How wealthy was your family?

[Elspode]

Originally Posted by monster

Exactly. That's why I was asking Els his perception after using that term.

I was definitely speaking from the American notion of class. We don't have peerage or royal lineage in this country, so class separations are pretty much entirely based on wealth. To say that we were lower middle class could be summarized, say, like this: We owned our own home (after a couple of years of renting). We had two cars, never even close to new, but not total beaters, either. I had my own car when I turned 16 purchased with my own funds from my jobs which I started working at 15. We ate very simply, oftentimes creamed chipped beef on toast or potato pancakes for dinner. No one ate breakfast, lunch was sandwiches. Desserts, such as ice cream, were rare treats. We had one television, black and white, until 1973, when we bought our first color set, a shelf demo on clearance. We did not take vacations or attend society functions. The most expensive Christmas present I *ever* got probably cost $10 in those days. I bought my own bicycles with my own money. My stepdad fixed our cars or took them to people he knew would barter his skills for theirs even up. We didn't pay for auto service of any kind. Clothing came from the cheapest possible outlet, and hand me downs from my better off relatives were common.

Does this clear it up at all?

[Happy Monkey]

We lived very frugally, but my parents were saving up so they could help us kids through college and beyond.

[lookout123]

The factories in my area closed down in the late '70's and '80's. Mom had 5 heart attacks in 3 years. Dad lost an eye in an accident. Dad did the best he could, considering that everyone else was scrounging for work, too. He travelled to set up circus tents. He stood in line for government cheese (got it home to find it moldy). He worked a whole winter for a farmer who was also broke, but paid him in meat. He did odd jobs when he could find them. We ate a lot of cabbage soup.

I didn't know we were poor until I was old enough to put all the pieces together. One Christmas a couple of families from the church bought an insane amount of presents for the whole family, broke into our house while we were gone, and left a note from santa. The same group also made contact with the bank and brought the mortgage current. It was never in danger of foreclosure, but it was rolling late.

I was 27 when I made more than he had ever made in his life. I threw up when I found out that I paid more for a car than he'd paid for the house I grew up in.

[SteveDallas]

Mom was a teacher for 35+ years, mostly first grade and kindergarten, but she taught everything up to 8th grade at one time or another. Dad sold fishing tackle most of the time. (He's still doing the janitor job--I think he's going to hang it up after Christmas, but I wouldn't be surprised if he stays on a while longer.)

I would say we were solidly middle middle class. Nothing much fancy, and there were times money was tight, especially the early 1980s. Mom worked nights & weekends at Sears for a time during this period. It very straightforward--I'm sure things were very tight for it to get to that point, but of course they never confided their money concerns with the kids. We certainly didn't get everything we wanted, but there were usually nice Christmas gifts and such. (Santa Claus always managed to omit some gifts... looking back with a parent's eye, I see that they were the ones with lots of "extras" to be bought later--more action figures, more expansion units, etc.) While my mom also perpetrated the powdered milk on us (yum!), there was never any perception on my part that we were skimping on groceries.

Getting through those lean times was surely helped by the house--a 3 bedroom ranch, they bought it new in 1964 I believe, for $20,000, and paid for it with a 6% 20-year mortgage. I'm sure by 1980 the payments seemed relatively modest.

[Aliantha]

We weren't wealthy, but we weren't poor either. Mum and Dad always had enough to pay the bills and they paid off the family home by the time I was a teenager. Dad worked hard and did plenty of overtime as an electrician. Mum stayed home and took care of us kids and the house etc. We used to go on camping holidays and saw most of Australia that way as kids but everything was done on a tight budget.

Now my dad would be classed as wealthy by most people's standards although you wouldn't know it to look at his lifestyle. He grows his own veges etc and is pretty self sufficient on his farm and he has a reasonable number of investments which guarantee him a pretty secure retirement.

I'm glad my folks didn't splurge on stuff we didn't really need, even though as a kid I always felt like we (me and my brother) were hard done by. It's good to see your parents living with enough to keep themselves happy and to not have to worry about them, and it also taught me some pretty valuable lessons although I know my lifestyle is far less frugal than my parents would like.

[Ibby]

Lower-upper-middle class?
Military dad, mom works partly-full time. Military pays for our house, electricity, water, school, etc here, which is good. Very little spending money, our cash is usually pretty tight, but we do have a lot of, well, stuff. We each have a laptop, we have a pretty nice widescreen LCD TV, i have a nice guitar and a nice amp, a decent allowance... we're pretty well-off i suppose, but like i said, actual spending money is usually pretty tight. I think we come out thissss close to overspending every month, usually only have a little bit of a surplus every month... but I'm not exactly in charge of home finance of anything.

[DucksNuts]

I always thought my parents did it tough.

Well, they did....I have 3 older siblings (I am the baby by 9 years) and there is not even a year between each of them. Dad was a farm hand, Mum was a SAHM and used to help cook for shearers etc.

When we moved into the *city*, Mum started working full time and I guess things got better, but I wouldnt of known it.

It appears my parents were very frugal, I lacked a lot of niceties, but not necessities. They always paid their bills in advance and there was always money if we needed it. They owned their house and land quite quickly.

Mum never impulse bought and I was never treated to anything when we were out shopping. She made my school uniforms and special occasion outfits.

When I wanted my first horse, I had to earnthe cash by milking the neighboring farms cows and raising poddie calves.

I didnt have a saddle until I could afford to buy it, well, actually....a rich Uncle helped there.

My parents still act like they do it tough, but I help out enough with their finances to know they are very comfortable and I admire them for the way they live.

Has it influenced the way I live now? Not me, but I see it in my youngest brother...hes very much a hoarder and frugal type person.

[Brett's Honey]

Lower class. Dad was 17, Mom 15 when they married - had three kids by ages of 19 & 20! Dad was a "rolling stone". Always a small cheap rent house, we did eat out at a local cafe a couple times a month. Dad always had money for a 6 or 12 pack after work, and more on the week-ends, though. And almost always money to go camping for a week in Arkansas or Missouri for a summer vacation. Never were really hungry and without food.
I do have one painful memory...in 8th grade, one kinda snobby upper class girl asked me, around several other kids while walking out of a classroom, "So are those the only two dresses you own?! (One was obviously from the previous year and being outgrown fast.) Another girl quickly leaned over and quietly said that that remark had been mean and out of line, but that was little consolation at the time.
But....Dad spent the money on other things, I had just a few motorcycle T shirts and a couple pair of second hand jeans for a wardrobe, but I also had a brand new Honda CL 125 for my 13th birthday in 1973! It was all I had asked for and I begged for it for two years, and got it. My brother had a sponsor, moto-cross racing and I rode his bike around the house, but you could get your motorcycle license at 13 in Arkansas. I had wheels and was on the road!
What was the question...?...on yeah...lower class.....

[Flint]

_____: My family was sooo wealthy!

Spexx: How wealthy were they?

_____: They were sooo wealthy that it invalidates all my opinions in any discussion about economics!

[theotherguy]

As we have gotten older, my brother and I have figure out that we were poorer than we thought. My dad was a firefighter and retired making $26,000/yr from the city. However, as most firefighters do, he had a side business. Some years were wonderful. Some, not so much. He had one side that went bankrupt, but always seemed to rebound. I remember times when my mom would be upset from collection calls, but we never lost a house or car. My mom was a stay-at-home mom. It was a choice my parents decided they would stick to no matter what. My parents did have a friend who owned a temp agency and mom would work for him from time to time. She was actually very sought after by everyone she ever worked for due to her office skills. Very bright woman.

There were times that there was barely any food in the house, but we would only realize that later in life. My parents once created a dish they called b.o.a.r (beef, onions, and rice) because that was all that was in the cabinets. Our house was always fun and my brother and I never really thought about money. There were many things we did not get because may parents could not afford it, but we always had what we needed.

I have to give my parents a ton of credit. They might have been strapped at times, but it never stopped them from being wonderful parents and keeping our family happy.

[Spexxvet]

Originally Posted by Flint

_____: My family was sooo wealthy!

Spexx: How wealthy were they?

_____: They were sooo wealthy that it invalidates all my opinions in any discussion about economics!

Come here - I'll invalidate your mouth with my dick.

[theotherguy]

Spexx, you say the sweetest things.

[BigV]

Spexx, you have an invalid dick?

Dude, they have medicine for that now. Don't worry, if it works for Bob Dole, who's partly paralyzed, I'm sure it will work for you too..

[DanaC]

I would say my family had a fairly working-class income. Dad was a maintenance electrician, working nights for 25 years (prior to that he had a failed attempt at setting up a vacuum repair business with his mate). He was pretty well paid, but he worked long hours for it and was basically nocturnal. Mum worked in admin then started Nursing college when I was 7. She injured her back and had to give it up a few weeks before her finals. She ended up back in admin, part-time for a few years then trained as a phlebotomist and again worked part-time.

In some ways my life was more comfortable than my peers: mum and dad owned their house and it was a nice little stone cottage, with two living rooms and big kitchen, a yard and a small garden at front. Always had nice Christmas pressies (which my mum would finish paying for shortly before the next ones were due :P) and had regular pocket money. But we rarely went on holiday (maybe four or five times by the time I was 15) and it was usually just a week in a caravan in Yorkshire.

We intermittently had a car (cheap, second hand) and I think I was about 6 when we got a phone.

Mostly what I remember is a fairly priveleged existence where i had everything i needed and some of what I wanted. What I didn't notice at the time was mum making food stretch :P Mince and onion pies made with half mincemeat, half soya. Lots of spagh bol, broth, and curries. Most meals were of the big pot variety, or involved a pastry crust. As a 'special treat', Sundays usually involved slices of cheese and onion pie and a plate of meat paste sandwiches. It of course never occurred to me that this was a very cheap treat:P

Culturally I had a foot in two camps. Dad was from a well-to-do family of the Indian Raj, and his brother and cousins had done quite well (graduates, professionals, business-people) and visits to them introduced me to that culture. Mum had grown up in Salford, and though her family had recovered itself by the time she was in her early teens, her early years were in extreme poverty. She made sure that my brother and I understood what poverty can mean to people.

[monster]

thanks, Els.