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.

Salaries compared to house prices are so low now, it’s not going to be possible to match what was achievable in the past.

My parents both worked for the NHS as nurses, they had absolutely nothing when they died, could never afford to buy a house, never went abroad on holiday only ever to relatives in the UK. We lived a very basic life and my parents were able to save nothing, I don't see how some people managed to amass a fortune while buying houses, taking exotic holidays and driving flashy cars all on two small wages. It just sounds impossible to me.

Of course it's amazing. We bought a house 2 streets from my mum (to be her carers) and it's amazing to me that our houses are near identical in look and value and she and my dad paid 10% of what I paid for mine.

My uncle paid £5,000 for a house in Zone 2 London that's now worth £2m.

Of course this stuff is amazing, it boggles the mind. It doesn't mean I begrudge my parents or uncle.

Compound interest. Wish I had set up a direct debit for even a small monthly amount years ago and also invested/used all personal tax wrappers over the years. People think you need to be rich to do this. Start young with a tenner a month!

He also has a lovely army pension! Don't underestimate how much that it is.

Housing costs have changed but that’s not the whole story. We expect certain things for a moderate standard of living today which was not even in existence then.

growing up we lived as a family of 5 in a 3 bed semi, sharing bedrooms was normal. We had one tv, plus tv licence, we didn’t get a video player until I was in 6th form (1990) holidays were once a year in Britain mostly or a caravan in France where we self catered with one or two meals out. We ate out maybe 6 times a year in addition and rarely had takeaway.

im now older than the age my parents were then, I expect to be able eat out every week, we have 2 cars, we take 2 holidays overseas each year plus weekends away, we have a tv licence, sky tv. Netflix, Spotify, broadband, 2 mobile phones … these subscriptions add up to a fair chunk each month btw and we don’t even have the sports channels, Amazon, Disney etc

Lots of jealousy of the OP getting financial help from her parents I think!

Yes standard of living is a lot different now. Be grateful you had a good childhood and can afford a home of your own.

It’s house prices, that’s what screwed us all. The loss of debt to income ratios and MEWing. Then they changed the rules and allowed Joe Bloggs to count rental income as income and we were all screwed in the pursuit of bank profits. Wind those back and things might improve but then half the people on this thread will complain about ‘loosing’ money. Despite the fact they never had it in the first place!

Give what a rest? Genuinely, what should I rest? I have my opinion on my own parents financial situation and you’re trying to shut me up? Are you always this controlling?

£200k is not very m7ch, after a lifetime of work.
Also, how on earth do you know, OP? I think your parents need to be a bit more discreet!

It is shocking indeed. We have lost lots of real terms wealth, just like that.

Are they comfy on a daily basis? Because some old generation can measure the milk they use and skip on butter, to save money. Old habits. And they should be comfy and treat themselves at home too, not just with trips.

I don’t need financial help from my parents. I’ve got a reasonably well paid job and so has my partner. What am I supposed to be projecting exactly? Can you please spell it out?

The other thing people forget is school leaving age. My aunt left school and started work aged 14. I could have left at 16 if I’d wanted to. I’m in my 60s.
Nowadays education is compulsory until 18, then a lot of kids take a gap year before starting uni. Then because uni education was pushed so much (and with some new silly topics) degrees became devalued, so a masters or PHd is now needed to be the equivalent. So some people don’t start paid work until their late twenties and then have a student loan debt to pay off as well as rent/mortgage etc. At least we got grants because unis were about education then rather than profits.

Er, no you implied OP was sticking her nose in her parents business and was jealous of them. The poster you responded to said OP was extremely ungrateful and you said of her post 'That’s exactly how I see it.'

So you piling on to OP with that poster, you weren't just sharing your own parents' financial situation.

I’d imagine that they received inheritances, and never told you

It’s not just cost of living - we spend so much more money now on things we don’t need unlike previous generations

mine and all my friends parents all started in one room with a baby and moved up much more gradually and made do - we do not make do

But presumably when they were your age they didn't have 200K in savings?
It doesn't sound like you are comparing like with like as they've had a lifetime to accrue savings, invest it and reinvest the compound interest.

I agree @Tallular819
There are many many older people in a similar financial situation. This is why I think certain benefits like Winter Fuel allowance don’t need to be Universal. I really feel main help needs to be focused on younger people and getting them started in life.

Nail on the head! It's ALL about how for a few decades, politicians have relied on house price inflation to fuel the economy (and make their "friends" in banking and real estate into millionaires!). Now we've squeezed "normal" workers till their pips squeak and there's nowhere else to go. We really should have learned from the 2008 crash but instead the politicians just carried on fuelling the house price economy to the detriment of normal working people.

my parents are the same but moved abroad 18 years ago. Dad was a factory worker, mum didn’t work until i was about 10 then became a part time evening cleaner with various different part time jobs until retirement. They haven’t had a mortgage since their mid 50’s but bought their properties at the right times so when they sold they made a great profit.
They have a lovely life, do whatever they want and travel a lot without worrying about the cost. I don’t know what they have in savings but an educated guess says very substantial. My dad has always been good with money.

Thanks for confirming that you didn’t get financial help from your parents. Proves my theory really! You can still be jealous even if you don’t need the help.

where exactly does the OP indicate ingratitude?

Thanks for confirming you are indeed petty and like to correct others posters. Gotta love a forum police officer 🤣 Have a great day, especially if you can prove a few other people wrong along the way!

People would be surprised how little you have to put away each month in order to have a hefty amount of savings later on in life due to the beauty of compound interest.

Just sticking £100 a month into an investment account that tracks something steady like the S&P500 or similar and starting in your early 20's can lead to six-figure savings in retirement easily!

Also we should be ‘comfortable’ but are using (very nice!) second hand furniture, china, clothes (buying and selling), don’t buy coffee out, barely go out tbh (last ‘date’ dinner was 2024 for a birthday), drive old banger second hand cars, cook from scratch, meal plan… still doesn’t touch the sides of mortgage interest. So I don’t think it’s just us all being rampant consumers!

And I am in a union!

Ive just calculated the cost of our house in particular which we had to renovate as it was uninhabitable when we bought it, is about 17 times what I know it was sold for in the 80s.

It’s not ‘oh it’s all right for them’, it’s ’what can we change to make it better for the future?

Strongly reconsidering the educational choices my kids make for one… trades and skilled manufacturing jobs might be where it’s at (the rest is money podcast talked about this last week).