Generational wealth differences

[KeenGreen]

My first AIBU so let’s see what I’m in for!

First to make clear none of the problems now are the fault of previous generations. It is not a blame game!!

So AIBU to be frustrated with the rhetoric that todays generations of young families have it no harder than previous generations in terms of wealth and they just need to be more frugal to have the same standard of living??

I am sick of hearing the idea that older generations. So called boomers (for the record I don’t like this term) didn’t have it easier than younger generations.

I am 38 I have worked since I was 16, lived independently since 17. Put myself through university all the way through to PhD. My husband is 39 works in a school as support staff (LSA) and takes up circa £1200 a month. He has a degree.
I work in a university and earn just under £50K before tax so our household income is probably about £65K not the lowest by any stretch but enough for us to struggle to balance costs. We claim child benefit but otherwise no extra help.
Husband only works term time of course, but that means he’s around for our child during holidays.

We have one DC age 5, and can’t afford any more.
Our closest family lives over 2 hours away, so we have no family support with childcare or help if there is a sick day or anything.

We have a mortgaged small semi detached 1930s house with 3 bedrooms, It needs a lot of work but we haven’t been able to do much because of time and money. Current mortgage fix ends in 2026 and I expect our mortgage repayments to go up by about 50% extra £300 a month.

We pay off student loans and my pension contributions are also high.
I took only 6 months maternity leave because I couldn’t afford to go to half pay for long and not into no pay at all.

My husband had virtually nothing in his workplace pension because of low earnings.
Mine is keep being devalued because of sector changes and it’s definitely not the best pension in education. (Teachers pensions are better).
I can’t even imagine what it will be like to try and live off my workplace pension alone and I would have to go all the way up to retirement age which I can’t imagine myself doing in a stressful job.

Retirement age for us is currently 68, that means we have 30 more years.
But with the way things are going I have no hope that there will be a state pension at all for us, or the age will be pushed even higher, so will probably be dead! Despite the fact I will have been paying in with tax national insurance for 50 plus years by that point.

I just feel frustrated about this idea that I hear people say that our generation just needs to work harder, or get better paid jobs etc because it’s not that easy. We both work hard in the education sector. Enjoy our jobs for the most part and find them fulfilling albeit stressful at times!

Like I said not about blaming previous generations for the picture we are in, but I don’t like the rhetoric of ‘well interest rates went up to 15% in my day’ etc when house prices were so much lower in proportion to wages and the cost of living right now and inflation over the last 10 years shows wages haven’t increased in line with this.

ps I know we are not the most hard done by! But still feel the pinch and we certain don’t live an extravagant lifestyle!

To answer your question though, I think the current young generation do have it harder then previous because of the very high house prices now, but I’m a similar age to you and don’t actually include myself in that. We had a decade of low interest rates and house prices weren’t quite as crazy as now. I do think that todays generations expect a lot more though which doesn’t help.

My parents were in the same situation as you - Dad was civil service and mum part time term time only.

We lived in a 2.5 bed house and had lodgers in the box room for a number of years to make ends meet. The house needed work and was done over many years by them as couldn't afford tradespeople.

I first had an abroad holiday at 15 (sister 18) and before that was a week in a caravan in wales/Dorset each year. I first went out for a mean for my nans 80th when I was a teen and only takeaway was fish and chips a couple of times a year.

On the upside, once we'd left home they started to have a bit more money as mum worked longer hours. They were then able to afford to go abroad a bit more with friends.

They retired comfortably off and paid off the mortgage.

I guess what I'm saying is that I don't really see much generational difference and in the long run things will look better I'm sure.

This isn't true.

The issues with housing are due to policies like RTB and allowing land banking by developers.

The biggest issue, I think is access to stable housing. My friend went through DV in the 80/90's, she got three different, three bed council houses, quite easily. My NDN wanted to move further up the road, the housing officer sorted it out for her. Each only had one child. Were I'm from, we had the safety net of council housing. But because of a genuine lack of employment, there was poverty. Women didn't have the opportunities that we have now and the sexism/harrasment/threat could be quite nasty. I feel there's less hope about. I wouldn't swap today for the decent pub culture we had.

We’re coming up to 60 and can see both sides. We have boomer parents who have had a very comfortable retirement. Interestingly neither set inherited much. When we retire we’ll be ok but not loaded and anything we inherit from our parents will all need to go to our children as I see literally no way for them to buy a house, fund children( I hope they don’t have)or prepare for retirement without it.

The boomer years were not normal and I think we all need to appreciate that instead of aspiring to it. If we have no mortgage, warmth, food and money enough to pursue our barely modest interests alongside a bit of travel( on a budget) I think that is more than enough.

We now need to find a way to help younger generations get security instead of being fleeced by greedy landlords and also prepare for retirement .

also open a Lisa before you are 40 and start saving now. Start small and target the next decade.

It's a mix. You can't have increasing population growth without it having an impact on resources.

I think those picking up on the DH salary are missing the point. A) in previous generations it was common for one parent to earn less or SAH. Mortgages were obtainable realistically on one salary. B) someone has to do the more poorly paid jobs. All the talk of getting better paid jobs seem to ignore this.

If your husband trained to be a teacher, he could over double his take home wage within four years and access a much better pension. He could take on an additional responsibility and gain a TLR.

Being a teacher is very stressful and hard - it's why it pays more than an LSA. Many schools will sponsor or offer a wage to a good LSA to become a teacher.

Also I’d like to point out that back in the 90s my husband and I were able to rent a very nice flat in an expensive part of the uk whilst saving one whole fresh out of uni salary( modest careers not high earning) in its entirety for 5 years to save for a deposit. We traveled long haul and ate out whilst saving.

No way on earth could youngsters do that now.

It’s hard OP, student loan repayments do not help. If the government wants to help people out of poverty, looking at student loan repayments would be a good start.

Privileged middle class people who started from advantage, who live in expensive areas of the UK and earn above average probably do find life a little less easy than their parents generation did at the moment. Less priveleged working class people living in cheaper areas will often be better off than their parents generation were.

so, I'm in my 50's, have been self employed for about 13 years, and my husband has been elf employed for 6.

My business is doing well, but my husbands can be touch an go. Between us were about approx. £45-48k

We work bloody hard...we have a young son, and have a mortgage and the usual outgoing most families have. ( I have 2 adult sons as well but they've moved out and living their own life)

I do remember in the 90's when interest rates were ridiculously high....yes houses were cheaper then, but wages were also lower, so it's all comparable.

People struggle in every generation, it not unique and therefore this 'Boomers had it better' Rhetoric is really a bit strange, and unrealistic.

Blaming individual generations for the problems caused by governments is pretty unfair ( not saying Op is doing this, but seen it said so many times recently) because we are all at the mercy of their actions and fuck ups !!!

What time does your husband finish work?

My dad worked his butt off down a pit doing double shifts. Are they now millionaires. Yep. Because they worked every hour god sent.

Sone people are working their arses off for little money but I’m afraid most complaining about this subject are not.

If you are short of money get an evening job, weekend job, side hustle. Keep working until you have the money you need

The issue is the UK has too many old people which is where our population growth is.

There are actually countries and regions in the UK were the population is falling overall, and other regions where the population of a certain age cohort is decimated.

Only a very small percentage of that generation went to uni not every Tom Dick and Harry like now

As for the OPs comment about having to return to work after 6 months. When I had DD1 I only got 16 weeks maternity leave ( normal for the time) and I'm not old enough to be a " boomer"

Wages weren't lower , look at average wages to house prices over the last 40 years. That ratio has massively increased from the 90s.

If you’re short of money why doesn’t your husband get a better paid job?

For my parents they had very little money when were in the young family stage. Food and bills were expensive. However going out to eat or for coffee was not a social norm so not expected or missed. Rarely had a day out and only started family holidays when the youngest child was 5. And they were camping. As time went on things did improve a lot and pensions coming earlier was a great bonus. Most people are broke with young kids but I think it is the prospect of working so long that is the issue/stress.

Your DH sounds like he has loads of time to fix the house, he needs to either do that or get a full time job

What you seem to be missing is ambition and drive. Why are you so accepting of your low salaries? Your choices are in your own hands, use your careers services at University for some career coaching, for both of you.

Ah, so adding 10 million to the population since 1997 has nothing to do with the shortage of houses. Righto!

I think blaming different generations for tha, that and the other is generally unhelpful. All generations had some things easier and some things harder. The times they are a-changing.

But we can’t ignore the huge strain on housing or on our health service. As we all grow older we need to accept that keeping people alive for longer and longer comes at a huge financial cost. There need to be a colossal change to our ways of funding things. Neither the welfare state nor the NHS were set up with that in mind.

There have been a handful of generations when we have had higher levels of social mobility and benefited from a higher quality of life than you would do normally.

I think that people had assumed that this was baked in, that this situation in which people working in similar professions would and should have access to similar privileges and outcomes was a right.

It's increasingly clear that that ship has sailed. People will need to have better luck and be more strategic to get what they may have walked into had they been born earlier. It won't help to complain about it though. It certainly won't change anything.

The big factors in this are housing and whether you have children.

All my friends and acquaintances who are child free seem to be doing relatively well compared to their parents and siblings with children, regardless of their parents starting position.