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 heard our retirement age may be increased to 72

What age group are you and where did you hear this?

How can anyone retire at 72?

My dm was far too unwell to work since about the age of 65.

Your NI ‘since 1975’ was spent by your government on your behalf every year that you earned it @MrsDanversGlidesAgain You are now sponging off the actual people at work. You know, the same people that don’t have homes to put their can’t-afford families into

'Sponging off'? I'm tempted to report that for a personal attack but I'm leaving it so people can see what some people really think of people on state pensions.

I'm well aware of how the system works, thanks. My first job was what was then the DHSS and that was explained to us in the first day of training. Incidentally, do you have children and received any form of benefit for them? because in that case, I wasn't the only one 'sponging off' taxpayers like me.

Sounds like my mum's upbringing. She grew up in the 1950s too; absolutely squalid accommodation with their only water supply coming from an outdoor stream. My mum was badly impacted by her upbringing and developed lung problems due to the city smogs. Only recently, she told me she is surprised to have lived to 80. It makes me feel very sad thinking about the conditions my parents and grand parents lived in. PS I was 18 when I went abroad for the first time; I'll never forget that experience of sitting in a bus and seeing the Austrian Alps; I never knew such beauty existed in the world. Thanks for sharing.

I’m with you there.
This is fun 🤣😗

Yes, & I know it comes as a shock to everyone when they first realise that the government hasn't got a jamjar somewhere with their name on & their NI contributions inside.

But the only changes which have been made were to rob certain women (me included) of years of our state pension. I can't see how that fits the post.

Still hoping for clarification.

It's swings and roundabouts. My DPs are classic working class, none of their friends have been to uni or even have a levels (even tho dps are very smart), where i live it was expected that you give up work when you had kids/my mum had a paper round instead of a career. childcare non existent, they've been abroad 3 times, our holidays were in (often waterlogged) tents, we never ate out and life was often boring. The world was a much smaller place than it is for me. Im trying to buy a family home in £££ london atm so aware of the housing crisis but the world presents many more possibilities for me than it did for my mum. Also none of my friends' mums get the full pension as they didnt go back to work.

Most of my parents’ generation did not go to university and left school at 14. They did not inherit because their own parents were even poorer.

Not again...

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.

If the "younger generation" (on MN at least - I don't hear all this whining IRL) spent more time working hard and being less entitled, then maybe they'd have nice houses and pensions. Oh, did that sound a bit overly generalised?

Could we give it a rest for even one bloody day and NOT have a thread about how old people have everything and it's not fair? It's not fair that I had to work hard, that there was no maternity leave / pay, no equal pay, etc etc. I had to fight for what I have, and work hard for it - and some of those things, like maternity leave / pay I fought for for FUTURE (i.e. current) generations. If you want a fairer share of the stick, stop whining and take on the people who ACTUALLY got all the benefit from the boom years (and still do), which is not older people but the rich / ruling class.

My dad didnt have hot water or a phone until 1972!

Yes there was a terrible period but beyond that, how much was the house you bought and how much is the house worth now?

Labour scrapped the state grammars in the late 60s/early 70s.
The beginning of the end of decent state education in the UK

Of course it is. A 20 something who perceives past generations of having it much easier. I'm guessing she's not a modern history graduate, just sees people getting something (that, in fairness) her generation are unlikely to get.

If someone had told me in my 20s that I needed a private pension right from the get go I'd have tried to pay more in sooner.

No, she is not "sponging" off anyone. She is receiving reciprocal payments in her turn, just as she paid for others for probably decades in the workforce. Receiving old age pensions is not "sponging," it's realizing the benefit of a scheme that one invested in over many, many years.

When I retire I'll have paid in for 50 years, and also saved my own separate nest egg, often doing without, for the same amount of years. I'll be comfortable and not a bit guilty, as I've done my share. Never received any type of benefit or dole, either. Can the young people complaining about us say the same???

Factually incorrect.

Bloody hell how can people be so ignorant.

In the same way people claiming pensions since 1975 have ‘sponged’ off @MrsDanversGlidesAgain , presumably? The absolute STUPIDITY of people who can’t even follow their own argument.

Your NI ‘since 1975’ was spent by your government on your behalf every year that you earned it @MrsDanversGlidesAgain You are now sponging off the actual people at work.

Yes it was called the social contract. When l was paying to work with small children, l was paying the pension of people 30 years older than me. Never gave it a thought. It was just what we did. I was young, fit, healthy and skint. Why wouldn’t l support the older population?

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.

Nope. My parents worked extremely hard, my father worked from an age that isn't acceptable anymore, and he worked sometimes 20 hours a day when we were very young. He is close to 80 and still working part time, mum is in her mid 70's and working full time too. For most of Dad's life he had very little, he was very frugal and very hard working and thats why he now has a house and land, my mother has less but through her own mistakes. I know housing was cheaper, but we have things and lifestyles that they absolutely did not. Food is actually cheaper now than at any point in history, things that are everyday for us were luxuries then. I can't think of any friends parents that had anything handed to them either and me and my friends often talk about how hard our parents had to work and how much less 'stuff' they had. I think todays view of their generation comes from a lack of understanding and a belief because houses were cheaper, people didn't work hard for them.

Your NI ‘since 1975’ was spent by your government on your behalf every year that you earned it @MrsDanversGlidesAgain You are now sponging off the actual people at work. You know, the same people that don’t have homes to put their can’t-afford families into

That's not quite how it works. The NI that today's pensioners paid in the 70s/80s or whenever went to pay the pensions of their parent's/grandparent's generation. Your NI is paying the pension of your parent's or grandparent's. generation Your children will pay NI to pay your pension.

We all contribute to things that we might not immediately (or ever) benefit from.

It is sad to see people being daft enough to fall into the classic scapegoating of pensioners or immigrants or the disabled. Governments love that sort of stupidity.

The value of their house now makes zero difference to them as they have to have somewhere to live.

The "younger generation" who thinks we had it so soft ...

Very little dining out or takeaway, small wardrobes because we had few garments and didn't recreationally shop, no contact lenses, fake nails, tattoos, lattes, internet, smartphones, Sky TV. Most didn't own cars. One tv, radio and telephone shared by all household members. Relative few went to college. Very few people traveled let alone by air.

The day-to-day luxuries and lifestyle that a preponderance of today's younger people take for granted were not part of our lives, or our spending patterns, even 30 years ago, let alone 50 years ago.

People lived more frugally. I remember when my parents relocated in their 40s, the lounge stayed empty for two years until they could afford furniture. We sat on chairs from the dining table to watch TV. Now people would rush out to IKEA and put it on a credit card, and then moan that they "can't afford to save for a deposit."

@WeightWhat do you have children?

OP, my Dad is 77 and still working full time in a physical job, luckily still fit and reasonably healthy. He has worked since he was 15. He rents and so did his parents, so no inheritance. He has never been abroad on holiday. When he had a young family, there was no wage top up benefits and sometimes he went without meals so his children could eat..........so yeah, soooo much better off than your generation, ffs🙄

The state is also sitting on a ticking time bomb when a good majority of elderly people in 30 or so years time are going to have to have housing funded thanks to the stupid inflated houses.

I'm lucky, I bought a house in 2001 when I was 19 literally months before the prices shot up (( was actually tipped off by someone who worked in local government to get a move on )) I mean I'm still living in it and it's in an area most would look down their noses at but it's mine and provided security few can even imagine. My dc and I have benefitted hugely from having cheap housing, its meant that despite weve always had a.pretty low income we've never had.to go without holidays or experiences.......or food for that matter, it's disgusting that future generation won't have that.