Long Island is the birthplace of suburban America. And you can still sort of feel that when you drive around here in Farmingdale, New York, with its vinyl-sided houses, freshly-cut lawns, and American flags.
“You look down the block here and everybody that owns a house has a union affiliation. This guy over here, Joe, he was Verizon,” said Bill Thompson, gesturing at his neighbor’s houses, “electrician, police officer, truck driver, Long Island Rail Road.”
There are a lot of blue collar workers here. And that includes Bill, who before retirement, was a sheet metal worker mostly installing ductwork. His wife Katherine was a nurse, who also taught nursing. These steady careers have led to a comfortable retirement. Between pensions and social security, their income is about $150,000, and they still have other retirement and savings accounts.
In retirement, Katherine volunteers 10 hours a week for AARP and she loves to garden.
“So the clematis is just blooming up top there,” she said, showing off her yard. “The purple flowers just opened up, that’s today.”
Katherine grows berries in her backyard
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Meanwhile, Bill is into woodworking, making bowls, kids furniture and even the full-sized grandfather clock that sits in their living room, built from scratch out of cherry wood. The two can enjoy their hobbies without really thinking about how much things cost.
Katherine and Bill stand with the grandfather clock Bill made
Kristin Schwab/Marketplace
“I think that’s kind of one of the nice things about financially, where we are, is that we don’t really have to worry, you just buy it to be able to do what you want with it,” said Katherine. “You know, even the traveling and everything, we just book the tickets.”
In the last handful of years, they’ve been to Alaska, Hawaii, Seattle, and Paris. Between vacations and visiting family in New Mexico, they spend about $20,000 on travel a year.
“We really are not super big spenders, but we don’t have a budget either,” said Bill. “It’s really a very good life that we have.”
At 69-years-old, Katherine and Bill are part of the demographic who have helped prop up the economy for the last handful of years, despite the pandemic and inflation. In the last five years, people over 60 have increased their spending more than other age groups, partly because their wealth has been buoyed by stock market gains and rising home values. Plus, older Americans are often less impacted by interest rates.
Katherine and Bill feel very lucky because they think they’re the last generation to live a prosperous, blue-collar life. That’s become especially apparent to them watching their two sons, who are in their 30s.
“I am very concerned about my son and his wife,” said Bill.
One of their sons lives nearby on Long Island, and his job doesn’t offer health insurance. Their other son and his wife live in New Mexico. They have two kids and one has serious disabilities.
“She’s going to have to have help from other parts of society,” he said.
In other words, Bill and Katherine are not worried about their economy. They’re worried about the economy at large. They talk about the state of health care, threats to social security and tax cuts for the wealthy, and how one of the only ways to get ahead these days is with a little generational help. They spent something like $300,000 putting their kids through college. And they helped one son buy his house, which needed a gut renovation.
“What we see now, with these kids, and it’s not just our kids. We have a lot of nieces and nephews on both of our sides. They’re renting an apartment for $2,600 a month,” said Katherine. “Even with a good job, how do you save?”
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