Originally Posted by BWillie (Post 18010867)

I don't think I've ever met anyone under 60 years old who doesn't have a smart phone, at least in the past 5 years.

All phones are fkn smart phones now.

Originally Posted by Bl00dyBizkitz (Post 18010862)

As someone loosely in IT, you literally need a smartphone to work at any decent office job. They all require MFA for cybersecurity insurance and most IT firms exclusively use an MFA app on your smartphone.

They are absolutely required.

Originally Posted by HemiEd (Post 18010845)

Well, to be honest without having served in the Navy, I wouldn't have been able to buy our starter home with $200 down making $3.26 an hour at Beechcraft.

All those hobbies of mine were supported by hustling on the side, such as building engines for people, flipping old cars etc. We didn't have FB marketplace back then but we had "Mini Market" in the paper and that was a staple.

It was constant motion, at one time I had 16 440s in my garage bought out of salvage yards that I parted out. Selling the heads, cranks and blocks.

We never ate out, seldom fast food, had one TV most of the time, one land line and were constantly in debt paying high interest rates.

Now the youth do door dash, new I phones etc are the higher priority. I had a nephew that felt a Mc Donalds employee should be able to support a family and eat fast food on that salary every meal as a staple.

Originally Posted by Bearcat (Post 18010848)

I think you can buy a pretty basic smartphone for a few hundred bucks though.. or refurbished, or just don't run out to buy the latest one every year.

I don't think spending the extra money on a new iPhone is the main issue... like he said, it's spending the extra coin on a new iPhone and then using DoorDash and also going out to eat a lot instead of cooking at home, and having several streaming subs, and then complaining that a 4 bedroom house or luxury apartment costs too much for a 25yo.

/shouts at cloud

Originally Posted by Fish (Post 18010931)

You were clearly a very hard worker with a lot of determination. Good for you. But still, the fact that you were able to purchase a home for $200 down kinda supports my point. The average down payment for a home in Missouri is now over $20,000. When you were that age, your purchasing power was 10 times greater than it is for a young person today. That dramatic of a price increase, and stagnant wages for decades.

Originally Posted by loochy (Post 18010923)

Yes, but I'm not going to use my personal phone for work. Don't send me texts on it, don't call me on it, don't make me access work email on it. That stays separate from my personal phone.


My wife made this mistake and she gets texts all night about patients and blah blah blah.


and my statement was targeted at this:

Originally Posted by Fish (Post 18010931)

You were clearly a very hard worker with a lot of determination. Good for you. But still, the fact that you were able to purchase a home for $200 down kinda supports my point. The average down payment for a home in Missouri is now over $20,000. When you were that age, your purchasing power was 10 times greater than it is for a young person today. That dramatic of a price increase, and stagnant wages for decades.

Originally Posted by HemiEd (Post 18010947)

No question about that part, it is pathetic what has happened to the starter home availability. I have two grandsons dealing with that very issue right now, it is sad.

Big investment companies have bought up much of the cheap housing for various financial opportunity reasons, rentals, flipping etc. It is maddening. Then of course these companies raise the rent to crazy numbers.

But, like I say, even 53 years ago, without the GI bill, I wouldn't have been able to do it either. $200 is all I could get my hands on.

Originally Posted by mr. tegu (Post 18010971)

Starter homes are ridiculously overpriced due to a lot of those reasons. So when comparing to 40-50 years ago it’s just such a pointless exercise. Then, starter homes were being built and supply plentiful, while still being in good locations. But now those same homes are by and large occupied so you have to wait for availability and when it does come on the market you have compete because the location is good. The other option is to move 60 miles away for a comparable home size that’s is not being bid on by 10 people and Blackrock. The only starter size homes and prices I see being built are horribly ugly connected properties like duplexes/townhome communities that look like they purchased from a Sears kit.

Originally Posted by sedated (Post 18010981)

The people raising the prices of starter homes, and building crappy homes, are not the same people buying new iPhones and using DoorDash. That is...another generation, that bought THEIR homes for $200 down.

Originally Posted by mr. tegu (Post 18010971)

Starter homes are ridiculously overpriced due to a lot of those reasons. So when comparing to 40-50 years ago it’s just such a pointless exercise. Then, starter homes were being built and supply plentiful, while still being in good locations. But now those same homes are by and large occupied so you have to wait for availability and when it does come on the market you have compete because the location is good. The other option is to move 60 miles away for a comparable home size that’s is not being bid on by 10 people and Blackrock. The only starter size homes and prices I see being built are horribly ugly connected properties like duplexes/townhome communities that look like they purchased from a Sears kit.

Originally Posted by KCUnited (Post 18010987)

Banks were practically giving free money away for like a 10 year stretch but home ownership sounded soooo boring then