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.

"we went looking for wild fruits etc like apples, pears, blackberries, sweet chestnuts etc."
What a load of nonsense. Is this sort of rubbish supposed to make a difference to people that can't afford a deposit? Really? And the food deliveries and phones weren't available so you couldn't have them.

@Zebedee55

The internet, mobile phones & streaming services were not found in the average home 40 yrs ago.

@Roundandroundandroundsound come forage around my alley & you too shall be able to afford a house!

My parents certainly never went foraging for our dinner!

I had a mobile phone late 80's (basic Nokia) the (dial up) free access internet from early 90's, but no streaming service.

it's not their fault you can't buy a house today.

The economy policy h

I think it's a version of "we lived in a shoebox and walked to 6 miles to school and back. Uphill both ways"

Oh do catch a grip!! Most of us "old people" have produced "future generations". Why would we want to fuck things up for our own kids???

How actually dare you sit there and fire those unfounded accusations? Who the hell voted for Brexit?? Are you saying that it was all older people who voted in favour? I as sure as hell did not. I most certainly would not accuse my YP or their friends of being "lazy" or "feckless" and they fucking hate avocados!!

You don't have an actual clue. Do you actually know anyone over the age of 50?

What a load of tripe.

Come on….who do you mix with?
i left home to start working life in a bedsit for several years. We saved like mad for a deposit on a house, finally paying it off in our 60s.I worked until I was 72 years. I live on a state pension. There are many like me.

I’m an older mum. I have a 20 year old an 18 year old and a 10 year old. I am in my mid fifties. Here is my story of ‘how we do it’. Left school early with few qualifications. Left home at 18 with no prospects. Spent 10 years ‘lost’ including a period of homelessness. At 28 I worked out that if I learned to type and use a computer I could earn more than minimum wage and was more employable. I was working as an agency worker in a factory and took evening classes for a year. I got my first job that wasn’t minimum wage earning 14000 a year. I saved my arse off. No meals out, clothes from charity shops, no holidays, no car and I got a deposit together and bought my first house in 2000 for 45000. It was ex council and the previous residents had left it in a state. I gutted it and dug out the garden. Everything I had was second hand. I got married and got a better job earning 21000. My husband was starting a business and on a very low earnings. Had my babies went part time and invested in an OU degree over 10 years. Got a better paid job - albeit still part time. I took in exchange students to make up the shortfall and so we could invest in upgrades to the house. No holidays abroad - Holiday budget for the family was 500 a year so camping basically. Any spare cash either went on the children (hobbies) or paying off the mortgage. You get my drift. We moved to a better and bigger property. We lived within our means and always had a back up plan of things we could do if money got tight. After 23 years of hard work and having a strategy in place our mortgage will be paid off next year and so yes I am planning to take a step back as the pressure is finally off but please don’t think it’s been ‘easy’. Yes mortgages are high now but wages are also higher and if you are prepared to start at the bottom- maybe not in the nicest area, be determined and make sacrifices you can do it. I’m fed up hearing some people say we had it easy whilst they sip their Starbucks and plan their next holiday. My mum had it the same and so has every generation so stop your bloody winging.

Well many of these people are the same elderly who grew up in slums with 10 children in 2 rooms, shared basin in the hall and an outside lav so good luck to them. I hope and am working towards the next generation living well in their old age rather than the current pensioners having to have less. Not sure what the point of your post is.
mum 56, retired at 50, 2 houses paid for. Not born into money at all, nor was DH.

But aren't we doing the same today? Some younger people are moaning they can't feed the kids properly, and that they sit shivering in the winter weather?

Every generation does have hardship at times - but it passes.🙂

@Zebedee55 The 90s were not 40 yrs ago & certainly it wasn’t common to have mobile phones in the 80s.

“"In 1995, 10 years into the history of mobile phones, penetration in the UK was just 7%," according to Professor Nigel Linge, of the University of Salford's Computer Networking and Telecommunications Research Centre.”

You are utterly ageist!!

You won't listen to any reason from anyone either, because you are so deeply entrenched that you think you know it all.

You so don't!!

Two problems with your description.
The first is mortgages were sky high in the '80s -00s. Lots of people couldn't get on the housing ladder or lost their homes. Mortgages were rationed and often you had to wait a long time to get one. Then there was the scandal of interest only mortgages where the investments didn't provide the required amount and many people had to sell up to pay off the mortgage.
The second and biggest problem is that many people can't work past early 60's or even younger. Can you imagine a 70 year old running after primary school children in a class, or nursery? Or policemen, firemen and medical staff? Many not only have medical conditions or physical problems by that age but are worn out. It's not a matter of living for 30+ years in enjoyable retirement. Age does take it out of you. At 60+ you don't have the stamina or mental speed of a 30 year old and it's unrealistic to expect people to. No companies want to employ you either.
I think possibly you could maybe just accept that when you get to retirement age you will also be ready to retire!
(Not to mention of course the number of 30 somethings relying on retired parents for childcare and this would also impact on society if they weren't available).

I imagine it’s as rare as rocking horse shit - my dad lived to be 99 and even he didn’t get a 40 year retirement.

Every generation does have hardship at times - but it passes.

I think the issue is the younger generations don’t feel it will pass which is one reason for the falling birth rates. The equivalent wealth won’t be accumulated

My nephew and his girlfriend (25 and 27) bought a characterful Georgian house in a currently unfashionable Thames-side Essex earlier this year for £350k. No en-suite or fancy kitchen, so no appeal to the average young buyer, but they love it. He didn't go to university and has been earning since he was 17, she did go to university but doesn't seem to have benefitted financially from it. They both work FT and both have side-hustles (he makes props and specialist items for TV, film and advertising, she works evenings and weekends in a chip shop). She's training to be a psychotherapist in any spare time. They lived in a tiny studio flat, cycled everywhere and saved £50k in five years. All their furniture is gifted or junk shop finds. They don't have a car, their phones are ancient and they go Youth Hostelling and camping if they have holidays.

It can be done, but you have to make choices.

"You are utterly ageist!!" Yeah nice one @mayorofcasterbridge it's not me whose posts keep getting deleted on this thread though is it? Maybe I'm not the agist one?

On average people live 20 years after retirement age although people on average are retiring 5 years before retirement age - so 25 years retired on average

Not 40

The first is mortgages were sky high in the '80s -00s

Aren’t todays rates having the equivalent impact on disposable income because prices are so high?

That generation mostly left school at 15/16 and worked hard for 50yrs. During that time they did not get universal credit and all the other help that's not now available. Only the rich or extremely clever ( scholarships) got to college/ University. They paid in a percentage of their wages every week, month, year to get the pathetic pension they get now during a time when they were not guaranteed a minimum wage and working conditions were not always safe.

Most people over 50 today including those that are early over 60s will not qualify for state pension until 67 . Women born late 1950s / early 1960s would have seen their mothers / older sisters get their pension / bus pass from age 60 . So in my view they are the ones that have come worse off.
Be it right or wrong , younger people are more clued up on personal pensions and the need to have one from a younger age.

The impact of todays rates is horrific

But there are people who assume that the older generation had it significantly easier

Well Boris Johnson wanted them to accept their fate and die of covid so they already have that idea.

YANBU OP, and it isn’t ageist to point out reality. University was free, house prices were low, and pensions were generous. None of those are the case anymore.

But there are people who assume that the older generation had it significantly easier

They had it easier but it doesn’t mean it wasn’t hard