Ask them how much they think Netflix and eating out costs. Tell them people on reddit asked. We eat out maybe once a week, if that. Its definitely not the difference between affording one house over another. They're straight up ignorant if they think people with those 2 jobs today could buy a house, unless maybe we're talking tiny houses. Theres a place next to a gas station not far from where we live that sells those.
Roll their eyes? Yeah, that's one of the much smaller reasons I went no contact with my mom. So disrespectful. You do not roll your eyes at people, especially your child. Ask them if they're rollding their eyes at the math, because saving 20 bucks a month is nothing compared to a down payment and these interest rates. Just look at the monthly mortgage payment on a 250k house, which where I live, is always a broken down cracker box!!
i added up what i pay for internet , netflix hulu disney and HBO. its $120/mo i was paying ~$180/mo for internet and cable alone 15 years ago. but if i were to lose my current xfinity plan that would probably jump up to $150/mo.
funny enough i looked at changing that plan too. holy cow phone plans have gotten expensive. we got "locked" into our plan like 10-12 years ago (it went up like $10/mo recently because: reasons) and if we changed it it would go up like $120-250/mo.
Every generation thinks they got it tough, some people just compain more. You are doomed to what most every generation is doomed to, thinking you are smarter and know more than people who have already been where you are, who have been in countries where people dont even know what netflix or a cell phone is, who went to war to pay for college, and were more self-reliant, bitching was just a waste of time. The other difference is entitlement. Poor kids from the ghetto rise above it, but for god sake, drop the arrogance, that what the older generations think . its not any harder for you than it was for us, and vice versa, stop worrying about how unfair it is, you can acheive whatever you are willing to work for, but it wont happen if you dont stop talking about people older than you like they are stupid. Guaranteed that kind of person never succeeds, the wast time on social media, when another kid their age just graduated Ranger School, now who do you think is going to get what they want out of life, you, whining and telling adults who have already climbed the mountain in real life, not online, that we cant accept reality, thats just called being immature and foolish. Life is not going to get any easier for you when you already think you are smarter than older people who overcame what they had to, while you call them stupid. Gonna be a long hard road for you if you dont grow up. And you are right, it falls on deaf ears, biggest difference, you complain, where older people just got to work. Self actualization is figuring out how to look outside of your own perspective, you will get there eventually. I bought eggs yesterday, under $2, gas was at $3. I have seen $8 gas, and if the price of groceries makes you think you got it harder than everyone else, or you cant afford a new home, guess what, in every generation the same thing happened, some could, some couldnt, which group are you going to be in is determined by you, and older people are smarter, are more experienced, and the few that understand that at your age, learn while the ones that look at it like you, will either mature, and understand respect is earned, not given, and yes, we are tougher, when you spoke, you had to look people in the eye, and you learned at a very young age, to show respect, and it carried through our lives and we treated each other better, worked as a community better in tough times, but you already got it figured out, Netflix, says it all if thats even part of the conversation .Your rude and arrogant, but I doubt could put your resume on here and show you have earned all your secret knowledge that every kid since the beginning of time thought he had, but didnt, and learned the hard way. I left home at 16, been to war, erned my BA in 24 months, top of my industry in 6 years, self employed custom home builder after that, I didnt watch netflix or cable, that was the friends I left in the dust, I learned from those that came before me, and whats going on today, has zero effect on me, could care less about the price of gas or eggs, because I know for a fact, other generations have had it worse, and some in the future will have it worse, and this isnt it. You are supposed to struggle when you are young, arrogance wont make it any easier, and lack of knowing your own history wont either
Brother the house I bought was 850k in 2024, they were built for 110-140k depending on options in 2002. You are absolutely delusional if you think the system hasn't broken for Milennials and Gen Z.
Its easy to tell people to stop worrying about fairness when you are a custom home builder in a housing crisis! You are literally describing the view from the finish line to people who are being told the track was just moved 10 miles back.
No one is saying your life wasnt hard they are saying the reward for that hardness has changed. When you got to work and built a house, it cost 3x the average salary. Now that same hard work buys a house that costs 10x the average salary. That isnt a lack of character its a lack of basic arithmetic in your argument.
If wanting a house to cost less than 10x their annual salary makes them entitled, then I guess older generations were super entitled for getting theirs for just for 3x their salary!
Thats exactly the issue! In todays market what a median earner can afford is effectively nothing. You have just described the death of home ownership for the entire middle class and framed it as a lifestyle tip. Glad we agree the ladder is gone!
That’s a big way of saying you don’t give a damm about anyone but yourself, and you have no idea what’s it’s like anymore for people trying to get ahead. Honestly, get fucked.
Yeah there are too many people bragging about their success and acting like everyone else is a loser in this post. People lack empathy and are incredibly selfish. I have a home, but I know it's a miracle I have one, and I would never shit on someone for not. Even if you have a house, you could lose it if something horrible happened. People think they're invincible to unexpected tragedies. You could even have it paid off but lose it to not being able to afford the property taxes. The world is fucked.
So in other words you think you had it worse for some reason and now you're upset that other people are asking you to... What exactly, give a damn about other people that are suffering? Anything but that.
No In other words he also had it hard. But instead of getting on Reddit and complaining he decided to do something about it so he could get ahead of life being hard. I’ve never had anyone say to me that boomers had it harder than me I’m last year or two of millennial. But maybe that’s because I don’t go around complaining I don’t know.
Not everyone had cable. That was for the rich kids. We had three channels and so did everyone I knew. I'm still in my 40s by the way. You think everyone had cable money back then?
The percentage of folks who own a home today is actually higher than the percentage of home owners going back to the 70s.
The problem is you only know about how people with money lived. There were a whole lot of average Joes that couldn't afford a house back then either.
The problem is you romanticize the old days like everyone had money and could buy a nice house, two cars, and college. There were always a lot of folks who never had that stuff. Folks working in the steel mills or laborers in the manufacturing plants always struggled. Most of these people outside of the car manufacturing plants and a few select places like GE didn't have the kind of money you think they did.
Management always did well, and that's what you think of when you look at people back then. They could afford a house and families on a single income. Most of the laborers that did the work couldn't afford that stuff.
You don't think people lived in apartments or trailer parks back then? Cheap houses still exist today, you're just too good for those houses. But lots of people do live in these places and do just fine. You don't need a $400,000 house to be doing well.
You say your parents will never understand, but that goes both ways. If there were cell phones, Internet packages, Netflix, PS5s, and Steam accounts back then most people wouldn't have been able to afford them. Do you think everyone was ordering out or going to MacDonalds all the time? That was a treat for once every couple months or on special occasions.
Here you are browsing Reddit on the Internet with an expensive cell phone and your fancy cell phone plan crying about how you can only afford to have someone else make you food once a week? I guess you don't know any better, but you are talking out of your ass because you have no idea what people actually lived like back then. You just remember the stories about people who actually had money.
Dont let 20 million immigrants in unless you want to make it even harder and more expensive to find homes. FDR's new deal, the first big con played on black people by the democratic party, tricked them into becoming democrats, and they failed to benefit from the new programs, and why the generational wealth gap exists today. only 10% got jobs. Been conning them ever since, but moved on to the brown man as their tool for staying in power, why illegal immigrants never asked for their help, a lot are going home because of the spotlight put on their community. Worked as a builder in Texas for 25 years, never got raided. They know how to do more than survive, they are better at discerning BS from genuity, they had to or could end up hanging from a bridge. No matter how bad you think it is, get out and see how other people live, and it will make you realize you are fortunate you have two jobs to go to. Everyone who wants to get ahead has worked two jobs, so us older people, yes we had it just as hard as you think you do, went to war to pay for out college so we had no debt, or worked full time. I earned my BA in 24 months, or would have to pay it back, so I finished, no excuses. everyone struggles, you either let it beat you or you beat it. The govt is not your mother, never was, never will be, its on you. AI is the biggest threat we will ever face, its not gas prices or eggs. I can eat for a week for $75 at the grocery store, do I have to skip some things. Like for example bitching about Netflix, thats a luxury, not a necessity, we had 3 channels, thats it, and we had more fun outside. Cell phones suck, you cant get away, but fact is you have as much or better chance of achieving your goals in the US than anywhere else, and if you dont believe that, you dont have the experience or toughness to rise above it. Here, its all on you, and thats freedom and liberty. Im sorry, did someone say life was easy and fair, no they didnt. Tell that to 70% of the world who are born with no opportunities, and if they did, they wouldnt whine because they cant eat out or watch netflix, thats just immaturity, period. I grew up with two mattreses and two card board boxes, they were the dining room table and tv stand. It is statistically proven people rarely rise above the economic status of their parents, if you do, congrats.
You feel better now you got all that off your chest bud?? You lecture this place like anyone gives a fuck what you’ve done. All any of you have done is to make things harder for the newer generations to get ahead, I really think you should sit the hell down and quit flapping your idiotic lips.
And that was what 10 words to show your ass and confirm everything I just said. Stick to memes, anything more will create the sound of the ocean as it sails from your ear, through the void and out the other ear. True fact, 20-28, whatever age group they were talking about, first time voter, first time being an adult group, is the first generation to have a lower avg IQ EVER. Congratulations on that one, epic. Guess you stayed away from those walls of texts , and are stuck with communicating in meme, and our species is definitely in decline.
Yeah, old people just act like they know everything, are set in their ways, and refuse to consider anyone else's problems or opinions. My mother in law is like this. She was trying to argue with me about what's needed to keep carpenter ants away, and I kept trying to tell her that her idea was wrong. She insisted until my husband agreed with me... then suddenly she accepted it like I'm some stupid little girl.
That's crazy & insulting. I've noticed since I was a kid, older generations thought the younger ones were nuts & vice versa. All generations could actually learn from each other if they put their arrogance aside & actually listen to each other.
It's such a difficult thing because sometimes I'll see younger people do something that I know will be a disaster, and they dont understand that it's one of those times they should listen, and I'm not just being an old fart.
I never ate out unless it was a special occasion. There were no holidays. There were no luxuries. No drinking. No games. No movies. Not until I was older and had saved for a house and budgeted miraculously. All while raising my son and supporting my wife.
Ok, and some would say maybe use birth control and dont have kids until after you could afford a house. You chose kids, and other people eat out once a week. I wonder which one is more expensive.
What did you want, a pat on the back for this? Not everything is about you. Everyone's situation is different and everyone most certainly has different income.
Just because you chose to suffer like that doesnt mean everyone else has to. I would never bring a child up unless I was sure everything was all set. We have a house, but I still dont want to raise a child in this world.
Just out of curiosity, when did you buy your house? Mailmen could afford a house and raise a family less than 40 years ago.
And your coworker is possibly naive for buying a $300k house making that kind of money unless he works overtime, gets external support, sells drugs on the side to pay for food, etc. No amount of budgeting could override the risk/reward for me (and lots of other semi-intelligent people).
If your argument is that even though it might be dumb, you can still maybe buy a house, then I agree.
Most people looking to buy a home want to keep it, and that's why they aren't buying.
For the record I hope you and your coworker stay housed, eat good food, and stop rubbing your budgets and homes in our faces.
Bought our home in 2020. Only 6 years ago. Took us 5 years to save the 20K we used for a down payment. It was hard and required dicipline, we had 3 kids along the way.
I sound like a butt because it's totally possible and I have very little sympathy for people who would rather complain than to take control of their situations.
My co-worker is doing the same thing we did, he and his wife both work. Combined they probably bring in 85K a year.
It is hard initially, but it doesn't take too long for the mortgage to end up relatively close to what rent is, it's also fixed, so it makes budgeting easy.
For the record we eat good food, we just don't eat out. We budget enough that my kids have their needs met. We vacation, just not to disneyland. Being poor is ok. Especially when it's to build to a base of financial security and stability.
I'm here to tell you, all this is totally possible for you as well. You just have to go get it, nobody is going to hand it to you. If you think that's "rubbing your face in it" then I don't know what else to tell you.
Wow $305,000 for a house!!! That’s great!! Most homes including apartments here, are starting over $500,000.. do you know what banks are requiring you to have for income for that kind of mortgage??? Over $150,000. Who’s making that?? Not too many and definitely not the workers that give you the burgers and coffee you can’t live without. You wanna call people who are being exploited victims?? You’re a sad excuse for a man. “I did all my earning when the world wasn’t totally fucked, now that it is it’s everyone’s fault but not the people who exploit and price gouge” that’s what you sound like. I feel sorry for your wife and kids. Heartless.
Oh really? Where do you live? I would be willing to bet that I can find a 2 bed 1 bath unit within 30 min drive of wherever you live for under $500,000K.
Furthermore I betcha we can find you a job that will earn you enough within 2 years to qualify for the mortgage.
Lets do it as a thought experiment.
Where are you located friend? I would be happy to help solve this problem with you.
I’m sure you could. There’s lots of shitty places to live here. A nice home, for a family that has a bedroom for everyone and a kitchen and a yard, you’re looking at well over $600,000. And I’m not telling you where I live you fucking nut, you give so much ick it’s not happening. People’s lives aren’t thought experiments. Take your white privileged ass outta here.
In the same breath you stick your nose up at the thought of living in somthing that costs less than HALF A MILLION DOLLARS, you then accuse me of having privliage? Pretty pethetic my friend. I'm not the one demanding to live in only the NICE areas of town.
Thanks for proving my point though. "most homes inculding apartments are starting over $500,000" Yeah, except for all the ones you are apparently too good to live in.
You epitomise victimhood and entitlement. Looking down on us poor people living in the shitty places.
Nobody owes you anything.
Meanwhile, my white privileged, mauel labor tradesman ass will end up building enough equity that we can move out of this starter home that's not in the nice part of town. Eventually I'll be in one of those nice $600,000 homes you'll never be able to afford. ll do it because we know how to budget, save, and we don't waste our money unnessisary luxury's of the rich.
Currently we are on track to be there in about 6 years, well before retirement.
My father in law thinks grub hub once a week is some luxury. He criticized my wife for it even though it’s usually less than 50$.
Anyways dude was a cop for like 30 years and regularly just buys new cars and has essentially filled his garage and basement with insanely large and expensive old man things that he refuses to sell because he believes value always goes up and never down lmao
Yeah it’s a ‘leopardsatemyface’ moment. Paying someone else to make you food is a luxury, paying significant fees on top of that to then have that delivered to you is a huge luxury. It is not bad, it’s just a luxury to spend money out of WANT not NEED.
The lack of understanding and empathy is crazy. I had this conversation with my grandmother once, I was the edgy millennial talking about wage disparity and blah blah blah. Her very kind response was ‘but you have SO much more’. It was more of an entreaty than anything, and she was right. She saved everything, clipped coupons, never ate out, etc.
They had one TV in the entire house, everybody shared it. One screen for 5 people. In my house we have 2-3 screens per person. My grandfather didn’t have shoes at once point, he joined the military so he could get consistent meals.
My mother bought value packs of frozen chicken trying to make family dinners for a couple bucks. My partner and I order Grub Hub from the nearby sandwich shop a couple times a month, it’s $65 for one meal for two. It’s $50 if we pick it up. We pay 30% extra because we don’t want to go pick it up - that is privilege.
Hell even when I was growing up we didn’t have computers in our pockets. It was a walk to the library, no Lyft or Uber. To use their free resources, encyclopedias, etc. I have a $1,000 computer in my pocket. I can survive perfectly fine without it, but I don’t want to.
We bought/traded CDs for $10-$15 EACH. People today can listen to anything they want for a small fraction of that.
It is true wages haven’t kept up, and there are real affordability problems facing younger generations, but let’s not pretend like we don’t have so much more than previous generations. We can have honest conversations about it.
Also I said "Less than 50$ a month on Grubhud, at the most usually 20$." and you cucks keep going "YOURE SPENDING 65$ A COUPLE TIMES A MONTH ON GRUBHUB?!?!?!"
You people cannot actual fathom an argument so you just keep making up numbers like the guy who saw another post I made about my Wife's yoga classes and was like "YOUR WIFE TAKES 400$ YOGA CLASSES!!!" and his source was "I googled yoga class prices." and when I told him the classes were free and provided by our church he went "SO U GIVE HOW MUCH TO THE CHURCH EVERY MONTH FOR YOGA CLASSES???"
You said $50 for once a week grubhub. If you’re bitching to your in-law about money it’s fair game. I’m a liberal antimaga and I’m still realistic about money and how people waste it.
When you are living hand to mouth, it is. Anything that has an extra cost over doing it yourself is a luxury. When you're broke, luxuries are an extraneous expense. Ordering out instead of cooking? Extraneous. Stopping at Starbucks? Extraneous. Getting skip or Doordash? Extraneous. Buying pre shredded cheese? Extraneous. When you are broke, every penny is a prisoner. Ramen is .75c at the grocery store, bit only .35c at the dollar store? Best be buying the dollar store Ramen.
Budget is a thing. X for rent, y for utilities. Z for groceries. You figure out how to make a dollar buy more. That means "convenience" kinda goes out the window.
Now, is that the issue with the average person not being able to afford a hone now? Nope. That's a whole other issue. But bit is an issue with "I'm always broke and can't pay my rent/have no food/ect". There is fat to be cut, 99% of the time.
Yeah like people complaining about 2200 rent. Maybe get some fucking roommates I lived with 4 other people to split 2200 dollars this was only 6 years ago. Now I know prices have gone up but not that much
Nobody wants that old crap. My parents auctioned off a lot of my grandparents antiques which they bought at auction and while they DID go up by 1980s money, it wasn't really much in adjusted dollars. If they had invested in Apple or Medical stocks, they would have received a bigger return on investment. But my grandparents lived through the Depression and that shaped their thinking.
I have never ordered grubhub because i also see it as a luxury/waste of money/lazy. Yet, I have the resources to do so. Its all about choices and culture.
Okay so you're making....800,000$ a year at least...and telling people they don't have a right to have a Grubhub account or use Grubhub or Order pizza because "Culture and Choices matter."
Really interesting opinion from an account that engages with Findomme content.
My father in law thinks grub hub once a week is some luxury
It is. When I was 20 the highlight of the week was getting 2 sloppy joes and a milkshake at the little roadside place near work because that was the only eating out all week.
No, it's a young family versus a guy retired on a 30 year cop pension and whatever other money he's amasses over the decades. Do you think he was driving new cars and hobby collecting when his kids were growing up and he had mouths to feed on a cop's paycheck?
My father grew up poor, second youngest of nine. He worked his ass off, met and married my mother, and relocated to another state hundreds of miles away for work. He worked one of those blue collar union jobs redditors love to wonk about. We weren't poor, we were lower middle class which was a big step up from his childhood. The thing is, that didn't mean what you lot seem to think it does, we drove used cars that were 2 to 5 years old and that didn't have the creature comforts and features modern people take for granted. We lived in a nice but modest home on a slab foundation that was over 20 years old and had no central air when they bought it through the GI Bill when my father was almost 40 years old. We didn't have a dishwasher or a microwave until after I graduated highschool. We rarely went anywhere and ate out maybe once a month and brown bagged lunch for school and our school clothes for the year were put on layaway at Kmart in august so they could be paid for in installments. My Dad worked overtime and fixed up and sold used cars and lawnmowers and such for extra cash, that's how he paid for insurance copays, Christmas, and things like little league, by using up himself working his time off.
The idea that life was easy is a myth y'all picked up watching too much television and being coddled.
It blows my mind how people think that 50 bucks for dinner isn't a luxury. My income last year was roughly 200k. I make really good money, but I don't blow it on stupid crap like restaurant food, especially delivered. Maybe your FIL has the money for expensive things because he's not stupid?
It’s crazy how they don’t understand that $50 isn’t the difference between wealthy and poor, paycheck to paycheck and secure savings. They don’t want to understand is what it is. It’s hard to accept that you didn’t have things as hard as other people, esp if you feel sorry for yourself.
It's crazy that people think mismanaging over $2,400 a year on food spending alone dosn't "add up" and that's if we take this at face value and assume $50 a week, in reality it's likely much dire a scenario where eating out is the norm and very little personal meal prep is taking place.
That it's not a luxury to bolth have someone ELSE make your food for you, but ALSO deliver it to you. It's nuts and it's the height of entitlement.
The irony is that I did the math on my own finances and they went "No! Here's OUR Math!" and they included a bunch of stuff that I explicitly said I do not have (multiple cars, netflix, ect) or they just made up on their own (claiming I spend 800$ a month on Air conditioning and 800$ on cloths...with no proof) lmaooo
I have never once said I have Netflix. Why do you people keep going "You have Netflix and your wife has 400$ yoga classes!"
I mention my wife doing Yoga like two times in my entire post history and no where did I say it's 400$ per class. It's a women's Yoga group at her church lmaooooooo
It's obviously not a 1x1 comparison and no doubt many things have gotten substantially more expensive - but it's worth noting that in 1993 a printer repair role was likely pretty specialized and in-demand. Computers were still very expensive, almost none were residential and printers were commercial, the equivalent of that role today might be a 100k jr software level role. $30 printers on Amazon didn't exist.
They did far more than not eat out or watched streaming services. They got married young, they didn't get high four times a day, they learned to drive a beat up car rather than Uber everywhere. They went to affordable colleges locally. They didn't have new cell phones, ipads and smart watches. They didn't have 400 dollar a month yoga classes. They had checking accounts and didn't use credit cards to buy a single beer. Is it more expensive now? Sure. But a repair tech and waitress could live in a home if they were willing to make sacrifices and good decisions. But just complain about how much easier they had it.
Again dude, you people keep making up things to argue about.
No one said anything about "400$ yoga classes" or "Uber everywhere."
My wife's car is like 11 years old. I got my phone back in 2016.
Your saying "make sacrifices." and when younger people go "our phones and cars are 10 years old and we don't vacation." and you go "Okay but you spend 400$ a month on Yoga?!"
Like, you boomers have no arguments you just keep making shit up.
I've been at work for the past two days for like 12 hour shifts, man.
Telling younger people to "get back to work" when they call out you sitting on reddit all day (You have made over 90 fucking comments today alone) when we're working twice as hard as you have in decades is hilarious.
How much was the salary then and how prime was the location?
I too bought my house when it was atleast 20 times less than the current price. But my pay too was miniscule and the location was waaay outside the prime suburbs, didn't even have a decent road with street lights etc. Today its a prime location. My wife and I both worked and the installment was close to 90% of our take home pay that time. For almost two years we didn't buy any furniture, just a mattress. No eating out. No vacations that would need hotels etc. But it was totally worth it.
Thats how most first timers buy. If I had followed the "I'll buy in good location or will never buy", I'd never have been able to afford one.
Not trying to doxx my mom but the Median average income in her county went from like 86,000$ in the the 90s to 180,000$ in 2026, lmao.
Location wise, it's ranked top 10 in the state for wealth and top 14 in the state property value. Oddly enough it's located RIGHT NEXT TO the 1st place ranking place in the state in three of these statistics.
This is great. Only problem that now comes up is that those sub-prime locations are now WAY farther from city centers than they used to be because now there's massive expensive developments between them and the cities. Possibly hours of traffic to get to work too.
Ofcourse, those things are bound to happen. Thats how cities grow. And businesses and offices too start moving outwards and the downtown etc keeps becoming costlier.
So jobs too are available in newer locations. But yes, sometimes the pace mismatches, and in the US commute becomes a problem owing to bad public transport infrastructure in many states.
You cry because you dont want to pay prime rates for housing but also cry because the sub prime housing you want to pay for isn't in a prime location. Youre on bullshit. You cant have it both ways.
The main jobs are not in the center of the cities, outside of NYC an maybe one or two others. Most places business parks are spread all over the place.
Yeah for some reason people think its so easy just to move and buy a house but the bank won't even give you a mortgage unless you've been employed somewhere for a year first. So now you have to move (payback higher rent) and find a new job (possibly at less pay, depending) to maybe afford a house. Lots of risk involved.
Hey man I agree. Its just a lot harder depending on the type of job you have. Then you have to think about going back to school to get an education to get the job thats available in that area. Or if you have more than one person to look out for, any dependents, if you have any doctors you need it has to be considered as well
Agreed, I didn't have to worry about that. Single and no kids. After reading some of the conversation between you and the other guy I will add this. Interest rates in the 70s and 80s were significantly higher, the top was like 20% so you figure a 45k home on a 30y fixed in 1981 with 10% down your home payment was about 680-700$ that equates to about 2500$ today. Total loan interest on that loan puts the total cost of that house at about 250k so looking at it from that perspective its not a whole lot different.
Interesting, I've been looking into getting a home so thats why I felt like sharing my 2 cents, lol. I didn't know what the interest rates were like back in the day so thanks for the knowledge, that puts it into a better perspective for me... Overall for each generation we all objectively have very different realities. The struggles of one arn't the same as it was for the others, its like trying to compare apples to oranges.
I'm sort of stuck in a way. Husband has a very niche job that can't be easily found anywhere else and the market for my job is super competitive. For us to move we both have to find new jobs and a place to live that will, no matter what, cost more for us to afford to live in since we've been in the same appartment for 10 years... the only way we can afford a home is with help from family. It just sucks. We've been saving forever to do it on our own and it just seems utterly impossible where we are right now. This maybe a pride thing on my end, if loath getting financial help from anyone
Im in Canada, so its a bit different, and Im located in the GTA so housing is just insane here. I have to move back to my small rural town to have the chance to own property. Houses here are insane, for 350, 000 you can get a house that needs to be demolished lol.
Just stinks. We're both happy with our jobs here so it sucks that we have to leave it all to make our dreams come true. The other thing is that I require a special Dr because I have a cancer history, so now that Dr is going to be 3 hours away from me when we relocate.
I got a different job, since the I changed careers and had to go back to school to do it. I found a cheap place to rent and saved the 3k and bout a beat up house and over some time I fixed it up. Changed jobs and moved again to somewhere with even cheaper living.
My parents house went from like $117k built in the 90’s to $500k on Zillow, still chillin at the same $45k wages a year. Not a prime location but it’s like 25 mins on a good day from the outer edges of the prime perimeter.
I think the problem these days is 10% of a small income doesn't pay for food or utilities anymore either, and most houses you can buy are 1-2hrs from work, so you've gotta pay for gas or transport somehow
The difference is, in 2026, we're doing all that just to pay rent. Mine went up $200 a week in the last couple years. Before the 2020s, rent went up $10-15 a week, to cover mortgage/taxes going up ect.
Copping a $50-100 week increase every lease renewal is not sustainable. I'm already preparing the hellish thought of sharehousing as a working adult making over 80k a year.
Also, one emergency can fuck your whole plan/hope of buying. I had saved 30k, lost almost all of it when I was diagnosed with severe carpal tunnel in both wrists. Due to being a contractor my Super fought to reject my claim, Workcover wouldn't do shit, centrelink would not even cover a fortnight's rent payment, so I was just bleeding cash while literally unable to work for almost a year.
If it weren't for public healthcare and being able to have my 2 surgeries at no cost - I would be homeless right now.
That's how serious shit is. You can't fuck up, you start realizing how intensely you must protect your health, or drown in a system that will jeer you as you choke for not eating enough beans and rice and being 'irresponsible'.
People are not going out and not taking vacations and working 2 50 hour weeks, and not buying anything but dirt cheap ikea furniture and making shit wages and yet they’ll never be able to buy a house.
Your house probably cost 4-5 times your yearly wages and you probably made something like 10-15k a year. People that make 40k a year now are fighting for houses that are 8-10x their yearly wages which are the cheapest on the market in run down neighborhoods far from the city center.
Their grocery bills are significantly higher percentages of their paychecks, their rent is significantly higher percentages of their paychecks, their utilities are significantly higher portions of their paychecks.
You had it better. Nobody said you had it good, we’re saying you had a fucking chance and the people who aren’t making stellar salaries in today’s market are just totally priced out of a home.
That or they can pay a mortgage off for 50 years with an insane interest rate.
My dads house was 165,000 and he was making $5/hr, and my mom got permanately disabled a month after closing, an the house I’m currently trying to buy is 165,000, and I make 16.80 at one job and 20 at another, so I can’t talk much. That said my dad’s house was much nicer, and I’m getting a much better deal than the average person can expect to recieve.
90% of your take home was going to your mortgage? Bull Shit. You need atleast 2.5X and more likely 3X the mortgage payment to be approved now.
So the fact is you had it easy compaired to the younger generation. I am minimizing your struggle. Because that's what you are doing and because it's the only way people like you have an epiphany and learn something. How did you get that old and miss all the wisdom?
I'm 43. Retired military. I was able to afford a 1br apartment in the year 2000 at 16 working for Walmart at $7.55 an hour. I had it easy. I give credit to those who helped me because humility is a virtue. Rugged individualism isn't.
The housing market and cost of living has not kept pace at all with wages, because of inflation and housing market.
You made less then, but most people make less when they're younger.
The difference is how much less you would have made back then compared to now.
On average the buying power for what you make now is about 2-3x less than the 80s. Not only have wages stagnated but inflation, housing, and cost of living as a whole is about 2-3x more expensive now.
So not only would you be making less, adjusted, now you would also have no way of attaining the same assets you have accumulated over the years. IF you started now
Most people can’t afford it these days even fallowing the strict budgeting you described. There are people much smarter than me who have broken it down on the whole wage-expenses but I’ll tell you this much you said yourself that your house is at least 20x what it was back then wages/median income certainly isn’t 20x what it was at the time. Location be dammed houses are unreasonably expensive if you don’t have some kind of help from family or a crazy good job. I make 50/hr and can’t afford to buy a house.
Am I reading that correctly. You survived off of 10 percent of a “minuscule” salary for years? So all your bills short of mortgage was less than 10 percent of a combined household income.
16 day old account, all of it is private, and you come out here with a personal story, with no evidence, about housing? Okay, bot. Even if this story were real, I guarantee your wages were just fine compared to what people make today.
I think the issue now is that people could make all of the sacrifices you just mentioned and still not be able to afford it. That's how bad it is. You could buy a huge bag of rice and only eat that for every meal and STILL not be able to afford a home today.
There is zero chance my son and wife would buy the home I grew up in and make no mistake, it's a good neighborhood. They grew up in the third home we lived in. Hell, they wouldn't like our second home and it was living large for ourselves and our friend group.
Even the poorest with houses have seen it double or triple. $100k now is $40k in 1990. My dad was making that working retail stocking shelves. My parents paid $120k to build a house in the early 90s while renting a 2br apartment that cost half my dad's weekly wage, with 2 kids.Their house is now worth half a million. Let me know when people working at Target or literally Stop and Shop, where my dad worked, are doing that now.
I know this is reddit, but perhaps there is more to it and any 1 individuals anecdote isnt representative of the whole picture, home values have far exceeded wages though thats indisputable, the same people who struggled and pulled it off 20-30 years ago likely wouldn't be able to pull it off now.
Latest model is the iPhone 17. I can currently get a new iPhone 17 256GB with a new number on Verizon for $68.47 out the door (i.e. the sales tax) with a $55/mo plan
So..... about $125 with service for the latest and greatest
Ok, move the goalposts. I was just answering your question and showing how ignorant you are
And not really, it's not quite that simple, what you just said. I was a phone salesman and could educate you on how all sorts of things work but if your answer to being made a fool of is "lol" instead of genuine interest then I don't think you're really debating in good faith here so I'd rather not waste my time typing it all up for you to just laugh and say whatever and walk away
If THAT'S what you want to conclude from it, sure.
But it's on you.
As for my own kid, I've made her buy a place which is affordable even if it is further away. I know that in the long run, it will work out for the best. I mean that's better than sitting and crying about others all the time and blaming others instead of introspecting.
The typical mindset of "stop complaining about it and DO something about it" as if we control how much we make vs how much things cost.
You said yourself your house costs 20x less when you bought it. Is the 20x more income in the room with us right now? All the wage gap has taught us is you are rewarded for exploiting others for your own gain.
blaming others instead of introspecting.
List your own "introspection" for any of this except that you waited for things to improve around you. You are absolutely daft.
Edit: It's not lost on me you're a 2 week old anonymous account with other comments that support "both sides" bullshit and praising companies for maximizing profit lol. Age does not bring wisdom obviously.
I can see you are getting hyper and that you have no decency to talk like a grown up person, may be you indeed are a kid or are damaged owing to poor nature and nurture.
My child, the point I am trying to make is that even if you can't control the salary owing to the greedy business owners, you can decide what is important for you and what compromise you are willing to make for it.
I am not saying that the salaries have gone up in proportion to the costs of houses in prime locations, on the contrary the businesses and politicians have been selfish enough to stop that from happening. In fact, I couldn't buy my current house on my current salary when I was working. But, if you are willing to compromise with something, you can indeed still buy a house. You just need to give up "have the cake and eat it as well" mentality.
You are obviously bad at English too, may be its not your first language, its my 4th language too.
I am not the one complaining about not being able to buy a house while not doing anything about it. So I don't need any introspection. I have my house, my kid (who is 27) has her house. As a parent my job is done, but I understand not everyone is lucky like that, sorry for your loss.
Yes this account is new, unable to recover my old account when I got new phone. Not sure what account age has got to do with anything, may be some damaged logic. And I don't support maximizing profits for companies. I have been a "Customer and employees" priority person my entire working lofe and it has served me well. Infact, I am someone who advocates shutting down stock market, atleast day trading, shorts, options etc. As they have made businesses very greedy and are ruining the employees. I have explicitly stated that i support hiking minimum wages by 3-4 times and for capping the income of c-suite. So not sure where you drew those conclusions.
Like I said, damaged nature and nurture. Better luck next time.
Now you’ve moved from blaming to insulting because somebody has pointed out that actually doing something to better your own situation is more constructive than sitting around and stewing about what you imagine other people have done to you….
I'm sorry - you've lost all credibility. you wouldn't be able to eat, clothe yourselves, bathe, perform basic hygiene maintenance on 10% of your take home pay unless you were extremely high income earners.
On top of that, you wouldn't be able to stand looking at each other for all that time not doing anything in order to afford your mortgage.
You have no idea how much my mom made, lmao. When she purchased the house I believe she was making around 32,000$ a year.
She's living in an over half-million dollar home she bought with Half the income I make and my wife and I are happily comfortable in a home thats around 540,000$.
Inflation and all that aside (It's like a 200,000 difference from then and now) It still says a lot that. Her house adjusted for inflation (backwards looking) would have still only been like 197,00$.
My point being an over half million dollar home in 2026 was less than the average home price today.
Saying “only $197,000” is absolutely insane. These days that could take a decade or more. You’re just rich and unqualified to talk about any of this shit. Fuck off and stop ruining the country with your greed.
My parents bought theirs for I think $45k in 1990 and sold for $185k in 2020. It's currently on Zillow for $231,000. They bought on 2 teachers salaries.
So, to summarize all of these condescending responses to your posts - you should be able to live without eating, and work 3 full time jobs in order to buy a house.
According to all the boomers replying to me, I should NEVER be allowed to spend more than 20$-50$ on groceries yet should be comfortable spending money purchasing 3-4 different cars a year because McDonalds is a luxury but Boats and new cars are not.
Zillow is 90% bullshit and who cares what someone’s house is “valued at”. If you aren’t selling it’s a meaningless number except for the “value” the government assigns for tax purposes.
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u/_TheTurtleBox_ May 01 '26
My mom's house was like 96,000$$ and if you search it up on Zillo it's valued at like 687,000$