my baby boomer parents are selfish and ungrateful

[yoofoftoday]

Had lunch with parents yesterday and left so fuming.

Mother complains about not being able to get a new car on finance and that her retirement income is only 28k after she retired early. Her current car is only 4 years old and she often uses her free bus pass (only free to her take payers have to pay for it along with the rising bus fares) as she doesn't was the BMW to get scratched in town. I barely can afford the bus and can't even afford a car.

Dad who gets his state pension but still works was complaining that he has to pay Ni and then wait till the end of the year to claim it back. Also complqains that now he gets his state pension has to up the amount in his private pension to avoid 40% tax. He only keeps doing this job as its easy and he works from home not doing much.

Uncle who sold a building plot to developers for a fortune ages ago and hasn't worked since said "oh your poor dad still working". When my dad is in perfect health and works from home paid a lot for easy work, basically on call 9-5.

Then my parents say they are putting their winter fuel allowance towards a 3d DVD player while I go home to my cold house where I only put the heating on if it goes below 16.

Nc but regular.

The problem is more that these particular parents are crap people rather than anything to do with "baby boomers".

"it is the job of government to legislate in such a way that the vulnerable are protected from exploitation" Absolutely!

The thing is, 'well, I worked hard' is a much more seductive thought than 'I'd be buggered these days'.

Not a lot they can do about it, but it'd be nice if they were a bit more self aware/grateful.

Grumbling about a pension of 'only 28k' (for which you'd need to have amassed an impossibly large pension pot of about £0.8m in a defined contribution scheme) while others either live hand to mouth or pick up the tab for it all is a bit much. And all the while being given handouts!

The truth is that pensioners vote

How dare they? You'd think they were citizens!

I'm
Not criticising them for voting and I think you know that.

But it makes sense fir political parties to tailor policies towards the 'swinging sixties peace and love' generation because

A) there are more of them than Generation X
B) they vote

That said I think many baby boomers are politically engaged - more so than my generation - and many care about what is happening to younger generations.

At the same time I do have relatives in their sixties who buy state of the art Apple laptops to do their online shopping which is a touch frustrating

When exactly were the 'baby boomers' born?

Just thought that I might be one myself (born in the late 50s) - but certainly not retired and no decent pension to look forward to - although I did get 'free' university education.

It's more post-war generation - my parents were 1948

That said I think many baby boomers are politically engaged - more so than my generation - and many care about what is happening to younger generations

I think that too, but also people tend (broadly speaking) to be more politically engaged as they get older, more cynical, not as easy to fool, not as easily swayed by advertising, able to see through political rhetoric etc.

So, if we have an older and (mostly) wiser population (which is what we are headed for in the coming decades) life ought to be better, more democratic etc.
(Or am I just being hopelessly credulous )

I'm 1952 vintage, perhaps not strictly baby-boomer, more baby-echo.

But I have never missed exercising the franchise since I first had it, and that was when I was 18 - nothing to do with age.

Just as it's not my fault if more of are living longer, and does not mean that I am not entitled to what I signed p to and paid for, it's not my fault if younger people don't register and vote. Their choice.

Baby boomers usually defined as born between 1946 and 1964, although this is sometimes broken down into the two separate decades

edition.cnn.com/2013/11/06/us/baby-boomer-generation-fast-facts/

Then I will boom on!

Babies born just the right interval after Daddy got home from the War were known as NORWICH babies, weren't they?

Its not surprising that generation x don't vote when they are screwed over so much. Many baby boomers blame gen x, its all your fault you don't vote.

does not mean that I am not entitled to what I signed p to and paid for, it's not my fault if younger people don't register and vote. Their choice.

You want what you signed up, regardless of who it disadvantages. And its all their fault that they don't vote. You still don't see yourself as selfish. Either you are or have no understanding of basic enocomics.

my dad is very early 70's...I think that makes him a boomer, good pension, enjoys his life, perpetually on holiday and is one of the happiest people I know, he often says he feels very very fortunate.

Yes he's been lucky in many ways but it's never crossed my mind to begrudge him any thing at all

and does not mean that I am not entitled to what I signed p to and paid for

No but there's the rub.

I've paid for it too. But I am 40, mortgaged on a modest flat until I am 68, facing university tuition fees for three children, job insecurity with more insecurity to come. Food and heating bills are rising.

Honestly I think DP and I will be happy if we manage to get through retirement without running out of money completely.

Foreign travel, new cars, computers - that will not be part of our 'golden years.'

But I think my generation accepts that . We just don't want to hear about retirees who are 'bored with yet another cruise to Brazil.'

You want what you signed up, regardless of who it disadvantages

I don't quite understand that sentence Yoof, could you elucidate please?

yoof I don't know what your pension provision is, but when the day comes you will claim it in full, even if a generation younger than yours thinks it is unfair. And you will be right.

If you sell the Government a thousand widgets at ten pounds each, payable 30 days after delivery, you expect £10,000 on the day - not £9,500 and to be told that we are all in it together, we had no idea times would be so difficult when we signed the contract.

It's no different.

Many, many people of my age have no pension provision at all and no savings. Not because we are living it up, but because we have no job security, we work contracts we have enormous mortgages, we have loans from university on and on it goes...

Ok Andrew so what about the people who had children and factored child benefit into their financial planning. That's now gone for many people.

And when you 'signed up' were there winter fuel payments or are these just a lovely little bonus for you?

A little empathy wouldnt hurt you rather than banging a drum about what you were promised. In fact you're getting more than you were promised, aren't you...

Then end of student grants and introduction of tuition fees was only in 1998

www.independent.co.uk/news/student-grants-and-free-tuition-to-end-next-year-1251578.html

So a lot of Generation X must have benefited from free higher education not just the boomers

Am I the only one wondering who paid for OP's Sunday lunch?

Yes but generation X will almost certainly have to pay for their children's fees. Not something most BBs had to factor in.

I agree with you about CB: and I don't get winter fuel payments. I don't think DW and I are old enough; 62 and 61 respectively.

When I talk about signing up I really mean to my pension. And as to banging a drum: if I am doing that it is in reaction to the whole bloody orchestra playing the music to Don't pay them. I paid for the pensions of those who retired earlier, many of whom also lived longer than they could have expected when they were young - so empathy runs out at the point where anyone suggests that I am not entitled to what I signed up to because people younger than I "can't afford to pay it".

And as someone said upthread: when we started our mortgage rates were 11.25% and at one point they hit 15% and it hurt. My generation of savers are being punished for their prudence by the insulting interest rates we are getting - from which today's house-buyers are benefitting.

And what were inflation rates? Because you have to deduct those from the interest rate to arrive at the actual cost of lending. Something that is generally forgotten when high interest rates are referenced.

A lot of the current generation can't afford to buy a house. House prices are 6-7 times average earnings and the pitiful interest rates you cite are the same rates they are earning on the deposits they are trying to save.

Andrew I probably would claim it, however I wouldn't gloat to people less fortunate, especially if they were the onces financing it.