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!

But a lot of TAs are not university educated.

University educated? About half at my son's school are.

Do you know other schools?

OK, if you're going to resort to insults, I'm not engaging. I was under the impression this was an adult discussion. My bad.

52 weeks, less 35 days or 7 weeks holiday, less 1.6 weeks for public holidays and probably 3 or 4 days at Christmas. Not far off 9.5 weeks of holiday. You do realise most people who do really dreadful jobs for far less pay get 5.6 weeks despite having children just like you. Academic contracts tend to be about 1800 hours overall less annual leave, so about 1450 to 1500 nominally.

As you have a bid I assume you also have a research allowance in your schedule and are able to work pretty flexibly going in for teaching, tutorials and meetings only.

@Talonz I thought that poster built her own roads and paid for private security!

If we abolished taxes and returned the country back to fiefdoms you would probably be one of the first to complain that life is intolerable.

Indeed

I think you must live in a different world to me.

15 years ago I felt well off in my £25k a year job before I started my undergraduate degree.
Well 16 years ago I started my degree 😉
I started part time to juggle work and study, I was 22 and had already been supporting myself since I was 17.

I also didn't realise that juggling study and jobs and raising a child, whilst fighting tooth and nail for my career over the last 15 years wasn’t me putting in the effort.
When I submitted my PhD thesis my son was 18 months old, and I was already employed as a full time lecturer in my chosen field.

#musttryharder (I’ll start working 60 hours a week instead!)

Yes. About 7 or 8 other schools spring to mind. 2, none of the TAs went to uni. Still do a sterling job. 1, about half were graduates, half weren't. In son's school, about 1/2 of the TAs are ECT teachers, who are employed and used as supply teachers to cover absence and used as TAs/classroom support the rest of the time.

OK, if you're going to resort to insults, I'm not engaging. I was under the impression this was an adult discussion. My bad.

This hasn't been an adult discussion for pages now!

So you are still engaging! 🥱

TAs I know that want to be teachers are often completing their degree alongside. Some of those are HLTAs who cover class teaching in teachers absence but no where near the pay of an unqualified teacher.
These TAs are also faced with the barrier in their career that they have to take a year out to do the teacher training but can’t afford to.

As a matter of interest, how much are you contributing personally? Do you work? Are you on benefits? You keep throwing this accusation out against my generation, so it's only fair you give us some context.

For our part DH and I will be solid nett contributors over our lifetime

He works in a private school and could earn more in a state school doing the same role but he is happy and settled and been there for 10 years.

Well, he’s really not maximising his earnings is he?

This has gone the way all these threads go. It's pages & pages of people telling the OP that things aren't harder, she/dh just needs to worker harder, not be entitled. Throw in high interest rates, tin baths, something about the war, mat pay, blah blah. Ignore wage stagnation, private pension reforms, interest rates vs wages. How enlightening!

But your other half isn’t putting in the effort “financially” so what i said was you can’t compare what you, as a family have, with others who are maximising both their incomes. Your posting above was when you were a lot younger so perhaps didn’t have the same outgoings as you do now…..of course you’re going to feel a lot worse off.

There is some sort of support in my sons school for TAs to do in school training (SCITT or other similar courses). A couple have done it. One had worked there as a TA when young and then stayed while she trained. She was sons teacher last year.

This is in addition to the ECT (early career teachers) who are on a teachers salary but used as a combo of TA / supply teacher.

But if he earns more...they will NEED more childcare. It would prbably negate the extra earnings

They already access wrap around care.

Nope I said I'm not going to be goaded into revealing my personal circumstances

Not really. They already pay for wraparound. Between their annual leave, the cost of holiday clubs would be easily covered. It's perfectly valid not to make that choice, but it's would be certainly be viable.

That excuse is so old. He only cares for the child during school holidays. And with the shift patterns for the job I suggested, they would not need care every day. At the moment, the OP is responsible for most drop offs and pick ups.

Surely you must understand that the reason you are poor is because your husband is earning a very low wage, either by choice or necessity?

But you still seem bemused by the fact you have less income than others. Is the issue that you feel your jobs should be higher paid rather than you should have chosen careers that pay more, if you want (and seem to feel you deserve) a more affluent lifestyle?

You underestimate holiday childcare, cost and access to it

Absolutely we honour remembrance Sunday and family members fought and died in both world wars and we contribute to defence through taxation.

Yes, I drive on roads and pay road tax, Ulez, etc.

Yes, we are grateful for the police and pay both tax and huge amounts of community charge for them.

What sort of insurance are you thinking of precisely?

Thank you for sharing that you must pay approaching £500,000 in corporation tax each year. You must be extraordinarily successful compared to my piddling net earned contribution of £26k. Needless to say DH spent most of his professional career self employed and indeed his contributions make mine look very piddling. However, as a family, economically we owe society nothing.

Oh ffs, what a loser

Why are you so determined to tear me down??

I have 30 days holiday.
A great amount I agree. If I had a year I could actually take ALL my annual leave as there is restriction of when I can fit it in around other responsibilities.

My hours are something like 1650 on my allocation after annual leave, our workload model does allow a small amount for research as it’s a requirement. I think is 150 hours a year.
Why are you simultaneously saying I need to do funded research and then also throwing it back in my face, like a ‘gotcha! You must have allocated time’? The answer is no, everyone gets a set amount for research regardless.

If you have any idea or experience of academia that can’t be in a post 92, our workload allocation model is known for not properly accounting for our time, we are supposed to be allocated to about 80% to recognise this and that not all our responsibilities teaching, marking, admin, research, publications, student recruitment, marketing, community engagement and outreach to name a few things are on there.
I am allocated way over 100% with many responsibilities not being recognised.

Yes like many other thousands of jobs I can hybrid work. I appreciate and value this, but again not sure how this is a ‘gotcha’

I don't think the op is saying that they are poor. They are saying that the previous generation would be better off in their situation. In addition the OP is also saying that they are seeing a fast decline in their standard of living in comparison to themselves a while ago.