Like Father Like Son???

[Honkie]

My parents just spent a week visiting my wife, daughter and I (in truth we are an afterthought, it is their granddaughter they REALLY want to see!!!). Whilst I have always been considered very much like my father in almost every way, it is amazing how differently our adult lives have been thusfar. Much of this has to do with education and the opportunities available to me from the late 80's onwards that weren't available to my father as a younger man, but even so, the differences are striking.

Dad

Married at 19
One son (me) born when 20
2 employers (first for 2 years, second for 33 years)
2 Houses (First just after marrying, stayed for 22 years; still living in second house)
Houses and jobs all within 10 miles of birthplace.
Retired at 54, on an 80k equivalent pension plus paid up house and about 650k in other assets


Okay, here's me, the son,

Married at 33
One Daughter, born when I was 34
7 employers so far
8 houses so far (excluding parents')
Lived and worked in 6 different countries on 2 different continents
Still working, approx 1.7 mill net worth.

No judgements or social commentary here, just an interesting retrospective.

Cheers

Honkie

[SteveR]

Being a bit older than you with a father from the WWII era, my stats are a bit differnet.

Dad:

Married once at* age 30
Kids: at 32 and 35
Jobs: 5 with 20 years at his last employer
Houses: moved 24 times since marriage and owned 6 houses
Degree: mech. engineering-first and only one in his family to go to college
Retired at 65
Died at 82


Son:

Married 3 times at ages 22, 41, and 52
Kids at age 26 and 32
Jobs: three companies since college-15 jobs in all
Houses: moved 20 times-owned 8 houses
Degree: Microbiology
Retired: 50 first time......55? next time.

My wife's stats are very differnet from mine and her father's are closer to your dad's.* I think a lot of it comes down to what you are able to do with what you are given.* My wife and her father did not attend college and have struggled with life in general.* They both started families in their late teens and held many differnt kinds of jobs but always worked and always made their own way.*

My oldest son is 27--single--still in school--is working at his 5th job since High
School and rents.* Who knows how his stats will end up?

[CyclingInvestor]

I also had a WW2 era dad.

Dad

Married 3 times - 16, 35, 38
Kids at 39, 41, 43
Jobs: 1 (professor), plus summer jobs
Houses: 4 (last one 20 years)
Degree : Doctorate (first in family to go to college)
Loved his job, retired at 64 (medical), died a week later


Me

Married once - 27 for 6 years
No kids (fixed before marriage)
Jobs - 4
Houses - 2 - moved 3 times in 26 years
Degree - masters
Retire - in 0-3 years at 47-50, hoping
I have a longer retirement than Dad

[Honkie]

I'll add my Paternal Grandfather'sstats, to marry up the stats with some of the more mature posters ...

Grandfather:

Married at 26 (for 56 years and counting)
Kids at 26, 27, 29, 31 and 33 (yup, kept Grandma busy!!)
3 Jobs - Butcher, Navy (WWII), Miner.
Still in first house bought at age 25 after leaving Navy.
Left school at 14
Retired at 65

[dandan14]

This is an interesting thread, and something I was thinking about recently. My dad was really the one who broke the trend. My dad and I have very similar statistics.

Grandfather: Farmer
Married at 21, 5 children
Three homes in his lifetime (childhood, family life, and when the kids moved off). All homes were within about 100 yards of each other
Only formally educated until the 4th grade.
Largely self-educated.

Father: State employee
Married 33, 2 children
3 lifetime houses (childhood, early married, and present)
First to go to college, Master's degree. Worked for the state for 40+ years (and still going).

Me: Corporate employee
Not yet married
3 lifetime houses so far
Master's Degree
9 years with first and only employer.

[MRGALT2U]

Hey, I like this one

Grandfather

Parents were farmers
HS Grad (not sure if any college, doubt it)
2 children
Salesman, PT farmer, entrepreneur
Moved around a lot and didn't exactly ER but cut way back
Married twice, accumulated very little but enjoyed what he had.

Father

HS Grad, no college
2 children
Started in factory work and worked his way into R and D.
Very handy and creative.
Maybe worked for 4 companies in his life, plus some PT work.
Worked full time until he was 67.
Only owned one house. He and Mom still live there.
Married once, not wealthy but solid middle class

Me

HS Grad, AA degree from Junior College
3 children
Started working in junior high school and did just about
everything to make a buck. Most of career spent in manufacturing.
Accountant, entrepreneur, real estate dabbler
Worked for 12 different companies as an adult and moved all around. Longest stay with ANY employer was 8 years.
Semiretired at 49.
Married twice, Didn't accumulate much but enjoy what I have.

Obviously my experience is more like my grandfather's than my
father's. I was fortunate to spend a great deal of time with
my grandfather, and my life has followed his pretty closely.

JG