Are things harder for millennials?

[squidwid]

Many of my friends don't own houses and they're in their 30s. They did everything that society asked of them and still they're not making headway.

I know so many elderly people that live in 4 bedroom homes worth £400k plus. Obviously there is nothing wrong with that but families should be able to afford those houses so things can move on. No one can afford to buy them...

Indeed. Two million pensioners living in poverty.

@Blossomtoes my father, neighbours, uncles, family friends either didn't start work at 16 or work past 65. And I don't know any women who didn't have time out with dc.

They are if you're buying your first home at almost forty and have two kids to house.

I'm 30 and just sort of hoping I will die before retirement age tbh. Seems likely with a stressful job and living in a small 2 bed with 2 kids because that's what we can afford....

Are pensioners who rely on pension credit or don't have a private pension also accused of being irresponsible?

You’re comparing apples and pears. Private pensions are comparatively recent and schemes wouldn’t have been available to those older pensioners, particularly women who were often excluded from schemes that existed for their male peers. Equally you have to earn enough to contribute and many lower paid workers didn’t. Much like people on minimum wage now.

So every man you know worked in some kind of professional job after taking A levels or graduating and every woman you know had kids? Perhaps you should widen your social circle to include lower paid workers.

Try again. Millennials start 1980/1981.

Young people are getting shafted by people like @Kazzyhoward who expect them to have the wisdom and foresight of someone in their 40s or 50s.

I agree very split.

Try again. Millennials start 1980/1981

Yes that would make the youngest of them 42. As I said.

So every man you know worked in some kind of professional job after taking A levels or graduating and every woman you know had kids? Perhaps you should widen your social circle to include lower paid workers.

You didn't read my post properly - no surprise. Where did I say every woman I know had dc? My parents didn't go to uni - they are immigrants. I don't know many boomers who did go to uni. What's are you classing as a lower paid worker?

Every boomer you know started work at 16, didn't have time out with dc (my mum actually wanted to carry on work but it was just expected she would give up, same for lots of her friends), & access to childcare so worked non stop to retire at 67? And my circle is small?

I think you mean oldest. The youngest millennials are around 30.

I’m 61, let me tell you about my life so far, Mum & Dad both worked, my brother and me were looked after by my gran or family friend till we went to school, no holidays, no car, no telly, we moved into a new build in 1969, we left the two bed cottage, coal central heating, no double glazing, no carpets, still no holiday’s, inside of the windows would have frost on them in the winter, first telly was when I was about 10, dad rented one, ( can you imagine renting a telly ) first car we had was when I was 14ish, then we had a holiday in Cornwall, slept in or under the car as we couldn’t afford anything else, I got a job in an office at 16, left school on the Friday started on the Monday, it was a YTS scheme cheap labour in them day, only the very clever or wealthy went to university.
saved for a car and bought a mini, still no holidays, Dubai was just a desert then, no mobile phone, no sky, no Netflix, etc, no Costa coffee etc and definitely no avocado on toast,
our first house with my now husband was a two bed terrace house, had to sell the mini to help get the deposit, had two children, sleeping in bunk beds in the same room, wanted three bedroom but due to the negative equity, the mortgage was bigger than the house price, my husband to get us out of the situation worked away from home, 12-14 hours a day 7 days a week, home every other weekend, then we were trapped in the endowment scandal, where it didn’t pay out nowhere near what it was meant to.
finally managed to get a three bed which we still live in. Need a lot of work doing on it which we have done over many years,
managed our first abroad holiday at the age of 45,
I’m sorry you got it sorry hard, it was very easy for us.

Exactly this. Do what you like in your twenties, prioritise what you like but don’t complain later on if you don’t have a house. Those of us millennials who prioritised getting a house over other things such as travelling now have our houses.

I think you mean oldest. The youngest millennials are around 30

Sorry yes I meant Gen X. Youngest will be 42/43 depending on the cut-off date you use.
I just find it a bit weird someone referring to friends in their early 40s and then bitching about Gen X.

This. My senior colleagues were apparently paid the same amount as me when they were in my role.... 15-20 years ago...

Young people have access to all kinds of resources, information, etc on the internet, whereas today's middle aged and pensioners didn't have such easy access to information and were far more reliant on their parents/teachers for information!

Neither DH nor myself went to Uni, so we couldn't pass down any such wisdom to our son. He did a massive amount of research himself, spent hours looking at Uni websites and career advice websites (all things that weren't available to us old parents!), He went to around 7 Uni open days, attended numerous career talks at those open days (not just wondered round the uni and town looking for the nightlife!), researched each Uni's statistics for employability per course/per uni, etc. Because we'd not gone to Uni, we didn't even know such data was so easily available!

It's amazing what youngsters can learn if they make use of the internet for doing useful things rather than taking tik-tok videos and spending all spare time on instagram and twitter!

Oh, I forgot the very high interest rates we had to pay all the way through our mortgage

Not just public sector. I'm an accountant and wages/charge out rates have barely increased for around 15 years now due to intense competition, low barriers to entry, etc.

@Kazzyhoward don't shame young people for not knowing where to look for information. Just because it's all there does not mean that it makes sense.

I did read your post properly. You said

my father, neighbours, uncles, family friends either didn't start work at 16 or work past 65.

Not starting work at 16 implies education to at least A level standard. Not working past 65 indicates pre 2016 retirement (so either a wealthy boomer or the oldest of the cohort).

And I don't know any women who didn't have time out with dc. You literally said this so I’ve simply taken it at face value.

If they're capable of googling for pictures of cats and people doing stupid things on video, then they're capable of some pretty simple/basis research re careers, etc.

If they can't do even basic research, then they're really going to struggle at Uni!

You have padded this out with a lot of fluff about Netflix and holidays but ultimately 'our first house with my now husband was a two bed terrace house'.

A two bed terrace where I grew up is £400k, admittedly this is London. Minimum wage which you would expect if you left school after GCSE's is £9.50 a hour, you are going to be in your parents front room for a long long time to afford the £40k deposit.

The stuff about Costas and Netflix is totally irrelevant to the cost of housing and the stagnation of wages.

If they're only earning minimum wage, then they need to get out of London and move to somewhere cheaper, where minimum wage goes a lot further.

After all, huge numbers of people brought up in cheaper areas are forced to "get on their bike" to move to cities for graduate jobs after Uni.

Why is the movement OK one way, but not the other?

Those of us millennials who prioritised getting a house over other things such as travelling now have our houses.

I prioritised but still only managed it with help. living at home cheaply & cash gift. If I had been 5 yrs older I would be a property millionaire, 5 yrs younger I would be priced out.

People massively underestimate what has happened to salaries. There were jobs that paid 30k out of uni, that's equivalent to approx 50k now. A lot of those jobs still pay around 30k ish