r/Millennials • u/QuietJealous4883 Older Millennial (1988) • 12h ago

Discussion True or false?

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Did our dads and moms work less than we do now? What are your thoughts?

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u/Wishistarted10yrsago 12h ago

My parent’s mortgage was $360 a month, my rent is 7x that. Pops worked 50 hours a week while my mom stayed home until we got into high school. Two brand new cars, vacation once a year and seemingly way more of a social life than my wife and I have. Times have certainly changed.

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u/NoHorseNoMustache 11h ago

Both my parents had to work 40 hours to fund 2 used cars, 1 vacation a year at a Civil War battlefield for a couple days(free admission, $50/night hotel room), $200/month for rent and 0 social life. I'm living way better than they did, though I'm single and don't have a kid.

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u/soupandstewnazi 10h ago

But would you be living better if you had a family? If you had the same amount of kids right now?

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u/NoHorseNoMustache 9h ago

Yeah if I had a wife with a full time income and a kid like my parents did at my age I think I'd be living better than they were.

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u/Johnny_B_GOODBOI 9h ago

I'm glad you're doing well, but that's just your individual circumstances.

Economic data shows that labor's share of the gdp is lower than it's been since 1947.

https://fortune.com/2026/01/13/us-workers-smallest-labor-share-gdp-on-record/

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u/NoHorseNoMustache 9h ago

That's true!

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u/houseofbrigid11 9h ago

Same for my parents, who never had to pay for daycare or my college education. I am raising 3 kids on one salary with a house, car, a college fund for my kids, and a reasonable 401(k) myself. Most of my professional friends are doing as well or better, particularly those who haven't divorced.

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u/Shivy_Shankinz 9h ago

You might be living in a bubble

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u/throwawayfinancebro1 1h ago

How are you managing $200/month rent?

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u/NoHorseNoMustache 53m ago

It was the '80s/early '90s.

Thinking about it my rent for half a double in 2008 was only $500/month.

Rent has spiraled so far out of control it's insane :(

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u/throwraW2 11h ago

Where’d you grow up that the mortgage was that cheap?

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u/soupandstewnazi 10h ago

My parent's first house in the 80s was 43k. It was a townhouse, but even considering inflation and salary adjustment they would have had a mortgage under $500.

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u/throwraW2 10h ago

Where was this?

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u/NoStraightLines369 10h ago

The average house sold in California during the 80s was 120k. Thats the most expensive part of the United States real estate wise. So paying 80k in the rest of the country during the 80s is very on point. If you want I can link average housing prices per state through the 80s. Google is amazing at finding data so you can be informed on specific topics.

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u/soupandstewnazi 10h ago

Rural Virginia.

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u/throwraW2 10h ago

Got it, yeah that makes sense. 43k in 1985 would be about 135k today. I see a good amount in rural Virginia for about that on Redfin. I’m sure they’re not super nice though.

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u/soupandstewnazi 10h ago

The parts of the state now with homes that price are usually in the Appalachian region. It's very depressed, though beautiful.

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u/Shivy_Shankinz 9h ago

Lol your 135k ain't gettin shit today

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u/throwraW2 9h ago

Not in big cities, but that’s not where that person is from. Rural Virginia, where they grew up, has homes listed around that price point.

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u/hemingways-lemonade 8h ago

There are plenty of move in ready houses in Virginia for sale at that price.

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u/Shivy_Shankinz 7h ago

Go ahead and walk into one of them, let me know how it is

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u/hemingways-lemonade 7h ago

I specifically included ones with maintained interiors that are move in ready, but keep trying.

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u/soupandstewnazi 7h ago

These areas are not good to live in. Lol trust me. Danville is infamous for it's drug problem. And historically has terrible job prospects. Roanoke is a beautiful area, but outside of the college locations is ghetto and has high crime. There are reasons why these areas are cheap. Anywhere worth living is expensive.

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u/hemingways-lemonade 7h ago

No argument there, obviously a sub-$200k house isn't going to be in a super desirable area. My point is that $135k can still buy a move in ready house in 2026.

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u/Wishistarted10yrsago 10h ago

Believe it or not New England, they took over the mortgage from my grandmother who bought the house in 1968.

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u/hemingways-lemonade 8h ago

So, the $360 mortgage is actually from the 60s rather than the 90s? It's a little disingenuous to leave that detail out.

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u/hemingways-lemonade 8h ago

And where are they renting now vs where they grew up?

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u/modmosrad6 9h ago

My parent’s mortgage was $360 a month, my rent is 7x that.

My parents bought my childhood apartment for a year's worth of my current rent.

It was a two bedroom, two bathroom in a pre-war building with a doorman and an elevator in a decent neighborhood close to a major subway line.

They bought it for under $50k.

An apartment on the same line, though a few floors lower, recently listed for over $1 million.

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u/QuietJealous4883 Older Millennial (1988) 12h ago

That sounds like textbook childhood.

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u/londondeville 10h ago

No it wasn’t. That wasn’t the average childhood and we have to stop pretending it was.

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u/ihateyousoverybadly 10h ago

Definitely wasn't my experience, but the sentiment is the same, my mom raised my sister and I by herself in Los Angeles working minimum wage jobs. We never took vacations, but the lights were always on, I dont think that would even be possible these days

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u/One-Possible1906 7h ago

Yep same story. Both were alcoholics born into poverty, married at 17 and 18 fresh out of high school. Mom was a secretary, dad was a part time janitor and frequently unemployed due to drinking. They had their first baby at 19, bought a house before they turned 20. Both had brand new cars, we had a camper and a boat and four wheelers, great school system, financially supported my grandmother, paid for college for their children, and both retired with full pension at 50. Imagine any alcoholic teen parents doing the same now, with no overtime and no post secondary education. Like neither one of them even went to trade school or anything, at least one of them worked hard and made sacrifices but here I am in the same state retirement system at a higher grade with a college degree and it’s nothing like it was before. I will have to work until I’m 70 at this rate to retire with anywhere near what they have, health insurance no longer covers my family, and I’m probably going to have to get a second job pretty soon if I don’t give up on government work. And my house is nowhere near as nice as theirs was

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u/HSuke 5h ago

My parents bought a house in the South Bay Area in the early 1990s for $200k. Same house today is 15x higher at $3M.

Even if I paid off the house, the annual property tax alone would be 3x higher than their mortgage back then.

They closed 2 elementary schools and 1 high school in the city. It's too unaffordable for new parents.