Owen

Y'all DO realize a stock market crash can wipe out your entire 401(k) before you even get to retire??!

My boomer dad died alone.

In 2018, at my sister's wedding rehearsal dinner, my father stood up, tapped his glass, and handed each of us a folder. Inside was an itemized bill for what it had cost him to raise us. Braces. Car insurance. Two years of community college. He'd added it all up and rounded it to the nearest hundred.

He wanted it paid back "with respect," in front of everyone. My sister's future in-laws were sitting right there.

I was 34. I had a job, a mortgage, and a kid. I said I wasn't doing this, not here, not like this. He told me then that I was no longer his daughter.

That night he called and said we could "settle it privately." I asked if he wanted to know why this hurt so much. I'd taken a breath and was finally ready to tell him.

He said, "I don't care."

I said, "Neither do I," and hung up.

After that he changed his number. He sent my mother a letter saying he'd "stopped investing in people who don't give a return." Holidays became my mom, my sister, and me at a table that felt too quiet, and honestly, a little lighter.

In 2021 he sold the house they'd lived in for 30 years, didn't tell anyone, and rented a one-bedroom across town. My mom found out from a neighbor.

Last winter he had a stroke. His neighbor noticed his newspapers piling up on the porch. He'd been on the kitchen floor for four days.

Right now I'm cycling through everything. Grief, anger, relief, and guilt for the relief. I miss the dad who used to carry me on his shoulders at the county fair. I haven't seen that man in about twenty years.

He didn't die because nobody loved him. He died because loving him required us to be graded on it.

Boomers, please hear this. Your kids aren't an investment. Love them for who they are. Let them be happy.

MILLENNIALS GOT HANDED THE WORST HAND OF ANY GENERATION IN MODERN HISTORY, AND THEY'RE STILL BEING BLAMED FOR IT.

Entered the workforce right as the 2008 crash wiped out entry-level jobs.

Were told a college degree was the only safe path, then graduated into five-figure student debt.

Asked for a living wage and got called entitled.

Hit their prime earning years in the middle of a pandemic.

Finally got a foothold, and the median home price jumped past $400,000.

Then the same people who bought a house for three times their salary ask, "Why aren't you buying homes? Why aren't you having kids?"

Because it now takes two full incomes, a down payment from somewhere, and a lot of luck to live the way one paycheck once did.

We didn't stop wanting it. We just got priced out of it.

APOLOGIES TO EVERYONE WHO SAYS RENTING IS "THROWING MONEY AWAY," BUT HERE'S MY QUESTION.

I've lived in the same apartment for five years.

I've paid $1,500 a month. That's $90,000, and I have every receipt.

I've never been late. I've kept the place clean. I've treated it like it was mine.

And after all that, I own nothing. Not a wall, not a window, not a single square foot.

My landlord owns the same unit he did five years ago, only now it's worth more, and my rent helped cover his mortgage, his taxes, and his insurance.

I get that landlords have real costs. I'm not saying they shouldn't be paid.

What I can't figure out is this. The only way to build equity in the place I live is to first save a down payment, while I'm paying a huge share of my income just to keep a roof over my head.

How is that supposed to work?

IF THIS OFFENDS BBQ TRUCK OWNERS, TOO BAD, BUT THE PRICES HAVE LOST IT.

I'm not paying $19 for a brisket sandwich I have to eat standing on a curb.

No table. No server. No air conditioning. A paper tray and a plastic fork.

Somehow it costs more than the sit-down place down the street.

Food trucks used to be the cheap, quick option. Now it's restaurant prices with parking-lot seating.

Tell me I'm not the only one who's noticed.