to feel pissed off with selfish 'baby boomer' generation

[hermionepotter]

this was in response to a newspaper article where people surveyed wanted interest rates to go up. I could be BU I know. But it won't be those paying massive mortgages and debts who'll be wanting rates to go up, will be older people wanting interest on their savings and sod everyone else. So am I BU?

Saving money should be encouraged though, surely? And interest rates are ridiculously low right now,

I would want a hike in interest rates if it meant that homes became more affordable.

Not all older people are loaded you know, just as not all younger people are dirt poor.
So yes, YABU to be pissed off with a whole generation.

People saving for a deposit for a mortgage will want to earn interest on savings too, as do I and I'm not a baby boomer.

Interest rates are too low ATM.

Interest rates need to go up. I don't know how they've got away with this for so long, given inflation and the recession.

Not wanting interest rates to go up is just as selfish as it will mean people who would benefit from higher rates will lose out.

YABU by making a such sweeping statement.
I could make a similiar one: AIBU to be pissed off with younger people who have two holidays abroad every year, designer clothes, i phones, tablets and don't ever make paying off their mortgage a priority.

Yes, I know that is BU too.

Yabu

My mum worked and saved all her life (as a nursery nurse and then in a supermarket), she relies on the interest on her savings to live a reasonably comfortable life as a pensioner.

You are misdirecting your pissed off ness.

This thread comes round every now and again. I feel the urge to flag up the people in my generation that aren't wealthy, that still rent and don't have their own homes, but it's pointless. Rant away.

This thread comes round every now and again. I feel the urge to flag up the people in my generation that aren't wealthy, that still rent and don't have their own homes, but it's pointless. Rant away.

Leaving interest rates aside, all I'll say is that this government is brilliant at divide and rule. They've done it by demonising the poor, by pitting private and public sector workers against each other, and now by labelling everyone over fifty as rich and selfish and spoiled. Please don't be parr of this - its ludicrous to label an entire generation as selfish.

I'm at the bottom end of the boomers and I'm struggling with a mortgage plus pay frozen for succwssive years plus cinstant threat of redundancy plus crap pension after working till nearly seventy. And yes, I'm worried about the future of my children. I don't feel spoilt and I don't feel the state if the nation is my fault. This is about rich vs poor, not old vs young

Would this be the generation who suffered high interest rates for years, including an eye watering rate of 15%?

Oh yes.

When DH and I started out the interest rates shot up to 15% and it was indeed "eye-watering" as follyfoot says.

Yes anyone who has anything you don't should have it taken away from them immediately. My parents paid shit loads of tax in their lives, have private healthcare, their own homes and savings. Why should they feel guilty about it?

Ha, we paid 18% on our mortgage. Now we have some savings we are getting hammered the other way.

People of a certain age just took advantage of what was available at the time. They were lucky enough to be around when wages were high, house prices were moderate and mortgages were easy to come by. I'm one of them and I'd have been a fool not to take advantage of it.

They're lucky not selfish.

I'm another one who lived through massive interest rates. It was just after we had bought our first home and we spent a few years living on the cheapest food possible and just about surviving.

Not all baby boomers are living in the lap of luxury, just as not all younger people are on the breadline. It's always sensible to factor in an increase in interest rates when getting a mortgage because you never know what's around the corner.

YABU.

I don't think wanting interest rates to go up is necessarily an age thing? My mum would be fucked if interest rates went up because she's got a ridiculous mortgage they can't afford (with her partner) in order to get somewhere big enough my gran could live with them when she was ill (she's now died, the mortgage is still there). I probably would be ok as my mortgage is pretty small due to getting a tiny house in a not-very-desirable area. I would be pretty annoyed if my student loan interest went up but that's probably going to happen anyway because the tories have sold it off so eh. I suppose it might help people's pensions to be better? Not sure though, I don't know what's going to happen to my pension if my current contract isn't renewed in a couple of years, it might be worthless anyway then so god only knows, I'm probably going to die before I get it anyway so makes no difference. I don't know enough about economics to know what interest rate would be best for economic stability, which is presumably what would be best for everyone. I felt a lot more confident to trust the govt when it was Gordon Brown really, even though I know english people like to scapegoat him, he was obviously much brighter than any of the new lot.

Yes, most of my childhood my parents scrimped and saved because mortgage interest rates were obscene.

We need a return to rates that make saving worth while.

At the moment many people couldn't afford a house even with a 0% mortgage rate. We need more land released for house building and other measures to control house prices.

YABVVU

A lot of baby-boomers didn't have the opportunity to go to University that is almost taken for granted today. The places were not there. The alternative was night school - after a full day's work. Many of us left school at 16 and had paid a full 40 years NI contributions by age 56!

I started work at 15 in a Saturday kob that paid 0.235 p per hour. My first full time job paid £7K a year.

Yes, we could afford to buy a house but at eye-watering 15% interest rates at one stage. To afford my first house I worked full-time in an office and went straight to a barmaid's job at evening and weekends. I also worked 36 hour sleep-in on-call for my full-time employer at times.

Credit was not freely available. The bank would not issue you with a debit card until you had established a good reputation with them. Credit cards were difficult to obtain. I applied to a building society for a mortgage and they asked me how long I'd been paying into my savings account with them. I replied "18 months" and was told to come back when I'd been a saver with the buidling society for 2 years.

A work colleague ran up a large overdraft and he was called by the bank manager to go to the manager's office where the manager relieved him of his cheque book and cards! He had £10 a week to live on until he was back in credit!

I never received a penny from the Govt towards childcare - I paid it in full out of already taxed income. I never received maternity allowance - it had stopped by then. You got a small increase in your tax allowance to pay towards the cost of raising your children.

Electrical goods were much more expensive in real terms than today. The choice of goods was just not available. We didn't even have the internet so we could search for good deals.

I spent most of my working life believing I would receive a State pension at 60, only for the age limit to be raised and raised again. I saved my whole working life - but my savings are languisging at virtually zero interest and being eroded by infaltion.

No it hasn't been a bed of roses being a baby-boomer. I feel dreadfully sorry for today's young people (my own children included) who are being bled dry by student loans, astronomical rents, ridiculous house prices, high cost of living, of transport, while being told by the Govt to save for their private pension.

I don't begrudge the younger generations a thing. Just don't try to make out that we had it easy.

Aah Chris Huhne - so your MN name is hermionepotter..?

www.theguardian.com/society/2013/dec/26/chris-huhne-attacks-old-protect-rich

Chris Huhne - why pay any attention to what he has to say? He's totally discredited - himself.

But wetaugust- my generation (coming up to 40yo) is also spending our working lives believing we will receive a state pension (at 68, or older, of course ) yet when we retire there will be no state pensions. No government will be able to afford to pay us what we have paid in, primarily because it's being used to pay retired people's costs now. Any money we're saving now to mitigate that is being eroded by low interest rates too . I fail to see how people can possibly think we have it any better?

We could only purchase our home because we worked 7 days a week- DH 2 jobs, me 3. Yes, credit is more easily available, but housing costs have moved so far beyond the reach of ordinary workers (which DH and I are not!) that the majority of young people now can never even hope to be homeowners.

There are many women claiming pensions today that have never worked a day in their married lives! Certainly not since they became mothers. Being a SAHM now is a luxury only available to the exceptionally wealthy, to those that get help from their parents with housing, or those at the bottom end of earners, where it makes no financial sense to be paying out for childcare.

People in your generation may not have had any assistance with childcare costs (we never have either, so not sure why you think everyone does now ) but childcare is exponentially more expensive now than it was 40 years ago, mainly because of H&S, regulatory changes etc, which are a very good thing for those being cared for, but obviously have a huge impact on childcare providers, and the costs necessary to run their businesses (and let's face it- do you really know any wealthy childminders? Many struggle to break even most tax-years. Many private nurseries struggle to turn a profit too).

This is in no way a rant, nor an attack- I realise you have had nothing to do with successive government's policy over the last 50 years, but so many older people (women in particular) are incredulous when they find out I work, that our home is so small, that we haven't been on holiday since my Reception aged child was born.

And it's not just electrical goods- look at clothing costs- people today can have huge, bulging wardrobes, because clothes cost so little compared with when I was growing up, toys too, and many other items. But necessities such as fuel, food, housing are incredibly high. Those that cannot afford to buy homes are stuck in sub-standard accommodation frequently, in areas that are far below the 'quality' of the areas they were raised in, and forking out a huge proportion of their taxed-income for the privilege. (even after subsidies in the form of HB for many workers, because their disposable income is so low)