I want to know if I'm older or younger than the median age here.

[Tsuga]

People post stuff financially, etc. and it blows my mind sometimes. I want to know the demographics. So I'm starting with age.

I meant for people to answer in the poll so we get a bell curve, also it's anonymous.

Editing to clarify: Different starting points, different generations have different experiences. I'm not looking to one person to say--oh you're 56, so you must believe this. Instead, I read threads full of information and think, "Where are these people coming from? Why does this opinion seem so prevalent when in my social circle I'm sure it would be laughed out of the room?" If I can put it in perspective, "Well, maybe it was once that way" or "How interesting, it seems like there are places where this is possible" helps me process that information more objectively.

[Scarlett]

26 minutes ago, Tsuga said:

People post stuff financially, etc. and it blows my mind sometimes. I want to know the demographics. So I'm starting with age.

What blows your mind?

[Garga]

57 minutes ago, Tsuga said:

People post stuff financially, etc. and it blows my mind sometimes. I want to know the demographics. So I'm starting with age.

 

I think we once had a thread about how much money people earned (as a family), but it was hard to tell what the incomes meant.  $150,000 in one place can buy you a really nice home.  In another place, you’d be living in a condemned drug house for the same amount.  There were too many factors, like size of family, for instance, for the thread to have meaning.

Taking polls of ages is a fun idea.  I’m supposing that you are thinking that people farther along in life probably are earning more, right?

My age is in my sig.

 

[HS Mom in NC]

45

[LMD]

I'm 33. My oldest is nearly 13. 

[Tsuga]

45 minutes ago, Scarlett said:

What blows your mind?

 

"If people didn't have cable they could save up!" "We retired last year and it's great because we own our home!" "My husband's public sector salary as a mid-level administrator allowed us to live frugally and well and n ow we own three rental properties!" LOL

[Tsuga]

45 minutes ago, Garga said:

 

I think we once had a thread about how much money people earned (as a family), but it was hard to tell what the incomes meant.  $150,000 in one place can buy you a really nice home.  In another place, you’d be living in a condemned drug house for the same amount.  There were too many factors, like size of family, for instance, for the thread to have meaning.

Taking polls of ages is a fun idea.  I’m supposing that you are thinking that people farther along in life probably are earning more, right?

My age is in my sig.

 

 

Eh, some people don't earn way more, but the ideas they have about what will work and what won't is interesting. Most people will have more as they age, but also, if you finished college in the 1980s you might be thinking "oh student loans and working part time will be no problem for my child going to a public uni in a major metro area". Whereas, if you got a degree post-1990s, when the loan schemes took off, you will do anything to avoid that for your kids (obviously many have no choice).

Re: incomes: it's not just the COL though that's interesting. If you're at $150k at 65, great, but that means you'd have sent kids to college on much less if you had them when you were 30 (so, you were 48). And the recession affected people in different ways. For many of us it wasn't a setback, it was a do-over. $150k in some places won't even qualify you for a home loan now. 

[Tsuga]

3 minutes ago, heartlikealion said:

35. Yeah, I can't relate to some of the posts but even to some people my own age IRL. Never owned our own home, for example. Dh sometimes apologizes that he will "never be able to provide that" (passing by a fancy house) because he's a librarian. I don't even care and have told him as much. I just want to get into a better overall financial place, where like I don't have to worry if I drove the car out of town too many times that month because of the gas costs.

 

Your husband is a servant. Please thank him for his service!

[PrincessMommy]

The other issue is that there are some people who are uncomfortable talking about income or age on a public board.

[Mergath]

I'm 34. 

And I agree with Debbi that a lot of people don't want to talk about their income publicly. It seems like people in the $70k to $150k per year range are happy to disclose their income, but people making outside that range- either less or more- aren't as likely to discuss it. This is just my own observation, not any kind of actual data. I'm guessing that a lot of people who make more than that per year probably come from money and so were taught as children that discussing money is crass, and that people under that range (like me! lol) don't want to discuss it because it's depressing. 

When it comes to this forum specifically, the demographics seem to skew much older and wealthier than they do elsewhere. In the large FB homeschool groups I'm in, people seem to be younger, poorer, and- to be blunt- less educated than the people who hang out around here. We're like the Upper East Side of the online homeschool community. You all are a bunch of snooty homeschool elitists. :P 

[Tsuga]

32 minutes ago, PrincessMommy said:

The other issue is that there are some people who are uncomfortable talking about income or age on a public board.

 

It definitely skews away from the extremes, for sure. I posted a poll because I'm looking more for a data range, not to know what people's personal finances / birthday cakes look like.

[Jean in Newcastle]

The poll is going to vary depending on which sub forum you post it on. Mothers of preschoolers aren’t  necessarily going to post on the chat board. Many people who have retired from homeschooling have said that they hang out on the chat board. 

[Serenade]

I think the age thing is interesting because to me, it explains a lot of the disconnect I sometimes feel here with my beliefs about various things.  A lot of it is probably my age.  I had kids later in life and I'm barely in the higher end of the 50 - 55 category, lol.  I'm definitely old-fashioned compared to many people here.  I often even feel older that I am, and I think it's because I was raised by parents who were old-fashioned for their time.  Maybe it's a cycle that's hard to break out of.  It's going to be interesting how my kids end up.  My DH is definitely an old-fashioned begot from old-fashioned, too. 

[kitten18]

1 hour ago, Tsuga said:

 

Eh, some people don't earn way more, but the ideas they have about what will work and what won't is interesting. Most people will have more as they age, but also, if you finished college in the 1980s you might be thinking "oh student loans and working part time will be no problem for my child going to a public uni in a major metro area". Whereas, if you got a degree post-1990s, when the loan schemes took off, you will do anything to avoid that for your kids (obviously many have no choice).

Re: incomes: it's not just the COL though that's interesting. If you're at $150k at 65, great, but that means you'd have sent kids to college on much less if you had them when you were 30 (so, you were 48). And the recession affected people in different ways. For many of us it wasn't a setback, it was a do-over. $150k in some places won't even qualify you for a home loan now. 

I don’t think that COL can be discounted. We used to live in Kansas City and now we’re in SoCal. It’s just such a huge impact that it’s hard to describe. When we lived in KC I knew teachers (teachers married to other teachers) that were going to retire after 25 years (they weren’t even 50 years old), owned their homes and had rental properties.  It’s just a whole different world. 

[Tsuga]

24 minutes ago, Jean in Newcastle said:

The poll is going to vary depending on which sub forum you post it on. Mothers of preschoolers aren’t  necessarily going to post on the chat board. Many people who have retired from homeschooling have said that they hang out on the chat board. 

 

Great point. Though this is probably the only place I can really appropriately post it.

5 minutes ago, kitten18 said:

I don’t think that COL can be discounted. We used to live in Kansas City and now we’re in SoCal. It’s just such a huge impact that it’s hard to describe. When we lived in KC I knew teachers (teachers married to other teachers) that were going to retire after 25 years (they weren’t even 50 years old), owned their homes and had rental properties.  It’s just a whole different world. 

I cannot imagine teachers retiring... ever. Kansas City, here we come.

[PinkyandtheBrains.]

43, today. 

[Liz CA]

1 hour ago, Mergath said:

When it comes to this forum specifically, the demographics seem to skew much older and wealthier than they do elsewhere. In the large FB homeschool groups I'm in, people seem to be younger, poorer, and- to be blunt- less educated than the people who hang out around here. We're like the Upper East Side of the online homeschool community. You all are a bunch of snooty homeschool elitists. :P 

 

Oh my. Never thought I'd ever belong to anything that is labeled elitist....:lol: The "roll-around" smiley does not work anymore. What a shame.

[Liz CA]

45 minutes ago, Serenade said:

I think the age thing is interesting because to me, it explains a lot of the disconnect I sometimes feel here with my beliefs about various things.  A lot of it is probably my age.  I had kids later in life and I'm barely in the higher end of the 50 - 55 category, lol.  I'm definitely old-fashioned compared to many people here.  I often even feel older that I am, and I think it's because I was raised by parents who were old-fashioned for their time.  Maybe it's a cycle that's hard to break out of.  It's going to be interesting how my kids end up.  My DH is definitely an old-fashioned begot from old-fashioned, too. 

 

I am 87 but still enjoy this board and a few old-fashioned values.

[Tsuga]

15 minutes ago, Liz CA said:

 

I am 87 but still enjoy this board and a few old-fashioned values.

 

You sound so young! You didn't put it in the poll, so we are still at 0 for 66+ members! 

[Liz CA]

7 minutes ago, Tsuga said:

 

You sound so young! You didn't put it in the poll, so we are still at 0 for 66+ members! 

 

Well, chronologically I am younger but I was going off what Serenade mentioned about "feeling older." By those "feelings" I could probably easily pass for 87. 

[IfIOnly]

41-45   

[Tsuga]

Early forties to late forties are NECK AND NECK!

Meanwhile, the over sixties have an amazing lead over the under thirties, with three times as many respondents, in this entirely unscientific poll.

Late thirties are home from work and kids' sports events and are making up ground.

All this talk of mortgage rates and student loans has the young families hesitant--we don't see anyone born after 1993 yet, but if you're lurking, young ladies, rest assured I'm not judging, my mom was at the library reading books on parenting well before she was 25, as do many other young parents. Kids first, then careers, vice versa, it all works out.

[HS Mom in NC]

I would say my left knee is in it's mid 50s.  My husband is slightly younger at 51.

My husband's income is high on paper, but our health insurance costs are astronomical and have been growing at a rate of 40% a year for the last 5-6 years. That's for increasingly crappy insurance, which means high out of pocket costs in addition. (We don't have choices in AZ, it's just 1 option.) We're in a higher tax bracket, but not high enough to have cronies lobbying Congress for significant tax breaks, and we're in a volatile housing market that's tanked in the last 10-12 years and is back to looking like it's bubbling again, which means housing costs (ownership and renting) are back up.  He owns his own business, so he doesn't get paid vacations, or sick days, or a pension, or retirement from "the company."  All those factors affect us.  Often people who don't own their own businesses aren't aware of them because they haven't experienced them. So here's a hard number, if you count our state and federal taxes plus all medical costs, it's $90,000 per year. Yes, we do have a good tax guy.

So all that can be another reason for the $150,00+ folks keeping it to themselves.  People might get the wrong idea about what that actually means in take home pay after the above listed factors kick in.  We own economical used cars, vacation frugally every few years, (2 days at Disneyland and 2 at the beach each way driving 6 hours and getting a lower cost hotel off season, or tack on to a work trip to keep costs down) send our kids to cc first, we encourage skilled labor training just as much as college, shop at Target/Ross/JC Penny, meal plan and eat at home, etc.  We live like a lot of people with smaller incomes because we live a financially riskier life requiring more savings with huge costs. It's worth it, but it's not what some might imagine if they saw our income.

We are moving next month to a place with lower COL while he still works the same job and makes the same consulting fees.  The market there has been more stable for a long time and the area is experiencing growth, so buying the house there last weekend isn't as expensive or risky as buying here. The money we save in COL and having only the 3 of us on the insurance will go to pay off the mortgage ASAP in the next 7-9 years. The rate it's paid off will mostly be affected by the rising cost of medical insurance.

[Hannah]

I am turning 50 this year. 

I have logged into these boards at least once a week and many times for hours at a time for about 19 years!   It was the first online support I found and you have all enriched my life.  I have learned so much  and over the years have read wonderful debates that have often been well articulated and always respectful (well mostly).

I can't compare our income in dollar terms as the exchange rate is very poor, but a middle class family here can afford to have domestic help, and we do.  Until they came to visit and see how it is, my European family frowned upon us having domestic help.  In many ways I see it as a duty to offer someone a dignified way to earn an income, rather than just charity,  and we pay more than the going rate for more services than we need.  

 

  

[Tsuga]

8 minutes ago, Homeschool Mom in AZ said:

So all that can be another reason for the $150,00+ folks keeping it to themselves.  People might get the wrong idea about what that actually means in take home pay after the above listed factors kick in.  

I don't think people are loud our quite about a number. Choices that people make and little things they say reveal much more about social class, total income vs. COL, and so on, than people think. To some, shopping at Target is frugal... to others, it's expensive because Goodwill is cheaper.

To some, high cost insurance is proof that you don't make that much. To others, insurance is a luxury and they are paying their insurance penalty in installments.

[gardenmom5]

3 hours ago, Tsuga said:

 

Eh, some people don't earn way more, but the ideas they have about what will work and what won't is interesting. Most people will have more as they age, but also, if you finished college in the 1980s you might be thinking "oh student loans and working part time will be no problem for my child going to a public uni in a major metro area". Whereas, if you got a degree post-1990s, when the loan schemes took off, you will do anything to avoid that for your kids (obviously many have no choice).

Re: incomes: it's not just the COL though that's interesting. If you're at $150k at 65, great, but that means you'd have sent kids to college on much less if you had them when you were 30 (so, you were 48). And the recession affected people in different ways. For many of us it wasn't a setback, it was a do-over. $150k in some places won't even qualify you for a home loan now. 

here-it won't even buy a small piece of dirt.

2 hours ago, Serenade said:

I think the age thing is interesting because to me, it explains a lot of the disconnect I sometimes feel here with my beliefs about various things.  A lot of it is probably my age.  I had kids later in life and I'm barely in the higher end of the 50 - 55 category, lol.  I'm definitely old-fashioned compared to many people here.  I often even feel older that I am, and I think it's because I was raised by parents who were old-fashioned for their time.  Maybe it's a cycle that's hard to break out of.  It's going to be interesting how my kids end up.  My DH is definitely an old-fashioned begot from old-fashioned, too. 

 

I'm  a similar age.   I have 'old-fashioned' values/thinking - but I grew up in a cutting edge liberal family. (in a liberal area.)  I deliberately rejected it because I saw how unhealthy their versions were.  I always thought of my mother as the rebellious teenager.. . my adult kids all have similar values/thinking to me. 

[rebcoola]

34 I feel young on this board its part of why I like it     I feel older IRL especially at our Homeschool group my 11 yr old is usually the oldest there and we've been HS'ing since the beginning so I am the experienced one 

[Carrie12345]

I voted in the 41-45 group, even though I'm 40 until tomorrow!

My kids have a wide age range and I started young, so my topic interests vary.  The number of them shifts our economic status which, in cold numbers, doesn't line up with the COL in our area.  But my birthday is my birthday, regardless!

[Guest]

I’m 47 and, where I live, if all you have is $150k for a home, I really hope you like camping or are into extreme fixer-upper. My friend from Louisiana has told me if we sold our home and bought there, we would live like kings. 

[marbel]

I am in the 61-65 group (age 62) but was old when I married so I still have college-age kids.

As far as financials, we have been up and we have been down.  Unfortunately that's backwards for a comfortable retirement.  

[Wheres Toto]

I"m 48 but dh is 61 so our age-based financial demographic is skewed.  

We are in a very HCOL area but dh has a career that his knowledge and experience count for a lot so age discrimination don't seem to be much of a factor (<<knock on wood>>) and it's not physical so he can do it for a while.   We took a dip when he was self employed for a few years and I went back to work to get medical benefits, but I guess we're ahead of the game that that was even a viable option.   We have very little retirement funding but our mortgage isn't very high for our area (cause our house is TINY), we have two young kids that will probably do a community college first path, and one in grad school but funding it on her own while living with my mother while working full time in retail management.

Overall we're comfortable.  We can buy the things we need day to day and participate in activities, including the occasional "luxury" but big purchases may need to be planned out.

[Penguin]

I am 53. I get very annoyed with my age-peers who do not grasp/acknowledge that our 20-something kids are maneuvering through a vastly different financial landscape than the one we had in the 1980s.

[Guest]

Just now, Arctic Mama said:

But you’d have to live in Louisiana.... *runs away*

Well, I wouldn’t say it to her but...yeah. 

[purpleowl]

37 here. Sadly, my knees seem older.

[PrincessMommy]

8 hours ago, Jean in Newcastle said:

The poll is going to vary depending on which sub forum you post it on. Mothers of preschoolers aren’t  necessarily going to post on the chat board. Many people who have retired from homeschooling have said that they hang out on the chat board. 

That's a good point.  I'm a retired hsing mom.  I only visit the chat board (and my social groups once they're up).

[Serenade]

7 hours ago, StellaM said:

My knees are in their 70's most days :)

 

Mine, too.  

I will probably end up with knee replacements, but I'm hoping they will last three more years until I'm done homeschooling.  

[Serenade]

1 hour ago, marbel said:

 

As far as financials, we have been up and we have been down.  Unfortunately that's backwards for a comfortable retirement.  

 

We are in the same situation.  Started out as DINKS, savings, and a nice life-style, and we've fallen quite far.  When my DH was let go, very obviously due to age, he tried to consult for a few years but that is not quite working out how he'd hoped.  He was burned badly by his former employer, but is just now realizing he probably needs to give up the consulting dream and go back for a few more years of work as an employee.

[KrissiK]

I just turned 50.

we are pretty financially secure, but a big reason is that we married later and had no debt and a small nest egg individually. 

[Chris in VA]

I'm 55. I only homeschooled for 5 years, but did both early elementary and high school simultaneously, so I'd visit high school and elementary boards, along with preschool (since I teach preschool and have an ed degree), the chat board, and the college board. That's why my post count is so high. Plus I needed lots of "life" support with my second son (who did not homeschool) and his needs. 

AFA income, Dh spent 8 years of our marriage in school, first getting a Master's and then his doctorate. We had lots of lean years. I only worked full time for 4 years of our marriage, and never when we had kids, so we've made financial compromises. We drive cars that are ~15 years old, have sucky furniture, and dress simply. One cool perk of his being an Episcopal priest, however, is that he will have 30 years next August and could retire. His pension is great, and he can continue to earn unlimited income and keep receiving the pension if he doesn't work as a priest or priests somewhere outside the province. That is a great thing! It's similar to military retirement. We do have debt, and have a daughter starting college in the fall, so we are not sitting pretty but the future is hopeful. I am grateful beyond what I can say. I guess I married well. 

 

[Scarlett]

10 hours ago, Mergath said:

I'm 34. 

And I agree with Debbi that a lot of people don't want to talk about their income publicly. It seems like people in the $70k to $150k per year range are happy to disclose their income, but people making outside that range- either less or more- aren't as likely to discuss it. This is just my own observation, not any kind of actual data. I'm guessing that a lot of people who make more than that per year probably come from money and so were taught as children that discussing money is crass, and that people under that range (like me! lol) don't want to discuss it because it's depressing. 

When it comes to this forum specifically, the demographics seem to skew much older and wealthier than they do elsewhere. In the large FB homeschool groups I'm in, people seem to be younger, poorer, and- to be blunt- less educated than the people who hang out around here. We're like the Upper East Side of the online homeschool community. You all are a bunch of snooty homeschool elitists. :P 

That pretty much sums up my view of this board.  

[Tsuga]

7 hours ago, Patty Joanna said:

And I will say without saying more...  You might be surprised at how things work out as you get older.  Things are really much more out of your control and perspicuity than you think.  Ask me how I know.  Am I *delighted*?  No.  Am I OK?  Yes.

 

 I'm less getting advice / forecasting here and more trying to figure out why sometimes I think "Am I living in an entirely different universe here?"

It's helpful to understand that some people who describe realities I've never seen and never will see, aren't trying to deliberately taunt people who face different economic realities, but simply don't realize how difficult things are. It does sometimes make you wish you were born years ago. The childhood my mom and her friends describe was far less stressful than mine or my kids'.

Where I live, most people are 10-15 years older than us and had kids older, but they understand the difficulties we face because they see it every day. Anyway, in our circle. We don't see a lot of people who think you could possibly be faulted for not buying a college education on a McDonald's salary. They understand how things have changed.

[klmama]

The wide range of income here on the board seems normal to me.  Our local homeschooling group is quite diverse.   I have friends on both extremes of the economic spectrum, from the ones flying to Europe for the weekend to the ones struggling to even feed the family.  It doesn't surprise me at all to see that same disparity here.  

[Scarlett]

51 minutes ago, Tsuga said:

 I'm less getting advice / forecasting here and more trying to figure out why sometimes I think "Am I living in an entirely different universe here?"

It's helpful to understand that some people who describe realities I've never seen and never will see, aren't trying to deliberately taunt people who face different economic realities, but simply don't realize how difficult things are. It does sometimes make you wish you were born years ago. The childhood my mom and her friends describe was far less stressful than mine or my kids'.

Where I live, most people are 10-15 years older than us and had kids older, but they understand the difficulties we face because they see it every day. Anyway, in our circle. We don't see a lot of people who think you could possibly be faulted for not buying a college education on a McDonald's salary. They understand how things have changed.

Yes I sometimes have trouble sifting through the advice I get here because they just can't relate and they apply their experience to mine which is vastly different.  It makes me appreciate the saying 'birds of a feather' because yes, sometimes I just need my people to give me advice but I can't always ask my people for various reasons. 

[scholastica]

3 minutes ago, Tsuga said:

 I'm less getting advice / forecasting here and more trying to figure out why sometimes I think "Am I living in an entirely different universe here?"

It's helpful to understand that some people who describe realities I've never seen and never will see, aren't trying to deliberately taunt people who face different economic realities, but simply don't realize how difficult things are. It does sometimes make you wish you were born years ago. The childhood my mom and her friends describe was far less stressful than mine or my kids'.

Where I live, most people are 10-15 years older than us and had kids older, but they understand the difficulties we face because they see it every day. Anyway, in our circle. We don't see a lot of people who think you could possibly be faulted for not buying a college education on a McDonald's salary. They understand how things have changed.

I do think things are different today. I fully expect my kids to have to live with us for a time after they finish any post-secondary education. It wasn’t like that for my dh and I. We got educated, got jobs that made enough to support us and moved on.

On the COL side, I grew up in a high COL place. My parents were both working white collar jobs and still barely making it. We moved to a low COL state when I was 16 and overnight we were upper middle class.    I don’t think my parents would have ever done as well if we hadn’t moved. They could never get ahead. They did own a house in the high COL place and selling that and buying in a lower COL place worked out really well. They also moved my dad’s high COL salary to a lower COL place because it was a corporate move and the whole company moved.

My cousins who still live in the high COL place have a hard time. My dh and I live in a yet lower COL place than my parents and  we are doing just fine. 

[Garga]

Just the idea day I realized that I need to stop talking about when I first bought a house with my husband.  It was 1994 and I was 21 years old.  Neither of us had high paying jobs by any stretch of the imagination.  For a while, I’ve been linking my young age at buying a house with my ideas of how responsible and adult I was at that age.  

But when I think about it, it really didn’t have to do with how responsible and adult I was at that age as much as the economics of the time.  I was able to get a nice job with just a high school diploma, so I had no college debt.  My husband paid for his college on a Toys R Us job, so he had no debt either.  That is so far from the reality of how things are today that it’s laughable.  

And so, just a few days ago, I decided I’d stop talking about how young I was when I got a house, unless it’s to point out that times have changed a lot since 1994.

[frogger]

 

This reminds me of the thread about hiring housecleaners because homeschooling was enough work. Ha

That would be dreamy to decide how much work was enough. :)  I don't blame anyone. I'd do it too if I could but I understand how shocking it is sometimes. 

Demographics are interesting but everyone has their own story. 

 

 

[StartingOver]

I am 49 and hubby is 59. The kids are aged from 30 to 10.

[Scarlett]

12 minutes ago, Garga said:

Just the idea day I realized that I need to stop talking about when I first bought a house with my husband.  It was 1994 and I was 21 years old.  Neither of us had high paying jobs by any stretch of the imagination.  For a while, I’ve been linking my young age at buying a house with my ideas of how responsible and adult I was at that age.  

But when I think about it, it really didn’t have to do with how responsible and adult I was at that age as much as the economics of the time.  I was able to get a nice job with just a high school diploma, so I had no college debt.  My husband paid for his college on a Toys R Us job, so he had no debt either.  That is so far from the reality of how things are today that it’s laughable.  

And so, just a few days ago, I decided I’d stop talking about how young I was when I got a house, unless it’s to point out that times have changed a lot since 1994.

Well, yes and no.  Times are different and then again they aren't.  I can't speak to HCOL areas because I've never lived there. But in this LCOL area some kids have just stopped trying to make it on their own.  The example I have in front of me is my oldest dss.  He is making $14 per hour plus per diem.  So I am guessing he is  bringing home around $600 per week.  I can PROMISE you if I was a 21 year old single I could live on that in this area.  So why does he prefer to be crammed in his mom and step dad's house (taking the bedroom from his 17 year old brother) instead?  

The economy is somewhat different but I do also believe expectations and norms and gumption is different.

[Bluegoat]

Dh and I are both in our 40's, kids from 13 to 1.

Our economic demographic is a bit weird I find.  Dh is a civil servant, so solid salary but less than he might make privately, but very good pension etc that he'll fully qualify for at 55.  So he could potentially draw a pension and work at something else for 10  years and still retire on time.  However, most people in his demographic have a spouse working at a similar level job, and fewer kids than we do.  So we end up being very tight now, in the sense of savings is always starched, but it's also pretty secure and income will likely go up.  And compared to dh's coworkers who live on lakes and take fancy vacations every year, we generally go camping and live in a small house in a working class neighbourhood and drive very old cars.

It is weird how differences in experience can create a sort of gap.  Dh has a co-worker who is like that, they were talking about housing princes and she said something like "oh, but that's only $200,000 more, and it's better."  He pointed out to her that is more than the price we paid for our house, and she was flabbergasted.  Really though, gaps of experience exist all over, in terms of lifestyle.

[Bluegoat]

13 minutes ago, Scarlett said:

Well, yes and no.  Times are different and then again they aren't.  I can't speak to HCOL areas because I've never lived there. But in this LCOL area some kids have just stopped trying to make it on their own.  The example I have in front of me is my oldest dss.  He is making $14 per hour plus per diem.  So I am guessing he is  bringing home around $600 per week.  I can PROMISE you if I was a 21 year old single I could live on that in this area.  So why does he prefer to be crammed in his mom and step dad's house (taking the bedroom from his 17 year old brother) instead?  

The economy is somewhat different but I do also believe expectations and norms and gumption is different.

 

Personality is a factor too.  My cousin's son is a lazy butt, who moved back home after spending a student loan on pot, and then he tried a bunch of jobs he got fired from.  He makes his parents miserable.  His sister is a good kid and nicer to be around, etc, and would like to move out, but she can barely hold down a fast-food type job.  I don't know that they'd ever have been really different, other than if it was actually impossible for them to move home. Even then the older boy would probably end up on welfare.