To think, as a 'millennial', that we do have it quite good?

[kokosnuss]

Hate the term, but the common narrative amongst 'millennials' is that the baby boomers stole all the houses and good pensions, leaving none for us.

AIBU to think that yes, many baby boomers are in an enviable position (paid off mortgage, pension, savings), but only because:
(and I'm thinking only of my own working class grandparents and their friends here, others may have different experiences)

• They started working and saving early, often as soon as they finished school at 15, and had little opportunity to go onto higher education; many would have gone into jobs the millennial generation might consider 'unfulfilling' (e.g. my Grandma was a sewing machinist). They also led lives my generation might consider 'unfulfilling', e.g. simple (meat and 2 veg) food, no foreign holidays, few trips to restaurants, events, etc. Their lives were very much lived in the home i.e. very cheaply and expectations of life were very different.

Of course, many baby boomers now enjoy an expensive lifestyle, with lots of foreign trips and new experiences, but only because they're enjoying the fruits of years of careful saving. They haven't always lived that way, but there seems to be an assumption on the part of millennials that they have. So whereas my generation might only finish education at 21 or later, and then want to spend time travelling, or building up experience towards a 'fulfilling' career path, they also want to live what they consider to be a 'fulfilling' lifestyle, e.g. gadgets, subscriptions, foreign trips, going to events, restaurants, bars, the latest fashions, etc. And then are surprised when they have no savings or pension!

I'm nearly 30, renting, and only just in the position my grandparents would have been in at 18/19 - steady job, actively saving for a house, making regular pension contributions. But I don't blame anybody else for that, because I've had lots of opportunities and experiences in return that I know my grandparents (and female grandparents in particular) didn't have.

AIBU?

Trillis Why I understand that you could infer the point LeCroissant was making as you explained it (and how they themselves later came back and tried to ret-con) what they actually posted, verbatim, was:

"If you can afford 2 Costa lattes every week without going without anything else, you can afford a house."
Which is the exact opposite of "If you can afford 2 lattes (and multiple other insignificant luxuries that all add up) you can afford a house."

You can't blame people for responding to what posters actually say, rather than what they meant to say and worded badly.

Back to OPs original question - lots of people have made valuable points. What I find interesting is that both my grandparents ("silent" generation) and my parents (just about boomers) have both said in conversation several times that they are happy they grew up when they did, and wouldn't like to be young today - and I feel the same, in that I feel very lucky to be born when I was (millennial) and would not like to have been born earlier, or indeed, later.

This is, as others have pointed out, obviously due to a mixture of social impacts not just financial factors, but I think it's interesting - none of the generations have had it perfectly, but I suppose we all just have to be grateful for the relevant positives of each respective situation and work together to improve the negatives rather than sniping at one another.

I do think there are as big divisions between different people of the same generations (mainly on a class basis) than between generations themselves.

BarbarianMum

Excuse me, I'm talking through my backside, of course she'll be able to work, don't know where that came from tbh
I totally agree with the divide between classes.

I can remember as a northerner realising that the difference between salaries 'down south' was adding a couple or 3 noughts.
I'm just into gen x and can remember a bigger gap and clear lines between wc and mc, the lines are blurred now, far fewer distinctions.
I'm not saying that's bad or good

If you were really that smart, @Flowerpot1234, you’d know that paying off the student loan using saved chunks of money is something only a fool would do; far better to put any saved earnings towards a mortgage.

I do wonder another factor is there is more things (often seen as must haves) to spend your money on these days? I no my parents didn't have half things that young people today seem to need or do. For example Just look at how few people owned a car (Granted car insurance is also hammering the young). Or all the clothes/outfits, electronic devices, eating out, subscriptions to electronic services etc.

And how many people went to uni. Now everyone behind the check out has a degree it seems.

But that doesn't mean we shouldn't aim for better conditions of the young. They don't know their born attitude is no excuse.

My parents (now 60) on low income jobs brought a house and took us 3 children on holiday to Spain or Greece every year. They brought a council house and didn't need a deposit. We don't have that luxury when it comes to buying a house. This was the 90s they did this.

Not a case of being "obsessed with buying a house, we didnt qualify for social housing spent the first couple of years of married life in rented room sharing a bathroom, then bought a caraven we lived in for the next 5 years, with one child, which depreciated at the same rate as a car, thats why we bought a house, rents in the SE are awful. At least we bought something rather than giving the money to a landlord, and the caravan just privated the deposit for our first house.

Tippexy
If you were really that smart, @Flowerpot1234, you’d know that paying off the student loan using saved chunks of money is something only a fool would do; far better to put any saved earnings towards a mortgage.

And if you were really that smart Tippexy you'd read what people write, and respond to that, and not what you make up in your head. My reference, if you were bright enough to read posts properly, referred to using savings to live, not to pay off debts.

Surely a lot of the millennials will receive a big sum of money as earlier generations die and their houses are sold. I realise that this is a sad way to afford a house, but the boomers “profited” from a post war era.

Surely a lot of the millennials will receive a big sum of money as earlier generations die and their houses are sold. I realise that this is a sad way to afford a house, but the boomers “profited” from a post war era.

Better bump the parents off quick before they discover equity release and set off on luxury cruises

GiBlues "Yanbu and as a pp said you make a very good point.
I met DH at 17 we brought our first house when I turned 18 and he was 20, we sacrificed holidays abroad, nights out, meals out etc and worked our arses off to make sure all our bills were paid."

How did you and your husband save up the deposit for a house? How much was it?

I'm curious as I see a lot of people say they bought a house (got a mortgage) at such an early age, but I don't know a single one who managed it without parental help. Either a cash gift, a loan, being allowed to live at home with cheap or free rent while they saved up. I've never met anyone who's been able to buy without being helped by their parents yet a lot of people subtly imply they managed it alone or fail to mention they were helped.

Surely a lot of the millennials will receive a big sum of money as earlier generations die and their houses are sold.

Well that's kind of one of the biggest problems, it creates inequality that isn't even based on the success of individual millennials. So yeah some of them will end up loaded while others will inherit estates that don't pay for the funeral.

I think the people on this thread who have raised that the biggest differences here aren't generational are absolutely right.

YABU. The point is that young people today don't have access to the benefits that older generations had. Lower house prices, less gap between wages and house prices, final salary pensions and so on.

If I hear one more baby-boomer whining about how their company has closed the final salary scheme meaning they had to work to 60 instead of retiring at 55, I will scream! People under 40 will be working until their 70s. Even if they have a decent (by today's standards) pension, they won't be able to retire before 70 because their mortgage payments will still be ongoing.

Baby-boomers sold the young out. But they're doing fine, so who cares?

Nobody sold the young out. That's a really stupid thing to say.

Different generations have different experiences. That's all. There's nothing malevolent in Baby Boomer behaviour/actions, it just reflects the fact that the financial markets were different from what they are now.

And I think you'll find that Baby Boomers do care. I have two DC in their early 20s, neither of whom will be able to buy their own place (actually can't even afford a car) for years. The only way they would be able to manage it would be with money from us. In fact, DC1 is already having to be partially supported by DH and I because his salary is so low and his rent so high.

But none of this is my doing!

My dad has a great pension, mortgage paid off and a sizable inherirance from his mum.
yet when struggling hand to mouth despite having a professional job im told it's because its my fault for not budgeting or not having a permanent job.
Is it any wonder that i feel resentful? Especially as he voted for this mess.

malificent7

Is it any wonder that i feel resentful? Especially as he voted for this mess.

What mess?

How is your father having an inheritance anything to do with being a Baby Boomer though?

I'm a Baby Boomer. I don't have a great pension. I have a reasonable one, because I've always paid my own money into a pension scheme, since I started work at the age of 21. No final salary pension scheme has ever been available to me, in the jobs I've worked in.

We've paid off our mortgage, but that's more a reflection of our ages - it's inevitable that it gets paid off at some point!

I think you'll find that a lot of us with an inheritance are handing it - or part of it - straight over to the next generation, malificent.

I think the generational divide is stupid.

But I do agree with you. I’m 22 and my life is cushy as hell... done 2 degrees, got a 17k ( not much but not awful) incredible job, go on 2 holidays a year, have 2 laptops, tablet, flat, just sold my car.

Life is good.

I don't begrudge my parents' (boomers) generation. I feel they had it much tougher than I did.

My dad was one of 10, raised without a father in abject poverty. They barely had shoes/food/coal and it was very grim. my nan considered having him adopted and worked all hrs.

He passed the 11 plus but could not afford to go - uniform, books.

I'll never know poverty like it, post war rationing or the back to backs/slums they inhabited in Aston.

My parents scrimped and saved in menial bar and cleaning jobs to get us a decent house. We went away one week a year to Cornwall. I loved my childhood because treats like a full shop at Xmas and a summer hol were so rare and valued.

If they want to enjoy life when they are seeing friends having strokes/heart attacks then good for them.

I'm 45 this year and managed to get my foot on the property ladder in 2002 and a full grant for uni. I feel I was lucky.

I think we are pretty average in our lives but feel lucky.

Millenials will make most of their money through inheritances - people born in the 50s-80s are likely to have a lower life expectancy than their parents & had kids later. So some of these millenials will inherit far earlier than previous generations.

However, I’m saying that as a millennial with wealthy-ish parents, a wealthy-ish DP and a hell of a lot of support and even more luck.

My friends without there things have a much harder time of it.

Plus, you’re barely a millennial tbh.

@Lonecatwithkitten millennials are difficult to define.. most say born 1985-1995.

2000s + are Generation Alpha