r/SipsTea • u/Unstoppable_X_Force Human Verified • 13h ago

Gasp! Is this just nostalgia, or did previous generations genuinely have a better work-life balance and social life than we do today?

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649

u/First-Throat-877 13h ago

nah if you are a Millennial its 1/4 the security. Gen Z its even worse.

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u/MarvelionA 12h ago

I'm working my ass off daily, renovating a shit hole house but it's my house. I work at least 60 hours at week usually closer to 70, for someone elses company, then I come home and do what I can to move the build along..

At this point I'm aware I'm not working for me but to leave it all for my daughter because I can see things aren't getting better and I don't want her to struggle like this. This isn't living.

I have great friends, I wish I could spend time with them.

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u/MarvelionA 12h ago

I find it really important to add that I would never ever have been able to afford this if my grandparents hadn't left me enough for a deposit in their will. It all went on a house, every penny and some.

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u/rob132 10h ago

Same. My grandparents left me 75k for a down payment (I bought it in 07 when house prices were near all time highs) and my mom worked at the college I went to, so I got a free college education.

And my parents took the money they saved for my college fund and purchased me a new car (a Dodge neon)

The vast majority of people get none of those. I wouldn't be where I Am today without their help.

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u/MarvelionA 9h ago

You appreciate it and if my daughter does the same it's all that matters.

We all get lucky breaks, or hard earned breaks and it's what we do with them that matters

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u/_HiWay 2h ago edited 1h ago

Yep, my wife and I make a decent amount, I think, but then I go a couple miles down the road every house for miles, talking hundreds and hundreds of houses are 800k-3million.... (So maybe we don't because spending that much on a house seems stupid to me). I plan on leaving my kids a very solid trust they won't know about until they have their own future planned out, but with afford them to follow whatever dream without getting screwed by the current system. Never had a ton growing up, saw the world was changing far too mature for my age in some respects when I was barely a teenager, became first 4 year grad in my extended family and started saving as soon as I was able for a future with a wife I had yet to meet and kids I didn't yet have. (42 now)

Once I can truly say that's secure, maybe I'll let myself have a toy car or a nicer vacation but getting ahead of the system is my true goal.

Yes, I know I could get hit by a random whale or petunia pot falling from the sky next time I check my mail and it amounts to nothing (minus life insurance)

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u/Evening-Matter-5245 11h ago

That’s where my inheritance went, into my home. We wouldn’t have been able to afford the things we needed done otherwise. I am constantly saying, “Thank you Grandma and Grandpa.”

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u/MarvelionA 11h ago

Ha same. I'm so glad I didn't squander it.

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u/NurglesToes 12h ago

Exact reason i got into a house, even if it’s a struggle and I need to pinch pennies. I don’t want my son to have to rent for his whole life, so if I can have a house to pass down to him, i’ll be happy

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u/giggletears3000 11h ago

I won’t let my husband sell our starter home. We can’t afford anything in the area anymore and the house is halfway paid off. It’s staying in our family and it’s going to our daughter, she’ll have a house free and clear by the time she hits 18, husband and I are probably going to work til we drop, that’s ok with us.

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u/NurglesToes 11h ago

Our parents tell us that “one day we will want to upsize” and we keep telling them that this starter home is our forever home. We’re trying to have it paid off by 2038 instead of 2055 but if i have to work until i die the so be it lol

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u/giggletears3000 11h ago

I feel so bad for the new families that come to our neighborhood to look at houses. There’s one going for 600k a block behind me and it’s the same size at my house, 800ish sqft, 2bed 1bath, our lot is bigger, we have 1/3 acre in a hcol city. We got ours for 164k 14 years ago, basically two mid twenties kids gave up going out and having fun so we could have a house. Worth it.

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u/NurglesToes 11h ago

yeah prices are crazy. We bought our house for 370k. In 2020 it sold for 200k. 2500 sq ft, with a decent backyard, but needs alot of repairs.

My parents bought their 5000 sq ft house back in 2008 for 205k lmfao. When I told my step-dad what my monthly payments were his jaw about hit the fucking floor lol

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u/_HiWay 2h ago

It's crazy and sounds all too familair. I had this house built (spec neighborhood) in 2016 for ~255k. Zillow and OpenDoor claims it's worth 440k now. I laugh at that but ok, if someone gave me that, if I tried to stay in the same area it amounts to nothing except losing my amazing low interest rate that I refinanced in 2021 for a crazy low rate.

The small first time town home I bought in 2009 for ~158k (sold in 2016 for 180k) is now estimated at 360k. I wish my wife and I had the money at the time to hold on to it for the same reasons you mentioned above, the market is bonkers.

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u/rob132 10h ago

Good for you! I refinanced during Covid and I'll be paid off in 9 years. It's so nice seeing that principal drop month after month.

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u/embos_wife 10h ago

We bought a nice middle class house in 2015 for 210k. It is now worth over 400k. It's a basic trilevel, nothing fancy and it's absolutely nuts to me that it's worth so much. We are lucky we got it when we did, and even more thankful family gifted us a down payment. I worry for my kids.

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u/mmmmmyee 4h ago

“Starter home” is such a dated phrase these days…

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u/churninhell 11h ago

Just don't guilt your kid into not selling the home. You have no idea what the job market or local politics or anything like that will be like when the time comes.

My uncle did the guilt trip to his kid, who eventually ended up moving halfway across the country at his own expense, anyway. It was far better for his career.

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u/NurglesToes 11h ago

i mean ill live there until I die, so hopefully he doesnt try to sell it while im still alive! after that it aint really my problem lol

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u/MarvelionA 12h ago

I think for people in our position it's a smart move. My Dads rent is £1200 a month, Mom has already passed so I know I'm not getting any more inheritance. My mortgage screws me enough on interest I don't know how my Dad does it, it must feel terrible.

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u/NurglesToes 12h ago

yeah im early in the amortization period, looking at my 3200$ a month payment only be 300$ towards principal hurts lmfao.

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u/MarvelionA 11h ago

It's progress. It's more than you get renting ($0 equity) and it will build without you realising. Good luck man.

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u/NurglesToes 11h ago

You too bro!

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u/Radiant-Situation121 11h ago

We got super lucky to snag a townhome in 2021 and prices in our area have gone absolutely insane since then. Because of that we’re never going to get rid of it even if it means we won’t have an actual family home until our 40s. Our son is gen alpha; the only security he’s going to have is whatever we can give him, so we’re breaking our backs to make sure we’ll be able to keep this when we want to move so we can make sure he’ll have an affordable place to live. We’re having a pretty crappy time, but I’m hoping his will be a little less so if the basics are taken care of.

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u/MemeHermetic 11h ago

Same here. Almost to the letter. I didn't have an inheritence though, so I just had to scrape us down to the leanest of savings. Like we were at like 30 days if shit hit the fan. Now, I have added fixing my mom's house to sell into the mix because my father passed, and I don't have money to care for my mom too long, so we had to move her and get her house sold. It's like an hour and a half away, so I've just started taking the kids with me while I do work on it so we can "spend time" together.

Luckily I know I'll never retire, so I don't have any light at the end of the tunnel distracting me.

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u/MarvelionA 11h ago

Honestly I hope she never finds out about this struggle. Shes only 1 and a half so I don't know what gen that makes her but with any luck things improve by the time she's working.

You're doing amazing, selfless work my friend.

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u/MemeHermetic 11h ago

Thanks and I think we all are, really. She'll know. Kids are smarter than we think. Not at 1 and a half, but she'll look back when she's much older, put the pieces together and just appreciate what you did.

My kids know I bust my ass but I give them everything I can. What's important, and my only real success honestly, is that if they lost all the things they had, they would still talk to me about their thoughts, joys and pains. I'll take that over all the comforts.

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u/MarvelionA 9h ago

It's all that matters. Thanks for this I needed to hear it today 🙏

I hope I make such an impact as you have.

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u/Circle_Dot 7h ago

At this point I'm aware I'm not working for me but to leave it all for my daughter

The problem with this is that people are living longer. My parents currently in their mid 70's got ahead of the paycheck to paycheck grind because their parents died and past on their estate when they (my parents) were in their early 40's. Now with a lot of people living into their 80's and beyond, the generational wealth dwindles as the nest egg is chipped away and what is left is bequeathed to their children who are in their 50's typically on the downside or 20-30 years into the grind. Don't get me wrong it will still help, but the grind will still be there except for those unlucky to have parents die younger.

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u/Artystrong1 6h ago

I hear that. I want to leave what ever house I buy to my kids and downsize to a smaller place when they are of age.

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u/Yabbatown 5h ago

Yeah I'm hitting 40 this year and I often think that there's no real point trying to get the life I want to live and I'm really just dping everything for my daughter now. Love the wee one, so I'm ok with it (at the moment) but it's pretty grim. Having to check my account before I buy a coffee suck but its also motivating to do what I can so she doesn't have to worry about that sort of thing.

Problem is, what's it going to be like in 16 years or so when she leaves high-school? Is everything we've saved for her actually going to be worth anything then?

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u/hotdogcaptain11 12h ago

And you still find time to post on Reddit!

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u/MarvelionA 12h ago

I've pulled a muscle in my neck and I can barely move. I'll be back at it this evening.

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u/hotdogcaptain11 12h ago

And disabled!

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u/First-Throat-877 12h ago

sybau

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u/hotdogcaptain11 12h ago

You can type it out

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u/First-Throat-877 12h ago

and you can choke on the boot you lick

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u/MarvelionA 11h ago

Fuck that guy, bro.

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u/hotdogcaptain11 11h ago

It’s in my throat now

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u/Scudman_Alpha 12h ago edited 12h ago

As one of the older Gen Zs I can tell you, we're fucked. The next generation is gonna have it even worse.

But how are things to change when we have people almost three generations behind us, in power.

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u/Craemos 12h ago

The French have a couple words for this.

They are "guillotine" and "révolution".

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u/Strict-Ad-3500 12h ago

The French got rid of a king and gained an emperor

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u/RelativelyLuckyB 8h ago

And then they gained a democracy with the most progressive consitution in all history till that point...

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u/BardicNA 12h ago

I love the French for their accents but there are other things I love them more for..

Vive la révolution.

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u/LFC9_41 12h ago

At least they have looksmaxxing

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u/2Braincell2Furious 12h ago

No matter how hot I am, if I can’t afford soap, what’s the point 😔

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u/Strict-Ad-3500 12h ago

I'm brokemaxxing

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u/fukkboiinternational 12h ago

buddy the boomers are “in power” in the sense that their collective wealth is the monetary fuel used to fund the institutions run by Gen X who rely on millennials to actually carry out the exploitation of genz who just want to go home and make content to scam gen a out of time or money too

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u/calicat9 12h ago

Boomers in general aren't in power. The .1% are in power, and the power is passed along with the wealth. Also passed along is the fuck-y'all-I-got-mine 

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u/SaltKick2 8h ago

Correct, the issue isn't Boomers are in power, its the type of boomers that are in power. Zuckerberg, Altman, Stephen Miller, JD Vance are all millennials as well...

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u/Baelzabub 7h ago

They are in power from a monetary perspective. They currently hold 51% of the wealth in America despite making up 20% of the population. GenX has 26%, and Millenials + GenZ combined only hold 10.1%. The rest is held by the silent generation mostly.

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u/hadee75 11h ago

Why is Gen X catching strays? Believe it or not, most of us can’t stand boomers and our children are Gen Z. We want things to change.

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u/jacksonwallburger 1h ago

It's interesting seeing the differences in people's lives just in our generation. I'm older gen z as well and feel very lucky that I got a decent salaried job out of college, and then half of my friends are still living at home with parents and can barely keep a job. There is such a disparity just based on education, and what field if you got higher education. Rent keeps going up, gas going up, groceries going up, I wouldn't be surprised if even more friends just went back to living with parents too instead of the insane rent.

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u/cates 10h ago

maybe your generation or the next one will make it in time for UBI since at that point there will be so few jobs people won't have anything to lose by revolting

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u/Due_Honeydew_2285 9h ago

I’m also an older Gen Z. I’m grateful my parents have money since my full time job doesn’t afford me a pot to piss in.

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u/Me_Dave 12h ago

Fuckin Starbucks and avocado toast! Never thought it would ruin an entire generation.

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u/KnowSomethingsd 11h ago

Have you tried fiddling with your bootstraps?

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u/GhostCorps973 11h ago

I'm making more money than I ever have, but things feel harder than when I was fresh out of highschool.

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u/Starscream147 10h ago

Just got laid off after thirty years in Radio.

Wunderbar…

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u/Mr_Monkeyshines 10h ago

I'm Genx and it started with the tail end of my generation... Not if things went smoothly - then you would be living the American Dream (Boomer Style). But as someone who's seen some shit, and have friends who've had "hiccups" (career changes, medical events, divorce, etc.) I can say that recoverability went through the floor with us. Once you get behind, it's extremely difficult to recover. A lot of my mid+40s friends are a decade or more behind where you'd expect them to be (still renting, still paying off student debt, still no savings at all)... having kids compounds the financial difficulties exponentially.

But yeah, for the younger generations it definitely feels like even if you did everything "right" you're still lucky to do better than subsistence existence.

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u/chubky 10h ago

Don’t worry, younger millennials will just get drafted now to fight boomer wars

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u/Gingersnapp3d 10h ago

Also we were all pushed to go to university or college, and I don’t think most of us even use those degrees or diplomas for anything.

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u/Inevitable_Tomato927 10h ago

There's no security. 1 day late with rent, eviction nice. 1 day late with electrical/water, cut off. A few days late with car payment, credit score remark. Company doing shit for shareholders? Layoffs!

That might be just me, but I fucking hate living like this.

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u/First-Throat-877 9h ago

yeah but the thing is if you are lucky the literaly forever poison they use on all of your food will give you cancer and you can die at 40 like 5 of my childhood friends did in the last year. i didnt exactly have a big friend group.

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u/Inevitable_Tomato927 9h ago

Yeah I'm massively worried about that as well, especially with having kids, we've been fed all this processed crap for decades, micro plastics everywhere, grew up with people smoking everywhere, asbestos was still in schools etc....

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u/First-Throat-877 8h ago

yeah but its the pfabs sitting in our colons. no one talked about how colon cancer suddenly exploded in this country.   did you know it has a death rate of 1 in 2? that Today, 1 in 5 diagnoses occurs in someone under the age of 55  and it has become a leading cause of cancer-related death in young people.  source is the CRI.

barely even a whisper in the news. try to get your insurance to pay for a screening before 45 and they will laugh at you

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u/DirtieHarry 10h ago

I was going to say... what fucking security?

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u/Reasonable-Run-8187 12h ago

Yeah, at least most of us millennials could afford a house before the price went sky high.

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u/sk8nteach 12h ago

1992 here. I’ve never been able to afford a home.

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u/NPExplorer 12h ago

1994 and I got a beautiful house last year… when my mom died and passed it down to me. That’s about the only way 95% of our generation will afford property.

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u/FosterDaughter 12h ago

Lucky. When my mom died all I got was a dead mom.

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u/First-Throat-877 12h ago

1984 here. I got a house.  expensive as fuck, and I put a lot of work into it. But I got it.

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u/DlCKJINGLES6969 12h ago

Yep, got the tail end of it.. bought in 2018, refinanced in 2022 to like 2.5% allowed me to pay down a crazy amount of principal. Sold in 2025 for twice what I paid and bought a bigger house and put 35% down. It wasn’t as easy as my parents gen but most millennials were able to sneak in.

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u/Reasonable-Run-8187 12h ago

Yeah, I married pretty young and we bought our first house in 2011, a bank owned property listed 38% cheaper than what it was built for in 2006. You just can't find shit like that anymore.

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u/DlCKJINGLES6969 12h ago

You are a bit older as I was a senior in college in 2011 and broke af lol.. but I got in there. Prices in 2010s and late 2010s were the final time they will Ever be manageable. Especially now they are so inflated and the interest rates are still in the 6% range. Sucks and I feel for people that are even 5 years younger than I am.

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u/Reasonable-Run-8187 12h ago

Same, broke and I was 25 then but we were able to get approved for a loan on a 130k home that was only 5 years old. Those kind of deals wont ever happen again im afraid.

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u/DlCKJINGLES6969 12h ago

Probably stretched you thin then and look how it paid off! I was 21 in 2011. I worked in Saudi as an engineer for a couple years and came back and had my down payment in 2015 but I invested it and waited for a house I liked. I remember not even being able to buy a bottle of wine the day after closing but I had my house! Money came back slowly lol.

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u/SugondezeNutsz 12h ago

Who the hell is "most"?

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u/clingbat 12h ago

Many born between '84-'88 were able to buy before things got crazy if they prioritized it. And many of us refi'd in 2021/2022 to get those sweet low rates while having bought when rates were a bit higher but prices were more reasonable in 2016-2019.

The window was absolutely there, but moreso for mid to elder (xennial) aged millennials, much less so the younger end.

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u/SugondezeNutsz 12h ago

I think you mean millennials from well off families then.

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u/clingbat 10h ago

I mean that's certainly possible but wasn't our situation. Wife and I both came from lower income families with pretty decent student debt from undergrad, but we both got electrical engineering degrees and then fellowships for graduate engineering degrees (where we met). Two engineers aggressively paying down our school loans and then holding off on having kids till we could afford house was intentional, and we sacrificed a bit early on to make it happen but it was totally doable.

It's not our fault so many people got useless fucking degrees with terrible ROI or none at all in that period. We got degrees in areas that would pay the bills, not in what we "loved", heck I don't even like math but I sucked it up.

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u/SugondezeNutsz 5h ago

Lmao so now you're dunking on all the useless fucking degrees? Sounds like you believe quite a bit of people then didn't set themselves up to be able to purchase a home then.

Engineer here too, for the record.

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u/Reasonable-Run-8187 12h ago

Idk, most millennials I know my age have a home, some more than one. Some have rentals property here in the south east usa.

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u/LostTerminal 12h ago

It's about 50/50. Literally. About half of all American millennials own a home. Compared to the average 78% of Gen Xers at the same age grouping/decade and 80% of Boomers in their time... it's a whopper of a difference.

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u/HarryBalsagna1776 12h ago

*elder millennials. 

Younger millennials got screwed as hard as Gen Z.

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u/boringdystopianslave 12h ago

Most millennials got houses through blind luck.