Can’t believe how much money my parents have amassed

[Tallular819]

My parents started out with nothing, not a penny from their families. My mum was a dinner lady, Dad was a secondary school teacher.

They paid off their mortgage in their 40s. As children we had a holiday abroad every year and multiple uk holidays throughout the year.

They had a lease car which would be replaced every 3 years with a new one.

They paid for mine and my sisters weddings and house deposits.

They’ve travelled all over the world in their retirement and I’ve just found out they have £200k in savings.

WTF?! DH and I have comparable careers, we run 1 old banger of a car, we have 1 uk holiday per year, we’ve stopped at 1 child, we’re on target to pay off our mortgage when we reach retirement, we have a grand total of £4k in savings. We don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t buy expensive clothes.

Its just hit me how vastly different our financial situations are. I didn’t appreciate just how different the cost of living is today compared to 40 years ago.

Re: the degrees. Most organisations now expect a degree. Maybe they've been devalued to some extent, but finding good well-paid work without qualifications is even harder than finding good well-paid work with qualifications.

And yes, society has changed since the 60/70s. The planet is a lot more overcrowded, most homes have two cars, technology has made things both simpler and a lot more complicated - and that genie isn't going back in the bottle, no matter how furiously people vote for Reform/Brexit in the hope of going back to some rose-tinted version of bygone days. It's pointless saying our parents lived simply or more frugally. Yes they may have, but society isn't set up for that now - and most of those same people also don't live like that now either.

Major assumption that there are suitable jobs near their parent's home meaning they're able to live at home. Lots of people don't have that luxury. Aspiring professional graduates often have to move away to larger cities for the jobs, so have to pay ridiculous rents, utilities, commuting costs, etc. Fair enough for retail workers, hospitality workers, care workers, etc on minimum wage who can probably find work close enough to their parents' homes, but if your son/daughter is a graduate actuary, they're not going to be able to live at home unless you live in one of a handful of large cities with big insurance firms as employers. A few decades ago, there'd be jobs for such people out in the regions as bigger firms had more regional offices and some head offices were out in the regions too, such as Provincial insurance in Kendal and Prudential insurance who had a major office in Kendal - now neither have offices in Kendal and in fact, no major insurance offices at all in neither Cumbria nor Lancashire! That's just one profession.

Haven’t RTFT. My parents were professionals (DM mostly PT), now in their late 60s and retired with healthy pensions and a property portfolio worth millions. DM recently inherited a huge sum.

While I don’t ever expect to be as wealthy, I do think I have a much better life than they did at my age. They had 4 kids and their lives were centred around raising kids. They hardly had any friends and had no hobbies. Life was stressful and they didn’t really get along most of the time because the drudgery of raising children took its toll on the marriage. By contrast, I don’t have children and my life is centred around pursuing hobbies, spending time with friends, exercise & fitness, and travel. I have a comparatively peaceful life filled with joy and new experiences.

Money isn’t everything.

In fairness we bought our house 8 years back and based on recent neighbours sales it’s increased in value by around 70-80% in that time. It was a more common phenomenon then though I think.

I paid a mortgage for 39 years during the course of my lifetime on a variety of properties, so I certainly wasn't 25 years and done and I don't think I'm unusual in that. I was however concerned to get it paid off by my early sixties and we made sacrifices to do so. As I say, in the long term, inflation is very much your friend in that regard.

I appreciate young people in some cases are staying at home for longer, but certainly not all, and I think this is to a large extent driven by where in the country you live, and the relevant house prices. In many cases, though I know it's not all, the evil "Boomer" generation are giving generous assistance with housing deposits to help their young relatives get on the ladder.

I agree with a previous poster that burdening many more young people with student loans has often been cruel and counter-productive, and I have sympathy on that score.

Another thing that has changed thanks to successive governments is the very high cost of buying houses and moving, mainly due to stamp duty. This has led to a much less mobile workforce and reduced people's ability to move incrementally up the housing ladder in smaller steps. It is also a major deterrent to older people right-sizing in later life. This I think is very wrong and hugely destructive.

It is not all doom and gloom for younger people, as wealth will flow to many of them in a way it did not flow to my post-war generation. Certainly the OP sounds to have very financially astute parents, as many of us are. I think she should see if she can pick up any tips.

If you think about it, not having a mortgage changes everything. If you’re happy and comfortable with a mortgage and then when you stop paying it end up saving everything it adds up quickly. If we stopped paying ours and just saved it we’d have roughly £150k in 10 years.

If they live with parents, earn NMW but concentrate on saving as much as possible, they could quite easily save £5,000 per year (£100 pw) - after four years they could put a £20,000 deposit on a £200k property (typical property price in some areas).

Not everyone can live with their parents, many parents don't have space or funds to support adult dc.

Quite, @brunettemic ! Does your calculation include the compound interest on that? If you put it in a pension, you'd get substantial tax relief added to it too.

My Dh & me have agreed that we are going to enjoy our money. We go on cruises & several other holidays throughout the year.

We pay for GCs school trips and put the maximum amount allowed by HMRC into their building society accounts (DH deals with this so I forget how much it is, but I think it's about £1,500 a year). We had savings accounts for our children from birth which went a long way towards deposits for their first houses. We bought them all (very new 2nd hand) cars when they first started driving, paid for weddings, generally we do what we can.

We can't guarantee that there will be any money for them to inherit (see my PP about my brother & me inheriting the grand sum of £25K) so are giving them whatever HMRC will allow while we can.

I found an old National Savings book from 1988. Interest rate. 10.75%

I hesitate to tell you how different life was, simply as I have a daughter in her 30s, single no kids with a mortgage who has the same bills as a family, apart from a 25% CT reduction and food and I see how hard it is for younger people.
Last thing I want is to rub it in.

Singles, don't even have someone else to fall back on when ill or redundant.
What seems to be happening with some millenials is they've given up on trying to buy a home. They've gone back to living with their parents and some day inherit enough for a house deposit.

This is such ridiculous drivel about lash extensions and takeaways when the boomers have hogged all the housing. Me getting a £25 pedicure 4 times a year is not the reason I live in a small two up, two down terrace. It's because we bought that terrace at 600k and it was 6 times our combined salary, whereas the person who sold it had bought it for 25k which had been bang on their annual salary. So unless you give me a time machine and transport me to 1990 when I was 8 to buy a property, please don't come to me about subscription costs (some of which you do need just for normal life in 2025)

Mine are in a similar situation, like yours they are generous and I don’t grudge them a penny. I couldn’t afford the house they had on 2 x professional salaries that they afforded on 1 manual worker and an office worker salary. Times have definitely changed. I hope your parents enjoy good health to enjoy it so it doesn’t all go on care home fees.

I am a baby boomer born in 1958, brought up in a Council House, my dad was a Council gardener and my mum was a daily. I knew that I would never inherit anything to help me out. Unfortunately I spent, until my early 30s working in the NHS, so my salary did not afford me the opportunity to buy a house and I still live in rented accommodation and work, even though I am technically past retirement age... my mother worked until she was 80 and I hope that I will not have to do that, too.

Some people seem to think that life was easier back then, perhaps in some ways it was but using credit was quite frowned upon until the 1980s and tbh, you either saved and bought something new rather than on tick or you used it until it stopped working or could no longer be repaired. One of my most vivid memories of growing up was my mum on a Friday night working out where that week's money would go and how far she could stretch things to break even.

In some ways, I wish I had decided to go into a different career my story might have been different but I can manage and that is what is important.

Ok, I'll bite - in what way have the boomers ruined everything? Please give examples.

To all those moving back to Mum and Dad and staying there , living an easy life, expecting to inherit a huge amount, I hope Mum and Dad spend it all on holidays and the very best care homes!

I agree house prices v earnings were different 30 years ago. I bought my first house - actually a flat in Twickenham in 1984. 2 beds in the 1930's block that features in Poirot overlooking Twickenham Green. Partner & me combined income of about £15k bought it for £42k with deposit of £2K. Sold it a year later for £65K. But that was the crazy 1980's.

Did they get an inheritance? Final salary pension? It’s usually the pensions that make the difference.

plus, most people don’t get in a good place in savings until later in life. Not at the child rearing years

Some people on here seem to have misread the OP and are unjustifiably attacking the poster. I completely get what she is saying. (And there is nothing wrong with ‘amassed’🙄.)

My own parents both grew up in council houses and left school without any qualifications (in one case) and a few CSEs (in the other). My mum worked as a legal secretary for a few years but never went back after mat leave. My dad did shop work for a few years then started his own business. He undoubtedly worked bloody hard and took some risks along the way. They had some financial knocks, but have come out in their 70s with a detached house, a new car every few years, several cruises a year and generally a nice life on a single salary.

In contrast, me and my husband both have high end professional jobs and good salaries but a mortgage in the south east plus childcare take a huge whack of it. Housing costs have been the driver. Roses have hugely outpaced wages for the past few decades. Which means you need two salaries to afford to get on the ladder. Which then means when you have children you need childcare. Plus inflation in recent years means everyone is feeling the pinch as wages have not kept up.

Don't be ridiculous. Your parents are quite obviously retired MI6 agents !

My parents were on their arses 40 years ago. Struggling hand to mouth. They struggled with paying for basics. They didn't get to be financially sound until about 15 years ago. Now they have 150k in their bank.

So the life was similar with the huge interest rates back then.

Agree, my younger colleagues would never eat off a packing box for a few months in their first houses. It has to be Pinterest perfect from the off, no hand me down curtains etc until you could afford to decorate.

What exactly do you mean, "The boomers hogged all the housing"?

I apologise if you were offended - I didn't think it was a nasty comment.

It is crazy. I had to come out of the company pension 2 years ago because I need that money to live now. I’m 42!

Bought the council houses and didn't build new affordable housing (though that is an on-going issue)