That boomers should should avoid criticising younger people when..

[TeaCake5]

They are the "the worst users of drink and drugs"

www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/23/wednesday-briefing-baby-boomers-worst-drinkers-and-drug-users

I guess they can afford to with housing not being a problem for them - people in their 20s and 30s have no spare money for drink and drugs!

Hate the line from boomers "if you gave up up coffee and iphone you could have a deposit". Just fuck off.

Yes! It's just complete and utter codswallop truth...

I don't have iPhones, I've always gone for cheaper android phones.

I don't go to costa or starbucks on a regular basis. Maybe once every three months.

I don't eat out or have takeaways.

I don't go on foreign holidays.

And guess what? Those years of financial restraint and sacrifice have enabled me to save up a deposit for a house... My mortgage is considerably less than it ever was for me to rent too...

"To be fair, less than 8% of the population went to uni in 1970.
It's way over 50% now. That's some bill."

Absolutely this, as well as the fact we still only had 49 Unis in the early 1990s, where we have 140 now, of which, the vast majority have unlimited student caps.

General observation though, its all part and parcel of the very popular 'identity politics'. Where would the Guardian be without that?

I'm no fan of Teresa may but the elderly care situation is something we need to discuss.
She tried and it cost her her majority.

That tiny percentage of the population is mostly concentrated in the south-east. It's this percentage coupled with overseas investors that's shoring up the south east housing market.

If you're young there's no amount of saving on coffees and iPhones to buy in London/Home Counties - if you're eligible for shared ownership (tiny percentage) then yes.

Some baby boomers have been fantastically lucky - if you bought in the south east and have a final salary pension you're rich as Midas.

This generational conflict I'd just another divide and distract ploy like 'Watch out that immigrant will have your job'. It isn't the fault if the boomers, it's the system.

Yes
God forbid plebs go to uni and get a degree....fail to invest in the young and see where it gets you...

And guess what? Those years of financial restraint and sacrifice have enabled me to save up a deposit for a house... My mortgage is considerably less than it ever was for me to rent too...

c3pu - I salute you for saying the words that people always get blasted for.

Surprisingly, if you do cut back on the luxuries, you will get to your savings goal further people! Yes, yes I know it's not just all about the deposit - it also rests on whether you'll get accepted for a mortgage - but seriously - if you really want something, give up the stuff you don't need (even just for a short while).

My & my DH currently tentatively starting the house buying process. We have managed to save £23,000 over 3 years, give or take. We have had a little bit of financial help from family members - so disregard about £5k of that. We also got married last year, so have managed to pay for a nice wedding (not horrendously expensive - about £4k).

We do not go out at the weekends, and when we do it's using vouchers earned through my bank to go to the cinema, so we only have to pay for bus fare. We stick to a budget for food shopping, and I only buy what's on a list. We have the same telly I've had since I was in Uni, and all out furniture for our rented flat was either bought second hand, or (helpfully) given to us second hand by family members).

We do have Sky, which is our one luxury - that we ensure does not go over a set price, and if it does we amend our package. We don't drive. We don't smoke. We don't drink. We don't go on holiday.

And we probably won't be able to have any changes in these circumstances until a couple of years after we've settled into a mortgage.

But you just get on with it and stop complaining.

I do agree that the expansion of "university" was the most ridiculous idea, and it's too late to put the genie back in the bottle now. I was looking at the courses in clearing in the paper. My word. You couldn't make up some of the courses and some of the establishments. It makes me cross that the system has been devalued and so many hapless students are emerging with £££ of debt and probably no better education than a person who had left school at 15 several decades ago.

Hate the line from boomers "if you gave up up coffee and iphone you could have a deposit". Just fuck off.

To be fair my DD's mobile contract is £65 per month whilst I have a sim only contract on a cheap mobile for £9 a month!

I do find it grating when my boomer parents boast about how their first home only cost them 10,000, when it couldn't even get you a decent car these days. And boast about how you could leave one job in the morning and have another in the afternoon.

But other than that they both grew up fairly poor. Council house upbringing, no holidays, hand me down clothes etc. So it's swings and roundabouts.

Knope, If the kids can cope with the demands of a degree then fine; but lots of those that go, can't, or end up at the equivalent in my day of North Staffs Poly (apologies if anyone is insulted) with a degree in macrame. How does that help them?

Spot on Cardibach. The intergenerational infighting is stoked by the press to distract from how shit a succession of governments have been. In the mean time the rich get richer and richer.

Incidentally, I'm not a Boomer or a Millennial. What are us inbetweenies from the 1970s called?

Are we X?

Lovely post High and so very true. I was brought up in a cold house with frost on the inside of the windows and boy I believe the winters were cold then. Rationing and fuel shortages poverty you wouldn't believe nowadays.

We were brought up to believe though that we were incredibly lucky because unlike mum and dad we weren't bombed out or fighting in Burma.

My late husband and I made every sacrifice we could for our dc and when I die I am so happy my dc will inherit what we were able to accumulate. We inherited little from our parents but after all, they inherited nothing from their parents.

Regarding child care yes grandparents have for generations cared for grandchildren but also at the other end of life, people looked after elderly infirm relatives. Way before the days of any welfare state this was normal family life. I looked after my mum until she died as she had my grandma. That never gets mentioned.

""No use getting to read retirement age and going 'oh bugger I've got no money, I thought the government would help me out like it did my grandparents'. ""

Your Grandad-in-law was one of the lucky ones, with a Police pension. My Father had his removed by Thatcher (Merchant Navy), I doubt that their lives mirror each other.

There is a certain section of society that have done better than their Children and Grandchildren, but many haven't.

It's the two sides of the same coin, in some cases. The North being kept bankrupt and the South having everything given to them.

The policies of the 70's/80's didn't really do either side any favours.

I grew up in Thatchers Liverpool, I didn't have the opportunities that my Girls have. A lot of people that I know were screwed over by endowment mortgages and the repossession rates were diabolical. This was in a time when the Council didn't have the duties they have now. Care leavers were chucked out at 16. Pregnant teens were told to get on with it, in severe poverty and DV was a domestic issue.

The pensioners around me don't have private pensions that mean anything. Many people were left with health issues by the strain of their working life.

There's more poor people than well off and life is tough for all the generations, after 55 you have less opportunity, if any of changing things.

Younger people are less likely to have immigrants scapegoated, so older people are the easy target. In 'my day' it was Single Mums.

Everyone needs to wake up to what the real causes are and do something about them, instead of allowing these divisions.

Alpaca From 61 to the mid 80s are Gen X I think. Some think 61-64 are boomers but dh was born in 61, and he is more Gen X.

Degrees are devalued if everyone has one , + all unis + courses are considered equally valid though. Many employers know this full well, and simply choose their employees at graduate level by focusing on the degree standard of both the applicant and the university they attended.

Targeting government money at the most able pays dividends for both the kids concerned and the country, as opposed to conning youngsters that A Degree from Anywhere will automatically gain them riches + a successful career.

Many youngsters seem to be cottoning on to this, too, through bitter experience.

That's very nice, Voiceforreason, but I'd challenge anyone to look after my pil: both doubly incontinent, mil needing a hoist and also shouting and violent and no sense of the 24-hour clock. And their dcs all working so no handy women to do the caring.

And not so fast about your dcs inheriting: as I posted earlier, all the pil's assets have been spent on care.

Birds We chose to sign for the endowment mortgages though; my Dad told us not to, and to stick to straight repayment, and I wish I'd listened. We are now on a straight repayment, shortened term, with the end 3 years away.

If the younger generation should stop spending the little money they earn on iPads and mobile phones if they want to be able to afford a house (sarcasm), perhaps the older generation needs to stop spending all their money on luxury cruises and shopping trips, then they might be able to afford their own social care.

Can we just make it clear what "generations " are what. So post war to say, 1965 are "baby boomers," and 1990 onwards are "millinials " maybe? So what are in between?

Mrs en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_X

Nor clear when boomers end and Gen X starts.

Scary...I agree some degrees have more value than others in the job market but I find the idea that only those who get into RG unis to study law or medicine should have their fees paid really offensive
Those kids have already had many many advantages over most kids - so they should get a free uni eduction too?
🤔

There was no (affordable) childcare, so when the children were little I did tutoring in the evening.
Currently the same - am paying £1400 a month for childcare and am also doing tutoring in the evenings.

I worked full time when they went to school, with a self employed husband who worked six days a week and a mother who lived with us for many years.
I have had to go back to work full time at 9 months, with also a self employed husband working constantly but no extra adult in the house.

I have an occupational pension. It is not keeping pace with price rises and we are cutting down more and more.
Exactly the same

I don't smoke or take drugs and probably have a glass of wine about once a month.
Exactly the same

We have no second home
Exactly the same

We last had a foreign holiday in 2007
A little luckier than this - was able to go camping in France in 2010. Haven't had a foreign holiday since then.

I've been an unpaid babysitter, looking after grandchildren, collecting from school, having them to stay, doing the things that many grandparents do.
I don't have grandparents on either side who will do this. Yet they had lots of help from their parents when we were little and have conveniently forgotten that

I grew up in a house with no central heating, frost inside the windows in winter. We used public transport, never had a car when I lived at home, all the things that people these days regard as necessities
Exactly the same and still only use public transport.

We bought our first house when interest rates were 15%.

Haven't been able to buy any house or flat of any kind even with lower interest rates (that were not 15% for very long) . I think this is the main difference that Baby Boomers often seem to gloss over...

My ex husband (much older than myself) was born in 1962. He was lucky enough to buy a house in 1997 for 99k which needed doing up. Said house is now worth 500k. There is no way any 35 year old on an average wage could afford anything near that nowadays, even if they didn't have phones/iPads/food.

Property is so out of proportion to what anyone can afford in comparison to generations before. It's just not comparable.