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

[ExtraPineappleExtraHam]

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!

Obviously my mother is not a generation...there’s no need to be pedantic, I was simply offering an anecdotal rebuttal of the notion that all people struggled. To be honest many people did the opposite, they thrived from very humble beginnings.
That is all. I’ll leave it there as my evening is disappearing into mumsnet on a topic no one can ever agree on...

IMO the millennials who are complaining are the millennials who have prioritised other things over getting on the property ladder early - be that pissing up at uni and getting in debt for mediocre degrees that don’t attract jobs that reward financially, or- spending any earnings on fashion/gigs/going out/general stuff, instead of saving it. Seems millennnials need to spend, spend else feel somewhat deprived.

There are plenty of millennials (ok,like me), who saved hard throughout their 20’s, bought wisely, prioritised career over having kids and now have property.

I’ve had absolutely no help from parents. I’m not the only one, there are millennials who save hard, work hard and are doing fine.

Some things are harder for Millennials than Boomers. Other things are easier. I am a Millennial (born in '82) but I do not begrudge my parent's generation having had it easier in some ways eg buying a house, things being cheaper etc because their early lives were so much harder eg post war austerity, polio (and other illnesses such as diptheria which are now vaccinated against), women having fewer opportunities, women expected to put up with abuse in the home etc.

I think everybody in life has some challenges and difficulties, regardless of age and playing top trumps about these is very pointless. . Having said that, I do get annoyed when boomers say that if millennials just saved harder etc they could easily get a house within 3- 5 years of leaving University etc. I wonder what world they are living in when they come out with things like that? My own DF is convinced that today's graduates can just waltz out of Uni into a wel paid job in their chosen field. Not any more.

Gwen those are just some reasons why not everyone chases after the highest paying jobs. I'm not sure what you're getting at really. Most people won't choose a shitty low paid job such as working at Mcdonalds, but they might choose another low paid job if it has some intrinsic value to them, other than financial rewards.

Life is very different now , I left school at 15 I had no choice parents needed my wage I worked in mill . When I got engaged we didn't have party we did manage to buy a house we didn't have hen /stag does or honeymoon no central heating or double glazing ,only new furniture we had was a bed , we both worked nights didn't eat out no takeaways , black and white tele we started family after 5yrs pram was second hand managed without a lot of things that people wouldn't now . My kids both own homes but struggle at times it's just way it is our parents couldn't help us we try and help our kids .

www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/news/health/blackpool-care-home-we-can-t-afford-to-pay-staff-minimum-wage-1-9019442

Gwen those are just some reasons why not everyone chases after the highest paying jobs. I'm not sure what you're getting at really.

I don't think she really knows either tbh.

Gwen, if someone has a degree, then they're not restricted to a low paid, part time admin job.

My oh and I saved hard for the deposit on out house. We married and had our first motgageneration. Both worked f/the and 3 yrs later bought a bigger house (no hols, reasonably well paid jobs, saved hard). Got pregnant 5 yrs later (unplanned)and had to work full time when baby was 8 wks old as mortgage rates were sky high (Mrs thatchers era). 2/3rds income went on f/t childcare but we needed the rest of my income to keep our house. We eventually could afford to move again into our final home. Another child when first was 6 and both still working f/t. Holidays eventually every year until uni fees. Just cut hours to p/the and should have been retiring this year but have to wait another 6 yrs a government changed rules despite me paying into system for over 40 years. Yep we certainly had it easier

yeah it was so much harder for the older generations
world wars
no NHS
no antibiotics
no central heating
much colder freezing winters
smog
no automatic washing machines
coal fires to clean out
no internet
no tv
working
cooking meals from scratch
scrubbing floors with brushes
outside loos
measles mumps and rubella
whooping cough
polio
dysentery
latin at school
walking to work
no
child benefit
no benefits
no housing benefit
the blitz

nowadays everyone is entitled
winging
permanently offended for no reason

The bottom line is if you feel jealous others in life it tends to make you feel unhappy. It is a lot better just to get on with living the hand you are dealt and making the best of it.

It seems to be buying a flat which is the big issue for mumsnetters particularly in expensive cities (our relatives in Yorkshire don't have the same problems buying a house). If we had say in outer London 2 graduate teachers on say £24k each - not an untypical mumsnetter combination (not minmum wagers - they have never really ever been able to buy property in the UK and probably never will except in times when very cheap buy your own council house schemes come out). So Janet and Jim are buying in 2018 before they have a baby. Let us say they are 3 years out from their PGCE year. Actually they might be on a bit more looking at this calculator - www.tes.com/jobs/careers-advice/pay-and-conditions/pay-scale-calculator

They can probably borrow 4x joint salary these days so about £192k so we need to find them a property. We can probably find them a flat if they commute a bit for £200k. I think it's doable for that couple.

A second salary no matter how small is now desirable to lenders. It reassures that if the person with the higher salary was out of work there is SOME money coming in rather than nothing/sick pay.

What is a millennial anyway? What age bracket does that cover?

I rather wish I’d done Latin at school nannyK

:)

But the rest, yes indeed.

Millennial = born between 1983 and 2000

Oh I just fall into that category in 1984! @Backenette!

I was always thinking 2000s babies onwards but obviously they are all to young to buy a house!

"Gwen, if someone has a degree, then they're not restricted to a low paid, part time admin job."

Sorry, but with some degrees you really are restricted to low paid jobs. Obviously not to part time work, but in OP's case she works part time because childcare would be more expensive.

nanny - you've mixed up a few generations there. There have been TVs around for quite a while and as a generation Xer I also got measles and mumps.
We might be better off going back to walking to work and Latin at school, but obviously some of those things are from less advanced times. We've obviously made progress on many things, but we're going backwards on others such as working conditions and ability to buy houses.

"clyd your Mum is not a 'generation'. Because she was able to rise out of poverty quickly doesn't mean that everyone else of her age could. Nor does it mean that people of this generation won't."

Some periods in time saw more social mobility than others, though. It doesn't just depend on the person. Unfortunately inequality is now growing rather than decreasing.

I haven't RTFT because it would piss me off dramatically. I am sick of this shite. It's not a fucking competition. Each generation has its own challenges.

Oh and back in the day, we bought our homes before having children.

Well, i'm generation x I think and I didn't manage to buy my house til I was 43 so it was a good job I had kids first cos that one cannot be sorted out later.

"back in the day, we bought our homes before having children."

So, you were able to buy young then?

God I was born in 1983 and no way do I class myself as a millennial. Christ. I’m offended at that! Oh, wait....

I really feel for you. I was surprised by the strength of responses you got and the anger and vitriol aimed at you. Objectively you are right. It is harder to buy a house now. It sucks. Most of the ranters getting angry are likely to be sat on unearned wealth from house price increases that they think they are entitled to. That they "deserve". That they "worked hard for ".

Well we all work "hard", but there is a massive intergenerational unfairness that is well documented by economists.

Before I get shot down as a disgruntled millennial, I'm not. I'm a home owning Gen Xr in London who watched in disbelief as house prices continued to shoot up. I was there at the dinner parties where everyone boasted about the price of their house/flat rising on a weekly basis.

What millennials want is security of tenure, and an opportunity to save wealth tax free in their home. The opportunity everyone in previous generations had. I don't understand why no-one can see that or at least listen to the fact that they have been denied the same opportunity.

I still remember waking into the solicitor and saying we had seen a house and could we get a mortgage for it. We were 21 and 24 (was 2003) at the time.

She said it was a breath of fresh air that a couple our age asked that, usually we came in and asked how much we could get and bought a house at the top of the range.

cloud I am outside London in an area where house prices are still low. London is crazy for house prices, but it is not the whole country.