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...

You can still buy a house for under £100k here. I guess a lot of people on here would sniff at it because you won't have a bathroom each, acres of private garden and posh boutiques on the doorstep but it is a house.

Absolutely!

I think this goes across generations as well.

I’m in my late 40s and although my parents were loving and supportive, they could not give me any help financially after I finished in full time education. A fact that I have never questioned or resented.

I was staggered to see young 20 somethings buy their first flats because their parents either gave them a deposit, or backed them some other way.

It makes a huge difference if you can take a low paid entry level job or internship in a desirable profession, or do a post grad or specialist training if you know your parents can bail you out. This has been happening for decades.

I do think millennials have it hard. But I think that it is just that middle class millennials are finding it tougher now. If you grew up poor it has always been rubbish.

Yes, I totally agree with you that only a small percentage should go into higher education. That would obviously require employers to accept GCSE/ A levels as adequate qualifications for many jobs as used to be the case and not require degrees.

Yes, exactly.

I always thought Blair's idea of 50% attending Uni as if that would create amazing, well paid jobs. The wrong way to look at it. The Millennials are now stuck in this system which is over a huge disadvantage.

I agree, scrapping Poly's and calling them Uni's was the first mistake, the Blair came along with his 50% craziness. Both policies have done massive damage in lots of different ways. Now we're seeing the consequences.

It is very hard to compare. Eg if you take a couple like we were in 1984 when I first bought - trainee solicitor London firm and head of dept teacher today they could buy the same first house we bought. The lawyer pay is double AFTER allowing for inflation. I got £6250 a year and firms now pay £40k in London. Presumably the lawyer pay doubled in real terms between then and now because trainees have to afford higher rents now and have the 9% student loan tax. This the road where we bought our first house before we had children and with 2 full time professional salaries in 1984 https://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/details/england-72774603-92345874?s=958ad250a022d9828ab687bbc1efc72dfeef411f6527ea1a5574ef35de6c1d65#/

I think in fact things are pretty similar to the 1890s when my great uncle took an LLB and became a solicitor and his sister trained in Birmingham to become a nurse (not allowed to be a doctor if female then) and then she worked for 30 y ears in wapping - getting qualifications helps you have secure work. It was true then and is now which is one reason I am pleased 4 of my children are lawyers or almost lawyers.

When I went to university about 15% of teenagers did and I got the lowest minimum grant but my parents made it up to the maximum. Most girls in my school had no chance to go to university so it is not true everyone got to go.

I have millennial and also gen zed children and I know perfectly well how hard it is to buy a property these days in the South East however so I am certainly not suggesting things are better now on all fronts. They are on some fronts. I am not sure how many mumsnetters would do what I did in the 80s and 90s work until I went into labour - 2 weeks of annual leave to have a baby, then back to full time work.

Anyone else recognise Evelyn from BB UK years ago?
https://heatworld.com/entertainment/tv-movies/evelyn-ellis/

She was in the same series as Marco Pierre White's son

Sorry wrong thread

@Blossomtoes is correct though, equity release is a really bad way to raise money, and will lose more than she 'gives' away

Crikey! Where's that?

yes you could get jobs easily but they were NOT easy and the work conditions could be unsafe and unhealthy. expectations for women often included being sexually exploited by your boss. that aside you didn't change jobs willy nilly. and no the job pay wasn't great for everyone, a sales assistant in a dress shop could not afford a house by herself probably not even the nurse. you really needed to pair up/marry. which again might be unsafe and unhealthy.
the world wide recession in the 1980's was very difficult for everyone everywhere.

Average house prices peterlee County Durham 102k

The degree thing was staggeringly misguided of Blair. Many jobs are now demanding degree qualifications that didn't previously apply its a case of taking on huge debt just to get to the start point, essentially needlessly.

If you were a later teen during the mid-70s, and I was just 18 in August 1974 when I got my A level results, then you fully experienced the delights of a nearly trashed country. Old enough to see normality and regular life crashing around you, but too young to know how to do anything better. The 1970s were simultaneously awful and life-changing and life affirming. The social order in the 80s changed quite decisively, but it produced great art. So have most decades since, for POC in the 90s when rap and graffiti became cutting edge art, because it wanted to say something different. Since 2000, times have improved for disabled and LGBT+ people. This is not to say that anything is perfect now, but it is way better than it was. It's no longer a big deal for anyone to tell a friend that their child has decided, at 20, to explain that they are gay or lesbian. It's progress.

Sure, if you are gay or a single mum, it is much better now but that has little relation to the OP's points and is relatively minor compared to the major advantages.

Bought my house in 2004 in Bristol. It was 325k then and had bought/sold a couple of houses before so had a reasonable deposit. Now it’s worth £800k apparently and would be completely out of my price range!

No, not really relevant to the main themes of the thread, @rainingsnoring but I needed to take my mind off real life for 30 minutes in the middle of the night.

Agree with everyone saying the expansion of universities is a double-edged sword and that most professional jobs could be filled by selection at 18 after A levels which was the sorting hat academically in the 60s and 70s. CSE v O level first, then A levels. University for about 8-10%, higher in selective schools: about 30% of my class of 35 girls. You could leave school at 16, as my DH did with five O levels to become an army officer cadet; another joined the merchant navy as an officer, my sister joined a bank and did her HND via day release, and several friends did childcare work for two years before starting nurse/physiotherapy training.

I'm a millennial (30) and I would say no things are not harder for us. I had it much easier than my parents but we are just whiny.

My parents were expected to work part time jobs while at uni but I wasn't. O levels were harder than A levels. Things were more expensive. They didn't go on holidays abroad. There was less of a culture of parents helping you out with money, childcare and buying a house. My grandparents didn't do any of that for my mum.

Also my mum said it was much harder for women to progress in professional industries in her time.

How did you have it easier??

I've listed it out in the two messages following the original.

You don’t have to think you’re the centre of the universe to have a different perspective.