Ill start, I never used a check. The only way I can get a house is waiting for my parents to die.
I know the manager of my bank branch by name.
I have a silver certificate.
I used to have to go deposit my weekly pay in cash at the bank, as a teen.
I bought a graphic hoodie off the Internet by mailing a paper cheque to a PO Box.
Bonus round:
My music collection included CDs, but also cassette tapes and vinyl.
I bought a graphic hoodie off the Internet by mailing a paper cheque to a PO Box.
This reminded me of when I first bought something off eBay. I mailed out a check and crossed my fingers.
You’re 47 and grew up upper middle class, likely in an affluent suburb on one of the coasts.
Less old, less well-off, much much less coastal.
35, lower middle class, landlocked?
Split the difference, more-or-less, definitely.
Modernity came to the Plains late.
This will blow minds.
I was a city kid. In 2nd or 3rd Grade I was allowed to leave the house completely unsupervised. One of the things I liked to do was hang out by the local supermarket and ask the ladies if I could carry their bags for them. I usually got a nickle or a dime, One time an older woman gave me an entire quarter and I felt like I’d mugged her because that was so much money.
Old enough to have used a cheque, pay with credit cards and a carbon copy click-clack machine, pay for tuition and getting paid pocket money in coins.
I’m young enough to be unlikely to ever own my own home, unable to officially retire until age 67 and likely unable to live on a pension by the time I’m eligible.
I forgot the carbon CC devices! I’ve used those, too.
The optimistic nature of the 90’s were the best times that ever were. Economically or otherwise. Then this asshole crashed some planes. Then this other asshole officially ended the 90’s by declaring War On Assholes™ in 2001.
My first proper career (as opposed to just having a job) started in 2008, which made me nervous. While I somehow ended up on the better side of everything, the developments of macroeconomics kept me perpetually nervous about my personal finances.
My career (as opposed to jobs) started in 2009 when a “job” opened the possibility of interviewing for a career position and I managed to nail it. I truly didn’t think I’d ever have a career due to lack of credentials (higher ed completion). Luckily, you can be self-taught in my industry and boy am I.
I am right on track to achieve Freedom 35 - living in my car and hopping from place to place to park overnight.
I have used a check. I’m more likely to be able to get a mortgage and buy a house than to be accepted for a rental again, though I’ll likely die before paying it off. I still keep a fair amount of actual cash at home “just in case”.
Will be interested to hear your guesses.
45?
I’ll date myself down to a year. In middle school the coolest thing to do was go buy sourball gumballs in bulk and bring em into school to sell 25 cents a piece.
Tear Jerkers?
Yep that’s the one
When my friends and I walked home from school, we’d always check the bushes behind the church for empty bottles. The refund from one glass bottle was enough to buy 4-10 pieces of candy from the pick’n’mix jars at the grocery store.
I have had to use a check to pay rent and will never vote in a presidential election because elections are rigged and there’s no fucking point. The American dream is dead.
If voting doesn’t matter, why is one side working so hard to stop people from doing it?
It’s all part of a game the psychopaths play to give us a team to root for. I think we desperately need some sort of tribe to belong to, like football teams or countries or political views. While this is going on and only normal people divide themselves, the people with power and money drain them dry economically until they revolt.
By that logic, they should be working to lower the voting age and get more people involved.
Election Day would be a holiday.
I don’t know about lowering the voting age but at least one party is pushing awfully hard to get more people involved in voting with like voting by mail and other initiatives like that.
I have used a check, and my only hope of buying a house is waiting for my parents (or maybe one aunt) to die.
I remember watching Headbangers Ball on MTV.
Discovering Amon Tobin on Subterranean.
He spun a set at Treasure Island Music Festival. There was a sick track that he opened with that he later released free on his website. I sadly lost it and haven’t been able to find it since.
My appetite has too been whet for this black magic you describe. I’ll dig around!
There is no cash usage. All my transactions are monitored by the bank, a massive corporation who sells my data to other massive corporations, and the government. My insurance is adjusted based on my spending habits. My social credit will soon be adjusted based on my digital currency usage (within my lifetime).
Old enough to have used checks (barely), young enough to have access to a metric fuckload of free educational material online to cause me to side-eye the student loan industry before getting sucked into it.
In junior high we got low alcohol beer at lunch.
German?
Belgian
Have used maybe 2 cheques, bought a condo share but a house is a whole other matter. That said I don’t think it’s impossible, the main issue is just stability, if I had a partner who earnt as much then it would still be tough but not impossible.
But you can absolutely own your residence OP - just look for smaller places, in cheaper areas, and jobs that would offer a good salary : cost of living ratio. You’ll probably have to start with a condo in a HOA, etc. but that’s better than renting.