AIBU to feel there is a lack of hope for this generation?

[floridapalmtree]

Is there any hope for this generation?

My daughter has worked hard through school achieving good exam results. Studied hard at university to get a degree, worked during a placement year. Started work and is working long hours. Living in London paying most of her salary on rent, bills and basic living. Not earning enough to save much each month. It seems impossible to buy a property or start a family. We have encouraged her to work hard to achieve a better life but she is tired, stressed and has little hope for the future. Unless there is a large family injection of cash I can't see how this generation can progress towards a decent life.

Whilst it is difficult, unless you've just missed it out, there's a few things that could have been done differently...(maybe, not enough info to go on)...
Once out of uni, you can either stay at home or in a very inexpensive area, house sharing etc to save money for a deposit.
Moving straight to London, to live on your own (? Not said) is a bit of a luxury I would think?

Does your daughter need to live in London for her job? I know a few young people (friends' DC) who have purchased a home in their 20s. Lived at home for a few years to save deposit and have managed to get a starter home . We are in West Midlands . I suppose the key issue, thinking of it, is that these young people didn't rent, they remained with parents whilst saving for the deposit . One of these people is single and a teacher so not two massive salaries, but I think her house was around £110,000.

Frankly many of us have had to move - or face long commutes - and idea that it doesn't matter cause Londeners have it worse but can't be expected to move like rest of us - well

No one has said that at all.

[quote madisonbridges]@CurlyhairedAssassin
What are you talking about...That's cos equality laws were shit and women couldn't get a mortgage in their own right ? 😂😂😂😂 It was the 1970s/80s not the 1870s.[/quote]
My mother wasn’t allowed to get a mortgage on her own because she was a woman. My parents weren’t allowed to get a mortgage together because they were unmarried. She had to marry to have somewhere to live even though she was the higher earner. Mid 70s.

In marrying she tied herself to an abuser, who was legally allowed to rape her, and who cost her that same home and most of her pension in the divorce.

If there’s no family financial help to live in London, then I’d advise her to get as much experience as she can over the next 2-3 years, come to terms with not saving anything. Then use the experience to transfer to a role in another country. The UK isn’t what it used to be and there are far better prospects, living conditions and quality of life to be had abroad. Depending on her career, Singapore, Dubai, Qatar, Malaysia would be far better for a quality of life

You only need basic maths @inferiorCatSlave to know that London suffers significantly more than anywhere else when it comes to the public health housing and homelessness emergency.

Two thirds of England's homeless families.

Yeah public transport and education all very lovely. Aside from the fact that vastly more people in one geographically quite small area means more money, there's nothing more important than housing.

Extremely overcrowded but well funded public transport is no good to the families and vulnerable individuals socially cleansed our of London by London council homeless teams.

And money spent on schools won't help the life chances of children living (sometimes for years) in one room with their parents in grotty temporary accommodation.

If anyone needs levelling up, it's London's hundreds of thousands of vulnerable homeless families. The victims of London's 'investment'.

Yes and no. I lived in London pretty comfortably for some time on a teacher’s salary - it was great fun, house shares of course but staying there indefinitely would not have been an option. To start a family and buy a house I’ve moved elsewhere (and find a partner who also earns a decent wage).

and idea that it doesn't matter cause Londeners have it worse but can't be expected to move like rest of us

Well make your mind up.

What is it you want?

Priced out Londoners mustn't move because they'll price out 'locals' (who are allowed to price out Londoners)?

Or when 'locals' from elsewhere price out Londoners, Londoners must move out - to be welcomed by tolerant non insular locals and will be eligible for 'local' HTB schemes in the cheaper more affordable (to locals) areas?

Does she have to be in London? Maybe she'll be happier and better off in a different city?

It wasn't until the end of the 1980s that married women were taxed as individuals - up til then they were taxed based on their husband's tax code.

What nonsense. I got married in 1972 and I was taxed on a different code to my bloke - his was better than mine because he got married tax allowance. Our real triumph was having a kid two weeks before the end of the tax year - we got child tax allowance backdated to two months before he was even conceived! That tax rebate paid for a lot of baby stuff.

Sorry OP. I'll leave this thread as it's unfair of me to derail.

But really some people need to, as the young people say, check their privilege. Or at least, check their ignorant bigotry.

Londoners can't win. Priced out by people from elsewhere, they'll told to suck it up and move....

....but if they move, they face insular 'locals' moaning about 'Londoners pricing them out'....

I hope your daughter finds a job and home she likes. Wherever it is.

FWIW I agree with the pp who suggested leaving the UK altogether.

I think expectations have changed?

I lived that life in London in the 90s, earning £800 a month after tax, with £600 going on rent. It was tight, no savings, but you just have to get through those years and work your way up (or if salary does not increase much, move out of London)

I always expected to be poor whilst starting on the bottom rung of the ladder

But things get better, and once interest rates go up house prices will come down

London is the problem.
We’ve just bought our dream home aged 30 after previously being mortgage free for 3 years.
We’re married with 3 DC. She isn’t that much younger than me so it is possible.

Working hard and both in school and at work is really over rated. It’s down mainly to luck I’m afraid

I agree it’s harder for young people now in terms of buying a house.

I think we need to stop telling a kids that 6form and uni is a route to a decent paid career. It’s expensive and for many it doesn’t lead to a decent career or wage. There’s so many other options for careers and a decent wage.

I managed to save and buy a house but it was so much harder than friends who had money through family to help. Itsobviouslt more difficult for people who don’t get family money via help for house deposits/inhetiance etc.

I aasumed when I say the heading that the OP was referring to the situation with climate chaos, environmental degradation, skyrocketing costs of energy, fuel etc. Am amazed that nobody has referred to any of that in their posts. My fears for my own children are less around whether they'll get to live a nice middle class life as whether they'll have the skills, resilience and luck to take care of themselves in what I think will be a vastly more difficult future. The last 50 or 60 years of very comfortable living for the great majority in Western countries, the travel, the consumer habits, the access to cheap food, the mobility, all of that - THAT's the anomoly, bought on cheap fuel and cheap credit.

Surely London isn't the be all and end all?
The UK has other cities, actually the world does, and lots of careers offer the opportunity to work overseas without London ever being a consideration.

@ISpyCobraKai

Surely London isn't the be all and end all? The UK has other cities, actually the world does, and lots of careers offer the opportunity to work overseas without London ever being a consideration.

Trouble is that a lot of the big employers and decent jobs are London based, so for lots of people who aspire to top jobs, they do have to move to London.

When my son was looking at Uni open days, he always asked where the "sandwich year" placements were, and every single Uni told him they were mostly in London. That was Northern Unis such as Leeds, Newcastle, Lancaster, Durham and York.

Trouble is that for the last couple of decades at least, organisations have been closing regional offices and centralising in and around London, so graduates basically have very little choice but to move to London if they want the best job opportunities.

I think expectations have changed?

I lived that life in London in the 90s, earning £800 a month after tax, with £600 going on rent. It was tight, no savings, but you just have to get through those years and work your way up (or if salary does not increase much, move out of London)

I always expected to be poor whilst starting on the bottom rung of the ladder

I think most are prepared to slum it but there's the expectation that things will improve. That's what I think is harder now.

@CurlyhairedAssassin
I didn't say there were laws forbidding women to get a mortgage, I don't think? I said that equality laws were shit and women couldn't get a mortgage in their own right.
As you mentioned laws, I thought you were talking legalities and therefore understood 'couldn't' to mean 'not allowed' in this context. Apologies as youre saying that's not what you meant. Equal Pay Act 1970 and Sex Discrimination Act 1975 both helped enormously but are still not perfect today. However, I did buy a house without any difficulty.

They are two different statements but the first fed into the second. Pay was not equal, and this had an impact on affordability checks for women buying property on their own. Women were also expected to have a male guarantor.

Pay might not have been (and still isnt) equal in some jobs but it certainly was in mine and many itgers that had a direct comparison - because of the Equal Pay Act. Of course if you did not have a high enough wage or if you weren't in a continously paying job you'd need a guarantor. But that's no different from today. I lived and worked in the late 1970s and 1980s. Expectations for women lives were changing. I expected (and got) equal pay. I never thought twice about buying a house. Looking back I think we're all guilty of thinking it was years ago and women were down-trodden and on the fringes of society. But it really wasn't like that all.

You're being very dramatic, it can be difficult as a single person in London but there are plenty of other options, whether that's commuting further afield or moving to a city that isn't one of the most expensive in the world.

Nothing you say is new - exactly how it was 10-15 years ago. London has been expensive for a long time.

I disagree

Of course there is hope !
There is always hope

We don't live in a war zone
Food in the shops

There are plenty of opportunities to move within UK or abroad for a better life

Your DD probably has 60+ more years to make a happy life for herself

I presume that your DD has; a job, her health, family & friends, some hobbies & interests outside work

We bought our first property about 11 yrs ago, it would sell for 800k now, more than double what we paid for it. I definitely wouldn't be on the ladder or in a house now all things being equal.

Londoners face discrimination and bigotry outside of London from locals elsewhere,

This really isn’t true.