I graduated college 40 years ago with an engineering degree. My GPA was mediocre — I was working for much of the time I was in school. Nonetheless I started at $21,000 a year. A friend was an accountant at $14,000 and another — employed later after law school started out clerking for a judge at $16,000.
My wife was lucky to earn $10,000 a year working a series of pretty crappy jobs. She was thrilled when 5 years later she was earning $15,000 running a small art company.
You can’t get away with paying a receptionist or file clerk those wages today.
We struggled with student loans and the cost of living in NY (albeit the Bronx). I changed jobs a few times myself with employers closing. Being an engineer wasn’t the best thing in a deindustrializing society. But things eventually worked out and we did well enough for a time. We had children in our 30’s. We’d started saving for college before they were born. Lacking options, I stayed home t first as a f/t parent — my wife’ career took off and I stayed home — renovating two houses and getting involved with school, scouts (good locally but BSA national was and is a mess) and more.
Our youngest is finishing up his Master’s degree now. He went overseas — to the University he spent a semester abroad at. The degree there was cheaper and took less time than it would have been anywhere in the US.
He and his older sibling had both gotten Bachelors in top schools. Not sure it was the best choice for the youngest given his career choice — focused on environmental work, geophysics and hydrology. I suspect a western school might’ve been better for that than an Ivy. But both of our children did well in high school and in college. The differences between their paths and their parents is astounding.
Scholarship money made a huge difference for us in the 70’s. The amounts our children received barely made a dent. Total college costs were astoundingly different. Our children’s college cost 6-10 times what their parents paid. Our oldest got a paid spot going for an advanced degree but I really don’t know what his future will be. Academia isn’t what it used to be. Our youngest paid for his Masters. He worked various jobs while in college adding to a small amount he’d been given by a grandmother.
Our children were lucky — far better off than most. I’ll concede that. BUT our youngest is getting job offers in the low $40,000 range — just over double what I was offered. Inflation has been far higher than that over those 40 years though frankly, he has a better education and experience than I had. The $21,000 I was making would be worth over $74,000 today — and I expect that inflation calculation is understated. I can’t imagine what the post war Bronx apartment right by the subway that we paid $400 a month for would cost today but I’ll bet it’s more than $1400. I paid only $75 a month for the last apartment I had in college — about $1 for every hundred roaches I figure. You could have gotten a garden apartment for $300. A subway token cost 50 cents when I got out of college — it’s $2.75 today — a increase of 5½ times.
The car I had in college I ‘rebuilt’ from parts — it cost me maybe $1000 over a dozen years With inflation that car would cost $3500 today. (Can you find a car with 50,000 miles for that anywhere?) My wife had a car in college to get to work that cost a few hundred but we went down to one car when married. A good new car could have been bought for $3-5,000.
My son has a used 6 year old car that cost $12,000 (it was considered a bargain). He’s used it to get to summer jobs in the midwest, and the Dakotas He’s gone on countless outdoors trips and been cross-country twice. He lived in the car during his summer jobs and sleeps in it while traveling. How he fits I don’t know.
Though we are supposedly in a ‘good economy’ I’ve seen my children’s contemporaries work months as unpaid ‘interns’ to get their foot in the door. ‘Connected’ kids get jobs through parents or family friends but many are making $35-20,000 a year AFTER getting a ‘good’ degree. Many are working jobs in companies that will disappear in the early months of a real recession.
So… in summary:
After paying 6-10 times more for college, my kids will earn maybe double what their parents did out of college — in a world where costs are a minimum of 3½ times higher.
I have seen many of our neighbors lose their jobs over the past decade. Some have found new jobs at substantially reduced earnings. Others have not. I know a few cases where mortgages have not been paid for years, 401K’s have been drained and …….. frankly I do not know how they are surviving. In fact a house nearby finally was foreclosed on — after 3 years. It sits empty now.
One neighbor on Wall Street lost his job a few years back. He got something else but moved a year ago. In a Freudian slip he said something about trying to get out from under unmanageable debt. The oldest of 3 had just started college.
I’ve heard people make comments about seeing people in town using EBT (food stamps) implying that they are cheating but I suspect they really are in need and are just trying to keep up appearances.
There’s been a wave of ‘offers’ and involuntary ‘retirements’ lately — in spite of the ‘good’ economy. A relative age 55 was the last to be let go from her department. They now ‘outsource’ training. One former officer at a bank took a package and filed for divorce, stunning his wife of 35 years. There are more than a few divorced couples living under one roof because they can’t afford to move out.
I know plenty of people who are self employed who will work until they drop. They cannot afford to retire.
You can help build a company from scratch, put in 60-80 hours a week for almost 35 years and it doesn’t matter if you were promised a job for life. I saw hundreds let go when a company was sold by children who failed to uphold their father’s intent. They were worth millions (none of which they earned) — they didn’t care.
The security we took for granted has evaporated but then we are hardly alone. Still, we are luckier than most. We worked hard to prepay our mortgage and get out of debt. We can afford a lower income now but it’s hardly what we expected.
It seems that even when you do what you are supposed to do, when you ARE ‘responsible’ you are going to get screwed. Wait to have kids so you can afford them, keep your debt and expenses low… Once upon a time you worked hard, gradually earned more and could finally retire. Now you are let go at 50 just as you finally get ahead in life.
And all this is in a ‘strong economy’ with ‘low unemployment.’
I can’t imagine the world awaiting my children’s generation. Not too thrilled about my future either.