to think the baby-boomers had it easy

[Ionderog]

Is it me or did our parents' generation have it much easier than us?

I agree, things are definitely different now. People seem to expect things like fitted kitchens, central heating, weddings and honeymoons costing thousands of pounds,a bedroom for every child, etc.These things used to be considered luxuries. I grew up in the 60's and 70's and all the women I knew worked and still do.[often for really low wages] It wasn't to pay for luxuries either, it was to feed and clothe their children, no tax credits in those days!
Perhaps some of you have a slighly different view of reality, life certainly hasn't been easy for me or the vast majority of people I know.

We don't need to count their money they have made DH their executor so he has a detailed plan of where their money is and how to access it if he wants it and how to continue the investments if he wants to.
It's such a working class thing to consider inheritance a dirty word and why the rich get richer and the poor stay poor.
I haven't worked my arse off to leave my worldly goods to the moggy's but if you'd rather be less tacky and less educated about how the financial world works it's your loss, DH's family have made it clear who's getting what and when so he can plan his life accordingly, it's quite refreshing.

My parents were baby boomers (born in the 50s) and I was born in the 70s. Whilst my parents now have a nice mortgage free home, decent savings / inheritance and good pensions, I think my life now is better than the life my mother had when she was my age.

Yes, they did manage to buy their 3 bed semi on one wage, but my dad worked two jobs to afford it, he worked bloody hard, and my mum often went without. I remember she often used to go without food "I'm not hungry tonight" on the night before dad got paid. Things were precious and saved up for - indeed, mum still owns some things she was given for her wedding in 1971! When they were first married, they had a tv with sound only, because they couldn't afford one and when they eventually got a black and white tv, the non picture one was passed on to my aunt!

So yes, they do have the lifestyle now that I probably won't ever have - but they made some serious sacrifices along the way to get them, so I for one do not begrudge my parents a penny of their hopefully comfortable pension.

Surely it's hard to compare because this depends on so many things. My parents were born late 30's and had a very tough upbringing. My dad in particular shared a two up two down with his parents and nine siblings. He wasn't the youngest so some of those siblings were born after the war which makes them babyboomers presumably. They had NOTHING growing up. Although they had the advantage of getting a job as soon as they left school at the age of 15, this was laundry work in my mum's case and nightwork in a factory for my dad. They bought a small house (my mum had to carry on working part-time after we were born to help pay for this) which they still live in today. They're not going to make money on it because they have to live somewhere!

I was born in the 60s and although we were better off than my parents' parents, we didn't have running hot water (geysers in the bathroom/kitchen), central heating (I remember the frost on the inside of my bedroom window), a car, a telephone (I remember thinking my friend's family must have been really rich because they had a car, a telephone AND a colour television!!!), go on holiday and this was pretty normal for most of my friends too.

Mum and dad would only buy something if they'd saved up for it so had no debt apart from their mortgage (as some have said on here, so many people today want everything NOW). Dad suffered from the 3 day week in the 70s and was made redundant at the age of 57 in the 90s. Mum worked full-time when we were older and as such when they retired at 65 they both had a pension they'd paid into their respective companies for. They took half as cash which they have spent on some nice holidays. Good on them and 'bout time I say. As for the rest of the time they don't have a lot to live on and continue to be careful with what they spend as they have always had to do.

As for me, obviously I lived through all of this with them. Where I was lucky, I admit, was that in passing the 11 plus I went to a good school (same school now has 28% of pupils getting 5 GCSEs above C - up from 18% in 2006 ) and went to uni (first girl in my family) not having to have a loan to pay course fees. Our DCs have certainly had far more than I ever had up to this point in their lives (21, 19 and 11) though I don't know whether or not that will continue. DH, on the other hand, had a more priviledged (expat) upbringing and had more than our DCs.

IME none of my friends expect two holidays a year and buy material items because they have credit as most are using that credit to eat with!

None of my friends are work shy. In university holidays we worked in factories, did bar work, cleaning, waitressing. We are now in our early thirties and all work very hard, long hours. We all have baby boomer parents that worry about the hours being worked to achieve a standard of living that is often just keeping your head above water and sometimes not. So I'm sorry but speak for yourself when you say people just aren't prepared to work hard, or do the tedious jobs and are all incredibly materialistic compared to baby boomers. I know a lot of baby boomers that are incredibly materialistic and haven't worked any harder over the course of their lives to attain these objects or buy the holidays. It's not purely about hardwork, it's unrealistic and unfair to suggest it is!

Equally, out of the ten people I know with young children only one gran provides childcare. I don't believe grandparents should provide free childcare but in my experience no Baby Boomer is feeling duty bound to take care of parents and children alike as one poster suggested on here.

Hear, hear Goldenbear!

This thread might explain the life of the babyboomer a little better. Here.

My parents had it very hard indeed and didn't get any of those so called opportunities...education past fifteen, the possibility to buy a cheap house, a great pension.

Not everyone had it easy.

I think baby boomers who are now living a lot longer need to fund their own long term care should they need it out of their own assets (if they have any) rather than rely on the taxes of working people of our generation who have huge financial commitments largely because we have had to buy their family houses at hugely inflated prices.

"Oh don't be ridiculous frosty, would it be better that it goes to the government in tax or care home fee's after a long drawn out illness ?"

For elderly relatives, it might well. My MIL has certainly found that there isn't a care home that could give her (paralysed from the waist downwards) adequate care if she hadn't got enough savings to go private: the state ones don't have the hoisting facilities, and as MIL might well have another 10years to live, it does make a huge difference whether she can get out of bed or not. Can't imagine anything dh and I could do with that money that would be equally important.

I definitely don't think my parents had it easier. Mum had nine kids, lived quite a distance from her own family and had to work very hard. Dad had it pretty easy though coming from the generation where men just went to work, earned the crust and that was all that was expected of them! Plus my mum was pretty smart but had to leave school at 14 to work fulltime to help her parents. In saying that though, I think raising kids was easier then and children didn't have the same expectations. In our day nobody really had much and hardly anyone went abroad on holidays so there wasn't the same pressure on kids to have everything. My mum always says she is glad she isn't raising her family in these times and I think in some respects she is right.

It seems to be the middle incomers who look at their parents and see a generation who had it better.
They went through a halcion time of free education, affordable housing,good pensions, coupled with the advantage of a much improved health service that caters for them quite nicely thank you.

The previous generation of working poor didn't get any of this. Interestingly, they also seem to be the generation of Grandparents who take on large swathes of child care to help their own children work. And they're often the first to put their hands in their pockets to help out their families financially when they really don't have that much themselves.

Whereas the wealthier babyboomers are taking off on cruises thanks to their final salary pensions or the proceeds of the sale of their inflated family home.
They don't seem concerned at all that their offspring and grandchildren have it harder.

well my parents lived through the war and mums younger siblings had to do national service abroad, definitely don't think they had it easy at all.

there are lots of sad stories too, unwanted pregnancies, unwanted adoptions, think it was a horrible time really.

someone who lived through the war is not a boomer.

my parents were pre-war children as well.

their overall attitude is very different to that of most boomers.

"I don't mind the fact they have lots of money but I do wish they'd stop complaining about how tough their life is sometimes. My dad goes into a bit of a spin if his routine of Sudoku, coffee, Working Lunch (the irony), and dog walking gets disrupted. "

Bolter - you could be talking about my Dad there too - woe betite me if I turn up 1 minute late for lunch - the whole routine of lunch and dog walking must NOT be disrupted

My parents are boomers, my Dad was born in 1944, Mum in 1949. They had nothing when we were all very young, but despite not having a University education my Dad had a very good job. Until I was about 15 they struggled a bit but we never went without. No overseas holidays or anything, but always had what we needed.

They did work very hard though and both my parents have a final salary pension and a huge house with no mortgage. Savings also. They too go on about how hard their life is

i thought it was children born just after the war which would be my mums brothers

Plus, of course, all the things we have nowadays, don't necessarily make us happier.

But the security of a final salary pension is very attractive about now.

Final salary pensions do still exist though, so it's not all bad

I wouldn't necessarily generalise to this degree. But what winds me up beyond belief is people (typically writing into the DM), saying that the reason young people can't get on the property ladder is because they don't save like previous generations, and piss all their money on living an unsustainable lifestyle.

Nothing to do with the fact that houseprices and the cost of living have soared out of all propertion with wages then?

Drives me mad.

My parents are in their 60s so technically boomers. Like Jareths they worked hard, struggled a bit but were comfortable. I am lucky though that my parents are ones who realise how lucky they are.
My pension will be their pension which will be a house bought with inheritance from their parents. My Dad has been sensible with money but he also realises that he has that stability because his parents helped them so they in turn will help us.
I am 29 and even buying my first house at 20 and paying a mortgage rather than having a 20 something life we still struggle because of the economic climate.
Yes my Dad was made redundant in the 80s but my husband was made redundant this year.
Ask my parents and they will say even with the hardships they had they still had it easier than we do. We were discussing this yesterday
(They are white heteros though)

I'm classified as being at the very end of the baby boomer generation (1965)- DH is a baby boomer. Neither of us went to university, we have both worked since we were 17 (15 in DH's case) at very low paid jobs until we had experience.

I have no pension to speak of except old age pension. Am watching the only private pension scheme I had (some 12 years ago when we lived in Oz) be eaten away by admin fees. DH works in higher education and had his job specs reviewed 5 years ago and job downgraded by 1 grade and salary reduced by £5K. His pension is OK at the moment, but who knows.

There were no working tax credits when our boys were younger and I had to go out to work. We have always earned just enough to not be entitled to any form of benefits other than child benefit.

I do worry about what will happen when we retire, but am fully expecting to have to work into my 70's if I can.

But we're healthy, family is doing OK and everyone is happy, so really what more do I want? Not much really.

My parents are both of pre war generation, grew up with rationing (in fact rationing was still in place when they got married in 1951). Both worked since they were 14, no chance of higher education, didn't buy a house until they were nearly 50. Now, in their 80's, they're doing fine becasue they have a little house, enough money enable them to eat healthily, be warm in winter, and have the odd treat (coffee out or fish and chips on the prom).

I know this smacks a bit of 'when I were a lad', but really, I do think people's expectations have become slightly ridiculous over the last 30 years. There is such a sense of entitlement now and with the possible exception of house prices being so astronomical, maybe we just all expect too much and are too material in our desires.

Yes - the ones who don't realise how nice it was to live through that little golden period in history, are annoying.

FIL worked 9-4pm and retired at 55, yet he still waxes lyrical about how he grafted.

dweezle - the working poor of the previous and this generation (all generations probably)have and are having it hard.

It's the middle incomers who reaped the rewards - and bloody good luck to them, but I do wish they'd notice their luck and reflect that it's not that simple now.