I am one of 7. Our birth years span almost the complete baby boomer range and into very early Gen X (1948-1966). Our parents immigrated to the U.S. after the 3 oldest children were born. While our parents knew nothing about investing (other than real estate, which Dad tried and just did OK), they emphasized savings. Regardless of inflation, when as a kid you see a “Christmas Club” account start at $2 and a year later get back $100, that makes an impression on you. When they did buy something on credit, Mom would get a job to help pay the credit off as quickly as possible. My Dad bought a new car about every 10 years. We never starved, but we ate what our parents could afford and were happy with receiving one present for Christmas.
I always tell folks “I am a better saver than I am an investor”. While I made investing mistakes, being focused on making sure we were saving made it easier to deal with them. Among the 7 of us, only one reached in bad way financially, but has recovered for the worst of it. Overall, 3 us are retired, 1 is semi-retired, 1 could but chooses not to, and 2 (the youngest ones) still have a few years but it is not out of their reach.
If interested, A quick nutshell view of this “mostly boomer” family (if not, just skip to the next section ) :
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Sibling #1(1948): Brother, dropped of out of college and was tempted to, but avoided joining, some of the radical organizations of the 60s. Met a woman who straightened his head out (his words), married, worked and went back to school. Got his business degrees in the 1980s and went into investment banking at age 35. His wife worked, but I learned from them that they lived only his non-bonus salary, her salary and his bonuses they saved. They bough a house in the early 80s and still live in it. Retired after paying for their last daughter’s wedding in 2011 at age 63. Worked at his last company for 20 or so years and has a pension from them.
Sibling #2(1950): Brother, The first to graduate from college, got his graduate degree and went into academia. Had the potential skills to head a college or university someday. But (against the advice of our father) he went into banking at age 33, then real estate, then home renovations. Unfortunately he and his wife were not good business people, and did not follow the LBYM philosophy, resulting in them losing everything (including what I and other siblings had invested to help them out) in great recession and then getting divorced. I learned from many of their missteps. But #2 got things back together… by going back into academia. Though no pension, He earned, saved, and invested enough to semi-retire in 2020, owns a house again, and is on amicable terms with ex-wife (who the rest of the family is still close to) and his kids.
Sibling #3(1954): Sister, graduated from college and started working as a paralegal. After a number of years one of the partners told her “you are too good to be a paralegal, you should be a lawyer”. The firm helped pay for her law school education. She received her law degree and passed the bar at age 32. She ended up married another lawyer who had also encouraged her to go into law.she ended up having a law career in municipal government, and retired in 2017. Has a pension. She and her husband still live in the first house they purchased, LBYM, mainly invested in some rental properties and index funds. When I told my siblings I was considering retirement she provided a lot of good information to help me plan for mine.
Sibling #4(1958): That would be me. I met my wife in college, and though we had many opposite interests, we had a common view on saving and raising a family. I started in IT in the corporate world after college graduation in 1979, and finally listened to my peers in (a) opening a 401K in 1984, and (b) choosing simple investments – 4 index funds for large, small, and international stocks, and a stable value bond fund. As our income grew we grew our lifestyle but maintained LBYM to keep a good savings rate. Stayed with the company for my career. Like sibling #1 any large purchases we made were based on my salary only, her salary (in the less lucrative college professor world and periodic SAHM) we saved. My reading and sibling #1 taught me about mutual funds, and then the dotcom boom made me think I was a stock picking genius, but the effort and the cost led me to the Boglehead philosophy and S&P 500 index fund in 1997. Simplifying my investments from stocks and specialty mutual fund to index funds worked for us, and I retired in 2018, with a pension.
Sibling #5(1963): Brother, followed our Dad’s dream of having a doctor in the family and went into medicine. After graduating from med school and an hospital internship joined a private practice that he eventually took over. Married his college sweetheart who also became a doctor. Has done well in his practice, but also LBYM. When they were moving from their starter home to find a bigger one, we talked a lot about looking for something that was affordable, but that you would be happy to live in if you never moved again. Owns a couple of vacation properties, and both he and his wife could retire. But one of their sons also went the medical route and will finish med school next year, and I know he wants to work long enough to bring his son into the practice and eventually turn it over to him, which I understand fully.
Sibling #6(1965): Sister, also went into IT like me after college, at the same company, but chose to move around so has worked for several different companies. Was the “hero” in terms of spending the most time assisting our parents as each went through terminal illnesses (she chose this, it was not “dumped” on her, and we shared the work as best we could). She married relatively late in life, but her husband is solid financially and they both are LBYM. Her stepson is in college but she has talked about retiring once he graduates.
Sibling #7 (1966): Sister, started in it as well, as the same company as well, but left the workforce after marrying and starting to have kids. While a stay-at-home home decided her passion was in teaching elementary and middle school, returned to school get her masters in education and has been involved in school teaching and administration for 20 years. Husband is an architect who worked for others but currently has his own firm. Their youngest just graduated and started in the workforce, they have an empty nest, but probably have several more years before they consider retiring.
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The consistent foundation was saving and LBYM. When we did that, things worked. When we did not do that, we had problems. We probably invested in a variety of stocks and funds (specific personal finance is not big in our discussions), and some got into real estate, but regardless, focusing on savings first and living lifestyles that enabled that at a high level covered most of our investment mistakes. By the way, the most important thing – we still love each other and get along, regardless of our financial positions.
One observation across the 7 of us is that our career choice has less of an impact on our finances than it has had for our children. From the 7 of us there are 17 in the next generation, born from 1974 to 2002. In that group, the older ones who chose the professional career paths of medical, legal, IT, and investment finance are doing much better, with a shorter runway (if they choose) to retirement than the other career paths chosen.
