To be depressed about my financial situation compared to my neighbors

Yes exactly. I mean aside from the fact you’d be hard pressed to get an IO mortgage on a high ltv without a iron clad repayment vehicle, but your point is spot on

@Panicpanicpanicpanik I don't think recent property prices eg flats bought post Brexit have kept up with inflation?

They weren’t necessarily smart. It was all there for the taking and even ordinary people could take advantage in the 80’ and 90’s.

It was pure luck. I have older colleagues that took out 100% mortgages, 95% interest only mortgages etc. If you started a thread on MNs should I take out a 95% interest only mortgage what would the responses be?

There seem to be a few threads on the theme of weatlh and property lately. My mouth has almost hit the floor a few times at the entitled whinging of people who by every standard of financial security ought to be having a comfortable life. I get by on £22k, my home is worth about £160K and to my utter horror I have found another leak in my roof so will be having to raid my quickly depleting savings. And guess what, I think I am lucky compared to many, my mortgage is paid off, my health is reasonable, my adult child is doing ok, I do not have to use a food bank, I can afford to go out once a month, it used to be more often but the cost of living has knocked that on the head! I have good friends who are really supporting me after a terrible trauma in my family. I love having the time to read now that I am retired, I love the peace of being able to choose how I structure my day. I am very lucky compared to many, maybe if the OP looked at the many who have fuck all compared to them they wouldn't feel so hard done to

There won’t be the same gains but there will be gains none the less, property goes up faster than inflation

@MuskIsACnt fair point

You looked up your neighbours on companies house! That's bonkers op. 😂

I'll channel my inner Xenia here and say, if you're unhappy with your finances, you should have picked highly paid careers when you were a teenager. The internet has been around for over thirty years. I just checked, and for some, it's been over forty years.

I'm 40 & did not have the internet as a dc!

They weren’t necessarily smart. It was all there for the taking and even ordinary people could take advantage in the 80’ and 90’s. Remember there was roughly a ratio of the average house price being 3 x single salary. I was earning around £22k in 1997 and my first house was £75k (admittedly in a then ungentrified part of London). The couple I bought off were art teachers - they moved up to a house in Eadt Dulwich for £160K. That house would easily be about £1.2 million plus now, if not a lot more.

I bought mine when banks were handing out mortgages like Smarties and was able to self cert. Those were the days…

Well at least you have acknowledged that things were different

This

It should be obvious but those that have benefited from the house price boom don’t want to admit it, they want to pretend they deserve the lucky hand they’ve been dealt.

This. And stalking your neighbour on company's house is just plain weird. You need to get a hobby, a life and maybe a bit of perspective. And with that salary you'll be doing just fine when you're the same age as your neighbour.

My thoughts exactly
There will be plenty of people who will be equally envious of you
Enjoy your privileged position

Go and tell that to a nurse using a foodbank...

I mean boomers are the wealthiest generation as a whole, so have had access and opportunity to build more wealth and generally speaking more buying power than millennials. Millennials are also often the kids of boomers so it is easy to look at what your parents were able to afford, despite lesser qualifications and then look at what you can afford (especially after having had kids) and feel disappointed

YANBU. The boomer generation doesn’t know they were born. Of course they rarely admit it, but their unearned wealth growth (ie from house price inflation) is pretty galling.

Envy is a very unattractive trait…….in anyone

Comparison is the thief of joy and you are comparing with people alot older who could take advantage of an easier and cheaper time to buy housing and then enjoy the price rises from that.

If you were penniless or living hand to mouth it may be more understandable to see their wealth and feel envious but you're in a privileged position too, just not AS privileged. It would be lovely to smooth the way for our children financially and I get that you want to give your children the world too, don't we all! But don't let what your neighbours have sour what you have.

There's nothing to stop you doing the same and making good gains over a twenty-year period.

There won't be the same gains in 20 yrs today as there was in the past. Surely that's obvious?

Even worse! You chose to find out.

Oh great, another thread targeting boomers. Ageism seems to be everywhere on Mumsnet, with constant jabs at people over 50. I get it, some think boomers are wealthy vampires draining the younger generation, completely ignoring those who made poor choices and now struggle in their later years. And then there's the irony of people hating high earners while still expecting their money to fund state benefits—it all just feels a bit hypocritical.

I'll channel my inner Xenia here and say, if you're unhappy with your finances, you should have picked highly paid careers when you were a teenager. The internet has been around for over thirty years. I just checked, and for some, it's been over forty years.

@Hatty65 my in-laws bought in Hackney in the 80s on one teachers salary. My parents bought in London on one salary, parts were very different then.

OP I feel like your neighbour might be part of problem. Not sure why they tell you all this information, other than to show off and try to make other feel inferior. It’s not like your best friends.

It’s ok to feel jealous, I feel sitting with your emotions, working out why it triggers you and then stepping back from the neighbour might be the best case scenario.

This.