than we were when we hit 30. They still live frugally and rarely go out to dinner. They are saving 25% of their paycheck every month for retirement and for any financial difficulties they might experience in the future. Their goal is to have enough in savings to live on for a year if they needed to.
With careful planning, good savings habits and living well within their means, they made a good life that will likely improve as the years pass.
My grandparents grew up during the depression and then lived through WWII and all the shortages here at home because the economy was on a full time war footing. They never thought they suffered. They had their basic needs met and enjoyed life. Their focus was on people and not material goods. When I compare my life to theirs, I believe they had it much harder but were happy because life was still easier than in many parts of this world. They were always grateful for what they had and learned to make do.hil
The big problem with Gen Z is many grew up getting everything they wanted without working for it. They also grew up with the idea that they needed to latest and coolest toys in order to be happy. Electronic devices have to be replaced every couple of years because newer and better come out every few months.
I am typing this on a 10 year old Mac computer that still meets my needs. I will not be replacing it any time soon. My cell phone is 8 years old and still works. It will likely last at least 2 more years before I will have to think about replacing it. My oldest vehicle is 33 years old and I maintain it well. It is my daily driver and I have no plans on giving it up. It is cheap to fix and to insure. My wife drives a car that is 15 years old and still runs well with no issues. I maintain that one also. We have friends that are complaining that they are spending $70,000 or more on new vehicles and needing to take out a 7 year loan to be able to afford it. I refuse to buy a vehicle on credit. We save enough so that if we wanted to replace a vehicle, the could pay cash.
I will be retiring in a year. My wife is already retired. We plan to travel the country in our travel trailer. For the second time in our lives, we will likely purchase a new truck to haul that trailer as the one we have struggles a little with towing it. With good maintenance, it will likely be the last vehicle we will buy. We will pay cash for it.
It is possible to live well in this country even with the bad decisions politicians have made. You cannot rely on the government so you have to make smart choices so you only need to rely on yourself.
My wife wanted to call the military because they would not allow her son the time off to come to a family retreat. She had already hassled the college administration when the other was sick in the hospital and his professor failed him.
In both cases I pulled rank and told her absolutely not.
Mothers are built for soft love, empathy, protection... many second chances for their kids.
Fathers are about accountability and tough love.
Sometimes the gender roles are reversed, but a mother carrying the fetus to term and then holding it, rocking it, feeding it... well there is a bond that causes them to parent from the hearth and not the head.
Exactly! And the best reason for raising children in a 2 parent i.e. male and female, family. Both parents contribute to the successful raising of their progeny, each in their own way as you aptly described. Moms without husbands put their children at risk, and the same is true for dads without wives.
Consider those of us from The Silent Generation (1928 - 1945). You're so right about each generation having their own problems and growing pains. Sometimes ya just wanna say "put on your big-kid pants, kiddo and get busy." Well, it's been a long day, and these old bones are tired, so I'll just refer you to a link that does a pretty good job of describing my generation. https://generationcheck.com/generations/silent-generation
My son was born in the overlap between millennials and Gen Z. His wife is definitely from Gen Z. They bought their house a year ago. They both saved money since they were teens. Her parents and his parents are Baby Boomers. We instilled the values of hard work, paying your own way, and saving money. They both needed loans to go to college, including graduate school. They both worked as many hours they could to pay off their loans. Within 3 years, all college loans were paid off. They started living together in 2019 and married in 2024. They then searched all over the country to find a place where they could get well paying jobs and the cost of living was lower. Both are from CA and made it clear, they were leaving CA.
They moved to Montana and within a year had enough money saved to put a 50% down payment on their house. They are still working as many hours possible because they want to pay off the house within 10 years. They are expecting their first child soon.
Both sets of parents are amazed. They are now in a better financial position than we were when we hit 30. They still live frugally and rarely go out to dinner. They are saving 25% of their paycheck every month for retirement and for any financial difficulties they might experience in the future. Their goal is to have enough in savings to live on for a year if they needed to.
With careful planning, good savings habits and living well within their means, they made a good life that will likely improve as the years pass.
My grandparents grew up during the depression and then lived through WWII and all the shortages here at home because the economy was on a full time war footing. They never thought they suffered. They had their basic needs met and enjoyed life. Their focus was on people and not material goods. When I compare my life to theirs, I believe they had it much harder but were happy because life was still easier than in many parts of this world. They were always grateful for what they had and learned to make do.hil
The big problem with Gen Z is many grew up getting everything they wanted without working for it. They also grew up with the idea that they needed to latest and coolest toys in order to be happy. Electronic devices have to be replaced every couple of years because newer and better come out every few months.
I am typing this on a 10 year old Mac computer that still meets my needs. I will not be replacing it any time soon. My cell phone is 8 years old and still works. It will likely last at least 2 more years before I will have to think about replacing it. My oldest vehicle is 33 years old and I maintain it well. It is my daily driver and I have no plans on giving it up. It is cheap to fix and to insure. My wife drives a car that is 15 years old and still runs well with no issues. I maintain that one also. We have friends that are complaining that they are spending $70,000 or more on new vehicles and needing to take out a 7 year loan to be able to afford it. I refuse to buy a vehicle on credit. We save enough so that if we wanted to replace a vehicle, the could pay cash.
I will be retiring in a year. My wife is already retired. We plan to travel the country in our travel trailer. For the second time in our lives, we will likely purchase a new truck to haul that trailer as the one we have struggles a little with towing it. With good maintenance, it will likely be the last vehicle we will buy. We will pay cash for it.
It is possible to live well in this country even with the bad decisions politicians have made. You cannot rely on the government so you have to make smart choices so you only need to rely on yourself.
Recent survey 70% of Gen-Z bring their mom or dad to their first job interview.
And the mom is to blame for that!
My wife wanted to call the military because they would not allow her son the time off to come to a family retreat. She had already hassled the college administration when the other was sick in the hospital and his professor failed him.
In both cases I pulled rank and told her absolutely not.
Mothers are built for soft love, empathy, protection... many second chances for their kids.
Fathers are about accountability and tough love.
Sometimes the gender roles are reversed, but a mother carrying the fetus to term and then holding it, rocking it, feeding it... well there is a bond that causes them to parent from the hearth and not the head.
Exactly! And the best reason for raising children in a 2 parent i.e. male and female, family. Both parents contribute to the successful raising of their progeny, each in their own way as you aptly described. Moms without husbands put their children at risk, and the same is true for dads without wives.
Let’s see, Dust Bowl, Great Depression, WWII, Korea, Cold War. Easy life.
My generation, Cold War, Nuclear testing, Vietnam, the draft, racial tensions, presidential assassins, Cuban Crisis, 9/11, Jimmy Carter.
Come to think of it, I guess they do have it bad. Through all of that we had the best music ever while they have dreck.
Too little gratitude is a big problem in this country. Many citizens and especially illegal invaders are seriously short of that virtue.
Consider those of us from The Silent Generation (1928 - 1945). You're so right about each generation having their own problems and growing pains. Sometimes ya just wanna say "put on your big-kid pants, kiddo and get busy." Well, it's been a long day, and these old bones are tired, so I'll just refer you to a link that does a pretty good job of describing my generation. https://generationcheck.com/generations/silent-generation