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.

The cost of everything has grown massively, and wages haven't. 1984, homes were around 4.36 times the average salary. Today, it’s 8.09 times the average salary. If wages had grown in the same way, the median salary would be £65k instead of £35k.

And then the cherry on top, average rentals are now 17.07 times more expensive than they were in 1984

When my DC were much younger I made a great deal of money through investments……ISA interest rates were exceptionally good as were other savings accounts and Tessa’s ( no longer available ) so that be how your parents accrued so much savings. Interest rates are crap now so little wonder your not in a similar position.

My parents and DH's parents have a similar story. My parents both had professional careers and worked fulltime. We had lovely house and garden in a lovely area, multiple holidays a year, all did multiple hobbies. DH's parents were very working class - cleaner and factory worker - didn't do holidays abroad or hobbies, but owned their own house, paid off mortgage early, retired to a beautiful property in a lovely area. DH and I are nowhere near paying off our mortgage, can't always justify a holiday abroad and when we do we are streeeeetched. DH is nearing retirement age and it feels such a swindle that we've both worked hard all our lives and our living standards don't match our parents.

Baby boomers lived in a very odd era - there had been two world wars in quick succession and the consequent loss of population meant that there was more opportunity and more societal change than there might otherwise have been. Their circumstances were very unusual and subsequent generations shouldn't expect what they had - whinging about it is childish and pointless. We have to work with the cards we're dealt, even if they're not great.

The idea that children born now will never be able to afford houses doesn't stand up to even the slightest scrutiny. It's nonsense doom mongering. The birth rate is going down which means over time the population will start to drop, meaning less demand for housing and more demand for people. People born now will have a very different experience to ours - in some ways better, in others worse. It's how it goes.

And I really wish the notion that each generation should be doing better than the one before would fuck off. It makes no sense and it just results in people comparing themselves and getting upset rather than getting off their arses and making the most of what they actually have.

The interest rates were considerably higher than today meaning many people couldn't afford a repayment mortgage and had interest only and then along came that scandal as there wasn't enough for them to repay at the end of the term as they were mis-sold but yeah they had it easy.

Calm down! The actual point was our parents didn't have all the demands on our money that we have these days, that are part of our lives now. As for all the "boomers" buying up the housing stock perhaps if governments & companies built enough housing to satisfy demand prices wouldn't be so high. There wasn't even any council tax back when my parents brought & that can be thousands a year. Would I want to have to try an buy a house now I couldn't do it. I'm a skilled worker but the money has dropped I earn now what I did in 2008 when it was good money. Now I get by,
work to live is replaced by live to work

I have already had a mortgage for over 20 years and also have 20 to go. I’m not starting out now, I’m just cognisant of how hard it is for younger people. 40 years of mortgaging won’t get people to where we are able to get to.

i think I am the previous poster you agreed with about excessive student debt. I think there is such an important conversation to be had about what is in young people / society’s interest about taking on student debt or even if they want degrees, creating different online degrees that can be done more quickly, in 2 years (the US has some of these) as I think it’s insane to be pushing all kids through the same kind of system. The model of occasional tutorials, optional lectures (which I did very much enjoy but then my degree was essentially free!) is not efficient for young people if it’s just pushing off grown up life, loading them with debt, then pushing them into eg entry level civil services that coast along minimum wage.

I started work in 1979. So very little of my wage when on my rent and outgoings, I was loaded and I wasn't on a particularly good wage.

After my Dad died in 2002, I discovered his wage slips that he kept from 1952 to his retirement in 1991 and the amount he was bringing in compared to the outgoings of the family was very high and he amassed a fortune in savings in his lifetime, although, to be fair, he was tight as a ducks arse as he grew up dirt poor and was terrified of being that poor again.

Yes, income was high compared to outgoings and there was a lot of disposable income bringing a happier lifestyle for sure.

I rented a three bed cottage with a massive garden and double garage from a farmer between 1982 and 1984 and then rented it again between 1986 and 1990 and the rent was £50 a month for the entire period and my employer paid it anyway.

Apology accepted. I must have misunderstood. Sorry x

The government and the Councils didn't build new houses. How much input do you think your average citizen had? You are being ridiculous.

The cost of housing and food prices has driven a lot of it IMO.
But so has people's view points they always need to have X, at least one meal out a month or keeping up with the Jones attitude.

My parents are the same. Dad was in the civil service, Mum was a housewife, she worked in school admin for a while when we left home. Dad retired at 60. Their house is worth a lot more money, due to the area, mortgage paid off. Neither had top education. Dad had good opportunities in his job.

They like to holiday, but aren’t flash. They’re pretty loaded…

I'm not having a go at boomers here, but my street is full of single pensioners in 3 bed semi council houses.
I'm not saying they should be forced out, but that's a lot of empty bedrooms.

I don't envy young people trying to get anywhere affordable to live these days. No council housing available, rent astronomical.

I live near a university city in the SW. Most of the rental is aimed at students, even modest 2-3 bed city centre terraced houses are rented out at £2k a month to students.

New estates are springing up on the outskirts but one bed flats on these are going for over £180k, the houses start at over £250k. But, in the main, jobs are in hospitality at NMW (servicing the demand from students), we have several call centres again starting at NMW, gets more if you can stick it, but not everyone can take abuse from dissatisfied customers every day.

Also these estates are just a desert of houses. No infrastructure. When the Victorians developed the city centre with rows of terraced houses they built in parks, pubs, schools, shops, churches - places where people could congregate & have some social interactions. These estates are just a jumble of houses - how isolating even if you can afford to buy one of them.

It’s not pointless to say they lived more frugally - it’s a fact, and one we need to grasp if we are to understand why people are finding it harder to make ends meet despite being better educated etc.

It’s lifestyle inflation.

And as I also mentioned, it’s only one part of it. Even if you cut all your discretionary spending tomorrow, the ability to buy a suitable home is out of reach for many due to house prices.

It galls me to say it, but women having the ability to pursue well paid professional jobs has meant that house prices have risen massively. That’s because the average family now has 2 incomes rather than 1. So to maintain an ‘average’ lifestyle, both people in a couple need to be in work.

It's worked out well for them yes, but not everyone of that generation is so lucky. Similar parental roles here, sadly my dad got alzheimers and my mum's now in a one bed park home and skint as she sold the house to pay the care fees.

From an article by Martin Lewis...

He took a ‘typical’ first-time buying couple in 1987 – two people aged under 35 with no children – and compared it to one in 2022.
Both were assumed to be buying an average-priced home on a ‘typical’ wage using 10% deposit and a 25-year loan.
For the 1987 couple, this meant their gross income was just under £25,000 while the home they were buying was worth £42,700.
For 2022, their joint income was £83,000, while the home they bought was £331,000.
The 1987 couple faced interest rates of 11.3%, more than triple the average interest rate of 3.1% in 2022.
Despite this, the 2022 couple still ended up spending far more of their income on mortgage payments.
“In 1987, they would have been spending 17.4% of their average disposable income (after tax) on mortgage payments,” Turnbull said.
“For the couple in 2022, it would be 25.8% of their disposable income.”

Sure, but I'm sure there were other demands for money. Subscriptions might have not existed, but tvs and microwaves were comparatively expensive in the 80s. So while people are spending in certain things more in terms of quantity or novelty, it's probably not terribly more in actuality.

Yeah and of course it makes me upset. This thread is full of examples of people in good jobs unable to accumulate pensions, buy property or save up. Of course it shouldn't be like that. I have friends in professional careers in their 40s who still live in house shares. Millennials and zoomers are completely disillusioned

I wouldn't disagree with you, in fact I think there is a case, where people's earnings have increased massively during their tenancy, to release their homes for use by others less fortunate. However, all of this is a matter of social housing policy, and not the fault of those individual tenants, let alone their entire generation.

And what generation have the decision-makers been in the last 20 years? There's been no addquate planning for future generations and their housing needs.

Average citizen can vote.

I'm not talking about the OP neither about the extremely few reasonable posts in here.

I'm seeing way too many posts filled with jealousy. I'm sure you all waiting for their deaths to inheritate their massive fortune, isn't it? You all think of their fortune as your way out of working forever. I don't blame you. Until they die, search for careers and jobs with good salaries and perks.

@AnonymousBleep and I’m not saying degrees are a waste of time.

it’s just that now they are expected as a basic requirement- not a prestigious thing at all. Again it’s education inflation.

But people still have the expectation that a degree means instant access to high paid career

😂😂😂😂

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.

Yet they weren't necessarily well off 40 years ago and you may be in a similar position to them in 40 years time. Better off probably as you will inherit and they did not. You'll be able to help your child with a house deposit because your parents will leave you their money.

Money is always more use when you are young but it doesn't happen that way.

We are like your parents. grew up very poor, inherited nothing but have been careful and saved all our lives. Paid mortgage off as we retired and are now incomparably better off than we were when young. Our DC have had help with house deposits and we regularly help them. Although our DC have better careers than we ever did.

There's a similar street near me, full of single pensioners in three bed council houses with front and back gardens. Difference is, a friend of mine lives on the opposite site of the road there in a two bed council flat (no garden) as a single mum with two G&B kids. There are six flats, four have families with young kids in them.
A neighbour of my mum lives in a three bed council house, single elderly man. Because of elderly disabilities, he hasn't been upstairs for twenty years. The council built him a downstairs shower room and toilet so he doesn't have to.