Generational wealth patterns are messy and contradictory. Some families presented as financially strained while parents secretly accumulated six-figure savings. Other households experienced higher parental incomes squandered through decades of poor saving, investing, or planning, resulting in younger adults outearning parents. Many older adults who once appeared comfortable later face poverty because they never learned long-term financial skills. These divergent trajectories challenge simple narratives about generational prosperity or decline. Emotional reactions range from surprise to anger as hidden savings, poor decisions, timing, and luck shape outcomes. The situation highlights a need for nuanced understanding and broader financial literacy across generations.
What started as a simple question about generational wealth turned into something way more complicated: the messy, sometimes infuriating truth about money across generations and how much it defies any neat narrative. When u/LowInternet4726 asked older millennials how they felt about their parents being "significantly more financially well off," the responses cracked open assumptions about boomer prosperity and millennial struggle in a way that felt deeply personal - and incredibly relatable.
the responses cracked open assumptions about boomer prosperity and millennial struggle in a way that felt deeply personal - and incredibly relatable. Some discovered their "poor" childhoods were actually funded by six-figure incomes their parents secretly hoarded. Others are dramatically outearning parents who made terrible financial decisions for decades. Many are watching parents who seemed comfortable suddenly facing poverty because they never learned to save, invest, or plan beyond the next paycheck.
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