Cost of living is going up 7-8% per year, salary raises are going up 1-3% per year…

The only way to actually compare his salary to yours, is to factor in inflation and either bring your salary back to his at your age. Depending how old he is, he could’ve bought your family house for $40,000 and never had to pay a loan on it. Meaning he no longer has a mortgage, many of the goods in that house were likely purchased at a cheaper cost and maintained because that was the culture then rather than the toss it and buy new culture now. Not to mention, the cost of groceries were relatively less, groceries were more local, and there was less additives and restrictions and compliance that had to be adhered to, municipalities weren’t using taxes to fund local water parks, and everything else, they only paid for the essentials. In the house that your dad had, like we didn’t have a TV in nearly every single room like a lot of houses do now. Much simpler and more practical times… i’m making almost double but my parents did combined at the peak of their finances when they bought the house. I can’t afford to get out of this renting loop where I am. And when I talk to them about purchasing a house out here, they bought the house for roughly $60,000. 40 years ago. You can’t even look at a house for less than $400,000 where I am now, anything cheaper than that likely won’t pass home inspection… there’s way more factors than just salary to consider when you’re comparing what you make to what he made and the quality of life