Teenage reality hitting home

[Globules]

My teenagers will be voting their first GE.

We had a chat last night about it, and the conclusion they've come to is that their age group is screwed.

Uni loans, house prices, single life.

DS actually held his head in his hands recognising that his £30k house deposit is pointless until his salary is at a ridiculously high level to service a mortgage.

DD pointed out all of the parties are being silent on policies around their age group.

Whilst they have every right to feel negative about it all, they're optimistic beans. I was listening to them talking and feeling so despondent that life ahead looks so tough for them.

I was married aged 22. Bought our first house aged 24 on just my basic teacher salary (he was self employed, so he was a dependent). They just don't have the same outlook, do they?

I really feel for our under 25s. Just me?

Finding it hard to worry about the financial prospects of a 19 year old with 30k savings. He either has fabulous savings skills, or great family financial support!

OP your teen could be like my youngest DC in a few years time. He is 23, earns 39k and has 55k saved and is on a position to buy a flat in South East England.

But then there are people like my Dad who was a postman and bought a large 3 bed house in London in the 70s. Mortgage taken on his income only

@Samlewis96 this was a tiny blip in history though. If you go back further, working class people have never been able to buy houses. The few decades after the war were the exception rather than the norm.

Agree that the generational inequality is unfair though. This is why there should be more tax on wealth and assets, rather than income.

He’s a teenager with £30k in savings. Please stop and realise what a great start that is.

He has plenty of time to go to uni or find a professional qualification and earn enough money to get a mortgage. No one buys a house in their teens.

Was it really? I bought a place in London 1992 with my ex and it was 33k . Both not earning very much. If I remember I was being paid £119 a week and him slightly less.

It was done on 3 times my income and 1times his.

If the banks hadn't started lending 4 , 5 , 6 times income then the house prices wouldn't have risen so much

Multi generational living is going to come back thick and fast I think

You could always be a guarantor on his mortgage?

If his goal is to buy a home maybe look at all the options available to him.

He’s done well saving 30k and he’s in employment.

Personally don’t think my DC will be in a position to buy til their 30’s as once they’ve finished Uni they’ll be in training posts for over 10 years minimum. However, we have looked at areas they could live and afford once they are settled.

Working towards realistic goals is what life is about unless you are a risk taker. Help and support him map out his plan.

@Globules DD pointed out all of the parties are being silent on policies around their age group.

Point out to her that this is largely because her age group don't vote. The very very best thing she can do to make politicians care about her age group is to convince all of her friends to as well. Even if they spoil their ballots, it'll still count as far as the parties are concerned.

If you want politicians to court your vote, there needs to be a vote to court.

Very similar circumstances to you @GingerPirate, and agree 100%.

I see, JustOnceMore 😁
you are presumably also child free and our posts are very similar.
Noticed when I used the nick Patrickiscrazy.
Now I'm not saying we should marry tomorrow, however, it is appreciated 😂👍

To be fair not many teenagers buy houses. I bought my first house in the midst of a house price boom in 1973, it had rising damp, wooden floors and window frames were rotten, needed rewiring, no central heating, kitchen was a sink and dirty cooker. My mother cried when she saw it and said we couldn't possibly take our toddler to live there.

Friend of the family rewired it for us with us just buying the wires/plugs etc. Mum did lend us the money to get the floor fixed, we ripped out the sink and cooker, installed a sink unit and built shelves from wood which we stained. Then there was a price crash and we sold it for a bit more than we paid but if you added in what we spent on it we sold at a loss. That's life when you are young. Bought our second house as interest rates were rising, we applied for one rate, got offered the mortgage at a higher rate and by the time we moved in it had gone up again. Month one in that house we were terrified of any more increases and we could barely live as it was.

Apparently we had it easy but it didn't feel like that at the time.

It wasn’t that much of a blip - homeownership was at its most affordable in the 1920s and remained more affordable than now until - well, now.

https://www.schroders.com/en-gb/uk/individual/insights/what-174-years-of-data-tell-us-about-house-price-affordability-in-the-uk/

He's 18. At that age I wasn't remotely interested in a mortgage. I just wanted to go to uni, have fun and travel which I did and had an amazing time like you're supposed to in your youth. We rented till we found somewhere we wanted to settle in our early 30s and bought then. I'd be encouraging him to lighten up and enjoy himself. He's immensely privileged to have 30k in the bank. There's a lot he can do with that. Buying a property isn't the main ambition he should have in life, especially at that age.

Yes, you're absolutely right. It's shocking how hard things are now. I would still encourage your son to think of the substantial advantages he does have - a 30K deposit at that age. An obviously supportive parent. A job, even if it's nothing special right now. He has more going for him than many his age. Obviously that doesn't help the wider issue, but it's sad to think he's despairing (though understandable!)

One of the reasons they are forgotten is they tend not to vote.

It’s a bit worrying that young people have been so ignored. What happens to those generations as they age.

Social mobility has gone backwards & really the most important thing now is if your parents own their own home &/or can help you as opposed to job/salary. No wonder birth rates are so low.

In the nicest possible way why at 18 has he decided to settle on an 18k a year job with no prospects? What about learning a trade or doing an apprenticeship, thinking about careers with a few more options to move up the ranks?

Soon there won’t be enough young people to impact the vote! The average age is 40 I think and there are already more over 65s than under 15s.

No it’s not just you. I really feel for our youngsters. It’s so much tougher now. Our only hope is to get a Labour government in and try to redress the balance a bit.

Yes, my son said “we are not the same as you. The earth is dying, there’s going to be a war, everything is hopeless, what do we have to live for.”

^

I'm sure a few young men said this in 1939

At the end of the day it's not handed to you on a plate. Move abroad, move North.

Totally agree its depressing for that age bracket!!! Get so tired of the "we had it tough too" brigade when house prices/salaries are so far out of reach for so many now 😭

Am encouraged that your DC want to vote tho!! The more under 30s vote the more parties will have to gear themselves towards them (hopefullt!))

My DS is 25 and autistic. He's unlikely to ever move out or earn much more than min wage part time. In a way the current situation evens things out for him and makes him less of an oddity to be living at home in his 20s.

I am twice your son’s age. At 18 none of my friends and I had £30,000 saved or were earning £18,000 a year. Most of us bought our homes in very late 20s or early 30s.

It feels like a premature thing to be worrying about.

At the end of the day it's not handed to you on a plate. Move abroad, move North.

Yes all young people abound move abroad

But in all seriousness if your dc can go abroad I would encourage that. The ageing population and the lack of planning for it is going to mean even more of a rough deal.