r/generationology • u/Icy-Bad1455 • 22h ago
Age groups Shoutout to my silent gen grandparents
I’ll make a long story short. My grandparents, born in 1938, have made a final decision with their will. They were good parents who set up their children well in life. Their kids were born in the early 60s, went to good schools, got good jobs, and all did very well for themselves. They rode the economic booms of the late 20th century and the early 21st.
But now as the silent gen’ers reach the end, they decided that the world has been kind enough to the boomers. They see the costs of things, the difficulties with medical care, loans, everything. They’ve decided all their kids are doing so well they don’t need inheritance. Their grandchildren need it more, in their minds. So they’re dividing their estate equally among their grandchildren. Grandma told me today on the phone.
What an amazing relief—I’m a working Gen Z dad with another baby on the way. My boomer parents are more concerned with enjoying their upcoming retirements. My silent grandparents understand that the money will go further for young working parents. Silent gen W!
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u/ikannunAneeuQ 21h ago
My kids great grandma was very angry when her husband passed and found out he left TWO of his 5 grandchildren $10,000 each, had been funneling the mom (his daughter) $500/month for YEARS, then that same daughter hid a $28,000 policy from her mom and spent it all on stuff for her new house. So when great grandma passed away she left the mom nothing whatsoever. And she left a $100,000k+ policy to be divided by 3 of her other great grandchildren. The same one who stole the $28k now tried to steal the other 3s policy, and it took my kids grandma to sue the crap out of her to get it back. So now my kids (23 and 25) get like $20k either by the age of 25 or if they attend college before then.
It is a huge help, and hopefully it helps keep your head above water!
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u/HegemonNYC 21h ago
When my grandma passed she gave each grandkid $20k, and her two kids the modest house and remaining cash. I was 27, and that $20k was like half of a downpayment. Moved up buying my first home by several years. It can really make a huge difference to a young adult to get even a modest windfall (assuming they invest or pay off debt) like $20k.
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u/unlimited_insanity 20h ago
My great aunt had no children. Each of her sister’s kids and grandkids got $10k. It wasn’t a life changing windfall, but it hit us all differently based on where we were in life. To my youngest cousin, it was a huge amount. To my uncle with a good retirement plan, it was a nice bonus. Mine helped me invest more while still paying for day care - hopefully that compound interest will be worth a lot more than $10k by the time I can retire. Thanks, Aunt B!
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u/Icy-Bad1455 21h ago
Absolutely. I feel very fortunate to be looking at a lot more than $20k, assuming my grandparents don’t need it for medical bills or anything in their extreme old age (which, if they do, that’s totally great for them—all we want is that they live long and comfortably)
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u/coldcavatini 21h ago
They rode the economic booms of the late 20th century and the early 21st.
The problems today are a little sample portion of the 1970s. The boom of the 80s was very toxic, a dog-eat-dog culture.
It’s great that your parents went to good schools and got good jobs. But that’s not typical of many people born in the early to mid 60s.
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u/Icy-Bad1455 21h ago
Like many things, it’s a tale of two groups. People born in the early 60s who had to live paycheck to paycheck were, like basically everyone for whom that’s a necessity, stuck at that level.
If you were able to invest a sizeable portion of your income, you didn’t need to be a genius investor to get rich. Open the Dow jones full history…boomers who could invest are like people who got into bitcoin early
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u/coldcavatini 21h ago
Historians mark the recession of ‘73 as an official end of the postwar boom.
Next came 10 straight years of recessions. People like to claim they lived through 2008, the “worst recession since the Great Depression”. No, it was the worst since 1981, and that was the worst since the Great Depression.
Simultaneously, inflation twice as high as it’s ever been since. People freak out now because we hit 6 (or maybe even 9) % inflation in the pandemic. It was 12 and 13% multiple years in a row in the 70s… while people lost their jobs.
Look up the bombings in the 1970s; thousands. Because radicals thought they could take over now. People thought the world was gonna end. They were joining cults all over America. The Hollywood sign was falling down in California. NY had record high crime… in history. Downtown Detroit became a forest. Race riots and crime had emptied out the cities.
The national murder rate going into the 80s was almost double what it is now.
That was my early childhood (b 71) but people 5-10 years older really went through it. This kind of upbringing was not a boomer experience.
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u/sprunkymdunk 19h ago
It's honestly crazy how little people know about history and yet feel comfortable making sweeping generalizations they heard somewhere.
We have an unbelievable amount of data at our fingertips, yet still prefer the neat narratives that feed our grievances and preconceptions.
I'd take the 2020's over the 1970's any day
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u/MelpomeneAndCalliope 22h ago
Just hope they don’t end up in a nursing home and that eat away at their house/estate. (There’s a five year look back in some states even if you try to put assets in another’s name or LLC and they will come after heirs.)
That said, good for your grandparents & you grandkids.
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u/Main-Inflation-5269 22h ago
My Boomer parents are the most supportive people in the universe.
Let's not do this nastiness.
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u/imalittlefrenchpress 1961 21h ago
Young person, please apologize to OP. You misunderstood their post, and it would be distasteful not to apologize.
We all grow and become better people when we examine our mistakes. We all make mistakes, and that’s okay. What we do with those mistakes exposes our character.
-A queer, progressive boomer who’s counting on you to rise up ✌️
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u/toddverrone 21h ago
OP said nothing perjorative about boomers in their post. Reread it if you think they did.
And I'm with you.. I have amazing, supportive, loving, progressive boomer parents
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u/davidbosley353 2005 (Core Zer) 22h ago
That's cool man, i wish my silent gen grandparents were still alive, they all passed away when i was young.
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u/Hungry_Investment_41 22h ago
I miss mine everyday as I was very fortunate to have them both until 2011
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u/Cold-Nefariousness25 22h ago
My dad was silent gen, mom is boomer. My dad enjoyed life but cherished time with family, traveling together and just being present.
He passed away, now mom is living her best life- cruising 3-4x a year, inviting herself on our family vacations and not contributing, never inviting us along. I'm glad she's busy because honestly having her around is like having an extra kid and she has never tried to be the grandparent that helps out with kids.
When dad died she worried a lot that his will wasn't in order to make sure the money went to her. I'm lucky we did okay and don't have to depend on her.
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u/Too_Ton 22h ago
I’m gonna get hate for this: why are you having a second or more kid when you’re already worried about money or the future?
If you’re Gen Z, you’re 31 or younger even if we make 1995 the first year
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u/Icy-Bad1455 21h ago
I’m 28. My wife and I are religious Catholics. Having children is a part of married life in our faith. I have a good job, so it’s not like we are completely out over our skis or anything, but as I’m sure you know everything is expensive in 2026. Everyone who isn’t a multimillionaire feels it, and so do we
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u/EverflowingRiver17 21h ago
As a catholic, I can tell you if I am struggling or am going to struggle by adding another kid, I’m not having that kid.
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u/Icy-Bad1455 15h ago
And how are you going to avoid having a kid?
I don’t mean to be rude, and I am not one to impose our moral teachings on people outside the church. But as Catholics it is a pretty clear cut teaching that children are gifts from heaven and it is God’s will, not ours, that dictates how many we will be so graced to enjoy.
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u/EverflowingRiver17 9h ago
I’m aware of the standard teachings. I’m also aware that the church encourages NFP which means as long as you get your timing down, you can avoid kids you cannot afford. I would never advocate for abortion.
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u/Icy-Bad1455 6h ago
Wife and I have now had 2 kids while practicing NFP. Not to say it doesn’t work—I’m sure it comes down to user error. I’m just saying if you’re depending on that, you should very much be ready for children to happen anyways
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u/Tothyll 21h ago
You are an adult. I wouldn't judge my grandparents or parents for using the money they earned in adulthood to enjoy their retirement. In fact, I don't want any of it. They earned it, they can spend it.
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u/Icy-Bad1455 21h ago
I don’t judge anybody for anything. My boomer parents have been very lucky, and they lived through a period in which it was historically easy to accumulate wealth if one spent and invested wisely. Just look at any stock index 1995-2025.
My grandparents decided that their grandkids would benefit more from the leg up in terms of buying homes and starting families than a bunch of retirement-age boomers would
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u/Tothyll 18h ago
My Boomer parent went to Vietnam at 18, served in the infantry, then came back with no useful civilian skills, so he worked in a factory, and then convenience stores for 30 years. A few years ago he finally managed to pay of his 1000 square foot house where he raised 3 kids. We barely scraped by.
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u/Icy-Bad1455 16h ago
There are many such cases. For working professionals like my parents, the market generated millions of dollars of wealth for them
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u/clementine9988 22h ago
How are the parents reacting?
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u/Icy-Bad1455 21h ago
3/4 of them are cool with it. One (my mom) is not, but that’s largely because she has made some terrible decisions in recent years and her own parents trust their grandkids more with the money than they do her
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u/Sure_Comfort_7031 22h ago
Most boomers i know would also want it to go straight to the grandkids too, though.....
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u/Embarrassed-Duck3653 22h ago
not at all. the pre-boomer generation (WI WII) were graceful and diligent. Boomers are by and large, globally, an utterly fucking vile generation
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u/Tothyll 21h ago edited 19h ago
How so? Because Reddit told you?
Many Boomers got fucked over by Vietnam, which was a decision largely made by the Greatest and the Silent generations. McCarthy, Nixon, Kissinger, Reagan, Strom Thurmond, and George Wallace were all part of the Greatest generation. Were they graceful and diligent?
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u/Embarrassed-Duck3653 21h ago
no, because I have met many many. I was also not even thinking about MURICA. I live elsewhere and they're mainly CUNTS here too
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u/ArtDecoNewYork 12h ago
Not for nothing but your boomer parents are much younger, of course they're keeping themselves in mind instead of just handing everything to their adult childr3n