Are you better off financially than your parents were at this age?

I’d say no for me. My dad was a mechanic for Northwest airlines and my mom never worked (that’s right, not even after the kids graduated), they paid their house off in their late 40s. They bought land in northern Minnesota and build a cabin on a lake. My dad’s been retired for 25 years, his pension (yep, you heard right pension) has been $3600/mo since 1999. By contract my wife and I (electrician and accountant) have both worked full time and we finally paid our house off at 58, no cabin and a $600/mo pension to look forward to.