It a was very strange time to live through. Even more weird was how empty the neighborhood was. I'd walk our dog a few blocks from our house and sometimes every 3rd or 4th house would be foreclosed and vacant. This marked the beginning of the decline of American metropolitan centers and that decline has never stopped.
We made a good team, it helped that we were on the same page.
I definitely think about my future more now that I did back then and I'm much more conservative. I think that's normal to a certain extent. I see how hard it is for seniors and want to do my best to make sure we're not struggling. That's so awesome that your parents did that! Parents have a way of knowing what their children are going through even if we don't tell them. I remember how relieved I was when I got those couple of gifts from my parents. It was always when I needed it most.
My folks did alright. Solid story of work hard, buy right, an investment property or two and then they retired with a decent sum. Boomers in Australa are much resented for it as the new gen has very little opportunity to even get on the property ladder. A lot of people are asking for early inheritance - if that's possible.
Dad now keeps saying 'oh, don't worry about it, money doesn't matter' as I longingly look at houses about 200k AUD too much for us (we don't really want another mortage) without any understanding of how difficult it is or how relatively little we have to them at that age, and underestimate how much we really, really, really don't want to slave for it.
But I should put all this in a post, right?