I just spent over an hour typing a post about my family and class (inspired by Raising WEG’s recent posts and the NY Times article).
Then, I accidentally bumped the cord on the computer and lost the whole damn thing.
Grrr.
Here is a quick summary:
A’s family had money and lost it (mental illness). My family scraped their way from blue collar/lower middle class into the upper-middle class during my lifetime.
Because we both remember having less, both A and I hoard our money. We make a lot of money but spend most of it on reducing our (gradschool/law school) debt, saving for retirement and our kid’s college fund. We drive used, crappy cars, don’t wear expensive clothes and have a house furnished almost entirely by several year’s old Ikea stuff.
We are afraid that some stroke of bad luck (his family no longer being self sufficent, a job loss, etc.) will ruin us financially.
I swear it was much more interesting the first time around.
I don’t understand the point of this NYT series. And I understood it even less because in the actual paper the font they used for those articles was almost twice the size of the regular font. I’m still scratching my head. Am I missing something? Must take a look at Raising WEG’s site.
Wow..I wish I was more like that, although my house is furnished with thrift stores and IKEA. I love IKEA.
My husband and I have similar family backgrounds as you but my husband’s the only one who really took the lesson to heart. Not that I’m a spendthrift, but I’m not so worried and stressed about money as he usually is.
My cat once stepped on the power strip switch and I lost a bunch of stuff I was working on, and last night there was a one minute blackout while I was in the middle of an unsaved project so I feel your pain.
I grew up barely middle class with the appearance of upper middle class because my mom inherited a bit from her family, so my parents could afford to build a nice house. Otherwise we would’ve been poor- my dad’s family business literally earned well below the poverty line. I remember years going by before my mom bought herself a single new T-shirt. I was always told that I had to go to college (neither of my parents did, having married at 19) and I’d have to get good grades to qualify for scholarships.
V’s family left Vietnam just days before Saigon fell, leaving nearly everything behind except for a suitcase of clothes per person and just enough money to get here. They had to start from scratch, and both his parents still work very hard.
V is not in control of his money- it controls him. Sometimes it’s funny, like when he’ll spend 2 hours in KMart trying to choose which thermos is the best deal, and other times it’s supremely annoying (like when we have to have a knock-down, drag-out fight before buying stuff like houses and cars).
I’m careful with money, but I like to enjoy it too, because I figure you can’t take it with you so might as well use it while you can. Since I’m staying home (technically freelancing, but like I can get much done with my cranky 4 month old) we’ve had to be pretty careful.
For example, we’ve taken to buying our clothes at thrift stores, which our families never did and causes V’s mom to freak out and send us checks while saying things like “My grandson will wear NEW CLOTHES!”
Honestly though, it’s fun to buy cute baby clothes for $1 each. I’ve gotten some with tags still on, even! And when you can buy two laundry loads worth of good, brand name clothes for under $40, it’s hard to go back to shopping at the Gap.
Okay, now my comment is longer than your post.. I will shut up now.