To think the standard of living for retired people had to change

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I'm a millennial. I will retire in my seventies. Many in my age group will be still paying their mortgage off well into their sixties. Many will never be able to buy. This is not a moan about that.

My mums generation were able to buy cheaper houses in the eighties. Some have also inherited well (houses which their parents owned and didn't have to sell to pay for care, which had risen in price to above a million). They had better pension plans. Some were able to go to university for free and their degrees actually meant something in the workplace: They often paid off their mortgages in their forties. I see a lot of my parents relatives have retired early and have very enviable lives.

Two uncles have retired in their early sixties. They are both in good help. They spend their days on many holidays, eating out multiple times per week, going to garden centres, renovating their beautiful houses, helping children financially and with childcare. They will have presumably worked out their finances and could afford to continue to live like this for the rest of their lives! Possibly thirty more years!

I think they are possibly going to be unique in their quality of life. We will never have that and I don't see my children's generation having things any earlier.

In essence the generation before me were mostly fortunate, unless personal situations changed their financial situation or they lost their homes during the nineties interest rises. Retirements and pensions were never designed to support people for three decades and that things had to change hence raising the retirement age and making people pay more towards their care.

I know of a case today that is a little similar to the story in Cathy Come Home.

A pregnant teen was in foster care, when the baby was born she was put in mother and baby foster care a long way from where she had grown up. Completely isolated she struggled with her DC who has additional needs but it was put down to neglect. The DC was taken from the mother and she became homeless. She was sofa surfing or on the streets for 9 months before finally getting a place in a homeless shelter. She has no chance of getting her baby back as she can't accommodate her.

My first house had been a rented property for 20years.
Pebble dashed ceilings…yes pebble dashed ie those little stones you see on the outside of some houses.
The top floor, had no floor in two rooms.
The toilet was outside
There were no doors anywhere and the kitchen was a cooker on a rickety balcony that someone had done a diy job on and endlosed.
I was pregnant when we moved in.
We had one sofa that my dhs office gave him as they were upgrading their reception area and we bought a mattress.

We lived like that for a very long time and it took us ten years to do up. We still had a toilet rocking about and no tiling on the walls in the bathroom until we decided to sell.
We also had to move miles away from everyone we knew to be able to afford it.

It was what it was. We just got on with it but we didn’t think to blame others.
I should say, we are both architects so were not on low salaries.

Yes, there probably are. But, added to the amount of others (non pensioners) entitled to free prescriptions or health exemption passes, there's probably not.

For what it's worth, I think prescriptions should be free of charge for all.🙂

That is a valid point. Lack of social housing is financially crippling younger people. And, some older people, of course. The price of private rentals around here (London) are extortionate. And, of course, that whacks up the welfare bill as well. 🙁

I have always thought people should pay for their food whilst in hospital.
Not for their care or medical needs or for drips supplying food, just food.
If they paid at cost it would be the same as eating at home.
It wouldn’t pay for the staff to cook or serve it but it would help with costs overall.

By that time the current and imminent bulge of pensioners will have died so there may be more housing freed up and a lower pensions bill. Not to mention a few inheritances coming your generation's way. Sit tight and wait for us all to expire and you'll be OK.🙂

@Wetellyourstory again not my experience. Those who have managed to buy in my circle of friends have bought very grotty, ex local authority houses or flats and spent hours of their own time and money renovating. In my city, you'd be looking at 250,000 for a flat.

Thanks for this I watched half during my lunch break and it has some interesting points. Particularly the spending power of different generations and wealth (pensions and housing).

He wasn't that well thought of when he was an MP, so I personally wouldn't take too much of what he's saying as necessarily relevant.

@Zebedee55 or is it just that it doesn't fit with your worldview?

Believe you me most first time buyer of my generation were buying pretty grotty stuff too !

You see what lives pensioners on your area live now

You don't see what they lived like 40 years ago
You don't see how pensioners elsewhere are living

And with this myopic view you make your pronouncements and expect to be accepted as wise and right

@downdowndowndowndown
If you can't buy any property with a mortgage throughout your working life, you will still be renting when you retire.
Have you got a lifetime ISA? If you can put £100 a month into it at 12 months it will be £1200 and the govt match 25% so that will be £1500. You can use it as FTB or cash it in at age 60 as a pension. My youngest is 21 he has one and Ive asked my older two to see if they can. I match what they put in

That’s a good deal.
Wish I’d had that years ago it would have made a huge difference for us.

@aswarmofmidges I don't doubt they were. My argument was against whoever said that first time buyers these days wouldn't move into anything other than a three bed new build with 20K kitchens. It's just not true. I had lunch with two established social workers debating whether to continue to save up for mobile homes, whether to rent a flat forever or move back into a (freezing) converted garage in their parents house in order to save up for the mobile home faster. These are good people with good jobs unable to get onto even the lowest rung of the property ladder.

I'm really pleased that at least one person has watched it!Thanks for letting me know.
Those points are highly relevant and the conditions that made them possible won't be repeated, unfortunately.

Perhaps you should just watching the video rather than dismissing it.
Blossom just doesn't like it because it doesn't fit with her particular prejudices/ opinions. That's not a reason to dismiss his many, extremely valid points which stand up to scrutiny.

I started work at 14, gave up full time work after 40 years and have been working part time ever since.

People who are on just the basic state pension can apply to get extra money from their local authority towards their rent and council tax.

Stamp duty is preventing some older people downsizing property.

What do you mean preventing?

Surely the downsizer is in the best possible position to pay stamp duty as opposed to all the other people on the ladder?

grottyb · Today 13:13

Stamp duty is preventing some older people downsizing property.

What do you mean preventing?

Surely the downsizer is in the best possible position to pay stamp duty as opposed to all the other people on the ladder?

I think it simply means they don't want to pay it 🤷

@downdowndowndowndown
If you can't buy / get a mortgage throughout your working life you will still have to pay rent in retirement after age 67/68 all being well.
Have you thought of a Lifetime ISA?
You pay if you can, say £100 a month and at 12/12 that is £1200
The govt match 25% so that makes £ 1500. You can use this as a FTB or cash it at 60 yrs. my youngest son is 21 and has one and am encouraging my older two to do the same. I match what they can put in( my son is a student so we are paying for him anyway, however I feel the act of budgeting and saving - he is only putting in £50 a month as he is skint, and I will put in £50 too. In five years he will have £7500 it's not a lot but it's a start and in ten it will be £15000

Once he is earning he will put in more.
Meant to say - the act of budgeting even as a student is good practice for the future

All being well = still here 🤣

The various examples on this thread shows that you can’t generalise, which is what many people seem to do when talking about retired people. They aren’t all on gold-plated pensions, going on exotic holidays etc and may well have forgone many of the “niceties” during their working life to be able to enjoy retirement.

I'm 74 and still working, and the standard of living I had through my childhood, teens and twenties was not that high compared to today - central heating was virtually unknown, houses were draughty and uninsulated, my mother, who brought up four children in a relatively middle-class family didn't have a washing machine until child number 4, and then it was a twin-tub. We didn't have all the tech support that's available now. So we didn't have it as easy as a lot of people think. I've worked all my adult life, and I have earned what I have by working all my adult life (a paid off mortgage, a small occupational pension, and a state pension, along with my earnings). What I have, I want the next generations to have, and I vote with that in mind. Our current regime has brought the country to its knees, financially. I'm not to blame for that. Find the real culprit.

The OP has raised a ver complex question but she is comparing apples and oranges.

DH is newly retired. When we met he was a young lecturer in the years when their pay was poor. He was in a city with low CoL and had squeaked on to the housing ladder in a modest way. It’s true that a single young person on the academic salary would have a harder time today. But I was also a young academic and we lived extremely modestly. I’m not complaining, and I know many people live that way through no choice of their own today. We may yet need to do so again.

I know young professional families are stressed and housing wealth is a problem we as a society must come to grips with. But I am another witness that OP is unaware that 30 years ago starting out with an eye on the future meant a degree of economising that many today seem unaware of.