I was broke the first 5 years out of college. Between catching up on dental work, paying student loans, getting a car that wouldn’t die on the side of the road, saving for a downpayment on a house, getting work clothes, some furniture (thrift shop and folding chairs), and then getting ready for babies and working part time for 3 months and then just quitting my job….we were so broke! Isn’t that how it’s always been for people starting out? As a frame of reference, I am 44 and graduated from college in my late 20’s in 1988.
My parents also started out poor. They slept on the floor and rented a studio apartment until my dad finished medical school in his early 30s. My husband’s grandparents were Iowa farmers who were so broke, they never went out to eat. They just couldn’t afford it, despite their large farm.
I’m wondering if the younger generation really is worse off than anyone starting out. It’s normal to struggle for many years, to live with several people or at home. That’s how it was for me also, 15 years ago.
The only thing different now is people’s expectations, and their sense of entitlement. I make my kids buy most things they want, because they really need to learn delayed gratification. This is very important. Learning to wait for things. Media has become too provocative, sexual, materialistic, and people want everything now and think they should have it. They take on more debt than they should, instead of saving and waiting for it.
Maybe a lot of these people shouldn’t live in an expensive city like SD, or they should be satisfied to live 5 to a house, or move back in with mom or dad until they can afford to be on their own. Living on your own in SD is a priviledge, not an entitlement or a right. And if mom and dad pay their kids’ bills, well, then the kids will stay kids forever.
