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.

Have all my fellow millennials (I’m 31) simply given up and decided to live lives of rancour, jealousy and bitterness? We need to accept that things are different from how they were in the 60s and try to improve our lot and that of our fellow humans.

Apparently, there were loads of power cuts in the 70s and my Dad was put on a 3 day week and they received food parcels! Like I said upthread, I’ve no idea how much, if any, they’ve got saved, but clearly life hasn’t always been peachy for them. It certainly didn’t resemble the halcyon days evoked by many on here. Maybe it’s like a great festival and you had to be there to truly appreciate it?

I should add that my Dad is actually my step dad and he’s way older than my mum. He was born in the 50s and She was born in the 60s but I’m sure she’s not having me on about what life was like in the 60s.

You know we can see your posting history right? Congrats on the time machine.

Ha ha, it’s my Mum’s account but I also use it. Happy to send you a photo of myself holding today’s news on my phone if you want proof?

A Time Machine would be amazing if you can find me one on Etsy though 😅 I’d love to buy myself a house for 14K and amass savings of a few million before returning to the present day!

Lol of course it is.

lol? That’s very old fashioned. You’re not, whisper it, a boomer are you 🤯

I’m not actually bothered if you believe a word I’m typing either because I don’t believe a word you type either!

Imagine how much you could have saved from age 40 to 55/60 if you were not paying a mortgage!

I'm 40 and still have nearly two decades left on my mortgage. Now, if I could save £1428 (not my mortgage amount, just a UK average) I'd have a whopping 460k, based on a 3% return, compounded over the 20 years. Save that for 30 years and you've got a mental £820k. (again based on 3%)

And yes, I know mortgages were not £1400 a month in the 80's, but I'm old enough to remember saving rates of 10% being offered. The principles are precisely the same.

Money is wasted on the youth, because not many people can afford to save up now. I read something the other day that stated 22 million people in the UK have less than £ 1,000 saved.

Why on earth would you use your mum’s account when it’s really easy to set your own up?

No , I’m referring to the OP .
Things were different when the Ops parents started out and she’s very reasonably fed up that her hard work isn’t yielding the same results.

I think you’re right, buying a decent property does seem out of reach. Whilst not a boomer, I bought my first property in 1995 for £130k with a 95% mortgage. At the time I was 24 and earning £32k so mortgage it was about 4x my salary. That same property recently sold for £900k. That same job (Accenture Mangt consultancy) three years out of uni would probably pay £65k now. So 4x that and you get to £260k, so you just need to avoid a daily coffee and save up a deposit of a mere £640k, plus stamp duty. No wonder young people feel hard done by.

Is he the one who left your mum for someone 30 years younger?

I have to be generous and see it as their reward to their parents for going through World War II, And World War I, one in some cases.
They were promised that there would be a better world for their children if they got into a trench full of mud and fought.
I suppose it’s the one time that the government did deliver on their promise And hopefully some of that money will filter down to you so that you have a better life as well for their sacrifice

Wow! I’m flattered at the interest you lot have in me and my mum. It’s heartwarming, it really is 🤣 Step Dad never actually left in the end and my DH isn’t going anywhere either.

Ah, I’m glad your mum didn’t have to start dating in the end then ❤️.
Of course, the alternative is that you’re talking absolute bullshit, but I’d hate to accuse anyone of that.

Ok, I understand now 😊 I think it’s disappointing how the world has turned out, because it’s a widespread problem the world over but I just can’t give up the hope that things will improve at some point or I’d feel too depressed. I’m self employed and doing ok, not rich but ok. I’ve got a two year old son and I have to keep going for his sake.

You're so right. Our son can't save for a mortgage. It's not his £20 per month mobile phone contract, it's his £1k per month rent and £300 per month utilities, plus groceries etc. So many people are blinkered to not realise the sheer cost of housing these days.

Well I can’t prove it of course but I’m not bullshitting so thank you 😊 I’m also glad they didn’t split up in the end. They went for marriage counselling and things were bad for about a year but they seem ok now and have started going on holiday together instead of Mum going on her own.

So which husband had the pregnant much younger girlfriend? Yours or your mums? And the older one of you (I guess your mum) has a grown up son, so that makes you a gay man sharing a mumsnet account with his mum? Right?

😂😂😂

I think we can safely ignore any of @InShockHusbandLeaving ’s contributions to this thread!

I’ll change my name then!

Sucks when you get caught out, doesn’t it?

Not in the least. I could have changed my name years ago, but I didn’t. What sucks for me exactly? I’ve not lost anything but I fear you’ve wasted your time hunting me down so expertly 🤣

I feel like you’ve lost a bit of dignity TBH 😬

And I feel you never had any to lose since you’re so keen to be “right” at the expense of another poster. What have you gained? Not dignity, that’s for sure. I’ve lost all respect for you.