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!

"I disagree about an English lit degree. I've got that and have a very good and high paying job in the civil service. I'm probably a bit older than you though op- am nearly 40 so not a millennial."

I'm 40 with a degree in foreign languages. When I worked for the civil service, I was an AO. Obviously there are arts graduates higher up in the civil service, but it wouldn't happen for the average one.

"I know one who had a flat bought for her outright by her mother, from money inherited from her father. "

Yes, I know spoilt little rich kids as well. They have always existed. That's not really what we're talking about though is it, it's what you're able to buy with your earnings.

"The world I grew up in wasn't the one where the Dad was in a nice secure professional job and could afford a nice big house while Mum was a housewife. I think some millenials think life was like that for everyone - well it just wasn't."

No, not for everyone, but a mortgage based on one salary was common.

Do people just 'forget' previous threads they have made or something? I know its not on to search but I did..

Sorry OP, meant to add this v v v to the bottom of my Sat 17-Feb-18 12:37:43 post.

www.lovemoney.com/news/3981/the-best-and-worstpaying-university-degrees

Oh FFS. Yes, there were different difficulties to face in the past (war, no NHS, far greater sexism, racism and homophobia), but that doesn't mean the young are wrong or self-indulgent to complain about housing and financial inequality.
Part of the reason the economy is in such a fucking mess is decades of encouraging people to speculate on the property market, so housing prices have gone through the roof while wages have stayed the same. There are far greater expectations on employees to put up with being treated like shit, to sign away their rights to sickness/holiday pay, to do any amount of unpaid overtime at short notice than there were 20/30 years ago (and yes, 100 years ago it was as bad if not worse, but it got better and now we are going backwards.)

"Do people just 'forget' previous threads they have made or something? I know its not on to search but I did."

What did you search for, Str4ngedays? (curious)

"Less usual for a graduate to come in at AO, but not unheard of

(Former CS who used to sit on recruitment boards)"

Really? So what level could I come in as, as a foreign languages graduate, in a place where foreign languages aren't used and my degree is useless unless valued just for itself? I'm not the kind of person who could ever get on the fast track.

I've worked in admin all my life and it's full of arts graduates, along with older women with O-levels, GCSEs, A-levels, etc.
Plenty of graduates working in call centres as well.

I know the Civil Service has a tradition of taking in classics graduates, but they are presumable posh people from the public schools working in senior roles.

What SGB said.

The British fetishisation of home ownership and the concept of the 'property ladder' is part of what is at the heart of this.

Gwen that wasn't a 'spoilt little rich kid'. They were a normal family, the grandfather died without having to go into care and there was enough money from the sale of his house to buy a flat, albeit not a particularly nice one.
As for mortgages being given on one salary, pretty sure this can still happen in some parts of the country.

"to do any amount of unpaid overtime at short notice than there were 20/30 years ago (and yes, 100 years ago it was as bad if not worse, but it got better and now we are going backwards.)"

Yes. It was so depressing to go to the People's History Museum in Manchester to see things getting better for every generation until now. People worked so hard to get an 8-hour day, for example.

"Gwen that wasn't a 'spoilt little rich kid'. They were a normal family, the grandfather died without having to go into care and there was enough money from the sale of his house to buy a flat, albeit not a particularly nice one."

I'm afraid that makes them rich in my book. Also a bit spoilt as they don't have to work to pay for the flat. And yes, of course I'm jealous.

My nephew and partner, in their very early 20s, just ordinary people no degrees or high flying careers, have recently bought a 2 bed flat within 35 miles of central London. They both work, and work hard, she is in retail but already a departmental manager (yet still on a zero hours contract ), and they do loads of overtime between them. They're both on lowish hourly wage though he has been doing work over the weekends privately too, so it took them a 3 years or so to save the deposit. Their flat was a bit in need of TLC but they've DIYd it on a tight budget (Freecycle was good for offcasts & free paint) and it looks lovely and could be sold at the drop of a hat (she's very good on fashion/home things and has an eye for it).
They don't have every latest gadget, only have 1 car between them and don't do expensive holidays (luckly they've relatives in nice parts of the country). They're saving hard, so they don't go out drinking or out for meals very often, they take sandwiches and thermos cups of coffee from home and wouldn't dream of wasting £5+ a day on lunch as some of their friends do.
In due course, when they've saved enough, they'll sell and move to a bigger property. I'm quite sure, by the time they want a family they'll have a nice house with low mortgage and all the trimmings because they've set that as their goal early.

It can be done.

"The British fetishisation of home ownership and the concept of the 'property ladder' is part of what is at the heart of this."

Countries that don't obsess over home ownership have better state pensions. It makes sense to obsess over it in this country.

Not this again!

Even trans threads are better.

"As for mortgages being given on one salary, pretty sure this can still happen in some parts of the country."

Depends on the one person's income.

Oh ok, Gwen. You're jealous.

"wouldn't dream of wasting £5+ a day on lunch as some of their friends do"

This is not what makes a difference between being able to buy a house or not!

"wouldn't dream of wasting £5+ a day on lunch as some of their friends do"

Yes it does make a difference

Speaking as someone in their mid 40’s, I think the issue is that most millennial have had it so good growing up, better than most of us and want the same for themselves. They find it ludicrous to struggle as we did and not have the things they have. In their 20’s they want to perpetuate the lifestyle we now have in our 40’s and beyond when we certainly didn’t have it then.

Dh and I lived on hand me downs in our first place, including an old bed, sofa chairs and dresser which had been left behind. Then in 1996, we managed to buy a new bed. It was a bog standard double divan bed with the cheapest pocket sprung system and was £400. Over 20 years on you can still get similar beds for around the same price. Clothes also have hardly gone up and food is more but not significantly more. Even in 1989/90, I remember struggling to feed myself a good diet for £20 a week.

My parents accumulated more property and wealth than Dh and I have managed. But their struggles as young adults and childhoods were far harder.

Agree with you Francis. Life was very hard for a lot of British people.

Gwen it can do for some people. That is £25/week.Just one saving that can be made.
Funny how some young people are still managing to buy houses, isn't it?
And how so many people had to rent shitty property in the past, despite being able to buy a house on one salary, as you keep on pointing out.