In 1960, I was 4 years old.

It's kind of interesting to me, to look back and compare prices from the 60's and 70's with the prices of today.

For example, in 1969, I was 13 years old. Candy bars were still .5 cents. Gasoline was usually around a quarter a gallon, give or take a few cents. Cigarettes in the north was higher and a lot lower in the south...I know because I smoked my first cigarette when I was 10 years old. In the north, a pack of cigarettes when I was 13 years old, cost about .35 cents...in the south, the cost was .21 cents. When my uncle came home from Nam, he used his money to buy a brand new white convertible vet...i remember it very well, red interior...that was probably in 67 or 68 and he probably only gave less than 5 grand for it. But here is some prices of 1960:


In 1960 a new house cost $12,700.00 and by 1969 was $15,500.00

In 1960 a gallon of gas was 25 cents and by 1969 was 35 cents

In 1960 the average cost of new car was $2,600.00 and by 1969 was $3,270.00

Volkswagon beetle $1,769 From Car Prices in the 60's

Ford Mustang 2 door hardtop $2,368


I do remember my family buying a brand new house, never lived in, when I was in 3rd grade...in the north, and I remember them talking about the price, they paid $16,500. Some years later when they retired, they sold it to a man that had returned home from Nam, and he bought it on the 'GI Bill'. Only a couple of years ago, that man sold the house...he lived in it almost his entire life....it sold for approximately $125,000. I thought that was simply amazing. After all, the house is close to 50 years old now.

It makes me wonder, what will prices be in ten years, twenty years, thirty years....???

You young kiddos, best think about that, keep it in mind with all you do.

By the time summer ends gas will be like $5+

Well, this reminds me my story:

Our first home was 12 millions Lei (1995, ~$6,000) - one bedroom apartment. Most of that money we loan from the bank for 5 years. This was pretty ambitious for us as my wife's entirely income was used to pay the monthly payment plus interest in the beginning.

Just 4 years later, as our both daughters were born, we needed to move in a larger place. We found a 3 bedroom apartment for $10,000 (about 120 millions Lei at that time). We paid the remaining amount from the loan with my last month salary(!), we sold the old apartment for 70 millions Lei (!) and made another loan of 100 milions (the difference was spent for furniture and things like that).

In 2006, we found a very interesting house, for $50k. It was a short period when prices for apartments were growing up, but the houses were not. The old owner saw our apartment and decided to take it for 35k . For the difference we just moved the mortgage from the old apartment to that house and increased the loan a little bit.

This house worth now, after less than 20 years, ~200k.

Added later: My current second car is 20k euro, more than twice the 3 bedroom apartment bought in 1999. We rented that house and moved in a large penthouse 1 bedroom apartment. The rent is covering 75% of our monthly payments. If we would sell the house we would cover all our debts.