To think it’s very hard to live in the uk without inheritance or family money?

That can't not affect the quality of life, we are all sharing about the same or a bit less each year. Whereas our parents or grandparents were sharing more each year. Look at the way quality of life has changed in China in the last 20 or 30 years people have swapped bicycles for cars.

This is the reason. Previous 'third-world' countries have developed, leading to a global redistribution of wealth and less in the pot to go round for the west (who have already been taking more than their fair share for centuries). What I'm hearing here is: 'Boo hoo, but we're British! This shouldn't happen to us'. Sadly, this doesn't cut it any more, as we don't have any special entitlement to more than our fair share of the world's resources (especially with such poor levels of education and productivity in any case, hence why we're doing less well than the US, but that's another topic).

Nope it's from 2023
Government stats

Also in reply to pp about women not working.
The vast majority of women through the decades have worked, often whilst running a home
They did jobs that were fitted around children .
Just not the " big" job men did.
My gm had 3 cleaning jobs,my mother a teacher, my Auntie's worked in shops, one a Baker got up at 3am then took her dc to school, came home and cleaned etc
It's a tiny proportion of women who were traditional housewives in the 50s, 60s and 70s who did nothing but that.
It just wasn't recognised

I don't agree.

Neither my partner nor I have yet inherited (we both will). Neither of us have degrees, we earn c£110k pa between us, live in northwest England. Our mortgage is paid off. We're both massive spenders but we prioritise food and drink without watching the pennies.

I didn't have nursery fees as my late mum looked after my child. I remunerated her as she would have worked part time if not looking after my son but it was nothing like nursery fees.

We know that we'll both inherit but have future planned as if we wouldn't.

To these saying they worked hard, got a degree and saved up. How many of you had the opportunity to save up whilst living rent-free at your parents? Parents bailing you out at uni. Not everyone has that privilege.

I didn’t. I got student loans and paid the rest myself, I had weekend jobs whilst doing GCSEs and a levels and then worked every uni holiday and a bit during term time too. I didn’t get to live rent free at my parents during uni or after, I got a job and paid my own way. I bought my first house at 27, I’m now mid 30s and in our next house which is family sized, we have 2 DC. It’s doable.

@notacooldad I'm speaking generally on the assumption, which is reasonable but may of course be wrong, that the general situation is applicable to your family. "My family are fortunate outliers" is not a good argument against national trends, but I can see it's reassuring as it allows you to ignore or deny the wider situation.

If you are talking about the expectation that children will have a more comfortable life than their parents, and their children more comfortable still. Then I think it comes down to economic growth.
There hasn't been a lot for many years and then there was COVID and lockdowns and "Rishi-man-with-no-arms-Sunak" throwing money around. That can't not affect the quality of life, we are all sharing about the same or a bit less each year. Whereas our parents or grandparents were sharing more each year. Look at the way quality of life has changed in China in the last 20 or 30 years people have swapped bicycles for cars.

No, the question is: why shouldn't they both have to work? They may not WANT to, which is one thing, but there's no god-given right that says people shouldn't have to work (just look around the world a bit)...

@Karensgoldleggings that 63% you quoted as a percentage of UK homeowners was for the period to 2018. Updated stats show that it has now dropped 50% - a huge reduction in numbers and a downward trajectory. So whilst your experience might be more positive, home ownership is becoming the exception, not the norm and is heavily concentrated in the over 55, so the percentage of young homeowners is far lower than it was.

@laclochette
It's not as simple as just who owns their home. I'm now at the age where I'm seeing a gap widen between those who:

• don't own a home
• own a home but have a mortgage
• own a home mortgage-free, because of inheritance (of whom I know significant numbers)*

The gap between 2 and 3 is just as important as the gap between 1 and 2. Not having to pay for your house yourself means you can make very different choices, build wealth much faster etc.

Wait until your children realise that a lot of their friends have a grand more a month than them because they have no mortgage.

I own a home, with a mortgage, and I'm very grateful, but I see every day the difference between me and those who have benefitted from the sort of huge inheritances that will become more and more common for a certain segment of society because of the inflated housing market.

You are talking as if you know my kids financial situation. 🤣🤣🤣
Ds has owned his house with his gf for 6 years
He doesn't need to wait to realise that his friends have a grand more than him because, well, they don't! Renting has become more expensive in our area. Ds got a job at 16 and they put him through professional courses and fast tracked him. He has had several promotions so he was ahead of the curve compared to his uni mates.

Ds2 is a slightly different story but he had a successful apprenticeship and he is a grafter and puts in a ridiculous amount of overtime on a good rate of pay. His friends are in the same boat so there's no waiting to realise his mates have money either!

Both boys have ,I believe made positve choices compared to their cousins who are in their late 20 and 30s and looking at leaving home and finding renting is costing a lot more than what my two are paying in mortgages for lesser properties.
Mine children and a lot of their friends made good choices when they could and didn't need inheritances to get a leg up.

Yes, my Nan has just died and my mum has inherited a share of her house. My mum is 68 and retired this year.

The only way we afford a house 20 years ago was buying what we could, where we could, doing up and flipping it then using that cash to buy a house to do a massive extension on. It's still not finished.

But basically not go out or do anything for years to get a deposit then buying a shit hole and taking risks there after. The problem now is we couldn't afford that shit hole today. Its gone up over 50%. The house we flipped to ten years ago doubled in price in four years. That's scary, really scary. There's no way on earth we could afford our house today.

Agree, or later.

My Nan is 98, my Mum is caring for her at 73. Nan has money that will be left to Mum, me and my DS. I'll hopefully have paid off the mortgage before Nan dies and therefore that is pension money, but not necessarily early retirement.

Of course that’s a huge worry, and as I said above I wish those jobs were better paid and that the people doing them could have a better standard of living.
But I am talking about me, and my decisions. I made a choice based on the opportunities available to be at that time. Again, as I said above, I didn’t want a poorly paying job, so I deliberately chose a career path that paid well and had good opportunities for progression. I didn’t choose to follow my passion. I can only make decisions for me, no one else.

I was in that situation and quit to start my own business. I have more drive and purpose, earn a lot more money (and pay less tax), and feel far less anxious because I have so much more control over my day and the people I choose to have in my space.

Maybe it's a sign for you to change something, if you're not happy where you are.

Absolute tripe!
The only person I know who doesn't own their own property has just left university.
I'm a midwife and all my colleagues own their homes.
Stats 66.1% of UK adults are home owners ( 2023)

How did you afford to buy a flat as soon as you finished university? Did you pay for it with education and ambition?

I think it depends where you live. We live in an unfashionable bit of Scotland and one professional salary is enough to afford a nice house here.

Do you not ever worry that if nobody chooses to do the jobs that are essential but poorly paid because they cant afford a decent home and a nice lifestyle, that the whole country will just be a bit shitter.

Imagine if the people that get clean water into your home all decided they wanted a nicer home rather than an insecure rental.

Plenty of areas really struggling to recruit anyone and it impacts on those of us with better paying jobs too.

Well so would I. But I just dealt with the choices I had available to me at the time. I’d have loved to be a teacher, it was my dream, but I looked at the pay scales and decided it wasn’t for me. So I work in finance.

Not easier around the world tbh. Just life for the ones without family heritage.

@HungryBeagle it isn’t possible for everyone to choose though, is it?! And we need people to work in care homes, nurseries, shops etc. I would like for our society to have less wealth inequality so that everyone who works can have a standard of living that supports them to have a happy, healthy life and not live in poverty.

It's not as simple as just who owns their home. I'm now at the age where I'm seeing a gap widen between those who:

• don't own a home
• own a home but have a mortgage
• own a home mortgage-free, because of inheritance (of whom I know significant numbers)

The gap between 2 and 3 is just as important as the gap between 1 and 2. Not having to pay for your house yourself means you can make very different choices, build wealth much faster etc.

Wait until your children realise that a lot of their friends have a grand more a month than them because they have no mortgage.

I own a home, with a mortgage, and I'm very grateful, but I see every day the difference between me and those who have benefitted from the sort of huge inheritances that will become more and more common for a certain segment of society because of the inflated housing market.

As a 60 year old I agree with you. I benefited from free higher education, easily accessible healthcare and more stable employment. Childcare was reasonable and houses seemed very expensive when we first bought, but were far cheaper than now. Building a comfortable life and raising a family is so much harder than it was

I guess that’s the point though. We deliberately chose well paying careers with good progression rather than something that we were passionate about, because we knew we wanted to own a decent home and live a nice lifestyle. Other people choose their career path based on different criteria. And that’s fine, but generally you can’t have everything.

I don't doubt that you and your DH have worked hard. I also think it is possible to have a comfortable life in the UK without inheritance but it is certainly getting harder. In order to make much headway in sought after / lucrative professions often does take some background family effort and finances. Working hard doesn't necessarily make you very wealthy. Perhaps being strategic and "working smart" helps somewhat. There are still some people who are in very lucrative careers because of who they know rather than any innate and exceptional talent.