Were/are your parents wealthy?

[eddiehaskell]

We're pretty middle classed, but we lived like poor people for a long time just so we can breathe easier today.

but $10k aday miscers tell us this be a backwards/uncivilized way to live

[FAPhaggot]

They've basically been on a downhill slide from the 1990s on.

My dad was a worker on an electronics manufacturing assembly line from 1984-1999, when China joined the WTO and his employer offshored manufacturing entirely. The $85k he was making back in '99 is still the highest annual salary he's ever earned.

He took chit jobs from contract manufacturers until those roles all dried up around the mid 2000s, then took advantage of government retraining to get a free degree and go become a teacher. He started at the bottom of the teaching payscale, and was literally making $32k in his mid 40s. He spent a while on that, quit because LOL at teaching in the 2020s, and is now a janitor.

My mom isn't educated and has always worked a litany of chit-tier minimum wage jobs, usually tied in with the government.

I grew up on the poverty line in a 1200 sq ft house my parents bought when times were better, and got free lunches for most of my time at school. My parents worked a bunch of cash jobs for money under the table to make ends meet. My mom would go clean other people's houses 4 or 5 evenings a week after working full time, and she'd usually bring me along to clean with her. Dad would mow lawns, and you know who got called along for that.

And my parents pushed education HARD. They had that 2000s Gen X mindset where they were seeing the American Dream slip between their fingers, and they knew that they were fukked, but they figured that if I got a degree, I could join the professional class that was still making it.

They knew I needed to do well in school, but they fundamentally didn't know chit about school, because they weren't really educated. So they took a very blue collar approach to it... just pull some overtime and spend a bunch of hours working on it. Between high school, undergrad, and grad school, I studied 7 days a week for about 10 years. Hell, one reason I spent so much time on it was because my mom decided that studying was an acceptable alternative to cleaning.

My parents couldn't name two classes I was enrolled in during high school, but if I was laying around on Christmas break? "Why aren't you studying to get ahead for next semester?" They couldn't tell you what I needed to study, but they just assumed that more time spent on something would be more better. They basically just beat a Pasty Pajeet study ethic into me, because working hard was all they knew.

[eddiehaskell]

They've basically been on a downhill slide from the 1990s on.

My dad was a worker on an electronics manufacturing assembly line from 1984-1999, when China joined the WTO and his employer offshored manufacturing entirely. The $85k he was making back in '99 is still the highest annual salary he's ever earned.

He took chit jobs from contract manufacturers until those roles all dried up around the mid 2000s, then took advantage of government retraining to get a free degree and go become a teacher. He started at the bottom of the teaching payscale, and was literally making $32k in his mid 40s. He spent a while on that, quit because LOL at teaching in 2020, and is now a janitor.

My mom isn't educated and has always worked a litany of chit-tier minimum wage jobs, usually tied in with the government.

I grew up on the poverty line in a 1200 sq ft house my parents bought when times were better, and got free lunches for most of my time at school. My parents worked a bunch of cash jobs for money under the table to make ends meet. My mom would go clean other people's houses 4 or 5 evenings a week after working full time, and she'd usually bring me along to clean with her. Dad would mow lawns, and you know who got called along for that.

And my parents pushed education HARD. They had that 2000s Gen X mindset where they were seeing the American Dream slip between their fingers, and they knew that they were fukked, but they figured that if I got a degree, I could join the professional class that was still making it.

They knew I needed to do well in school, but they fundamentally didn't know chit about school, because they weren't really educated. So they took a very blue collar approach to it... just pull some overtime and spend a bunch of hours working on it. Between high school, undergrad, and grad school, I studied 7 days a week for about 10 years.

My couldn't name two classes I was enrolled in, but if I was laying around on Christmas break? "Why aren't you studying to get ahead for next semester?" They couldn't tell you what I needed to study, but they just assumed that more time spent on something would be more better. They basically just beat a Pasty Pajeet study ethic into me, because working hard was all they knew.

did it pay off in overall life satisfaction/wealth/comfort?

[FAPhaggot]

did it pay off in overall life satisfaction/wealth/comfort?

Not at all. In nominal wages, I earn 3x more now than my parents did combined 10 years ago, and I have a similar if not lower standard of living than they did back then.

On the plus side of the ledger, I drive the same kind of car they had (totalled 12 year old Accord), I don't work weekends, I max my 401k, and I drop around $5k a year on golf. But if you're looking at the big expenses... I live in a 600 sq ft apartment, and they had a paid-off house (bought for $68k in 1991 and paid down aggressively when times were better). And they were paying for two dependents... I'm not in a position to provide for chit.

All workers are sliding down the declining standard-of-living ramp. It's been this way since about the Nixon inflation shock, and it isn't reversing course at all.

I think a lot of it is inevitable, honestly. The post-WWII boom where America hoarded 25% of the world's wealth wasn't going to last forever, and global economic growth was bound to slow down as it started reaching hard resource-related stops in the 21st century.

Anyway, I ended up throwing away my adolescence to be an FA ****ot study robot, and my return on that investment has been being a brokie.

[thesloshedman]

My old man was an iron worker and travelled the country working. Mom worked part time and we lived on a small farm. We didn’t have much money and our house was an old shack. I always worked and had a great work ethic instilled in me from a very young age.

[GatorBoy92]

They've basically been on a downhill slide from the 1990s on.

My dad was a worker on an electronics manufacturing assembly line from 1984-1999, when China joined the WTO and his employer offshored manufacturing entirely. The $85k he was making back in '99 is still the highest annual salary he's ever earned.

He took chit jobs from contract manufacturers until those roles all dried up around the mid 2000s, then took advantage of government retraining to get a free degree and go become a teacher. He started at the bottom of the teaching payscale, and was literally making $32k in his mid 40s. He spent a while on that, quit because LOL at teaching in the 2020s, and is now a janitor.

My mom isn't educated and has always worked a litany of chit-tier minimum wage jobs, usually tied in with the government.

I grew up on the poverty line in a 1200 sq ft house my parents bought when times were better, and got free lunches for most of my time at school. My parents worked a bunch of cash jobs for money under the table to make ends meet. My mom would go clean other people's houses 4 or 5 evenings a week after working full time, and she'd usually bring me along to clean with her. Dad would mow lawns, and you know who got called along for that.

And my parents pushed education HARD. They had that 2000s Gen X mindset where they were seeing the American Dream slip between their fingers, and they knew that they were fukked, but they figured that if I got a degree, I could join the professional class that was still making it.

They knew I needed to do well in school, but they fundamentally didn't know chit about school, because they weren't really educated. So they took a very blue collar approach to it... just pull some overtime and spend a bunch of hours working on it. Between high school, undergrad, and grad school, I studied 7 days a week for about 10 years. Hell, one reason I spent so much time on it was because my mom decided that studying was an acceptable alternative to cleaning.

My parents couldn't name two classes I was enrolled in during high school, but if I was laying around on Christmas break? "Why aren't you studying to get ahead for next semester?" They couldn't tell you what I needed to study, but they just assumed that more time spent on something would be more better. They basically just beat a Pasty Pajeet study ethic into me, because working hard was all they knew.

Not trying to be mean, but you sound like a ungrateful little ch!t.

Yea, so your parents didn't know how to maximize your learning opportunities, but you had them.

And if you used even your basic learning opportunities from grad school, you should be making plenty of money. You just made some bad choices on maximizing the returns.

Being a doctor, for example, is purely grinding out hours memorizing. I don't know what you expect education to be, other than a blue collar work ethic of grinding out hours.

If you're lamenting the fact that you don't have emotional IQ, or social IQ... none of that is taught in PoliSci or Philosophy classes either. And if you want to do any of those classes, you just grind out hours reading Philosophy books and try to answer the questions raised by the books.



I mean, what else is there? Life is a grind.
The Social IQ and Emotional IQ is up to you to build outside of school.
If you're on the MISC, you have plenty of opportunity to build those skills but you choose to complain about it all the time instead.



Your To Do List:
Stop whining and blaming other people like your parents, politicians, and immigrants for your woes.

Join the "Always Bet on Bloat" Workout Thread and hit the fukkin gym.

Armed with your new muscle mass, meet some bros that like to hunt pussy on the weekends.

Shoot off some ropes on an ugly sluts face so to get your training wheels.




And live LIFE you ForeverAlonePh@gg0t - You know what the best part of my day is? For about 10 seconds when I load up my browser and pull up the MISC. Cause I think maybe I'll scroll through a dozen Penis threads and click on a BBMG Incel thread and you won't be there. No goodbye, no see ya later, no nothing. You just left to creampie a 4/10 and raise your creampie with traditional values with a blue collar work ethic. I don't know much, but I know that.

[roosky11]

I'd say upper/middle. Not Rockefeller but they had long esteemed careers (father is still practicing medicine) and were smart/invested with their $$. Growing up we took annual trips, good Christmases, did Boy Scouts and other extraneous activities. I can only remember one time where I was told that I would have to cut back on maybe wanting something but that passed. Pretty much always been afforded and able to do/pursue any avenue I want with their backing and support. Extremely fortunate.

[jmal2000]

Is that why you methed?

Maybe. It was more hanging out with the wrong people. I hung around good tattoo artists but they were from the hood. The real story is I got tricked into doing meth and I got addicted to it.

[PaulJerome]

Best year my dad had was $35k and I had three siblings. We drank cool aid and powdered milk.

Lied about my age when I turned 15 and said I was 16 to get a job at Burger King. Bought my first real estate at 19. Paid off my dad's mortgage. Feels good man.

[Godfrd824]

Parents were pretty well off but my step dad was Jewish and had me washing cars and mowing lawn in the neighborhood when I was 13. Had to get a workers permit at 15 1/2, and work two jobs to get through college.

And I bet you're a better man for it.

As for me, I was always uncomfortable with being poor and could not understand why things had to be the way they are. I still don't understand why we had to be poor. I left my parents house at 15, struggled for 2 years, joined the Army, got out of the Army, struggled some more, then got my shyt together, and here we are.

Maybe. It was more hanging out with the wrong people. I hung around good tattoo artists but they were from the hood. The real story is I got tricked into doing meth and I got addicted to it.

I grew up in the ghetto, and was offered drugs a few times, I always declined, I knew all the neighborhood crack heads, and it didn't seem like most of them were having a good time.

[jmal2000]

I grew up in the ghetto, and was offered drugs a few times, I always declined, I knew all the neighborhood crack heads, and it didn't seem like most of them were having a good time.

Like I said I got tricked into it. I think they wanted me to become a fiend for it to make money off the gringo.

[Destor]

My parents had me quite young and my dad was in his partying phase long after I was born. We spent the first like 10 years of my life living in subsidized housing for University students and my parents didn’t have a car until I was around 10. I remember them writing bogus cheques to one another and cashing them to put food on the table. Then they got sucked into the payday loan stuff before eventually declaring bankruptcy.

They’re doing alright now but I have more at 39 years old than they do at 60+. I was always determined to not have kids too early and to ensure I’m able to provide all the advantages in life.

[Bushmaster]

Grew up poor and lost both parents early, on my own at 16 and joined the military at 18

I definitely feel like I got a much slower start to life because I had to figure everything out on my own and made tons of mistakes

Finally made it and found my way. Now have immense resentment for anyone who grew up rich lol

I don't have any resentment towards rich people, but I feel you on the figuring everything out on my own and making a shiit ton of mistakes.

But I grew up in Appalachia in a town with less than 1k people in soul crushing poverty. Literally the highest unemployment in the entire state, and my dad worked when he could - which wasn't very often. Food was scarce sometimes, and our car died when I was a kid and we couldn't afford another one - which meant I had to walk home from wrestling practice every evening. It was only a couple of miles, so no real biggie - unless it rained. And I could have gotten a ride from most anybody easily, but I was always way too embarrassed to ask.

But that was the gist of it.. Like you and others have said, the military was an enormous gift to me too because it helped me to escape and start to figure things out.

[LogicalLifts]

Mini lifestory time.

At 11, my school had no idea what to do with me, so they cleared out a broom closet, put a desk in there, called it my office and left my to teach myself.

Did GCSEs at 13, A levels at 15 and had offers to start college at 16.

I was broke and not socially ready for college, so I worked until 18.

I arrived at college with more experience of "the real world", and an undertstanding of why I was there, than anybody else I knew. I wasn't there to please my parents, or have fun for a few years, I was there as a way out.

Head hunted from college.

After a few years I set up on my own.

People pull faces at my working 80 hour weeks for 20 years, which just tells me that they have never been truly hungry.

Growing up broke gave me a work ethic that the comfy middle class kids just didn't have.

Thanks for sharing.

There are middle class folks that have that hunger - I have seen them rise up.

But yes growing up without much can instill the will you are taliing about.

I grew up in the sort of place where at school I saw someone never doing homework. I asked him what he wanted to be (I was 11, had skipped two grades as well) and he said "live off my parents' money".

Now that I am a father my drive has gone a little into overdrive. Considering so many options at the moment and hence wondered how much of this is a direct result of my upbringing, or me.

[alltrapbrah]

Not wealthy, but we weren’t short on money. Very middle class I’d say.

[DuracellBunny]

Now that I am a father my drive has gone a little into overdrive. Considering so many options at the moment and hence wondered how much of this is a direct result of my upbringing, or me.

All of the above. Your upbringing creates your buttons and your environment and personality determine which ones get pressed.

Becoming a father mellowed me out. I had already decided to cut from 80 hours a week to 40 and be the best father I could be - same mentality as work, if I was going to do it, I was going to be the best at it. It's pure ego and a stupid way to feel regarding parenthood.

When she was born, I stopped thinking about it and starting feeling it/living it. Yes, it's my duty to be a good father, but the fact is I simply enjoy it.

Her life and her kid's lives are already fully paid for. Nothing I do workwise will increase her quality of life from a financial perspective, although it is currently increasing her quality of life from a social perspective.

My office has a creche and if my wife or I only need to go in for a couple of hours, we have started taking her with us, as she loves playing with the other kids in the creche.

[LogicalLifts]

Yeah, I've actually caught feels for some fairly plain/nerdy girl at work (I like the cute nerdy and I also really like intelligence). Who would have thought? I haven't pursued it so far though, but I might cave.
That being said - yeah, my economic situation is better (especially since my mom was a stay at home).

Grats on both counts. Catching feels after so long must feel good, no? And on the economic situation too breh. Happy for you, especially relative to your parents.

The most cookie cutter as you can be I was that family in the movie American Pie, Varsity Blues etc we were generic AF lmao. Not Wealthy but median I guess.

Generic AF? But, were you that happy? Sounds pretty awesome srs.

nope. slept on the floor of a rented converted 2 car garage until i was 5. Parents went from Garage->1bdr Apt->Duplex->Ranch home. Financed my own wardrobe and activities since first job when i was 15. My family and brothers and sisters now are thriving in the most expensive places to live in the world.

That's a skyrocketing level of wealth - do you and your siblings share the wealth, or did you all achieve it entirely independently from one another?

[Sevenlionz]

Yeah at his peak my dad was making probably $300-$400k / year for many years and mom had a part time job as a teacher for fun / keep herself busy

Ngl it messed up my relationship with money for a long time

[r32gojirra]

Yeah at his peak my dad was making probably $300-$400k / year for many years and mom had a part time job as a teacher for fun / keep herself busy

Ngl it messed up my relationship with money for a long time

How so

Reps for key points serious

Do you think the old man should have been more low key with his money?

[Sevenlionz]

How so

Reps for key points serious

Do you think the old man should have been more low key with his money?

He grew up with him & his entire family extremely poor in Mexico. I’m talking like 15+ people in 1 tiny house. When he came to US he grinded extremely hard, full time medical school, 2 jobs, pregnant wife, etc and “made it”. But because of his upbringing and never wanting us to experience what he did, from pretty much my birth me and my siblings were spoiled to hell. Never had to lift a finger for anything. I legit never even understood the concept of work or money or anything until he finally cut me off a few years ago. And because my relationship with money was so fukd it really gave me a terrible time in my mid 20s. I think spoiling your kids is one of the worst things you can do as a parent even though there is the inclination to do it cause you love them.

[Godfrd824]

He grew up with him & his entire family extremely poor in Mexico. I’m talking like 15+ people in 1 tiny house. When he came to US he grinded extremely hard, full time medical school, 2 jobs, pregnant wife, etc and “made it”. But because of his upbringing and never wanting us to experience what he did, from pretty much my birth me and my siblings were spoiled to hell. Never had to lift a finger for anything. I legit never even understood the concept of work or money or anything until he finally cut me off a few years ago. And because my relationship with money was so fukd it really gave me a terrible time in my mid 20s. I think spoiling your kids is one of the worst things you can do as a parent even though there is the inclination to do it cause you love them.

He gave you no tools to succeed, and when you failed as expected he cut you off.