to ask if you're pissed off with the Baby Boomers?

[DamFineBeaver]

Because people who are currently young-ish adults (MN's main demographic?), and younger, will be paying for the lavish lifestyle they've enjoyed?
The money borrowed for their nice big pensions will be paid back by us and our children.

Does this mean they shouldn't spend so much time in Tenerife?

OMG OP people actually sent you pms like that? What do they think an open forum is for??

Name and shame I say!

I'm not on 2k a month. I said 1300 and I have to pay tax on this! Yes there is the state pension on top of this but that is a pitance.

My generation are very politically aware, they fought for these rights and deserve all the get and more. Young people cant be bothered to vote, if they had even a smidgen of the knowhow of the boomers they would fight to keep final salary pensions and retiring at 60. There is a reason we got these, because we fought damn hard for them!

Youngsters should start voting and discussing politics if they want to have the same lifestyle as boomers. The real vilians are the 1% and government, not the boomers who just want a good standard of living.

Nah, Bakewell, it's rather enjoyable

Yeah it was good at both ends. Most of my parents group either bought a council place for 15/20k sold for 180/200k then moved abroad, or went down the public sector route as didn't need degrees. Hours were only 37.5 and lots of money for it.

You must be on 1600/1700 blooming. This is not a low wage

I would never generalise about 'hating' any group of people. Speaking from my own experience I would say that I'm astounded by my Dad's ignorance and indifference to the difficulties the younger generation are having with regards to housing, employment, tuition fees, cuts to Child Benefit etc. etc.
They live a bubble of wealth and don't seem to care much about close family or younger generations.

Like myself and my DH my Dad worked hard all his life (but no harder than us) and he was able to retire at 55. My mum died when I was 12 and my Dad evidently invested her Life Insurance in a couple of classic cars and an even bigger house. His new girlfriend moved in just 6 months after my mum died. Another one replaced her 5 years later. That one is now my step-mum. She is a lot younger than my Dad and has only ever worked part-time despite never having DC. Obviously she is living off the earnings of my mum (who worked full-time and died at 40) and my Dad.

Yeah I guess I am a bit bitter at both of them - one is a Baby Boomer and one is not but ultimately they're both quite selfish. I guess you get that across all demographics... It goes without saying that Dad has never helped me or my brother out financially and it has been made clear that step-mum will inherit all of their assets and then I guess she'll run for the hills! I dread to think where those hard-earned (by my mum and dad) assets will go once she dies... Despite all this I have tried to maintain a good relationship with them both but my brother struggles with this. It's not that we expect anything from them (we're hard-working adults ourselves) but I'm perplexed why some people show such a lack of understanding towards others. I know if my dear mum was alive things would be very different and that makes me sad.

Neither me or my brother are home-owners and we never will be. We just can't save enough for a deposit for the huge mortgages needed these days. The idea of retiring at 55, 60 or 65 is a pipe-dream, in fact we will probably be working until we're 70 just so we can pay the rent. DH and I are trying to save towards a private pension but it's pitiful. We do the best for our DC but my bright 13 year old DS is already saying that he won't go to University as he doesn't want to get into that much debt. Yes, the future for our DC is looking pretty grim. There will be no 'bank of Mum and Dad' for them to dip into. So yes, overall, I do think my Dad's baby-boomer generation had it a lot easier than younger people today. They are certainly reaping the rewards and I just hope that I don't end up being as selfish as SOME of them are.....

My parents and I fall into the baby boomer generation (me by the skin of my teeth). I have 'paid forward' by helping my children with costs such as driving lessons, cars, money towards university, etc. We have also paid for medical treatment for children that the NHS couldn't provide in a timely way (one of my children was told his operation would probably be available at the time of his A level exams, so we paid a vast amount for him to be treated privately).

My parents are also very generous with helping out their grandchildren. But according to posters such as theChandler we are dammed if we do help out with housing costs and dammed if we don't. Do you want us to help our children or don't you?

And how exactly, thirty years-plus ago when we bought very ordinary and very small flats, were we supposed to anticipate Russian plutocrats moving to London and pushing up house prices? Or mass immigration to the south further increasing the population size and creating even more demand? Or increased longevity meaning that elderly people stayed on in their homes for longer? Or for an increase in single-parent families meaning more houses were needed?

'Cause I didn't have a crystal ball.

Woolly - Why would you need university back then? Nurses,social workers didn't have degrees. My dad has an NVQ and made 50k. You just didn't need to go for the vast majority of trades

Abra1d My parents are also very generous with helping out their grandchildren. But according to posters such as theChandler we are dammed if we do help out with housing costs and dammed if we don't. Do you want us to help our children or don't you?

Well, that's entirely your business and nothing to do with me! I do feel sorry for the ones that don't get that help though. Its such an accident of birth, you can be really clever, hard working and do everything right but never be in as good a position in life if your baby boomer parent bunged you a large deposit to buy a house. I'm honestly sick of hearing about the children that do get given money by their parents to help them out, its the hard working and talented ones that don't that I find far more interesting. I actually can't stand parental pushiness of any kind (but that might be because I'm stuck in an airport reading magazines about the untalented sons and daughters of fading pop stars and footballers)!

How can someone be too tired to vote by postal vote? Sounds like bone idle lazyness.

Yes gross income is about 1600 a month. Its not a fortune and barely above main wage. I spend 1/3 just on bills (car and home), 1/3 on a little bit of entertainment and the other 1/3 I save. On my savings I'm getting barely anything as the interest rate is so low.

It is 100s above minimum wage

Woolly - I know lots of boomers that don't see the point in university. My parents wouldn't help me to go, as they said it was a waste of time. I went back and studied a BA, then a Masters, but both my parents say O levels are harder as anyone can get degrees nowadays.

This debate comes up at least once a month on MN. What surprises me is that there are a significant number of post-baby boomers who, on other threads, say that they won't help their DCs beyond the age of 18 etc.

I conclude that some parents are selfish and others do their best to aid their DCs when it is needed. I fall into the latter camp, but have ensured that my DC are well educated and well prepared for the job market and without enormous debts when they leave university.

My parents would have been pleased to know that the money they left me (as a result of the ridiculous price that their small semi in the south east achieved on sale) will benefit their DGC. Another debate, perhaps, on inheritance tax ...?

The minimum wage based on 40 hours a week is not higher than my pension at 1300 a month.

Final salary pensions have gone because people can no longer be relied upon to die in their mid seventies. That is not the fault of your average baby boomer (unless they work in medicine), but no amount of industrial action will change the situation now.

My parents were born before the war, and I am 'gen x', but from what I remember the 70's, 80's and 90's were just as grim as the 2010's.

There was a blip from about 1997 to 2008 when there was hope that the new government could make everything better, there was plenty of easy credit, and houses were relatively affordable, but this idea that there was some point in history when everything was easy is just wrong.

On the other hand into each generation, plenty of stupid people are born. (To paraphrase iconic 90's tv show buffy).

I think inheritance tax should be scrapped if you can show that you have spent the inheritance on either university or other educational costs (not everyone needs a degree) or on property for young people; or if you put it in a trust for your own future healthcare needs.

OK, I am aware that this would be very hard to monitor and is probably not practical and would disadvantage children whose parents/grandchildren can't do this. But it seems daft to tax families in the south on inheritances and make it even harder for them to help their children.

bloomingmargaret - I know minimum wage isn't higher than your pension. It is 100s of pounds lower.

At least young people nowadays have plenty of warning at the amount needed to retire and can plan accordingly.

Someone young now can just educate themselves into higher paid work or do some overtime. My pension is fixed forever, no way to increase it.

merry I' gen X too. Now is a lot worse than the 80s for most people - the young have no hope. In the 80s at least some of the young had hope (I was a working class council flat dwelling teen in the mid 80s and the world was basically my oyster (at least, it felt like it could be) - if you could get into university you had the prospect of genuine social mobility. That's completely gone now - the expansion of higher education has cut off its ability to deliver social mobility at the knees, and saddled the young with the millstone of debt. That. combined with the housing/rental market, job insecurity and the dismantling of the welfare state has ensured that young people today are too scared to rock the boat. Which was, of course, the aim of the political classes all along.