"Lies, damned lies, and statistics" Let’s look at things in another time

ttown

The older you are the more you can relate.

Let’s look at things as close to before going off the gold standard.

Assuming a $20 gold piece is $2000 today
Your could own gold
Gold was still $20.67 an ounce or $35 if you like
Here’s what the government’s of the world saw and why the gold window was closed.

Not apples to apples but food for thought.

I bought a new car for $3500 in 1974
If I brought it In gold that’s 175 ( I know it wasn’t $20 an ounce, simplified for whole coins)$20 gold pieces or $350,000, in this simple analysis.

I started my first job $1.50 an hour. Gas wars .18 cents a gallon.

What do you recall close to or in the 1960s or earlier (prices)

Still think those charts reflect an average car today.

Here’s a list with general info. What say you?

Please play nice. To get respect you must give respect is what I taught my kids, wish us adults could remember that.

derryb

The long version. . .

ttown

Right on wanted this to be input from this group... to get people to think for themselves on prices they remember.

My experiences here were never prices on west or East coast states as wages vary by states.
$130,000- 150k house here (typical nice used AU50 ) buys a 3 br, 2 bath, double car garage with a fire place in a nice neighborhood currently.

In 1979 looking for our first starter home I traveled to San Jose a lot and saw starter homes at $175k, We didn’t look too long at 18% interest the realtors showed us the same type house here for $22 to 25k. I looked at her after a few houses and told her “I don’t have to pay 25k to live in poverty .

We bought a new 14 x 80 mobile home on acreage for 30k then 8 years latter it sold for 90k as utilities and the city merged with the country. Glad we waited having kids and she didn’t work the math didn’t work for me, the slave

Azurescens

Realistically, you have people who squandered the most prosperous time in our nation, and felt greedy enough to double down on it and keep it out of the hands of people born not long after your infographic.

I wish I could work part time and afford college and an apartment. I couldn't do that in grad school with two jobs and one of them was for my department and I even got 10k tuition assistance both years.

I wish I could be a sole income earner and afford a family, car, and money to buy gifts for the three kids I could more than afford. I wish I had enough money by 40 to buy a second house so I can retire at 60. Remember retirement?

I wish I could then spend the following decades taking something as disgusting as investing in homes taking everything away from a generation already struggling.

You cant rent an apartment in America off a single FT job, in any major city. Then the Boomers think they had it unfair with all their cheap gold and gas and homes and college and everything else.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/21/6-months-after-the-cares-act-passed-many-are-still-struggling.html

derryb

@Azurescens said:
Realistically, you have people who squandered the most prosperous time in our nation, and felt greedy enough to double down on it and keep it out of the hands of people born not long after your infographic.

I wish I could work part time and afford college and an apartment. I couldn't do that in grad school with two jobs and one of them was for my department and I even got 10k tuition assistance both years.

I wish I could be a sole income earner and afford a family, car, and money to buy gifts for the three kids I could more than afford. I wish I had enough money by 40 to buy a second house so I can retire at 60. Remember retirement?

I wish I could then spend the following decades taking something as disgusting as investing in homes taking everything away from a generation already struggling.

You cant rent an apartment in America off a single FT job, in any major city. Then the Boomers think they had it unfair with all their cheap gold and gas and homes and college and everything else.

Admittedly one thing I'm super excited about with covid is a lot of monsters like this will be gone in 6 months. I'd hate to see many of you guys go, so please dont think this is aimed at any of you here.

It really is a disgusting situation all around and is why very many things are facing a reckoning, and will continue to.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/21/6-months-after-the-cares-act-passed-many-are-still-struggling.html

all dreams can be realized by increasing one's debt.

ricko

I first went to work for minimum wage - $1.25 hour, Matinee tickets were .25 cents. I purchased my first house (very nice, Vermont granite and blue stone) for $16,000....Wages went along with cost of things at the time...and have increased in both arenas....Before I retired I lived in Seattle... Apartments were $2k/month... Houses $300K... But salaries were much, much higher.... Different world. Cheers, RickO

Baley

My parents paid $37k in 1973 for the house in San Jose that I grew up in. They sold it in 1998 for around $700k and retired.

Just checked Zillow: $1.5 million.

cohodk

@Baley said:
My parents paid $37k in 1973 for the house in San Jose that I grew up in. They sold it in 1998 for around $700k and retired.

Just checked Zillow: $1.5 million.

And to think, some here would prefer it to still be worth 37k.

cohodk

@Azurescens said:
the Boomers think they had it unfair with all their cheap gold and gas and homes and college and everything else.
Admittedly one thing I'm super excited about with covid is a lot of monsters like this will be gone in 6 months. I'd hate to see many of you guys go, so please dont think this is aimed at any of you here.

Gonna make some soylent green and mushroom soup?

PS...i waited almost 11 hours to post to you. Threw you off, didnt I. Maybe im just trying to confuse and manipulate you. Or maybe im a boomer. LOL

Baley

Maybe you're just a regular guy who is nice to have a beer with once on a while? Let me know the next time your travels bring you through Baleyville..

LukeMarshall

Offtopic

3stars

Its amazing that apathetic Gen Xers gave birth to such whiney millennials.

cohodk

@Baley said:
Maybe you're just a regular guy who is nice to have a beer with once on a while? Let me know the next time your travels bring you through Baleyville..

Indeed. I most certainly will.

coindeuce

@cohodk said:

@Baley said:
Maybe you're just a regular guy who is nice to have a beer with once on a while? Let me know the next time your travels bring you through Baleyville..

Indeed. I most certainly will.

I second that for coindeuceville. Even though you're just too good for Nazi York now.

cohodk

@3stars said:
Its amazing that apathetic Gen Xers gave birth to such whiney millennials.

Actually, millenials are the spawn of boomers. The bulk of the boomers were born from 1956 to 1962. Fast forward about 25 years to when the boomers would have kids and you are in 1981 to 1987 which is the beginning of the millenials.

MsMorrisine

that's too early for a millenial

rcmb3220

@3stars said:
Its amazing that apathetic Gen Xers gave birth to such whiney millennials.

Millennials are approaching 40.

MsMorrisine

The Brookings Institution defines the millennial generation as people born between 1981 and 1996, as does the Federal Reserve Board, the American Psychological Association, Ernst & Young, and major news outlets such as CBS, ABC Australia, The Washington Post, and The Washington Times.

what is millennial about those numbers?

chesterb

Gen Xer here...I have my mind on my money and my money on my mind

ttown

@Baley said:
My parents paid $37k in 1973 for the house in San Jose that I grew up in. They sold it in 1998 for around $700k and retired.

Just checked Zillow: $1.5 million.

Silicon Valley certainly was a good place to buy a home. Your dad set you up.

The way I see it:

Does it still have the Avocado green kitchen with the shag carpet, groovy, baby groovy.

Housing has a cost of ownership: closing cost, property taxes, insurance, HOA fees, maintenance.

Overtime things are added/ technology invented or you want that pool, garage, solar, or marble this or that, 47 years of replacing things to make it the asking price would have to be considered.

You do have to live somewhere that would cover some cost though. From your post in Baleyville your living large so I’m sure one or two improvements have been added since 1973 making it harder to compare.

Being in that area who knows what other taxes you must pay, maybe nothing else
I pay $800 yr property tax and about $1500 yr insurance.

Hope they get the asking price. That area has some of the top private jobs in the nation. My brother just built a new house further outside of Atlanta. He put a house similar to your old house in Alpharetta, lots of lookers but no takers yet.

He’s getting ready to retire and taxes, insurance, and HOA fees are way to high to suite him.

Cash

My $35000 wouldn’t be in my mattress but in the bank, the rule of 72 would apply. A simple CD like my dad saved in paid double digit interest during the oil embargo of the 70s. So there’s 47 years to see how many times it doubled, right?

Gold

Had you invested the money in gold:

37k @ $65 oz = $1,077,000. @$2000 oz

700k @$288 oz = $4,861,111. @$2000 oz

Looks like just like location, location, location .... timing everything

I’m working on a modest 1850 - 1928 double eagle set minus the 1921 saint of course. I’m sure one of those coin collectors of the day wouldn’t have just brought a bunch of 1924 saints or 1904 libs. They would have been like cohodk and played it like the stock market and spread it around in rare collectible coins.

I wonder how much a 21 saint, 1866 NM, or a 1907 UHR was back in 73?

Anyway gentlemen I’m thirsty time for a cold one

Cheers 🍻

Baley

@Baley said:
My parents paid $37k in 1973 for the house in San Jose that I grew up in. They sold it in 1998 for around $700k and retired.

Just checked Zillow: $1.5 million.

My grannie, or great grandmother, b.1901, paid $5600 for her house on Evelyn avenue in Sunnyvale, Ca. In 1945. Sold it for over $100k in the early 1990s. Afraid to look now. Told them to keep it and rent it out, but i was only 22, what did i know?

cohodk

@MsMorrisine said:

The Brookings Institution defines the millennial generation as people born between 1981 and 1996, as does the Federal Reserve Board, the American Psychological Association, Ernst & Young, and major news outlets such > @coindeuce said:
@cohodk said:

@Baley said:
Maybe you're just a regular guy who is nice to have a beer with once on a while? Let me know the next time your travels bring you through Baleyville..

Indeed. I most certainly will.

I second that for coindeuceville. Even though you're just too good for Nazi York now.

LOL.....Maybe in Dec. Gotta take the 25-06 for a walk on Tug Hill.