Great Granny and The Girl rockin’ out circa 2003
We live in such a different world than our grandparents grew up in, and I’m not just talking from a technology standpoint. Sure there was no iAnything and no self-driving cars, but today I’m focused on the financial differences of the times. What are some money woes or worries we have to deal with today that our grandparents could never dream of? Back when life seemed just a little simpler, although arguably less advanced, grandma wasn’t toting around a cell phone or paying for it.
She was whipping up a home-cooked meal, from scratch and most likely from her garden, and probably could not fathom eating out monthly, much less daily! She wasn’t paying for cable or internet service, didn’t have Dish Network or a TV in every room to play it on, didn’t cough up $10 to Netflix and Hulu and Amazon Prime to drop a package on her doorstep next day. But those are all little bills {that certainly add up, of course!}. What are some major differences between what finances looked like 50 years ago?
There was very little debt: They worked, got paid and then spent all or part of that money, no more. They might have bartered or done some trading of services, and occasionally the bank did give out loans, but they weren’t in debt up tot heir eyeballs. Debt was seen as a last resort. You lived within your means, you helped your neighbors if they were struggling, you avoided extravagant spending that could get you into trouble. Massive car loans and boat loans and house loans and second house loans and equity loans and RV loans and vacation loans and loans for everything under the sun just didn’t exist. 50 years ago, the average debt hovered right around $5,000. That’s it. Today, the average debt is around $130,000.* Wowza!
There were no credit cards: Same thing goes for credit cards. They didn’t exist as a crutch to fund overspending. Do I think credit cards are awesome when used properly for their rewards and not abused? Sure! Would my grandparents agree? Absolutely not. When credit cards became the norm and people began to rack up credit card debt, initially the elderly were not among them.
Student loans didn’t exist: This one is two-fold. Our grandparents didn’t have heaps of student loan debt not only because student loans weren’t readily available to them, but because a much larger percentage didn’t go to college. So with the increase in educational opportunities comes a massive increase in student loan debt. According to Student Loan Hero, almost 45 million Americans have student loans, averaging over $50,000 a piece. {That might also have to do with the cost of college fees and tuition rising by nearly 500 percent, but that’s another post for another day!}.
Health care wasn’t crazy expensive: Sixty years ago, the yearly cost, on average, for healthcare was around $130 per person. That’s it. It’s now over $10,000 per person. That’s kind of an insane jump, even taking inflation into account. And yes, that $130 would have stretched quite a bit farther back then, but if I would have asked my grandma if she could ever envision a world in which we’d pay over $10,000 per year for health care, she would have laughed at me.
Great Gramps and Monkey Boy circa 2001
Retirement was guaranteed: In my grandparent’s era, you worked for a company, were loyal to that company, gave them many good years and then they took care of you after retirement. It was really that simple. It’s much more complicated these days, as studies have shown that the pension plan that supported our grandparents was somewhat flawed {which was realized when the money ran dry!}. So these days, it’s pretty much up to the individual to save for their own retirement.
No one stole your identity online: Because the world wide web wasn’t even a term people were familiar with 50 years ago, having someone steal your social, all the money from your accounts and your entire identity by typing a few keys seems like crazy talk. There was no constant monitoring of accounts or credit reports watching and waiting not for the if, but for the when. Sadly, those Mayberry days are over and identity theft is a technology trade-off most people will be affected by sometime in their lives.
And there you have just some of the things our grandparents never had to worry about when it comes to money. Anymore you can think of? Do tell!
~Mavis
Em says
I love the photos.
This weekend, I found a letter between my grandfather and another relative. Enclosed in the letter was a letter from the Federal Land Bank of New Orleans (in 1934; the stamp cost three cents). My grandfather was applying for a loan. An excerpt of the text follows.
Dear Sir:
Your application for a loan of $2000.00 has been approved as a Land Bank Commissioner’s first mortgage loan of $1425.00 over a period of ten years provided you comply with the following conditions:
1. That you fully pay and satisfy all of your outstanding debts.
2. That the sum of $150.00 be retained until you have properly and adequately terraced all of your cultivable land.
3. That the further sum of $50.00 be retained until you have reroofed your main barn, this and the above work to be subject to the inspection and approval of a representative of the Federal Land Bank.
4. That insurance for the maximum amount obtainable or not less than $450.00 be placed on your main dwelling with loss payable clause attached to the policy as indicated on the attached slip.
—
There is more, but I thought you might enjoy reading the conditions. This was all manually typed on a typewriter. No form letter printed by a laser printer.
Have a great rest of your day!
Practical Parsimony says
And, there was no full page of fine print with words that had to be looked up to fully understand the implications.
Charla says
I like that in the past someone didn’t look at your credit to see your worth. I get penalized each year by my insurance company because I don’t have debt. This means I have more money but companies see me as a bigger risk because my credit score is a 0. This is ridiculous!
Mrs says
This is SO true. Us debt-free people have more money, more assets and LOWER credit scores! That’s insane!
Sarah says
When my grandparents were raising my dad in the 50s, they didn’t spend a chunk of their income on extracurricular activities and the transport involved. If Dad wanted to play baseball, he met up with the neighbor kids at the school yard. Club soccer didn’t exist. After school he was taught life skills by his parents for free; car maintenance, carpentry, gardening, hunting.
Today’s busy-ness is expensive. Parents drive all over creation for Tai Kwon Do, Ballet, Piano, Basketball, specialty camps, etc. The offerings here are endless and it’s really easy to get sucked into the belief that if you don’t invest in the organized activities your child won’t be “well rounded” or they’ll never catch up to their peers if they don’t get started by age 10. Some parents have the attitude that these are investments toward college scholarships. Really?!
I feel like I use restraint, but my 2 kiddos still take a group music class, one takes swim lesson and I just signed the other up for a five week art class. As much as they love it all, I regularly wonder if these are the best uses of time and money.
Wendy M says
I have a comment which has totally nothing to do with the article, which was great by the way! I noticed in the first picture that there were two hanukiahs on the mantle in the midst of all the christmas stuff. 🙂 My family quit celebrating Christmas about 4 years ago and began celebrating Hanukkah instead. 🙂 Just thought the decor combination was interesting.
AJ says
Yes, I noticed that too and was curious whether Mavis and co celebrate Hanukkah, or is that just the great-grandparents?
Brianna says
I think my grandparents saved money for what they needed and knew the difference between wants/needs/luxuries. They didn’t go on extravagent trips or post to social media to get validation for how they spent their money. I get annoyed with the gofundme/crowdfunding solicitations people do to ‘raise’ money. My grandparents didn’t raise money for anything. They saved up and established a dry cleaning business. Grandma worked in the front and did the mending and Granddad did the cleaning. They saved their business earnings for their retirement and didn’t rely on a pension. My father and his brother were also expected to help out…..cleaning the business, starting dinner, etc. Nowadays, kids feel entitled someone owes them something financial if they help or they won’t help at all. I hired a neighborhood kid to mow my lawn for a few months because I had a newborn and he expected a tip every time, even made comments about how the tip wasn’t included in his rate.
Lauren G says
The tip idea is ridiculous. I’m just flabbergasted thinking about it!
Kristina says
So many changes in the modern world! Life expectancies were shorter, therefore shorter retirements after age 65, making it so companies had to pay out fewer years on pensions. Health care was cheaper, partly due to the fact that it hasn’t been so very long that medical science could do much for you in the first place (apropos to my first point). Both of those cases are a mixed bag, I think. But all of the nickel and dime stuff you mention costs us more than just money. We visit with each other in person less, read less, make less music and entertainment ourselves, our kids spend a lot less time in creative and undirected outdoor play, and we nourish our bodies and souls with less good food made by loving hands. We’re not just cheating ourselves out of our money, we’re paying someone to take away our lives.
renay says
Wow. That was well said.
Mable says
One of my earliest memories is walking to my grandpa’s job (a block away) to meet him and walk home with him. On Friday, I stood in line next to him and watched him sign as he was paid IN CASH for his workweek. From there he walked over to the owner’s wife, who handed him a fresh loaf of the challah she made for each worker every Friday, as an extra thanks for being a good worker. The owners were Jewish and my grandfather was Catholic, the only non-Jewish employee I eventually learned when Grandpa ran the business alone on certain Jewish holy days, but the wife still included him in this sweet ritual. (There were about 20 employees, so a lot of bread baking in her kitchen on Friday mornings!)
Laura says
Oh I just love this story! So neat to see how Grandpa was a treasured employee treated with such respect. Not something you hear about much these days.
Amanda says
Another reason there wasn’t as much student loan debt is that a lot of state schools were tuition free for residents. There were expenses like books and supplies, but most could go to school and maybe just have to work a few hours a week at Bobs Big bot and the like
Linda M says
I am retired and can see the difference from when my husband and I married, when my parents raised me and what my grandparents’ lifes were like….to what my grandchildren’s lifes are like. As previsous commentors mentioned, the youth now are so involved in sports or extra ciricular activities…don’t hold down jobs or often do not do chores. This wasn’t the case when I grew up or my previous ancestors. However, medical care has indeed gotten more expensive…but so much better and thorough. I have experience three different health events that had I been born 40-50 years sooner, would have meant death for me. I also have seen strides in equal careers for my daughter and granddaughter….that may have been iffy in my generation….impossible in my mother’s. Food safety and abundance exists now….not necessarily in my grandparent’s. Both sets of grandparents were raising children during the depression and putting a meal on the table was next to impossible at times…..that made my parents also want to save everything…not just money. We are indeed changing and some things we are losing are scary…we need to save. However, we are gaining in some ways that I sure hope never go away. Just hoping we all learn from the past and keep the good also.
Marcia says
So many things were different. 50 years ago I wasn’t quite born yet.
First, you didn’t necessarily retire from a company and get taken care of. Yes, it was more common, but no, it wasn’t incredibly common – in 1980, it was about 60%. By the time my father retired, he was on SS and a very tiny pension, because trucking deregulation in the 80s dissolved many jobs for truck mechanics.
My grandfather and uncles didn’t have pensions either.
People did still go into debt for things like health care, but they were maybe easier to pay off. I had surgery at age 12 (1982), and it was $6000. My parents had no insurance, but paid it off at $100 a month for 5 years.
Health care was cheaper, but people died earlier. There’s just more health care available now, for one thing. It’s great, people live longer. But it costs more.
There were fewer bills (no internet, netflix, cable, cell phones), but you didn’t need them back then either. Imagine how a 6th grader is going to do his homework without internet (note: in my school, it’s not possible.)
As far as being more involved in extra things…yes, that is true, but that’s more a function of general life. My sisters were in sports back then, but it was all at school. Now though, there are more kids, and there’s no guarantee you’ll “make the team”. If you aren’t good enough for the school team, then you are out of luck?
Also, the percentage of 2-working families has gone way up. My kids get out of school a few hours before we get out of work, so having scheduled extracurricular activities is simply helpful.
Pat, Clackamas Or says
Mavis, my comment is on your desire to stay at home more than go out. I, like you, have found that not having to go out everyday or every few days is much more enjoyable too. When i have to leave the house I always feel as though I’ve lost most of the day. There are many things i enjoy doing at home like, gardening, sewing, cooking, reading and staying up
With things at home. You can’t have a good productive garden if you don’t tend to it. Sometimes i feel like my life spirals out of control if I go out running around a lot. Now i know there are many times we need to go out for errands, doctors, grocery shopping and help take care of others. I try to combine these into single days. You have a kindred spirit here, Mavis! I wonder how many others feel the same way???
Linda Sand says
Women didn’t spend money on fashion. You had several house dresses, one or two Sunday dresses, and, maybe, a party dress or two. That was it. If you had a walk-in closet it was because it was under the slanted roof so you had to watch your head.
Sandy says
Linda, I remember this as well. My parents had a single slide door closet — that they shared! My mom had a dresser and my dad had a dresser. In a 14 x 10 “Master Bedroom”. My Mom had a few dressy dresses for church and the rest of it was stay at home clothing. Not yoga pants or sweat pants. My Dad mostly wore Levis and Sears work shirts.
I have a large walk in closet brimming with clothes. That difference alone amazes me. But I have a healthy fear of debt and do just about anything to not acquire more. My debt mostly stems from medical debt, which I put on a credit card and pay off as I can.
Linda says
I grew up in the 50s and 60s. Sure, my parents only had to pay $84 for the hospital bill when I was born in1951, but 18 years after that, in 1969, my Dad only made $63 a week. As a kid I remember we made most of the Christmas gifts we gave each other. My parents didn’t buy a car, or have a license to drive, until I was about 12, and we didn’t have TV until I was 10. It takes a lot of saving to buy a TV when you make $63 per month. And I’m not sure, but I bet they bought it for cash, because they hated credit.
The oddest part is, I never realized that we were poor. Daily life was good, my parents loved me, and we never went without food or clothing.