We all know the type -- the "heavy hitter" or well-to-do Trad parishioner who has wealth AND is willing to spread it around a bit to support the parish.

That person who "matches" the entire proceeds from a parish fundraising event. In other words, the parish bake sale raises $500 and this individual matches that collective donation, by donating $500 personally. Or the person who puts a check for several hundred dollars in the collection basket, to bump around with all the $1 and $5 bills others put in.

Where do they come from? Ultimately, they come through God's grace and His providence.

But have you known any such parishioners who were life-long Trads, and/or had more than 3 children?  Or any who weren't Baby Boomers?

Baby Boomers -- I could make a topic on that group alone. What's up with Baby Boomers only having 3 or 4 children, both inside and outside the Trad world? Also, they were very mainstream in every conceivable way, including sending their children to public school (NOTE: that wasn't anywhere near as bad as doing the "same thing" today) But while sending children to public school in the 80's wasn't 1/10th as harmful as doing so today, nevertheless it did free up a lot of time and money in the Baby Boomers' budgets. The wives went back to work, money got saved up, wealth multiplied in real estate and the stock market, etc.

Then there are the converts --
Trads have different priorities than those "in the world" (Prots, Novus Ordo, pagans, atheists). Trads tend to be more allergic to diving in head-first into the world. They aren't as competitive, they don't seek wealth as much, they have more children, they spend more on homeschooling and private school, they tend to be single-income (since Trads believe in traditional gender roles as an ideal), they prioritize having a place to attend Tridentine Mass, and a hundred other reasons that place them at a disadvantage materially speaking.

Now it's true that if you die a Catholic in the state of Grace, you will go to heaven. But converting to the Catholic Faith at age 40, 50, or 60 will not make you a life-long Trad. This simple fact will have many consequences, good and bad, in all sorts of areas (financial, emotional, spiritual, etc.) You might have married poorly, at least from your new Catholic perspective. You might have an awesome career, since that's what most worldlings value -- including you before you were Catholic. You might have some bad habits (more than average), since you didn't even have the advantage of knowing certain things were wrong. (Catholics have plenty of vices too, but at least they know objective right & wrong and get to make the choice about being "bad" or not).

A whole topic in itself is the economic situation in the 1970's, after the US went off the gold standard. But in the succeeding years, tons of "wealth" was created especially in real estate, and Baby Boomers were the recipients of most of this explosion in value. Long story short, the Baby Boomers who married and settled down in the 1970's were in a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT WORLD than a young couple marrying today. That is a whole topic in itself.

But have you known any such parishioners who were life-long Trads, and/or had more than 3 children?  Or any who weren't Baby Boomers?

Most of the baby boomer generation are not life-long trads because they lived through the worst changes of V2 and most later converted back to Tradtionalism in their late 20s or early 30s (or later) because they found tradition in the late 70s and 80s.  I do know many successful families who are able to donate a lot of $ and who also have 7+ children.  Obviously, they are able to donate more $ now, because their children are grown up; when their families were younger, they didn't have a lot of $, just like young families now.

I've also known very generous families from the generation PREVIOUS to the baby boomers who dedicated time, energy and money to Traditionalism.  And often, they had fewer children than the baby boomers that I know.

The baby boomer generation is one of the largest in our recent history, so while there are generalizations one can make about this group, there's also much variation.

I'm Generation X but after reading this I wonder what peipeo in the parish think when I help  out and church. Do they resent my husband because he worked hard and has more than a pot to piss in?