Any other millennials fancy a moan?

[MoscowMules]

I know everyone says, the generation before you had it harder, all the way back to the Crimean War probably.

But

Is anyone else who is a millennial just a bit fed up? Fancy a pity party?

I reflected this evening on things that have happened.

I was born in the very early 90's, so am pretty much smack bang in the middle of the millennials.

We've lived under pretty much unstable governments in adulthood. Mainly conservative.

We've had 2 global recessions

An illegal War

Brexit

A global pandemic

Housing Crisis

Cost of living crisis

Possible collapse of the NHS or if not collapse it continues to limp on with poor care

Russia invade Ukraine and global tension.

To mention but a few calamities, and now here we are, trying to raise Alpha Generation typically, in the midst of all this.

I just feel a bit like "wtf" how much more can we take?

Yes there were good things on a social level, we were the first to learn and grow from the internet and become digital. LGB rights moved forward with same sex marriage, education improved especially with the removal of Section 28 from the education act towards the end of some of our schooling.

But my god! What a generation to belong to and try and navigate in.

I totally accept if I'm having a pity party for one here tonight though 🤣

Not if you plan properly. But too many people hold on to their money far too long and then start to think about giving it away in their late 70's and 80's. It's too late then. For a start your dc won't need it as much when they are over 50!

I was born 81 and while I am so happy to have been a teenager in the 90s I totally get it.
The financial crash of 2008/9 fucked a whole generation of 20-somethings/recent grads. I know so many people who were just starting to properly establish themselves in their careers and think vaguely about maybe trying to buy a flat and the rug was pulled out from under them.
Lots of my friends were working in the arts sector and so many companies and organisations just folded overnight because they lost their funding.

Geriatric millennial here

I went to camp at music festivals aged 15,16 and 17. I got drunk. I had sex. I played out from 8ish in my village for hours on end. I went to uni and dossed because I knew life would work out alright.

I got in some sticky situations but it's my background normal and it does make me sad that my kids have such a sheltered upbringing comparatively, more curated. They aren't teens yet though. But the covid teen generation lost so much and are probably risk averse and anxious as a result.

Never heard the term geriatric millenial!

For clarity, what years of birth are we calling milllenials (and geriatric millenials)?

My DH is adamant he is not a millenial but I think he absolutely is and it winds him right up! 😂

I prefer elder millennial or OG millennial - born in 1982.

I've always gone by people born 1981 - 1996 makes a millennial.

@MoscowMules well that settles it then, DH is in the bracket as much as he tries to deny it 😂

I wonder if it makes a difference how old you were during the 2008 crash.

So say you were 27 in 2008, but did uni and bought your house at 23 and we're sitting in a "professional" job and kept it all during the crash, you might have faired better than those of us who turned 18/19 during the first financial crash and then following austerity, recession and poor job market immediately following.

Just thinking out loud, not stating it as fact before anyone shouts at me 😳

I think a Xennial (Xennial?) is born in late 1970s, analogue childhood & teenager, digital adulthood.

Well, I was born in the seventies, during the black puts/electricity cuts. In the 80s the coal industry folded, as did my Dad's business. We were made homeless. Then we got back on our feet and mortgage rates shot up, properties went into negative equity and we lost our house all over again. I slept on my grandmother's landing. In my experience things really have been considerably better until this blip of the last few years. In terms of governments, I have witnessed both labour and the conservatives make a hash of things. Often the success of a govt is perceived in how well the economy is doing, whereas in reality market forces tend to dictate this. As for waiting for the older Tory voting generation to die off, the reality is that many millennials will become more 'conservative' with their voting choices as they get older (which research has shown to be the case). By the time that you hit middle age, you'll find yourself ranting about the younger generations new fangled ideals and the latest technology/lingo that you can't understand.

I think you’ve got something there. I worked with people in their mid 20s who had just bought houses and the crash and subsequent interest rate cuts were great news for them. Some of them continued to pay their mortgages at the higher rate and knocked years off the term.

I wonder if anyone has researched it?

If not, if some think tank wants to pay me a pretty bob over the next couple of years to "ponder" it, more than happy. My DM's are open for investors hahah 🤣

I'm that stat. Was 27 in 2008. Bought my flat at 24 and was in a solid professional job which rode me through the crash. It must be relatively common.

The 2008 crash was so defining I think. I was 17 and I remember thinking ‘at lease I’ve got 3 years at uni to hope it gets better’.

I got a job fine in the end but it meant my cohort entered the job market with a ‘be grateful you’ve got a job’ mentality. There was no pushing for pay rises; and low level anxiety that you would be fired at any moment. I think some of that mentality continues and has led to the wage stagnation we’ve seen.

Ssssh @AWaferThinMint, don’t tell people, they’ll start throwing boomer style hate at you. 😉

It's a weird one isn't it.

It's like ok, you had a job in your early 20's but it never really went anywhere, and everyone around you were also graduates also. Then in a blink of an eye you were approaching mid twenties hadn't progressed much if at all, your wage was stagnant and everything around you was just falling apart globally.

Then some of us (well I did) thought you know what, I'll have this baby at 24, start a family young and figure it out.

That was 2014 and the Brexit debate was starting. Then 2016 they bloody did it. By now you have a child, back in work but the wage hasn't change, the prices have started to increase on you, food, petrol, just creeping up slowly.

Then less than 3 years later Pandemic, and another global recession due to the pandemic.

And also I seemed to have had more prime minister's than hot dinners also!

When the queen died they said she'd met 15prime ministers wasn't it. From the year I was born I'd had Major, Blaire, Brown, Cameron, Theresa, Boris, Liz and now Rishi..8 in my lifetime. The Queen was in her 90's I'm only in my bloody 30's!

I mean my husband died in the middle of all that, but still, jee wizz, I need a sit down 😂

Its hard not to be a bit resentful when you’ve worked hard at uni and in your career are earning more than your parents ever would have relatively speaking at the same age.

Yet at the same age they were able to have mum stay at home or at least work part time and live in a nice big detached house on dad’s income. Dad gets a great pension so no issues in retirement and they can afford to go on multiple holidays, buy luxury cars etc.

Meanwhile the kids are languishing with their own children in a much smaller house or HTB newbuild and both have to work and have weathered ridiculous nursery fees just so mum can keep the career she’s worked hard for and needs the income from. Both parents will have to basically work until they die due to shit pensions these days.

The older generation sit in their big expensive houses and some do so very little to help their children financially and are busy spending any inheritance the children might get while complaining about not being able to get a GP appointment.

Life was so much harder for them don’t you know!

🤣 oops. Pure luck though!

These kinds of threads are always full of misconceptions about other generations. It really grates.

I was born in the early 70s and can tell you very many people have a much higher standard of living now, but I would say the division between those who are comfortable financially and those who are poor and disadvantaged has grown wider.

Boomers weren't able to get mortgages based on two salaries - only the man's counted. The women of that generation really took great strides in terms of their expectations and careers. The numbers of working class people who were able to go to uni and into further education increased.

When I bought my first house in the late 90s interest rates were 8% and endowment mortgages (which turned out to be a load of crap as interest rates fell) were all the rage. My mortgage was nearly 4 times my salary even though house prices were lower because wages were lower too. If you wanted a house you had to prioritise mortgage and bills. I couldn't have afforded to go out all the time and still pay the bills.

The older generation sit in their big expensive houses and some do so very little to help their children financially and are busy spending any inheritance the children might get while complaining about not being able to get a GP appointment.

You're very resentful aren't you? They've worked for that money and deserve to enjoy it. No one is entitled to an inheritance. My own mother took a career break when we were small, returning part time after my younger sibling started school. They couldn't have afforded childcare and lived very frugally on one salary. Both worked in professional careers btw. I don't begrudge them any of it. By the time they were our age now they were significantly better off than we are, but we have chosen to have a bigger mortgage and to prioritise different things.

Agree with you completely! People seem to forget they had much more modest lifestyles; not 2 cars on finance as is often the norm for a family, no regular foreign holidays, no big mortgage, Netflix, phone contracts, sky, broadband etc.
Obviously someone will be on to say they don’t have any of these things and still struggle but these are very common things.

That’s because Netflix etc didn’t exist. It wasn’t them valiantly foregoing those things, they literally did not exist. In another 50 years, people will be saying how we went without X and Y and had more modest lifestyles.

The older generation sit in their big expensive houses and some do so very little to help their children financially and are busy spending any inheritance the children might get while complaining about not being able to get a GP appointment.

This type of comment screams weak person to me. I'm doing far better than my mother who left school at 14 and forced into factory work. No opportunity for her as a woman. Left with 3 child's, no careers prospects and no money.

If your parents are sitting in large houses, I assume you had an easy childhood. I feel sorry for you if they do not help you, but that's because your parent is crap.

The older generation sit in their big expensive houses and some do so very little to help their children financially and are busy spending any inheritance the children might get while complaining about not being able to get a GP appointment
I m 53 and I bought my DC a flat.

What some people forget, or simply don't know, is that things like food and clothes were proportionately much more expensive 30+ years ago than they are now. Credit was more expensive as interest rates were higher.

Older people sitting in expensive houses with their mortgages paid off have not had it easy. Also you have no idea whether someone has done equity release in order to be able to afford to live a comfortable life in retirement, a retirement which is likely to be 20 years longer than was anticipated when they were working and paying into their pension.

When Boomers were born the country was in a terrible state post second world war. Rationing lasted until 1954. Very many bombed out places weren't rebuilt for decades. Before millennials were born, cheap social housing had been both built then torn down as poor and inadequate.

Take the blinkers off and stop being so self-centred. You can expect to have to make sacrifices and work hard to replicate what you had growing up, nevermind improve on it.