At 61 She Lives in Basement While 87-Year-Old Dad Travels

[Jesus Malverde]

Eighty-seven-year-old Lew Manchester has just returned from a three-week trip touring Buddhist temples in Laos and cruising the Mekong Delta in Vietnam. His 61-year-old daughter Lee lives year-round in the basement of her friend’s Cape Cod cottage, venturing into the winter cold to get to the bathroom.

Lew is making the most of his old age. Lee is paring back and lightening her load as she looks ahead to her later years. Both worked all their lives, both saved what they could. Yet Lew, a son of the Great Depression and former company man, and Lee, a baby boomer who has pursued careers as an entrepreneur and a mid-level manager, are winding up in two very different economic strata.

“Timing is everything and my dad’s timing with jobs, real estate and retirement benefits was better,” said Lee.

While plenty of baby boomers, born from 1946 to 1964, have become affluent and many elderly around the U.S. face financial hardship, the wealth disparity of this father and daughter is emblematic of a broad shift occurring around the country. A rising tide of graying baby boomers is less secure financially and has a lower standard of living than their aged parents.

The median net worth for U.S. households headed by boomers aged 55 to 64 was almost 8 percent lower, at $143,964, than those 75 and older in 2011, according to Census Bureau data. Boomers lost more than other groups in the stock market and housing bust of 2008, and many also lost their jobs in the aftermath at a critical point in their productive years.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-18/at-61-she-lives-in-basement-while-87-year-old-dad-travels.html

[LiberalEsto]

1. No kidding that many baby boomers are going to have a hard time with retiring

But the next generations appear to be totally screwed unless this country changes drastically.

[BeyondGeography]

2. Great read

Very detailed. Even if it's tough, this is the stuff of life, an increasingly widely shared version of it, too.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

3. we are a part of a cloud of statistics.

When we read about past historical benchmarks we forget that those moments were made of the real lives of real people.

[elleng]

4. Sad and bad news for all of us,

and really too bad her father isn't sharing with her now. One can assume that she'll inherit from him, but too bad that she has to wait for his death to have a comfortable life.

[phil89]

5. True

I wonder what her attitude toward him would be if he needs long term care and is unable to afford assisted living...but hey at least he's getting to travel.

[erpowers]

6. I Agree

There is no reason his daugther should have to live in someone's basement. He could have given her the money to pay off her mortgage.

[ConcernedCanuk]

8. Boy - your comments really hit home.

.
.
.

My father passed in 2007, leaving everything to my mother.

Despite her being aware of my difficulties, both physically and financially she never gave me a dime, despite my requests (which were very few).

Mother died last winter, and her will left me enough $$ to buy my own home (my first owned home), and a nest egg to allow me a comfortable, albeit frugal life.

Why not do this while they are living and share my improved life?

And, as I studied the estate distribution settlement, I discovered they had been contributing thousands of dollars a year to over a dozen different charities, none of them being their children.

Combined distribution of the the estate to the various charities totalled around 1/4 million dollars - more than I or any of my siblings got.

My health suffered as a result of my poverty, so I expect not to live as long as they did (father 95, mother 89).

I now make regular visits to our local Food Bank that helped me for the past decade, bringing them fresh meat and veggies (the stuff I missed dearly) to distribute to it's clients with the caveat that my donations are a SUPPLEMENT to their client's regular allotment - not to be put in stock.

This I will continue to do as long as I am capable.

CC

[elleng]

13. So sorry, CC,

that your family handled things this way. My Dad gave gifts and loans to me and my brother, and our children, and when he passed at 98, we were/are beneficiaries of remainder of his investment funds. He was worried that he'd outlive them! Fortunately for him he didn't, but of course, brother and I would have contributed for him, if necessary.

[elleng]

14. And sorry I didn't include this earlier:

Last edited Thu Dec 19, 2013, 06:26 PM - Edit history (1)

Just arrived at the cottage, and even though its too close to civilization for you, I'll try to take a photo and post it for you.



EDIT: Several pics posted in Photography, CC.

[Amonester]

7. Lew's generation benefited from the progressive Democratic era policies (1936-1980)

Lee's generation ('boomers') experience the regressive Republican era policies (1981-today)

Isn't it clear enough for every analyst to see (and report)?

[daleanime]

9. +1

So clear the topic will never be discussed in the MSM.

[BlueMTexpat]

11. Great minds?? LOL eom

[BlueMTexpat]

10. Absolutely the point ...

and why the RW-controlled M$M will never comment upon it - at least not in a favorable light to Dem-era policies.

[davidthegnome]

12. Sad

I have to concur with others who have wondered... "Why doesn't her Father help her now?" At 61 and 87, either of them could fall victim to any number of illnesses, perhaps the Father will bury the daughter, instead of leaving her an estate. This is yet another example of the difference between the haves and the have nots. Even among families, who you'd think would take care of each other... otherwise, what the hell is the point in family?

If I calculate my yearly take home pay, I'll probably come out to something less than ten thousand dollars. My Father's is over seventy, my Mother's is over forty - together, they do quite well, as they begin their sixth decade. Me... I can't imagine making enough money to actually live free. I live with my parents, and while they provide a roof and food on the table, I keep the driveway shoveled in the winter, take out the garbage, do the laundry, drive my mother around when she needs it (she hates driving).

Thing is, I'm almost 30. I love my parents, I love my family, and it's always been a mutual thing for us, taking care of each other... but there is a deep despair, a feeling of futility, that comes with the knowledge that I'll almost definitely never be able to have what they have. The jobs aren't there, the college education has become far too expensive. Even advanced degrees aren't certain to even earn you a living.

No, my parents might make a whole heck of a lot more than I do - but they have been generous and supportive, and I know very well how fortunate that makes me. Yet... I long for a real job, the money to pay off old debts and finish school. I'd like to one day extend our family, to have children, maybe a home of our own. I just don't expect that I'll get much further than living here with mom and dad.

Could always be a hell of a lot worse, I know - and for many people It is. I guess it's just that, when you grow up in a working middle class family, there are certain expectations of you and what you'll do, who you'll become. Me, I tried like hell to make something of myself - and I failed. I could go into the million reasons why - my struggles with depression, anxiety, post traumatic stress disorder, I was bullied in school, I had a childhood that was nightmarish. Blah blah blah.

So many people slip through the cracks, for any variety of reasons. Many have slipped and fallen a whole heck of a lot harder than I did. The vast majority of us, if we want to survive, will spend most if not all of our lives working for the rich. We'll serve wine or tea to foks like Lew, and perhaps commiserate with his daughter Lee that we sure wish things didn't suck so bad.

The overwhelming greed of the very wealthy has brought us to this. To enormous debt, to corporate welfare, to the protection of corporate money as opposed to the pursuit of happiness. Job creators are worshipped as Gods, no matter that the jobs they create pay minimum wage. No matter that they cruise the Bahamas while their employees apply for food stamps.

The divide has become so great, that it cannot be sustained. Something has to give. You can only kick the working class for so long before they get angry enough to do something about it. The Magna Carta, the Declaration of Independence, revolution and war. Those who make progress impossible, make revolution inevitable.

Okay, done ranting.