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.

In terms of house prices then I think for previous generations it was easier to get on the ladder. (In the 1980s my parents bought an average semi on just my dads - low to average - wage, mum was a SAHM at that time) Houses in the road are now 650-700k , wages haven't risen anywhere near as steeply.

However my dad didn't go to university, his parents even objected to him going to grammar school (despite being bright enough) because he was expected, like his brother, to leave at 15 learn a trade and contribute to the household. His mother died when he was a teen, of sonething that very likely she would have survived in current times.

My mum did a very part time job when I was growing up. There wasn't an after school club at school. One friend went to a childminder but I'm sure childcare options were pretty limited for women who might have wanted to work

No everyone does not get a state pension. You only get a state pension if you have paid enough national insurance.

Those who don't get a pension have to claim benefits.

The only new furniture I have (and I'm 60) is the bed mattresses and an upholstered sofa and chair purchased in 2001, which I have exerted myself to keep in pristine condition. Everything else is hand-me-down or purchased at charity shops, boot sales, secondhand stores. (which I prefer, but still.)

The suite in my lounge is the same five pieces that my grandparents purchased in the early 1950s; I did have the settee and chair re-upholstered last year. Tables are the same as they ever were. All the young people (30s, 40s) in my extended family have houses that are twice the square footage of mine and all spurned any offer of hand-me-down furnishings from their parents and relatives like me. It all MUST be new! These are the same ones complaining they can't afford to have kids, etc etc. as they go long haul, have destination weddings, pay for decorators, cleaneres, and landcapers and all the things we've always done DIY.

In what way incorrect?

Labour began the phasing out of grammar schools in 1965, and in most areas of the country that continued through the '70s. Labour were in power for much of that time, and didn't it go well ;) They were in power from '64 to '70, and from '74 to '79. In 1998 the Bliar govenrment banned the establishment of new grammar schools

I remember a friend at work listening to the news and bursting into tears about mortgage rates.

I work in an office where I get paid more than double some of my younger colleagues because of my experience and field. Yet you wouldn't know it from our life styles. I think my major benefit which I think should be available is free state education, but far fewer people went to university and hardly anyone did a master's unless they intended to have an academic career. When I bought my first home, I had to save three years for a deposit and lived at home which frankly was hideous. The mortgage I had was quite crippling. I think it's university fees that have made a massive differential and I think it should be harder to get to university but when you get there it should be free.

They’ve already sold their homes & given the kids their inheritance & moved back in to council accommodation, now they moan they have to pay full rent …

Aye, right, that's a common scenario because council housing is so easy to get... 🙄

But hold on a minute, if they've already given the children their inheritance then what are you complaining about? Those awful wealthy old people handing their money down to the next generations so they can buy their own homes, eh?

@MintJulia just read your post. How shockingly sad.

My parents who were the Boomer generation slogged their whole lives. Came from working class, council house living East Londoners and both retired in their 70s. My father died soon after. My mother is still alive living a quiet modest life. My partners Boomers generation parents were also working class Londoners. He ran his own small business, his wife worked for the business. He never retired and died of an awful disease in his 70s. My MIL is still alive living a quite, modest life.

Im so tired of the generalisations attached to this generation and the assumption of vast wealth. Maybe for some but certainly not for all.

My parents had a mortgage in the 70s. The house might have been cheaper but I think payments were high relatively speaking, and although my dad had a good job we never seemed to have spare money. We only went on holiday twice and rarely ate out. White goods etc were expensive. Some people had negative equity in the 80s. Even in the 00s, the person who lived in our house before us lost 20K on the sale. I will have a mortgage until I'm 64.

This type of threads and the comments dramatically piss me off.

It's not a fucking competition! Each generation faces its own challenges. I you want to look at generations that did have it tough, I give you WW1 and WW2!!

I worked p/t alongside school/uni from the age of 18. Yes I didn't have to pay for my degree (neither will countless young people now!) I was lucky enough to have parents who believed strongly in education, and was encouraged in a grammar school, and got the grads to go. Only something like 5% got to go to uni. My parents were not high earners but I didn't qualify for a full grant.

There were tough financial times in the 70s, 80s and 90s, including 15% interest rates - and people moan now?! You've seen nothing!!

Do you think people earned then what they do now ffs? I earned £3 a day in my Saturday job in 1978. Our first house was £30k. Our income was £12k. Sometimes I had to hide behind the sofa when the milkman called for his money on a Friday evening.

We paid through the nose for childcare. We spent a fortune on activities so that our kids could at least keep pace with their peers. We supported them through uni. We are still supporting them as adults now living at home, saving for deposits etc.

Plenty of people are stuck in a cycle of working, and providing childcare and eldercare.

@downdowndowndowndown there's plenty I could add but I can't imagine there's any point, as you will just sit there with your entitled attitude, frankly cringey moaning and self pity...

We don't choose when we get to be born, do we?

Who knows what will happen with pensions in the future? For a large part of my working life, I expected to retire with my state pension at 60, only the government moved the goal posts and I have to work another 7 years. I hope that makes you happy. Even better for you if I die before then and never get back the money I have paid in.

Have you ever considered how you would manage on a state pension? Are you so tone deaf that you are oblivious to the very real struggles of many pensioners?

And think on this too - your family who have a decent retirement have paid for that throughout their working lives.

Go and give your head a wobble.

According to Forbes @downdowndowndowndown your generation is set to do very well, between inheritance and housing (lots of stock becoming available due to expected deaths).
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2023/08/09/the-great-wealth-transfer-from-baby-boomers-to-millennials-will-impact-the-job-market-and-economy/?sh=6504e2933e4a

Its just amazing to me that young people walk around with mini computers in their hand, pay for several different streaming subscriptions to watch ridiculous amounts of telly... and moan that older people who grew up with none of this and eating an average 500 less calories a day, have too much! what a cheek

I do worry how the next generation will buy houses. Salaries have flat lined, currently what I was on 10 years ago is being advertised at the same amount. Yet house prices have doubled in that time (in my area anyway). So we will end up in a situation where money comes from inherited wealth and not being paid for working hard.
I do think the boomers had / have it good.

@MintJulia ·

Incidentally OP, on Black Monday when we left the ERM and financial chaos descended, two of my colleagues at a bank, committed suicide. We were then buddied up to prevent any others trying.

Jeez Louise, that is awful!

Do you think people earned then what they do now ffs? I earned £3 a day in my Saturday job in 1978

Thinking back first salary mid 70s was just over £ 2k - and that included London Weighting.

Agreed.

I do think the boomers had / have it good

All of them? and what's 'good', in your opinion?

Just make sure you make them buy the bullet… no freeloading!

@downdowndowndowndown I think your perspective depends on where you live and who you mix with.
The miners were screwed.
The men and women working in factories often didn’t have a private pension and were/are depending on state pensions.
Many women didn’t pay into pensions because their husbands were going to get a good pension so they spent their money on the dc if they did work and then when their dh left for ow they were screwed.
Agricultural workers were in tied homes.
Anyone with a pension from the Mirror or equitable life (many teachers and also mp’s) we’re screwed.
My dh invested a lot of money in the Halifax where he worked, for our retirement, our shares 15 years later are still making a 50% loss.

But obviously all boomers have a carefree, cash rich life in the millennials world.

I really don't find the sweeping generalisations help at all. A lot depends where you live (or where you lived ) in the UK and what age you, your parents, and grandparents are. The generation now in their 90s, if they are lucky enough to still be with us, had a very tough start in life - no social security safety net, no inside loos and no electricity in some cases - but benefited later from the establishment of the NHS, post war economic growth, state pensions etc. Assuming their children were born in the late 50s/early 60s they will have experienced high unemployment, the closure of heavy industry, as homeowners may have been in negative equity, had rubbish maternity pay and job security, and felt the impact of an economic crash and high interest rates - even though they will have had free higher education and other benefits. They're now WASPI women or waiting to retire while still trying to support adult children living at home or helping with childcare because their grandchildren's parents must both work while juggling that with eldercare.

Maybe amongst all those swings and roundabouts are a few people who only benefitted from the positives, because of when they were born, when they bought a house, when they had children, or their parents not needing to pay for care. But for most of us it's been a mixed bag.

I don’t know.

1. My parents struggled to buy a house as they were in short supply and you had to go on a waiting list.
2. There was a recession in the 80s and that was awful.
3. houses were cheap but salaries very low.
4. Far less nursery options so mums being sahm much more common and necessary so less income.
5. My dad was made redundant twice in my childhood.
6. The first time he was made redundant they had to relocate with a baby and sell their house with negative equity (1980)

Yes they are now comfortable but the road to get there wasn’t easy.

Too much generalising here. I’m almost 70 and didn’t come from a background that enabled me to go to uni although I would have loved to.

Brought my kids up in the 80s so recession and high unemployment. Spent several years of this time on benefits living from one giro to the next. No food banks, community hubs, free childcare in those days.

I was lucky and also worked bloody hard to emerge from this period with a decent career which enabled me to retire at 66 with a reasonable private pension but was never able to get on the property ladder. I know many people of my age with a similar history.

I’m not complaining as very happy with my life but making the point that every generation has winners and losers when it comes to wealth or lack of it.

Does it matter what the house is worth? If she sells it, she will have to pay the equivalent for another house. If she sells it and rents, her offspring will say that she is spending their "rightful inheritance".