See! You’re not THAT poor. Just give it another few decades!

  • bigschnitz@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    This is" true" for a (tiny) subset of the Australian population. I know that I straight up sacrificed my 20s to an engineering degree and fifo job and now, at 35 I have comparable material wealth to my dad when he was my age (who was a sheet metal worker in a major city). But even still, the tiny population who did what I did will never get another run at what should’ve been the best 15 years of their life.

    I’m unconvinced that my decision was better than the ones my (much poorer) friends who now have families made…

    • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      As an American i know exactly what I did wrong to not make comparable money to a tradesman of my parents generation. See I should’ve become an engineer, but instead I became a female engineer, which apparently in my location poses wildly different employment opportunities

      • HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        what you don’t want to be secretary at an engineering firm? why else would you get an engineering degree? ▔\▁((.′◔_′◔.))▁/▔

    • Bronzie@sh.itjust.works
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      3 days ago

      We seem to have followed a similar path, but I am quite satisfied. I do have a family though, so maybe that’s what does it….

      It sucked making sacrifices in my 20’s, but looking at where I landed, I would not change it if I could. Would you?

      Don’t get me wrong; We are nowhere close to rich, but we managed to buy a decent house and not having to wory about the price of groceries and the bills every month, and that’s all we really need.

      Early 30’s for reference.

      • bigschnitz@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        I’m not sure I could be happy if I hadn’t made the choices I made, poverty felt like a prison so I did what was necessary to set myself up. I played the hand I was dealt and I think I played it reasonably well, but if I was born in easier times I’d have definitely made different choices.

        I don’t the insinuation that “millennials had the opportunity to achieve wealth like their parents” these type of articles make, it feels dismissive of the sacrificed youth and relationships.