How wealthy was your family?

[monster]

Originally Posted by Cloud

American ideas of class are so different than in the UK; I'm not even sure the ideas translate. "Class" and "working class" don't have the same connotations.

Elspode says "lower middle class"; I would say "upper middle class" for me. Such a wide spectrum. Class here is much more based on wealth, but they are not precisely the same thing.

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

[bluecuracao]

My mother and father were still in college when they got married and had me, so money was very tight (like food stamps tight) back then. Things got somewhat better after they finished school--my parents were able to purchase an old Victorian-style house and renovate it slowly. I'd say my family was not quite middle-class financially, but being involved in the art world, we got to enjoy the upper-crustier cultural and social side, too. We had an old used car and grass wouldn't grow on our lawn, but the fancy benefit art shows and parties at the mayor's house balanced it out.

[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?

[Undertoad]

Grandparents of old money and upper crust (Yale - Skull & Bones) on Mom's side, 1st generation to go to college gets a Master's on Dad's side. And then Dad died when I was 3, Mom went into a sort of depression-era money tightness to protect us when her family did not really help out. I didn't know what it was at the time, but it felt like scratching for every last dime as she worked at making and selling artistic crafts. It's not exactly a high-paying situation, the craft world. This background of seeing rich and poor and having respect for the everyday art of the lower classes, made me a well-rounded child ready to examine the world, and I thank Mom for it.

[elSicomoro]

For the first 5 years of my life, it was essentially just my mom and I. She eked out a living for us, with my grandparents assisting. There were a few times when we were two steps from the curb. My parents divorced before I was 2...my father was a piece of shit then as he is now.

My mom married my stepdad shortly before I turned 6, and had my brother just before I turned 7. We were essentially lower middle class...my mom was awful with money and my stepdad let her handle the bills. They declared bankruptcy twice growing up. My brother and I went to Catholic school, and there were a couple of times when we almost got thrown out for being late on the bills.

My parents are generally better with their money now. They have a nice small house and two newer cars and seem to be able to make ends meet with money to put in savings. I had hoped not to make the mistakes they did, but essentially wound up following in their footsteps, filing for bankruptcy almost 3 years ago.

I dunno...being laid up due to my heart condition 2 years ago really put a lot of things in perspective for me, and I've been trying valiantly to put into practice what I learned from my (and others') missteps. I'm winning the battle, though it's tough. But that's alright, because I'm ornery by nature.

[Clodfobble]

I never knew how much money my father makes, and I honestly still don't know. He's very secretive about money. I know how much the city says his house is worth, but I also know that the neighborhood has skyrocketed since they bought the place when I was three. I know it got a lot harder for him when my parents divorced, and he was suddenly paying for everything himself. He did a really good job of keeping it secret, though--the only time he ever let anything slip was one time I added shampoo to the grocery list and he said, "Do you really need this?" and I just stared at him blankly and he quickly moved on.

As an adult I learned that he had taken some pretty significant loans from friends, and was just at that point in the stages of paying them off. But he made sure we did okay in the end--my overall impression was we were just getting by, through insanely responsible money handling. I remember multiple lectures on financial responsibility. We took vacations, but always with frequent flier miles and free hotel stays from his extensive work traveling. I had a job starting at 15, so at that point I was paying for almost all my own clothing and entertainment desires. I went to college on a full scholarship, holding anywhere from one to three jobs at a time. During college he would occasionally ask if I needed any money, but I had such a huge sense of pride that I always turned him down. I also never cashed my grandmother's $5 birthday checks every year, starting around the age of 10. I was aware that she was "poor," living in a nasty house way out in the country, and felt uncomfortable taking her money.

[Cicero]

They started out poor- my dad married a woman with 4 kids. But he worked his way up the ranks in the military until we became middle class. We traveled more than most in the middle-class. I think my head is still spinning from all that movement...Daddy was a Col. in the Air Force. It really doesn't matter how rich you are when you spend your life on military bases. It's really quite drab no matter what. Now he's a Director of the Southern Branches for a prominent health insurance firm. I think they all retire into the same company. I'm pretty sure I met some of those guys while they were still in the military. Well- I know I did.......But I still ate just as much Ramen and mayonnaise sandwiches as everyone else....I think.

*Yes it is ironic that my father is a supposed healthcare provider. Well seems a little ironic right now......I'll get over it.*

[queequeger]

Three phases: When I was a very wee tike (almost too young to remember), mom and dad made furniture out of cardboard boxes, and we had a 13" black and white wheelie TV. Mom stayed at home and dad was NCO range enlisted, so not too much cash.

When I was elementary school-age we'd just started to get comfortable middle-middle class. Then dad retired from the AF and started going to school, so we started watching money more. Not as bad as cardboard boxes, but we did stay with my grandparents for a few months, rented their house for super cheap, and then moved into a double wide trailer. It was a nice double wide, but it was a trailer nonetheless.

Finally my dad got his PhD, my mom's 100 person telecommunications company exploded to reach out to most of the midwest and got a promotion (and stocks to include). So like 3 months before I left for college, they built their own house. Now they have a new car, large TV, they jet around the country, take cruises and go skiing/canoing/camping every friggin weekend.

[elSicomoro]

And you wish they'd give it all up and live on the farm, right?

[queequeger]

No, I just wish it happened sooner so I could have had a big screen in HS.

[Cloud]

some of it may have to do with how old and established in their own lives parents are when they have kids. I was the baby, many years after my sisters, and my parents were in their 40s when I was born. So, more money. Whereas I had my own kids young, and we were poor as dirt.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Military housing until the end of the war (WW II).
Followed by a free standing one car garage with an outhouse, cold water pitcher pump and wood stove, for a year.
Then they built a cinder block kitchen and toilet & shower closet, into a side hill, and moved the garage on top. Outside stairs and stone steps, to go up and down.
When I was 8, Pop and my uncles built a cellar and capped it to live in for two years, until the house got built.

[TheMercenary]

I felt like we were, but we were not. What we did have was community standing, so I think people treated us like we were wealthy. My dad was teacher all his life, by the time I was born he had been the High School principal for a number of years and that is how I knew him. We lived on the main street of a suburb city of Chicago. So everyone knew where we lived. Modest truely a middle class home of the time. We were solidly middle class. One car family til my dad became the Superintendent for the school system. Things went on like that til I was ten. Who knows what happened but things unravelled a bit around then and he took another job as a principal on the East coast, Long Is. NY, and another, his last, in NJ. He left education about then and never looked back. We remained middle class in income with quite a few bumps to some economic lows. I have had the most economic success of all of my family members. I attribute it to nothing more than making some early firm career choices and sticking to them, followed by a few more career choices that required personal sacrifice and the commitment to go back to college for an advanced degree. Another correct choice. I was lucky.

[orthodoc]

Lived the first three years of my life in the upper level of my grandparents' house. Then moved to a 'double', or semi-detached in a seedy but not dangerous neighborhood. Drank powdered (lumpy!) milk and ate not much. My father shot rabbits to help with the groceries. Later my father's income went up and we moved to a detached house; unfortunately at that point my mother's compulsive spending threw our finances into disarray with more downs than ups.

My parents didn't contribute any money to my college education; I was the first in my extended family to go to college and they didn't see it as a 'given' or a 'must' (only I saw it that way). Lived in the same pair of jeans for twelve years and ate, again, not much.

Now that we have a very good family income I still never feel secure. I budget and scrimp and save and worry, no matter what.

[Radar]

Grew up very poor. There were times my parents didn't eat so my brother and I could.