How things change

[kelliem]

The other night we had a family get-together, and as is her wont upon occasion, my mother couldn't resist being critical of my weight and my spendthrift ways. When I commented that it was very hard to save money while being the sole support for my kid-unit, she shook her head and said "Well, you know, the most your dad ever made in his life was $2200.00 and he supported 4 of us on that and still managed to save. You make more than that now." I gritted my teeth and pointed out that inflation makes a big difference. When I got home, I was still seething a bit so I went online and found an inflation calculator. The first one I found gave me this information:

What cost $2200 in 1973 would cost $9713.88 in 2005. Also, if you were to buy exactly the same products in 2005 and 1973, they would cost you $2200 and $498.26 respectively.

The second one I found, on NASA's site, gave me a slightly different result of $2200.00 = $9116.800000000001, but that's still a HUGE difference.

I make approximately 1/3 of what my dad made at his earning peak. No wonder I am always broke, rent instead of own, cannot save, and generally feel stressed about money most of the time. :-P

Comments

[chickwriter.livejournal.com]

OMG, your mother is channeling my mother v1.0. Mom is now quite happy to ignore all these things, mostly because I moved 1600 miles away. But I feel your pain, sweetie. Parents can be so clueless.

::Hugs you muchly::

[kelliem.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I hear a lot of people say it sounds like their mom-- I think it may be a generational thing in part... is your mom old enough to have gone through the Depression?

[imkalena.livejournal.com]

My mom did. While she has her own quirks, I'm extroardinarily grateful that picking on me (or anybody else) isn't one of them.

[chickwriter.livejournal.com]

Definitely generational. My mom would have been in Great Depression had she been in this country. I was born in Cuba in '58. :)

But, when we came to U.S., we went from a fairly well-off family to a family with nearly nothing - so I'm sure that's where it all comes from. That, plus my father was a terrific spender and my mother, by nature is a saver.