How Our Grandparents Made One Income Work

I know that for many people financial stress has been a feature of modern life.

This past week I was having lunch with my brother and we were trying to figure out why our grandparents’ generation lived such a (seemingly) stress-free life compared to ours. My grandmother, for example, lived to 95 years old and passed away peacefully in her sleep. She seemed content and happy, even though she and my grandfather (a small town pastor) didn’t make much money at all.

In fact, they thrived financially on just one income, which is harder to do these days. I know many dual-income households that can barely make ends meet between student loans, mortgages, and saving for retirement.

Perhaps there’s something about our modern lifestyle that makes single-income households a thing of the past. I would love to analyze the key changes that have happened since the early 1960’s in order to figure out what’s changed. Here are my best efforts to explain the change, based on my own reading and observations.

Less expensive health care

Access to healthcare is far better today than it was back then. But for many people the out of pocket cost is too high to even take advantage of it. Fewer employers offer health care coverage to their employees, and a regular old doctor visit could set you back a few hundred bucks compared to the $5-10 it might have cost our grandparents.

More modest housing

In the 1960’s, the average newly built homes were around 1,200 square feet while today’s homes are averaging about 2,500 square feet in the U.S. That’s a huge increase in the size of homes, not to mention upgrades across the board with respect to furniture, appliances, and fixtures. Today’s homes are actually built to a much higher standard than those of our grandparent’s generation, and we should be grateful for that. But it does come at a hefty price that means we have to work more to afford them.

Fewer material expectations

Related to the above, our grandparents were content with far fewer material goods. Walk into any major retail store or even a neighborhood grocery store and it’s obvious how many things we want to buy that they didn’t even have access to. Just think about the number of streaming services that people are subscribed to in order to be entertained in the evenings. Thankfully, the sharing economy in the form of services and digital goods means that most of this leisure is relatively affordable.

Less need for transportation

Living in a small town is different than life today. In those days, it didn’t matter so much what kind of car you drove, especially if you lived in town and were a man of the community like my grandfather was. It seems that cars were more of a status symbol in the decades that followed. Either way, transportation has gotten a lot more expensive with most families now having a vehicle for every driver, and not just one family vehicle. This also means more fuel and more insurance costs which have all added up over time.

Less social insurance

We may have seen that our grandparents were happier and more carefree, but in many subtle ways, their jobs were more secure. Jobs in the U.S. are now way more specialized than they were in the 60’s which means the people in those roles are more replaceable and easier to train. Job security and the ability to keep your job for life meant that you felt more confident in spending what you made, and even a little more. These days, there is more volatility in the workplace as industries are forced to adapt and shift more quickly than ever before.

Education was cheaper or not as essential

My grandfather went to college and even completed a masters degree for his job. But my grandmother stayed home and did not go on to higher education. Today, many more people are attending college which means it’s becoming more competitive and therefore more expensive. One of my first real jobs was working in the financial aid office of a small private college, so I have an idea of how these things work.

Less financial education

Without college debt weighing us down, our grandparents could set aside money or save. I know that my dad didn’t have much financial education and neither did my grandad. In fact, they got by quite well by helping each other out when in need. Today we seem to be more siloed in our finances and more reluctant to ask others for help. We depend more on financial tools, which while convenient, comes at a cost that may have eroded community bonds that were relied on in the past.

Less economic growth

I should note that not all the news is bad. In fact, the trends I’m pointing out are only part of the picture and don’t necessarily explain all that’s going on. Remarkably, our economy is booming by many different measures, and while wages are not keeping pace with inflation, people are working less than ever before. I think this is one of the coolest facts of all—you are likely working less than your grandparents on average, and that’s a significant quality of life improvement.

Fewer good jobs

I believe that we have many more jobs today than in the past, but the quality of those jobs is not as high. Or maybe I should say the pay isn’t as high because there are many more people in office jobs and doing remote work than ever before, which is also a significant upgrade in quality of life. In other words the economy eventually balances itself out according to the supply and demand for labor, and sometimes new jobs take a while to reach the market value of older, more established opportunities.

Conclusion: Where Do We Go From Here?

I don’t know how much I can change the world with my words, but I do imagine that by writing about the way things used to be and the way things are going, maybe I can help inspire a better future. Wouldn’t it be nice if there were more single-income families again? I know that eventually I’d love to be a part-time writer and enjoy more freedom with my days.