Teenage reality hitting home

Globules · 2024-05-23T06:09:10+00:00

My teenagers will be voting their first GE. We had a chat last night about it, and the conclusion they've come to is that their age group is screwed. Uni loans, house prices, single life. DS actually held his head in his hands recognising that his £30k house deposit is pointless until his salary is at a ridiculously high level to service a mortgage. DD pointed out all of the parties are being silent on policies around their age group. Whilst they have every right to feel negative about it all, they're optimistic beans. I was listening to them talking and feeling so despondent that life ahead looks so tough for them. I was married aged 22. Bought our first house aged 24 on just my basic teacher salary (he was self employed, so he was a dependent). They just don't have the same outlook, do they? I really feel for our under 25s. Just me?

greengreyblue · 04/07/2024 18:56

I’ve given her a kick up the backside and she came and voted .

greengreyblue · 04/07/2024 17:24

DD 20 has just announced she’s not voting. Her first chance to vote. So angry but not showing it so venting here.

SilentSilhouette · 29/05/2024 07:31

Whocanbelieveit · 28/05/2024 21:34

£110 to £130 wouldn’t even buy you a mobile home in my area!

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Nor mine. Hence I said "many" areas but not all.

I'd have to move 20 miles away to find something for £110k! But then again, this exactly what my SIL did to buy a property.

CoatRack · 28/05/2024 23:53

Gobimanchurian · 28/05/2024 21:57

So many replies catastrophically missing the point.

Work hard, graduate (with 60k of debt compounding at 6% that you will re pay @ 9% of salary and will never be repaid) to get a job where your salary goes backwards in real terms, and house prices are 15 x average income. Taxes keep rising to keep pace with increasing weight of public service & the welfare state (a significant proportion of which is the state pension). Can't leave the country due to Brexit. That and the planet's fucked. Where are they supposed to find optimism from?

The social contact is broken.

Some houses are 15x average income.
The OP's son could buy right now if he really wanted to (though I'd suggest he waits until next year when the rates go down); he'd just have to leave whatever southern suburb he's currently occupying.

Also, Brexit stops you from leaving the country? Come on now.

Antigny86 · 28/05/2024 23:40

CHIRIBAYA · 28/05/2024 14:35

'It's unlikely that those in leadership positiong can improve things'? What on earth are they doing in leardership positions then? So older generations are absolved from any responsibility for fixing things but perfectly happy to accrue the benefits that politically skewed agendas deliver to THEIR cohort? Sorry but it doesn't work like that. Societies fit for everyone to live in require responsibility from ALL its members, not disproporionate 'obligation' from Gen Z. How about this is a suggestion: all the pensioners who are going to benefit from the protection of the triple lock, at the very least ASK their election candidates what they are going to do for other generations? Collectively as a group they have clout so why not use it in service of interests other than their own? Wouldn't that be a simple way of improving things? & one can feel an exile in one's own country if you are ignored often enough.

Not all 'older' people are to blame for the ills in society, but it is so easy to casually lump them into one group isnt it? you cannot generalise and say that older people are doing nothing for the young, this is absolute nonsense.

ssd · 28/05/2024 23:13

The benefit is independence @Tumbleweed101

Tumbleweed101 · 28/05/2024 22:57

My 23yo had started to save towards a deposit. Did a mortgage check to see how much she could borrow on her £24k salary (NHS full time) and she could get about £70k. What does that buy these days?

Instead she has gone travelling and will probably need to live with me indefinitely because private rentals are £800 a.month for studio/1 beds here and unaffordable. She could live in shared bur what is the benefit to her? She pays more to still not have more than a bedroom to herself.

ssd · 28/05/2024 22:49

L8v3Aboard · 28/05/2024 21:40

How did he save 30k at such a young age ?

I've seen Studio flats for sale under 100k, south

You can buy bigger properties further north

It would be easier to buy as a couple

I doubt he saved it himself, although the op won't answer so well never know..

Didimum · 28/05/2024 22:47

Globules · 23/05/2024 07:33

The deposit is not the problem. It's the £18k salary he's on and the amount it will need to be to get a mortgage to buy the rest of the property.

The builder paid the deposit on our £63k first property. We never even had to have a deposit.

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I think this is a little too pessimistic. He won’t be on 18k forever, or presumably for terribly long. Most people buy with a partner with a second income. The average age of first time purchase has been over 30 for at least 20 years.

DonnaBanana · 28/05/2024 22:41

This is what collapse looks like. It is not sudden. It does not look like an emergency. There is no panic. Things become slightly harder, more expensive, and unreachable over time until things slowly give way, people give up, and things are forever changed.

Mytholmroyd · 28/05/2024 22:31

Gobimanchurian · 28/05/2024 21:57

So many replies catastrophically missing the point.

Work hard, graduate (with 60k of debt compounding at 6% that you will re pay @ 9% of salary and will never be repaid) to get a job where your salary goes backwards in real terms, and house prices are 15 x average income. Taxes keep rising to keep pace with increasing weight of public service & the welfare state (a significant proportion of which is the state pension). Can't leave the country due to Brexit. That and the planet's fucked. Where are they supposed to find optimism from?

The social contact is broken.

It is. I am appalled at what has been done to our children in what is a wealthy European country - I cannot understand it other than billions are being siphoned off or a decision has been made to strip all social benefits (and I don't mean welfare) to the bone. Never seen anything like it.

Inkyblue123 · 28/05/2024 22:20

It’s not just young people. I know people in their 40s with no hope of home ownership. And it’s not just minimum wage earners, I don’t see any political party representing ordinary workers. Conservatives seem to only care about the top 10%, Labour is obsessed with public sector workers - less than 18% of the working population. What about the rest of us? I’m fairly centrist and neither party appeals. And before anyone mentions Lib Dem’s I’m not even sure who their leader is…

Antigny86 · 28/05/2024 22:07

Not all of us 'older' people are to blame for social inequality and higher house prices nor are we all rich and owning several properties.

Gobimanchurian · 28/05/2024 21:57

So many replies catastrophically missing the point.

Work hard, graduate (with 60k of debt compounding at 6% that you will re pay @ 9% of salary and will never be repaid) to get a job where your salary goes backwards in real terms, and house prices are 15 x average income. Taxes keep rising to keep pace with increasing weight of public service & the welfare state (a significant proportion of which is the state pension). Can't leave the country due to Brexit. That and the planet's fucked. Where are they supposed to find optimism from?

The social contact is broken.

L8v3Aboard · 28/05/2024 21:40

How did he save 30k at such a young age ?

I've seen Studio flats for sale under 100k, south

You can buy bigger properties further north

It would be easier to buy as a couple

Whocanbelieveit · 28/05/2024 21:34

SilentSilhouette · 24/05/2024 21:24

£18k means he is on minimum wage and working part time so not comparable to your teaching salary.

Full time over 21 on minimum wage is nearly £21k a year.

And on £21k plus a £30k deposit that gives him £110k to £130k budget which in many areas will buy you a nice property.

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£110 to £130 wouldn’t even buy you a mobile home in my area!

Whocanbelieveit · 28/05/2024 21:24

PuttingDownRoots · 23/05/2024 07:51

You can blame the Tories for a lot of things...

But has a single teenage shop worker ever been able to afford to buy a house? They would live in a house share, lodgings or with their parents.

1991 I bought my first flat age 20 on a secretary wage with a 8k deposit I had saved. I earned 9k from my main job and work evenings and weekends elsewhere. My flat was 32k. It was achievable then. Now my 27 year old son and his wife have had to save 45k to be able to afford a deposit for a house with a joint income of 50k. We are in a very expensive area.

ssd · 28/05/2024 21:15

@Globules , who gave him the 30k deposit

YorkNew · 28/05/2024 18:47

Globules

Are you a position to help your DS?

Original poster

Globules · 28/05/2024 18:43

The thing that I find so sad for our younger generation @fieldwindloop is that their salaries will take ages to get to a level to service a mortgage. Age 24, my basic teacher pay alone serviced our mortgage for my husband and I. Lovely 3 bed house with an ensuite.

My son, and his peers, just do not have that opportunity open to them.

And as time has rolled on since my first post, the kids have enjoyed discussing national service... That'll win the votes from the under 30s 🤦 along with securing the pension triple lock. 🤦🤦🤦

This generation are being sold out to win votes.

OP posts:

fieldwindloop · 28/05/2024 14:52

Globules · 23/05/2024 07:39

He's not a graduate.

He's a teenager working in a shop on £18k pa

His salary is unlikely to get to mortgage levels for a long time.

Edited

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While I agree with you - I think it's probably a bit unreasonable of you to be worried about a 17/18? year old not being able to afford to buy a house. He has 30k saved as a teenager, and has plenty of time to improve his salary. I think he'll be alright.

It's the kids who will never have this kind of money saved/given to them in their teen years, who will have to start saving as soon as they are earning, if they can afford to do that while renting, who are really going to struggle.

Kids who have parents who can afford to help them out (which is many of my peers in their late 40s, early 50s because they were able to buy a couple of extra properties) are going to be fine, but the wealth inequality will likely worsen.

CHIRIBAYA · 28/05/2024 14:35

'It's unlikely that those in leadership positiong can improve things'? What on earth are they doing in leardership positions then? So older generations are absolved from any responsibility for fixing things but perfectly happy to accrue the benefits that politically skewed agendas deliver to THEIR cohort? Sorry but it doesn't work like that. Societies fit for everyone to live in require responsibility from ALL its members, not disproporionate 'obligation' from Gen Z. How about this is a suggestion: all the pensioners who are going to benefit from the protection of the triple lock, at the very least ASK their election candidates what they are going to do for other generations? Collectively as a group they have clout so why not use it in service of interests other than their own? Wouldn't that be a simple way of improving things? & one can feel an exile in one's own country if you are ignored often enough.

RoseUnder · 25/05/2024 18:02

CHIRIBAYA · 25/05/2024 10:16

@Hereyoume By 'cheap dodgy flats' do you mean ones that are death traps? Dogdy electrics, converted garages with only one exit, boilers that are never serviced? So it's OK to allow human beings to live in these conditions so someone with an addiction to cash can get their fix?

Do you not realise how the cost of land is driving house price inflation? & guess who owns the land in the UK? A handful of people. But here we have the OP's son being asked to check HIS privilege.

NO OP it's not just you. I really feel for our younger generations. Those who spout that they just need to get used to renting will most definitely be home owners themselves. I will be looking very closely at the manifestos to see what they ARE doing for young generations but I suspect it will be very little. There will be money for the Triple Lock from all parties I guarantee. Climate change is here and it is disingenous to say the awareness has been consistent since the industrial revolution. The impact is cumulative; there is no way on earth someone living in 1890 would feel the same way as someone living in 2024, even for the simple fact of having an entirely different consumption relationship to news. Do you not also perchance think, the science was somewhat limited then?

What is it with the stupid comments on this thread today, is it something in the water addled their brains?

& no they absolutely do NOT have an obligation to fix the mess this country has become and stay. Children have been failed on a spectacular level in so many ways. We have collectively ignored their needs, think it's OK to let them learn in freezing, crumbling schools, deny them any mental health support because they are not deemed worthy of the investment, failed to protect them from the toxic developemental threat that is the mobile phone, SureStart gone, Youth clubs gone, opportunites to connect, dying, no personal accountability from the majority of authority figures they encounter. We expect children to put up with things that adults would not in a million years settle for. Like any bad relationship; if you are being ignored, then the wise thing to do is get the hell out of it. You reap what you sow. Let those who have voted for neo-liberal capitalism these last few decades now experience the consequence of that.

Your son is most definitely NOT alone and I am very hopeful that in the not too distant future his generation will mobilise and demand to be considered and will be heard. I'm definitely listening.

They have an obligation to fix it because of their age, this task will fall to them.

its increasingly unlikely older generations and especially those in leadership positions age 55, 60 upwards, can improve things. A small number of people but the odds are stacked against them. The young people sadly inherit the mess and will have to do as best as possible to fix it. If they all move abroad they’ll be nothing more than exiles in countries they have no belonging to, and nothing to go home to. And perhaps this won’t be unique to British youth.

Araminta1003 · 25/05/2024 12:35

It wouldn’t be so difficult to have a massive commitment to house building for the young and organise tons of building apprenticeships which then come with some soft of right to get a flat/house that you have indirectly or directly helped to build,
However, yes planning rights need to be relaxed and the nimbys shouldn’t have such a voice. Councils still have too much say over planning and they again pander to the old and middle aged who don’t want someone looking into their garden etc!

ssd · 25/05/2024 10:26

Agree with @CHIRIBAYA

The difference now for young people is whether or not they have family money behind them. Whether granny had a house and leaves them an inheritance, which i suspect the ops son has but still unsure.

Without family money, kids are fecked now.