To feel poor compared to when I was a child growing up

[Keepgoing88]

I'm curious to know if there are many people out there who as a family are less well off than when growing up? We are not poor but I do feel a lot less well off than my parents were. We haven't been on a foreign holiday for few years (prob could afford a not so fancy one though). We could never afford the house I grew up in and sometimes struggle to break even on a month (large mortgage etc). It gets me down that I feel the standard of living we have is less than when I grew up. Does anyone else experience a similar situation? My DH feels fine but we are considerably better off than he was growing up.

We were comfortably off, I now realise, but one parent 'lost' the money. This was by appalling financial mismanagement and failed investment losing a lot of money.
I managed to get a mortgage on a small flat only for the financial crisis to hit me very badly with negative equity so for me it was like from riches to rags.
Managed to weather the storm with years of hard work and now am 'safer' I hope but I still resent the lost opportunities and the fact that the parent ignored my financial advice not to gamble which the parent then did.
I was definitely not spoilt, though.

I used to feel like this but then most of my kids moved out, my job improved and I realised I now have some equity in my house so I'm not as bad off as I thought.

The thing is, no one has any real money (unless they're super rich) whilst you have kids and a mortgage... but it does get better.

I would always recommend working for the NHS even as a health care assistant or admin. You get regular pay rises, albeit small, paid sick pay and holiday pay that increases the longer you're there and a decent pension... those small things go a long way when you're on minimum wage.

Fascinating thread. I’m better off now but grew up in a house where money was very tight. Parents had managed to buy a nice house and keep food in the table but luxuries were very limited, lots of hand-me-downs, one out of school activity each for me and my brother and holidays were a rarity. I felt like one of poorer ones at my terrible state schools, but definitely wasn’t the poorest. My family was stable and believed in the value of education. My one ambition was to get a professional job and earn a really good salary, which I managed to do. So now much better off financially, children in private schools, but in terms of stress, commuting and juggling everything all the time, not as rich.

I’m much more comfortable than my parents ever have been .
Richtea- I really don’t think credit was more widely available in the 80’s . Nowadays it’s easier to keep up with the Jones because of credit . In the 80’s people tended to buy cars they could afford outright and holidays definitely weren’t as much of a “need”.

Luxury stuff like holidays also tends to have got more affordable, if you think how cheap budget flights and Air B and B make things now, even compared to the fairly recent past like the 80s. Whereas the major basic necessity, housing, has become a lot more expensive. So you get a weird situation where people are working more and harder for their housing but often are able to afford more of the less significant luxuries.