Earlier this month, writer Jasmine Li published an article on Fortune, titled ‘Broke boomers are moving in with their millennial kids, who are seething.’
In it, she highlighted that as more and more boomers reach retirement age, an increasing number of them are running out of money and, therefore, turning to their adult children for support — the median retiree has $142,000 in savings, which is a far cry from the $1 million they say they’ll need to live comfortably.
And according to the Pew Research Center, 9% of multigenerational households were headed by 25- to 34-year-olds in 2021, up from 6% in 2001.
Li’s text was a hit and after Reddit user LightRobb discovered it, they shared it on the platform’s forum ‘Boomers Being Fools.’ People immediately started discussing it and sharing stories of their own struggling old folks, providing a human side to the grim figures.
I had my mom move in, after she sold her house post covid and was still in debt after selling with equity due to poor choices I had 3 rules. Always remember its my house, I wont charge rent but you need to show me you are savings rents worth a month in an account, never make me feel uncomfortable in my own home. It lasted 3 months before she moved out on her own. Apparently me letting her live rent free at my house and having to be respectful of someone else rules (adapting to the lifestyle of the house as it was is a better way of describing it) was too much to bear. Left acting like a victim. I had a very real conversation with her, stating that I will not be sacrificing my childrens future wealth to help her out. Her whole life she voted for all the nasty s**t republicans did to our social safety nets because God and abortion. I will buy her a tent, and a very nice one, but she will never move in with us again
She finally now understands why I was struggling, and the she can now empathize with younger generations because she struggled to pay her rent while working for the state.
She’s always been one of the good ones, but damn if it wasn’t infuriating seeing her give herself the grace I deserved when I was struggling.
When they complain they can’t afford retirement and need a cheaper place to live I respond, “that’s too bad, but we have no room for you here”
It was a mixed blessing. Some good came of it. A lot of bad. I’m not as close to them as I used to be, but it helped me out quite a bit at the time and they were here during 2020 so it was nice to know they were “safe” even though they weren’t being safe… because boomers.
That said, unlike a lot of other people, my boomers were there for me when I needed them. I had to move home a few times in my 20s and once in my 30s and they always welcomed me back with grace. So helping them and living through a few years of frustration hearing their boomer rhetoric come up through the floor was the least I could do. And the most I was willing to do.
Anyway, she made us adhere to her rules and tell us what we could do in our own house. My ex acted like it was such a blessing. THEN, her mom started telling her she needed a man who would take better care of them and to dump me. I listened to them hatch this whole plan out, while they thought I was sleeping, of how they were going to take everything and move in with this junkie that had “wealthy” parents. So I started packing my s**t, and moved out within a week of hearing that. After I left, my ex got tired of her mom and made her move in to some cheap slum apartment across town and fend for herself.
Or…volunteered me to give him daily injections into a heart catheter instead of having a home health aid come by and do it (WHICH WOULD HAVE BEEN FREE). I’m not a f**king nurse nor do I know anything about it.
Demanded to come along on our vacations, despite being in horrible health to the point that I was worried we’d have to take him to the hospital while on vacation. When I refused, he started screaming at me that he was worried something would happen to him while I was gone. …So you want to come on vacation with me then? Go to the f**king hospital.
Moved a non-functional alcoholic in with him, because he did not understand that he “lived with family”. He thought he was renting and I was his landlord. I could get a hell of a lot more than the $200 a month he was giving me if I wanted to rent the apartment out. I let him live here because I was kind and he couldn’t afford a place on his own. When I got bad about the drunk living with him, he started telling me that as landlord I had to give him 48 hours notice before I even talked to him. He changed his tune when I started trying to kick the door down. He said he’d call the cops. I said great, its my house, I own the place, and you don’t have a lease, you’re just my broke father that I’m letting crash here. I should have kicked him out then, but no, I let it go another 2 years almost after that.
I would literally be scrubbing his s**t out of the carpet because he couldn’t make it to the bathroom on time, while he told me he wasn’t going to babysit my kids because he only “felt like he was doing it out of obligation because of what I did for him.”
He was never happy. Nothing was ever good enough. I was a complete piece of s**t who was keeping him in this little apartment and not letting him have any friends or do anything on his own. Despite me constantly begging him to please get out of the house and go make friends because I can not be his only friend for the rest of his life.
I finally snapped one day and just said I can’t do it anymore. I found him a senior / disabled state ran apartment nearby for $150 a month. Even after that, he was completely unable to live on his own – he ran up a $300 electric bill in a 1 bedroom apartment by keeping the heat on 80 and running 2 steam humidifiers while he sat around in his underwear and stood with the door wide open while he smoked.
He passed last summer. He needed major surgery and he realized I wasn’t going to help him anymore, I’d finally told him I’m done. He had no friends. He had no one and nothing. So he elected to go to hospice instead.
I told my parents, dont move my s**t, then proceed to move my s**t and when I said something they played the “pay me the trip back to my country card” and it sucked.
I’ll let my abusive parents end up in a shelter before I would even answer their calls, let alone invite them into my home. You reap what you sow.
My brother and his wife are seriously considering moving to a new undisclosed location after their daughter is born because the in laws are wanting to move nearby and are already asking for (financial) support to make the move.
Brother and his wife don’t want them nearby at ALL and don’t want their child(ren) influenced by them and their “traditional” views.
What’s hilarious though is the reason they haven’t moved back into town (they’re several states away) is because the in laws live here! If the in laws move to be close to them then they could move back into town and swap places lol
My parents kicked me out of the house at 16 because they were getting divorced/remarried and I was inconvenient, and BOTH moved out of the continent (I was decidedly not invited). If they ever ask to live with me I will laugh in their narcissistic faces.
My dad moved in with my sister, her husband and 3 kids. Yeah, she kicked his ass out. He was constantly making a mess, eating all the food, & yelling at the children… Then mix in all the recent crazy Fox “News” nonsense, yikes. He was an ass when we had to grow up with thim, but at least back then he somewhat tried to be a parent when we were in our teens. Also, he was way more accepting when I came out then my liberal mother, even inviting my partner to Christmas, which my mom objected to. My mom would eventually come around.
But I refuse to talk to him ever since my mom spilt up with him, and then a few months later he lured her back to the house with finally signing the divorce papers. He held her hostage for all day at gun point… Luckily, my mom’s new boyfriend was worried when she won’t answer her phone & didn’t come home. He drove over there and call the police. I don’t want anything to do with him anymore. My sister was more forgiving, probably because my mother asked her to be, figuring that her grandchildren should know their grandfather…
My parents got a divorce when I was like 15 and my mom moved to a different state like 1100 miles away. Ne to Az. Didn’t hear from her for like 15 years. Then on my F**KING BIRTHDAY she called out of the blue saying she had to move in with me or she was going to be homeless. I let her stay with me for a few months, she moved with me snd my wife into the new home we just built. She kept saying things like.. I am so lucky I am retiring in a brand new house. I helped her get a job, save up some money and move the f**k out. Helllllllll no.
After years of low contact, no huge resentment just a “meh” relationship, my divorced mother phones five days after my birthday saying she “won’t last much longer in this house” (indirectly threatening to unalive herself).
Took us six months to get her out, in which I developed PTSD, had to dump the mattress and bed she was in, and will not ever talk to her again due to how she acted, took advantage of my household and what she revealed about my childhood. I hope she’s rotting.
My boomer/MAGA mother blew 500k at the casino in 2 years, then blamed everyone around her, got nasty, started swindling friends and family out of money. She was living with us, and I kicked her out just shy of her 80th birthday. Luckily she had a policy that allowed her to move out of state into an assisted living home. Still has not apologized to anyone. Lives to blame everyone and everything else but her own self.
I’ll be in the minority here, and that’s ok. My parents moved in with me recently. Immigrant parents that have busted a** since first coming here, but always struggled to stay above water. Now they’re old and still having to work, but physically unable to do so. My place isn’t huge and I have a family of my own. I’m happy to house them and help care for them, even though it has a cost. I get why this subreddit exists. It’s a fun one too. But one problem with talking about “boomers” is that we often speak as if they’re generation is a monolith. It’s not, no more than hours. It’s dehumanizes and k***s individual stories. Just one opinion of a random dude on Reddit, ofc. Cheers y’all.
My boomer dad lives with us. Even though he told me his contribution to my college education was letting me live at home in the summer. Even though he stopped working at 55 with no pension, no 401k. Even though there were several years where I was ignored by him as he did his own thing. Even though he and my stepmom from whom he is seperated spent their nest egg from the sale of their house.
He is a good person. He contributes by cooking and cleaning. And most times he is respectful. It is great to see the relationship he is building with my kids. We pay all the bills and ask nothing in payment.
All that being said… I can’t wait for him to move in with my brother in May.
Going through this right now. Mother in law wants to move in with us after never providing any financial support to her daughter, ever. My wife spent her whole youth watching mom party and get wasted only to end up as miserable old lady. She can kick rocks
My MIL moved in with my husband and I after we bought our first house. I cringe when she’s home. I can’t establish rules because I’m told him controlling and manipulating. She can’t afford to be on her own but doesn’t want any kind of assistance. She isn’t saving for a car so we have to take her everywhere and if and when she gets her license transferred we will bear the financial burden of purchasing her car and insurance. We live in California. It’s not cheap. She has no respect for me and my house. I’ve been contemplating on just moving out because I don’t know how much more I can take.
My dad secretly gambled their savings away and didn’t pay taxes for 10 years. They had to move to a tiny one bedroom and I had to help out with rent. He died and my mother who was given 3 years to live 20 years ago couldn’t afford care and moved in with us. She expected us to take care of her 24/7 and complained the entire time. That was 4 years of hell.
My (gen x) parents (boomers) moved in with my family. Then, one night my husband and I went out and weren’t home at the time my mom thought we should be. The phone call came, asking where we were- my husband was not pleased. The next day I had to remind my mother that I AM FIFTY F**KING YEARS OLD
Earlier this month, writer Jasmine Li published an article on Fortune, titled 'Broke boomers are moving in with their millennial kids, who are seething.'
In it, she highlighted that as more and more boomers reach retirement age, an increasing number of them are running out of money and, therefore, turning to their adult children for support — the median retiree has $142,000 in savings, which is a far cry from the $1 million they say they'll need to live comfortably.
And according to the Pew Research Center, 9% of multigenerational households were headed by 25- to 34-year-olds in 2021, up from 6% in 2001.
Li's text was a hit and after Reddit user LightRobb discovered it, they shared it on the platform's forum 'Boomers Being Fools.' People immediately started discussing it and sharing stories of their own struggling old folks, providing a human side to the grim figures.
She finally now understands why I was struggling, and the she can now empathize with younger generations because she struggled to pay her rent while working for the state.
She’s always been one of the good ones, but damn if it wasn’t infuriating seeing her give herself the grace I deserved when I was struggling.
When they complain they can't afford retirement and need a cheaper place to live I respond, "that's too bad, but we have no room for you here"
It was a mixed blessing. Some good came of it. A lot of bad. I’m not as close to them as I used to be, but it helped me out quite a bit at the time and they were here during 2020 so it was nice to know they were “safe” even though they weren’t being safe… because boomers.
That said, unlike a lot of other people, my boomers were there for me when I needed them. I had to move home a few times in my 20s and once in my 30s and they always welcomed me back with grace. So helping them and living through a few years of frustration hearing their boomer rhetoric come up through the floor was the least I could do. And the most I was willing to do.
Anyway, she made us adhere to her rules and tell us what we could do in our own house. My ex acted like it was such a blessing. THEN, her mom started telling her she needed a man who would take better care of them and to dump me. I listened to them hatch this whole plan out, while they thought I was sleeping, of how they were going to take everything and move in with this junkie that had “wealthy” parents. So I started packing my s**t, and moved out within a week of hearing that. After I left, my ex got tired of her mom and made her move in to some cheap slum apartment across town and fend for herself.
Or...volunteered me to give him daily injections into a heart catheter instead of having a home health aid come by and do it (WHICH WOULD HAVE BEEN FREE). I'm not a f**king nurse nor do I know anything about it.
Demanded to come along on our vacations, despite being in horrible health to the point that I was worried we'd have to take him to the hospital while on vacation. When I refused, he started screaming at me that he was worried something would happen to him while I was gone. ...So you want to come on vacation with me then? Go to the f**king hospital.
Moved a non-functional alcoholic in with him, because he did not understand that he "lived with family". He thought he was renting and I was his landlord. I could get a hell of a lot more than the $200 a month he was giving me if I wanted to rent the apartment out. I let him live here because I was kind and he couldn't afford a place on his own. When I got bad about the drunk living with him, he started telling me that as landlord I had to give him 48 hours notice before I even talked to him. He changed his tune when I started trying to kick the door down. He said he'd call the cops. I said great, its my house, I own the place, and you don't have a lease, you're just my broke father that I'm letting crash here. I should have kicked him out then, but no, I let it go another 2 years almost after that.
I would literally be scrubbing his s**t out of the carpet because he couldn't make it to the bathroom on time, while he told me he wasn't going to babysit my kids because he only "felt like he was doing it out of obligation because of what I did for him."
He was never happy. Nothing was ever good enough. I was a complete piece of s**t who was keeping him in this little apartment and not letting him have any friends or do anything on his own. Despite me constantly begging him to please get out of the house and go make friends because I can not be his only friend for the rest of his life.
I finally snapped one day and just said I can't do it anymore. I found him a senior / disabled state ran apartment nearby for $150 a month. Even after that, he was completely unable to live on his own - he ran up a $300 electric bill in a 1 bedroom apartment by keeping the heat on 80 and running 2 steam humidifiers while he sat around in his underwear and stood with the door wide open while he smoked.
He passed last summer. He needed major surgery and he realized I wasn't going to help him anymore, I'd finally told him I'm done. He had no friends. He had no one and nothing. So he elected to go to hospice instead.
I told my parents, dont move my s**t, then proceed to move my s**t and when I said something they played the "pay me the trip back to my country card" and it sucked.
I'll let my abusive parents end up in a shelter before I would even answer their calls, let alone invite them into my home. You reap what you sow.
My brother and his wife are seriously considering moving to a new undisclosed location after their daughter is born because the in laws are wanting to move nearby and are already asking for (financial) support to make the move.
Brother and his wife don’t want them nearby at ALL and don’t want their child(ren) influenced by them and their “traditional” views.
What’s hilarious though is the reason they haven’t moved back into town (they’re several states away) is because the in laws live here! If the in laws move to be close to them then they could move back into town and swap places lol
My parents kicked me out of the house at 16 because they were getting divorced/remarried and I was inconvenient, and BOTH moved out of the continent (I was decidedly not invited). If they ever ask to live with me I will laugh in their narcissistic faces.
My dad moved in with my sister, her husband and 3 kids. Yeah, she kicked his ass out. He was constantly making a mess, eating all the food, & yelling at the children... Then mix in all the recent crazy Fox "News" nonsense, yikes. He was an ass when we had to grow up with thim, but at least back then he somewhat tried to be a parent when we were in our teens. Also, he was way more accepting when I came out then my liberal mother, even inviting my partner to Christmas, which my mom objected to. My mom would eventually come around.
But I refuse to talk to him ever since my mom spilt up with him, and then a few months later he lured her back to the house with finally signing the divorce papers. He held her hostage for all day at gun point... Luckily, my mom's new boyfriend was worried when she won't answer her phone & didn't come home. He drove over there and call the police. I don't want anything to do with him anymore. My sister was more forgiving, probably because my mother asked her to be, figuring that her grandchildren should know their grandfather...
My parents got a divorce when I was like 15 and my mom moved to a different state like 1100 miles away. Ne to Az. Didn't hear from her for like 15 years. Then on my F**KING BIRTHDAY she called out of the blue saying she had to move in with me or she was going to be homeless. I let her stay with me for a few months, she moved with me snd my wife into the new home we just built. She kept saying things like.. I am so lucky I am retiring in a brand new house. I helped her get a job, save up some money and move the f**k out. Helllllllll no.
After years of low contact, no huge resentment just a "meh" relationship, my divorced mother phones five days after my birthday saying she "won't last much longer in this house" (indirectly threatening to unalive herself).
Took us six months to get her out, in which I developed PTSD, had to dump the mattress and bed she was in, and will not ever talk to her again due to how she acted, took advantage of my household and what she revealed about my childhood. I hope she's rotting.
My boomer/MAGA mother blew 500k at the casino in 2 years, then blamed everyone around her, got nasty, started swindling friends and family out of money. She was living with us, and I kicked her out just shy of her 80th birthday. Luckily she had a policy that allowed her to move out of state into an assisted living home. Still has not apologized to anyone. Lives to blame everyone and everything else but her own self.
I’ll be in the minority here, and that’s ok. My parents moved in with me recently. Immigrant parents that have busted a** since first coming here, but always struggled to stay above water. Now they’re old and still having to work, but physically unable to do so. My place isn’t huge and I have a family of my own. I’m happy to house them and help care for them, even though it has a cost. I get why this subreddit exists. It’s a fun one too. But one problem with talking about “boomers” is that we often speak as if they’re generation is a monolith. It’s not, no more than hours. It’s dehumanizes and k***s individual stories. Just one opinion of a random dude on Reddit, ofc. Cheers y’all.
My boomer dad lives with us. Even though he told me his contribution to my college education was letting me live at home in the summer. Even though he stopped working at 55 with no pension, no 401k. Even though there were several years where I was ignored by him as he did his own thing. Even though he and my stepmom from whom he is seperated spent their nest egg from the sale of their house.
He is a good person. He contributes by cooking and cleaning. And most times he is respectful. It is great to see the relationship he is building with my kids. We pay all the bills and ask nothing in payment.
All that being said… I can’t wait for him to move in with my brother in May.
Going through this right now. Mother in law wants to move in with us after never providing any financial support to her daughter, ever. My wife spent her whole youth watching mom party and get wasted only to end up as miserable old lady. She can kick rocks
My MIL moved in with my husband and I after we bought our first house. I cringe when she’s home. I can’t establish rules because I’m told him controlling and manipulating. She can’t afford to be on her own but doesn’t want any kind of assistance. She isn’t saving for a car so we have to take her everywhere and if and when she gets her license transferred we will bear the financial burden of purchasing her car and insurance. We live in California. It’s not cheap. She has no respect for me and my house. I’ve been contemplating on just moving out because I don’t know how much more I can take.
My dad secretly gambled their savings away and didn’t pay taxes for 10 years. They had to move to a tiny one bedroom and I had to help out with rent. He died and my mother who was given 3 years to live 20 years ago couldn’t afford care and moved in with us. She expected us to take care of her 24/7 and complained the entire time. That was 4 years of hell.
My (gen x) parents (boomers) moved in with my family. Then, one night my husband and I went out and weren’t home at the time my mom thought we should be. The phone call came, asking where we were- my husband was not pleased. The next day I had to remind my mother that I AM FIFTY F**KING YEARS OLD
Read original article here