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!

Apparently OP also owns a house left to her by her mother. Advanced search can be useful

Beanteam What is more likely is there was family inheritance or gifts.

This would have been 80s too.

"here was no such thing as getting something on credit, apart from a mortgage"

Rubbish. There have been tabs and slates in shops for centuries. Used to be very, very common to pay like that.

Shit OP already owns a house! And works part time. Sorry OP I have no sympathy for you at all. You are in a MUCH better situation than I was at your age.

Crunchy when the crash happened it was very odd, suddenly, almost overnight, I was looking in estate agent's windows and finding that there were lots of things I could afford to buy! Mind you, wasn't so great when the flat I managed to buy plunged in value by about 40%. That was scary.

I don't either. All I see is jealousy, envy and annoyance that everything was soooo easy for the 'older generation' and let's stamp our feet and say it is so hard for millenials. Given the opportunities now, I think it was harder for us back then.

I am older than baby boomers - born in World War 2.

I think some things are harder for young people, some things are easier so won't even try and list them as other posters have done that already.

The two things I believe that separate my generation and young people is:

1 - we had much lower expectations. Just grateful to come out of the war alive - anything else was a bonus.

2 - I do believe, because of our experiences growing up in the 40s, 50s etc. we were brought up to be tough - it was what compelled me in the 60s and into the 70s to dig in and fight for equal opportunities, equal pay, full human being status if you like. I lost jobs because of my attitude, but kept going.

It definitely produces a different mind set. Not better - different.

You mention your stepdad being able to get a mortgage. If you had said stepmother you might not have been able to say the same thing.

Hang in there OP, you will get there eventually if you have determination.

Blimey, OP has led us right up the garden path!

No generation ever has it easy.

For all the good things, like lower house prices, there are bad things like blatent racism, zero holidays except a week in Brighton, expensive clothes, food etc.

Millennials have many perks like social media, foreign holidays, cars plus a huge leap forward in narrow minded morality.

Swings and roundabouts. We had no money when I was a kid, we never ate out or ordered takeaway - try telling a millennial that they couldn't order their food or go out to a restaurant! We spent holidays with family because we couldn't afford air fares - try telling a millennial they couldn't go overseas. My mum had to give up her job when she got married - that was normal 40 years ago. My grandads both died early of heart trouble that they could be treated for now, meaning my grandmothers both spent 30+ years as widows. Literally the only thing harder now is buying a house. The opportunities of education, career, travel, relationships (try being gay 40 years ago) are so so much wider now.

So you’ve been able to afford two dc on low salaries? You get CB and other benefits? You both have low paying jobs? Why don’t you work more than 27 hours?

It was your choice to do all these things.

previous generations wouldn't have had benefits, paid childcare etc. Different generations have pros and cons. House prices were cheaper in the past, and this means you may inherit from your parents - whereas you wouldn’t have done had house prices not been cheaper in the 80s! So you’re still benefiting from your parents’ cheap mortgage.

Today women have it better than ever before - still a way to go, but things are much better now than a generation ago. And most things are cheaper now - food, holidays, electrical items...

"Workers rights and benefits are considerably better (however imperfect) than when my parents were in their 20's."

Really? My parents were in their twenties in the 70s. Jobs were secure and unions were strong. Now, we have zero hour contracts and the gig economy and even those jobs with good conditions (civil service pensions etc.) are seeing those conditions eroded with people having to re-apply for their own jobs with inferior conditions and the end of the job for life. Workers' rights have been going downhill for a while in this country and God help us after Brexit.

If the OP already has a house why the hell is she posting this, and then saying that half the posters on here should fuck off

phoebe Maybe I should have stayed in London and bought? Although would not have met DP. 40% plunge in value is scary.

It's almost universally accepted that this generation will be the first recorded to be worse off than their parents.

www.ft.com/content/e5246526-8c2c-11e7-a352-e46f43c5825d

I thought that was pretty common knowledge?

Yes there are many things that are easier for millennials - travel, communication, much less discrimination around race and sexuality.

But you can't deny that as a generation, they are much poorer financially; it is much more difficult to save and much more difficult to buy a house.

And that will one day - not tomorrow, not next year, but in a few decades - blow up in our faces when we have a generation who have nothing or very little to fall back on when they retire, and who can no longer pay their rent on what will likely be a much smaller pension than previous generations had, whether that's private or state.

It is extremely short-sighted to suggest that millennials should put up and shut up, because the problems they are facing now will magnify exponentially when they come to retirement age.

We got married in the early 80s. At that time a woman could not have a bank loan without it being guaranteed by her father or her DH. Did you know that?

As others have said, when we went for our first mortgage they would only lend us 2.5 times DH's salary and one times mine, because I would give up work to have a baby. So the most we could borrow was £11,000 on a 2 bed terraced new build house costing £19,999. Luckily we'd signed up to their saving scheme and had saved £2,000 in a year (1/3 of our joint gross salary) so they were forced to lend us the £18k we needed.

We couldn't afford central heating, and all our furniture was second hand. My parents paid for our wedding and our honeymoon was a week in Cornwall - off season. We also rented a TV from Radio Rentals .

When I had my first baby 3 years later the maternity leave was 11 weeks before the birth and 6 after. There wasn't much childcare available so I had to leave work, and there were no tax credits or any other help. When the other children came along we worked shifts around them so we didn't have to pay for care.

We first had central heating in 1997.

One of our DC bought his house before he was 30 years old, by saving for years while living at home and moving to a cheap area. He doesn't have a DP so he's doing it on his own; it isn't impossible. My niece also bought a house with her DP in the South before she was 30. My other DC are stuck on the 6 month renting cycle, so I appreciate how hard it can be.

As far as most aspects of life are concerned we all have it much better now.

It is also acknowledged that Millenails will inherit far more than any other generation. They will be fine when older.

"the usual scenario of ice on the inside of the bedroom windows in the morning"

I remember that, but I didn't even think of ourselves as poor - I thought it was just the norm. My parents lived with no central heating, no double glazing, no automatic washing machine, no car, my mum had to get up 5 a.m. to light the coal fire in a house with sub zero temperatures, she had to sleep in a curtained off corner of her parents' bedroom until she was 15, my dad slept on a mattress on the floor with his two brothers. Go back a further generation and you have my widowed great grandmother raising eight children in a two up two down with no hand outs, just working every hour possible. Yes, I know I sound all Monty Pythonesque, but really, I read of people nowadays having a near breakdown cause their bloody internet fails for a few minutes. FFS stop whining already.

So the OP wants a BtL? Fucking hell

OP - why did you have 2 kids before sorting out your jobs and buying a property?

Exactly. My daughter is a so called 'millennium'. She worked hard all through uni, graduated with a degree in which she decided wasn't the career she wanted so went down a different route. She and her partner worked all the hours they could and saved like crazy for a deposit. They now have a very nice house without moaning about how much easier it was for their parents. They also have a car each and a nice lifestyle. I'm very proud of both of them.

"And also, access to education is far better now than previously. My father is a very bright man, but came from a poor background. Going to university was never even on the horizon because his parents couldn't afford it- even with grants. AN extra income into the house was valuable and he left school at the age of 16 to go to work. That was the expected route for most people where my father grew up. A lucky few got out, but really not that many. He got his degree as an adult with the help of my mother and her family."

It depends when you're talking about. My dad's family never had much money, but luckily his parents didn't have to send him to work at 16. He was actually not only given a grant for teacher training that included all course fees and living costs, but also even organised his accommodation for him. He didn't particularly want to go, but it would have been like looking a gift horse in the mouth.
My parents are both primary school teachers so never had much money, but were able to buy a house at a young age, even with only my father working most of the time.
Yes, there were times when they had it harder - my dad never had a bath till he was 18 as they only had an outside toilet - but in the important things of buying a house and having a decent pension they did better than us their children.

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.

Im late 40's with a disabled DC. NEVER ben able to get a mortgage due to low paid work before I myself became disabled ,and have to rely on rented accom for life (unless I win the lottery!!)

I know a young person (im not saying ALL the tyoung are the same BTW) who moans they cant get on the prop ladder and have to live with parents yet they spend all their money on the latest expensive gadgets, make up, designer fashion etc. I know this as they boast about the stuff they have. they want to keep up with the Joneses of today. and yy social media plays a big part.

having a cake and eating it comes to mind.

Millennial ffs ^^

Why can't people just take it as it is. Why does it have to be a competition of who had/has it harder? My parents and PIL are of the same generation. My PIL are typical baby boomers. Lovely big house paid off. Good pensions etc. My parents own a small ex council house. No pensions and had to battle their way through high interest rates and faced risking our home numerous times. I can imagine that was incredibly stressful with 3 DC. I am almost 30 and own a home on mortgage. Funnily enough it was my parents who were able to loan me a small amount to make up the deposit. They're in a better position these days. I wouldn't say my parents had it easy at all. I definitely have it better