To wonder why the older generation can't admit that things are harder for millennials?

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So we just had our meeting with a mortgage advisor. They will lend my dp £45,000 (not even enough for a bedsit in this town) and so I'm not even bothering to do mine as I earn less. We work very hard (44 hours and 27 hours) we just have low paid jobs and pay childcare for two under 5's!
I talked to my stepdad who compared it to when he had to borrow £36,000 to buy his first house in the early eighties. That was 3 times his salary and his wife stayed at home. He paid it off in six years. It's not the same. He was given a mortgage which was enough to buy a nice house in an area close to family and where he worked. He didn't have to have a bank manager saying 'well if you move to Wales or up north?' He didn't have to rent forever and have nothing to pass down to his children. It's not the same!

Where are these “older generation” people saying it’s easier to buy a house now?

Well when I grew up my parents worked hard both of them and we had no money and the pressure on me to go to university was immense. I couldn't go that direction and left school in a time of severe unemployment. i had to emigrate and had years of temp jobs and being underpaid because I'm a woman with no qualifications. Now I'm too old to ever get a pension underway. Have lived in two countries and not accumulated enough 'stamp' in either to qualify for a state pension in either country. I'm 47 and suffer ageism in the work market place so I stay in my low paid job (but I like it luckily). I think this notion that ''we have it HARDER'' than anybody who went before us is a new one
My generation were definitely more inclined to suck it up and stay positive and don't complain. Mustn't complain. EVER

So we had the same shit but without the valve of a zeitgeist of a group who all identify with each on social media. We did just have friends we could talk to though I guess.

I was renting until I was 43. A lot of my generation are mortgaged up the eyeballs.

The ageism on here is boring now.

"To wonder why the older generation can't admit that things are harder for millennials?"

Because millennials always use the cost of housing as an example as how they have it worse - there are many other factors to having a hard life than just housing. Yes housing is more expensive, but food is cheaper, eating out is cheaper, clothes are cheaper, furniture is cheaper, holidays are cheaper and whilst there is still some way to go, women have it better now then they ever have.

PS, yeh, I don't go around offering up this opinion btw. It's only in response to what older people supposedly think.

I sit next to a woman at work, 27, and she definitely divides people around her in to ''my age'' and ''old''.

She constantly references people's ages in a conversation that doesn't directly require their age to be specified.

She has a car btw, and we were talking about home ownership earlier in the week as it happened. I said I prioritised getting a house over getting a car as houses appreciate and cars depreciate. She looked at me as though I had been rude, but it was my position over the last THREE decades! I'm not judging her and I'm certainly not going to think of her as the ambassador for her generation as she's a particularly unaware example of a woman of her generation. I find almost every other 27 year old more mature. But my point is, I feel like I had quite a hard life in that every small thing I've achieved has been extremely hard fought.

I think they feel it’s invalidating things they found difficult.

It’s like when you point out white privilege and some white person says “erm okay but I’m disabled/am poor/any life problem” Sure, no one’s saying you don’t have hardships, but they’re saying those hardships aren’t because of it made worse by race.

It’s a similar principle.

Both generations sufferered different hardships. My mother and grandmother found it easier to get on the property ladder. It's easier for me to leave an abusive relationship.

We seem to be keen on blaming other generations.

So you both went for low paid jobs, one has the luxury of working part time and had two children but it's the older generations fault you can't buy a house

Rather than blame somebody else, why not look at the choices you made. Nobody made them for you, you did that as adults. If those choices stop you affording things you want then grow up and change things rather than moan that it's not fair.

Ps2, if you and your partner do borrow, make sure that the mortgage is based on BOTH of your salaries.

My x told me that he could borrow more if he borrowed in his name only. Anyway to cut a long story short I ended up screwed! Plenty of the older generation did. We'd no mumsnet back then.

@CharisMater - your point about buying a car or house first makes no sense. My car cost £1200, a deposit for a small flat where I live would be about £25,000...

Very good point claryfray.

I don’t think at the age of 35 I have it any harder. Okay it maybe harder to get on the property ladder (impossible in some cases) but that’s the only thing I think is harder in my opinion.

We have opportunities that my parents couldn’t have even dreamt of, more benefits than ever before, better healthcare, women have access to contraceptives and so on.

£45k is not a lot to borrow but jointly could you maybe get a help to buy? Apologies if I am completely off the mark there.

I'm sick of hearing this.

My parents had to live with extortionate interest rates whilst down to 3 day weeks

They cut back on everything to feed us kids.

Why are you so obsessed with buying a house anyway? If you do and fall on hard times you'll get no government help at all but if you rent you will. You won't have to sell it to pay for your care when you're old.

Seriously- just shut up whining!

Well I'm guessing if £45,000 won't but you a you live in London or the south east ? It's expansive there

So, If they did admit this, the achievement would be, what exactly?!

A Bedsit*

How about working more than 27 hours? As a single parent I manage to work full time, do tutoring in the evenings and come exam time, I’ll be marking exam papers. I am also researching running a holiday club this year. Yes, it’s shit but at least I am doing everything I can to make sure we have what we need. There are two of you and you’re not full time!

I think it made sense for me. All the years it would have been easier to get a car, it would have saved me time, and just been easier, I knew that the car, the cost of learning to drive, the cost of all the tests, petrol, insurance, tax..... it would have made it impossible for me to save. So for decades (almost literally) I did manage to bus it every where I needed to go and still save. No matter how little I earned I still managed to save a bit every month. I'm not judging anybody else's decisions but for my entire adult life I haven't had a car. That hasn't always made life as easy as it could have been. But for 20 a week I get to work and back and I order shopping on line, and I have, finally, got my own home, which is a great comfort to me. It's just my choice.
You say what I said made no sense well it worked for me.

20 a week bus fare i mean.

Some things are harder and some are easier. I don't think most of my family could ever afford to buy any property ever - poor as church mice so nothing changed except for the better since they started getting better education. Not everyone was well off in the past and could buy.

The house my mother's mother rented costs £50k to buy today (in the NE) so your £45k would get you somewhere. Why did you both pick careers with low pay by the way?

Also my grandfather was nearly 50 when my father was born (no money until then); my parents were married 10 years before children and worked full time all that time to buy a house. They bought before they bred - was wise then is wise now. Same with us - bought before we had children and both worked full time. That has always been wise. It remains so.

My parents lodged in one room for 3 years to save up a deposit. They didn't have children until they were in their 30s because they wanted to buy a house first. Interest rates were 15%

It's just because its so different. Yes they do understand that housing is so much more expensive, but the quality of housing then was much worse. Outdoor toilets, no central heating, no double glazing, no fitted kitchen, no washing machines, fridges, tv with subscriptions etc. It's rare for a family to live like that now, whereas for the older generation that was what was in their budget.

And the generation before them didn't have it east either my grandparents brought there family over from Ireland in the 1950,s for work and better opportunities they had six kids in a cramped three bed terrace My other grandparents were English and well obviously they had two world wars and my grandad died in early 50,s he was only 41 all generations have their problems.

Catspaws

WHAT the fuck is 'white privilege'??

Is that the same as 'white supremacy'?

Personally I think the kids of today have it far far easier than any other generation before them.

They are the privileged ones. Regardless of the colour of their skin.

They can always retreat to a bloody safe space till their butts are no longer smarting.

How could you pay something that is 3x your yearly salary off in 6 years?
That's physically impossible