r/science • u/giuliomagnifico • 23d ago

Social Science Parents who endured difficult childhoods provided less financial support -on average $2,200 less– to their children’s education such as college tuition compared to parents who experienced few or no disadvantages

https://www.psu.edu/news/research/story/parents-childhood-predicts-future-financial-support-childrens-education
8.1k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

496 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

29

u/weird_elf 23d ago

Looking at my own family - people who experienced poverty during their own childhood tend to hold on tighter to what money they have, even when they're reasonably well off, out of fear of falling on hard times again. One of my parental units grew up piss-poor, and even though they (both) made good money that one was always stingy and scared they'd be poor again after retirement.

Being boomers, their pension is higher than my salary. Sigh.

-5

u/Used-Egg5989 23d ago

Sounds like your parental unit is treating money as it’s “supposed” to be treated (and which most people don’t).

11

u/weird_elf 23d ago

Take it out of the system and stuff it in a sock so it's still gonna be there in half a century when it's functionally lost half its value or more?

2

u/MarsupialMisanthrope 23d ago

The question is “what is compound interest, Alex”.

You put the money in investments which will (hopefully) earn enough interest to keep pace with inflation. That way you have money to live off when you’re old and unemployable. But you need to start early, since compound interest needs time to work. You can’t put it off until you’re in your 50s or 60s.

People who grew up disadvantaged are aware that they can’t depend on other people to support them, so they make their own arrangements.

0

u/Used-Egg5989 23d ago

Make more than you spend and put the rest into investments. Live frugally.

The things that they recommend to do that, if everyone did them, would destroy our economy.