A few years ago at Christmas my mother-in-law gave me a Remember When . . . A Nostalgic Look Back in Time booklet for the year of my birth. Perhaps you have seen these before. They are pretty fun to look through. I was going through some old boxes this weekend in an attempt to spring clean and found it.
Each booklet details the main events which occurred in whatever year the booklet is written about. It shows pictures of original ads from magazines, it details items that were popular, interesting facts such as who was president, who won the Nobel Prize that year, NCAA Basketball champs, etc.
In the middle of the booklet there is a section called (Whatever Year) Cost of Living - for instance, I was born in 1965, so this page is titled 1965 Cost of Living. This is the section that really blows my mind, to be able to compare the difference between today's cost of living, and the cost of living back then. There is a fairly large difference—the result is, of course, inflation.
Here is how the cost of living breaks down for the year of my birth:
New House—$13,600 (Sheeesh! I could by three houses in one year and still have money left over if that were the cost of house today)
Average Income—$6,469 (Does this seem pretty high compared to the price of a home? I guess not since that breaks down to $539.08 per month)
New Car—$2,614
Average Rent—$118.00 per month
Tuition to Harvard University—$1,760.00 per year (Boy has this changed quite a bit compared to today's cost)
Movie Ticket—$1.25
Gasoline—.31 cents per gallon (I can remember my grandfather, who used to run a gas station back in the 60's, telling my brother in the 70's that if you pay more than one dollar for a gallon of gas you are getting ripped off - he must be spinning in his grave at today's gas price)
United States Postage Stamp—.05 cents each
It amazes me at how big a difference there is between the cost of living back then—43 years ago—and today. I'm amazed how inflation has grown so rapidly since then. This certainly makes me re-think my retirement and what inflation might be like when I'm 65 or 70. What will the cost of living be like then?
BTW—I was born in the same year as Charlie Sheen, Will Smith, and Robert Downey Jr.; I bet they are not nearly as concerned about this inflation issue as I am. :-)
5 comments:
According to the Bank of Canada, Canadian inflation has been around 4.54% per year between 65 and now. The final increase between 1965 and today is around 576%.
This would put the new house now at 78336.
The current salary at 37261.
New car at 15056.
Rent at 680.
Tuition at 10138.
Movies at 7.20.
Gas at 1.78
Stamps at 0.29.
Of course a new car back then was a piece of garbage. My Dad has stories of them borrowing an extra spare tire just to go in a road trip, and now we expect our tires to last for 30000 miles. You can actually buy a car these days for 15000 that isn't too terrible . . . can you get a house for 78K? maybe in Honduras.
traciatim,
Interesting figures. Of course houses are much more today (unless, like you said, you get one in Honduras)
gas here is at about 3.28 per gallon
average rent is around 720.00
current salary is relative to position and location (the region or area of the country); usually ranges between 35k - 50k
movies are at 8.50
Harvard tuition is around 65,000 per year depending on the degree
Stamps here are .47 cents
Also, back in the late 70's early 80's I could go see a rock concert for about $12.00. I saw bands like ZZ Top, Kiss, Def Leppard, etc. for this price. Now, I just bought two Rush tickets and they cost $75.00 each, tried to get Tom Petty tickets, the best I could get was the nose bleed section and they cost $150.00 each - huge difference.
Hi. I found your blog by reading on "Get Rich Slowly." I love what I've read here so far. Great job!
I wanted to tell you that I asked my dad (who just turned 65 a few days ago) how much gas was when he started driving. This would have been in the late 50's. He said it was 25 cents per gallon. Amazing!
Here it's 3.34.
Sandra in MO
Sandra,
Thank you for the kind remarks. BTW - as of today, gas is $3.48 per gallon where I live - YIKES!!
I wouldn't complain too much Todd, I live in a city with a large refinery on the east coast of Canada, and am paying more than that by quite a large margin . . .
3.83 (U.S. dollars per US gallon) = 1.02624699 Canadian dollars per liter
1.23 (Canadian dollars per liter) = 4.59041541 U.S. dollars per US gallon
and I have to deal with the pollution of the refinery.
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