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...

exactly this. I'm 34, literally everyone I know in the same age bracket, apart from 2 friends, own their own homes. I'm talking about at least 100 people whose circumstances I know well enough to know - mix of cousins, school Uni (x2) friends who have since moved all of the country/world, people I went to school with who never went to uni, colleagues, ex-colleagues, DPs friends, colleagues, family etc. Some are on their 2nd or 3rd houses because they bought in their mid 20s. I have 2 younger siblings (28 and 32) and they, and the vast majority of their friends own their own homes, the only ones who don't are those who are living abroad.

Neither we, nor the majority of our friends come from wealthy backgrounds so I can't imagine that many had significant help with deposits from parents like you see on here with deposits of £20-100k being gifted to them, though many may have had something or saved money from living at home for a few years etc.

The media and MN are very south-east centric so they spin this stuff about NOBODY under 40 being able to own their own homes whereas in large areas of the country it's still very possible, particularly if you're in a couple.

Life expectancy is peaking with people like My Mum (born 1930). They have had the NHS for the whole of their adult lives, particularly child birth. They knew about the risks of smoking early enough to quit. (The previous generation were already old when the risks became known). They developed good eating habits because of rationing during and just after the war. Their generation was not affected too much by drug use.

No, pensioners don’t pay NI if they continue working past state pension age but if a decision is made to require them to do so the link with state pension eligibility would have to be broken. As it is there’s a requirement to make NI contributions for a minimum of 35 years to qualify for a full state pension. In practice many of today’s pensioners will have made those contributions for approaching 50 years.

Times were hard then. Like when there was 30% inflation and the 3-day week. No computers. No mobiles. All we had was board games and cards.

My uncle gave us 2 old army phones. My dad wired them up to a battery, so Mum could call us in from the play house when tea was ready.

I tend to agree.

I entered full-time employment in 2003 after finishing my education (UG followed by MSc) and although everybody was affected by the 2008 crash, having those five years in hand was pivotal.

I have friends who entered the employment market in and around 2008 and their experience of getting / keeping work was very different to mine, less than half a decade earlier.

But we'll have little to no state pension to live off. That's my point

In practice many of today’s pensioners will have made those contributions for approaching 50 years.

Only if they worked past pension age though?
Whereas the youth of today will be paying 50 yrs by default.

nc13467
You won't need a pension. There will be a universal wage and most things will be free. Capitalism will eventually implode.

I think that our parents and society in general endowed many of us with an unrealistically optimistic picture of the economy and the place of work in our lives. At least my own parents had worked hard at jobs they enjoyed and wanted my siblings and I to follow our vocations and passions, messaging echoed in society, media, schools. So many of us have hit the workplace confused and dissatisfied. I expected to work hard, but also expected to earn well and enjoy my work.

On the other hand, there's loads of easy WFH jobs out there and employers are more willing to let you balance your home and life work.

Interesting! Where (roughly) do these folk live?

No. Someone who started work at 16 - most boomers because only about 10% are graduates - and retired at 67, you will have paid NI for 51 years. Equally, assuming state pension age of 68, some young people will make contributions for 50 years, graduates for less than that.

Why? NI is just another tax. Those who can afford to pay it, should pay it. In fact, scrap that, I'd rather that they scrapped NIC and just increased income tax to make up the money. Then it would be based on income, however that income was derived and age wouldn't matter.

Realistically, "state pension" as we know it will have been scrapped by then. Those who can afford to save for their own pensions will be encouraged to do so, and in fact will need to do so. Those who can't will "live off" income related benefits, like the current pension credit for those without high enough state or other pensions. It's inevitable that state paid pensions will be means tested in a couple of generations' time. Hence why we've now got compulsory workplace pension schemes - it's to get today's youngsters making provision for their own pensions and forcing employers by law to contribute too!

This is quite a new problem to have though I think, so is it really surprising that this is a mystery to lots of people?

Firstly as you say, not everyone can have a high flying career anyway. That's not how society works. Someone has to scrub toilets (etc). If you're going to make it in a creative field then you need both talent and exposure, so a fair amount of luck.

But for the boomer generation, it was a whole different world. It sounded very much to me like there were large companies (often factories) that employed large numbers of people locally and you basically just walked into the office and asked for a job. Or you were pigeonholed at school very early, by gender and intelligence: You're a clever girl, you can be a nurse or a teacher. In these stories the person in question always then just seems to find the process very straightforward; as though each school was expected to provide a certain number of nurses/teachers/mechanics/factory workers/shop girls/secretaries -etc-in-training so it all worked smoothly from there. Perhaps it did work like that, I don't know, but it wasn't the experience I had by the time I was looking for work. We had lots of help to apply to university but if you weren't doing that or if you didn't get the grades for that then it was just kind of like OK bye then, there's the careers service (which was totally useless - we did lots of computer quizzes to see what kind of career we might like, but then no info or support as to how to actually get there).

Most millennials grew up being told "You can be whatever you want to be - follow your dreams". Our parents didn't have those options so whether they encouraged them or not they couldn't realistically give much if any practical advice about it. I know my mum never ever thought about her own earning power because she expected to be fully dependent on a man her entire life. When that didn't happen she just struggled, waiting for the next man to turn up (he never did, she's now waiting for retirement because she thinks that will magically solve her problems even though she won't get enough to live on).

How was it in the 70s/80s/90s? Did you get pigeonholed into a small set of jobs or encouraged to think about it and how did you find your way into your field?

There’s also the ticking time bomb of people living longer but with significantly more health complications. I know that’s impacting every generation already in terms of care needs, but now my generation are starting to deal with it (I’m a millennial and have had very unlucky elderly relatives) we’re doing so from a lot less secure position ourselves on average.

If your friends are in their 30s and not on the property ladder, what the hell were they doing all through their 20s? Travelling?
People heap scorn on the "buying a daily coffee" comment but as pps pointed out, its not just a coffee. It's the gym membership, the hair extensions, the nail extensions, the weekend out socialising, the takeaways, top of the range smart phones, Netflix subscription and everything else that goes with the millennial lifestyle.
Add all that up over 2 or 3 years and that house deposit could be flourishing nicely.
Only these people don't want to do that. They blame the boomer generation while sitting back.with their hand out waiting for someone else (parents/grandparents) to cough up

No. Someone who started work at 16 - most boomers because only about 10% are graduates - and retired at 67,

I thought most boomers retired before 67 though?

The current pension age is 66 now?

Did most boomers really pay 50 years? What about raising dc?

Yes, house prices have risen but that was always going to happen. Year on year they get higher, people buying a house in the 80’s would have lamented that houses cost so much more than people paid for the 70’s. That’s life, inflation happens. One thing that is definitely different for more recent generations is the benefits system. So much more is given to support not just those out of a job but also people on lower incomes. Funded childcare is now available and will be more widespread next year in regards to covering younger ages.

I'm a graduate & a millennial, paid NI since 17 because I had a Saturday/holiday job. The contributions were not big at all.

One thing that is definitely different for more recent generations is the benefits system.

Theres far less social housing

Funded childcare is now available and will be more widespread next year in regards to covering younger ages.

because childcare is so expensive & they want more women to work & pay tax.

The issue is that house price inflation and wage inflation have happened at wildly different rates. So inflation hasn't 'just happened', it's broken the relationship between income and house prices.

Its baffling to me how many people (apparently - I'm being generous) don't understand this.

Wbere I live - average wage £35k, average house price £500k.

It will take more than skimping on a few coffees and city breaks to bridge that gap.

@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz

@YukoandHiro
No, because we were sensible enough to save for a property before we had kids.
It's not rocket science.

@BertieBotts

How was it in the 70s/80s/90s? Did you get pigeonholed into a small set of jobs or encouraged to think about it and how did you find your way into your field?

I think, certainly in the earlier part of that period, you had a much broader choice of local jobs. All you needed for a "good" office job in say, a local bank, town hall, civil service, post office, or professional office, was around 5 O level passes including English and Maths. You could get a "professional" job in the same places locally with a couple of A levels on top of your 5 O levels - the kind of job where you could train and take exams to become qualified in a professional discipline. For those without the fabled 5 O levels, then you had a choice of retail or factory or manual/trades work, again lots of local opportunities in local firms.

The big change over the past 2/3 decades has been the centralisation to London and other major cities, whereby organisations have closed down and downgraded their regional/local branches, so there's a shortage of "local" jobs with prospects for development. In a nearby town, we used to have head offices of two nationwide insurance companies - both closed in the 90s and moved to London. Same with a local branch on a national big 5 firm of accountants - again, closed in noughties, meaning no national big 5 accountancy firm within an hours' commute.

At the same time, we've had the push to get 50% of school leavers to Unis, meaning they leave their home town, and then upon graduating, most have to get graduate jobs which are mostly in London and other big cities!

So, there's been a massive "brain drain" of decent jobs from the smaller cities, towns and villages in the regions towards London and a few other big cities. That's left very few "decent" local jobs, which has had a massive impact and influence on deterioration of living standards and amenities in the regions away from a handful of big cities.