To think most people my age (32) are making huge financial mistakes?

[ThatPinkHedgehog]

I see so many people in their late 20s and early 30s struggling financially - overspending, not saving, relying on ‘buy now, pay later,’ or just assuming they have time to figure it out later. AIBU to think that financial literacy is seriously lacking in my generation? What do you think the biggest mistake is?

100%. Add to that hen and stag dos on top.

A coffee or avacado won't stop you buying a house but a £30k wedding will!

I also said luck or should I say privilege, as in having support from parents/family who can/want to assist you financially and want to help with grandchildren compared to parents who aren’t able or don’t want to help.

I agree. Lots took a risk on an endowment mortgage and were handsomely rewarded with a huge payout. Lots benefitted from speculating on privatisations and demutualisation. Most benefitted by pay rises over inflation. None of that is available anymore. Looking back, we clearly had artificial and unsustainable growth in the 90s and 00s but todays workers are paying for it, and some!

Inheritance is not 'lucky'. I'd rather have my Dad back.

We bought a flat in London before planning a wedding for 48 relatives and 2 friends at a 5 star hotel in my home country (cost around £6k including flights for my MIL and SIL). I made a profit as all my relatives gave cash gifts. I shouldn't have worried lol.. but to be fair, it is probably better to be safe than sorry.

My SIL did a 30k wedding and made a profit lol.

I was never able to buy. I didn't realize this until my mid thirties, when I actually looked into it. I had always been renting as it suited my lifestyle, but I figured I could always use buying as a plan B, without knowing that simply was never an option for me.

If look back at how I ended up in the situation, it makes total sense. In my early to mid twenties I was still reeling for the sheer chaos that was my teens. I had no idea what to do with my life and I just blundered about trying this and that. I eventually developed some focus in my late twenties and went back to school. This was a big financial hit and I spend a good chunk of my late twenties and early thirties being broke, not building up much savings and using all the savings I did have on my education and living costs.

I am now middle aged and have been trying to fix my financial situation, but it takes time. I should be better in about 5 to 10 years. But in my opinion, the OP has no appreciation of what a mess parents can make of their own and their children's lives and how far those children are behind trying to fix it once they are adults. None of us choose this. Financial literacy was barely taught in school when I was little and my parents only knew what they had learned themselves, which wasn't much. So it's a lot of trial and error and if you have a late start in life due to traumatic circumstances added on top of that, you'll end up paying for it for a long time.

Yes, I do blame some of it on my parents, even though they also never received the knowledge they needed to make their lives work. Some of the chaos in our homes could have been prevented. My parents were always quite dramatic and were very good at making a bad situation worse.

My friends mostly fall into that age group and definitely aren't doing all of those things. Guess it depends on who you know.

Inheritance is not 'lucky'. I'd rather have my Dad back.

This makes no sense. You are aware plenty lose a parent but do not receive an inheritance?

** Don't forget MIRAS too.

Looking back, we clearly had artificial and unsustainable growth in the 90s and 00s but today's workers are paying for it, and some!

And this is why we are fucked. They kicked the can down the road after the 08 crash & we now have run out of road.

People of every generation have acted like that and sone people seem totally hardwired to do so

the differences I see today are that perhaps more young people are acting that way as a mixture or lack of hope for the future and the desire to keep up with social media lifestyles

and yes one avacado won’t buy a house but if you want to save 50k in 10 years ( once you reach 30) to get a home when you get married ( wanting to buy on your own is a new concept ) ( ie if wasn’t a common expectation ) up that’s 5k a year or less than 100 a week- lose the expensive food shop, lunch with coffee out every day , no fancy nails and a simple dry cut at the hairdressers once every 2 months , and drop the short flights for weekend breaks - all things previous generations didn’t do - and you have probably saved nearer 100k

and yes I know that many don’t live like that especially once you have small kids with no family support but I think this is another problem of social media normalising attitudes- like “no one can save “ and “everyone deserves a treat” and “ avacados don’t matter”

but I think that’s probably pushing people in every generation towards poor financial choices not just the young

It's the wrong way to think about it as "luck", I agree. Financially, it's "lucky" because not everyone will inherit money after their parents die.

I know there's (probably) enough coming that I'll be able to pay off the rest of my mortgage (obviously barring the need for huge amounts of care), which will make me financially luckier than my friend who's parents have nothing. But I'm not planning for it.

And when my parents mention it, I tell them to spend it, to enjoy themselves and that I'd rather have them for another 30/40 years than their money. Because I would.

But it's still luckier than people who lose their parents and get left nothing. Those people would also rather have their parents.

Yup, people blame individuals, but successive governments have adopted the “buy now pay later” by overspending and, yes, the shit is now hitting the fan. I seem to recall seeing that in the last 50 years the country has only been in surplus for a handful of years, the rest of the time, we as a country have lived beyond our means. Good for those who lived through it and benefitted from it, but crap for the younger people who’ll have to pay for it and not reap the rewards themselves. Definitely drawbridge but the older generation in general won’t accept it.

DS (28) just bought a house on his own. He's not on a big salary but was lucky enough to save the deposit by living back at home after Uni. He's furnished it all from charity shops. He's still had holidays abroad whilst saving. I've no doubt it'll be tough for him financially paying all the bills on his own even though he's budgeted.
Niece in early 30s has bought a flat on her own. Nephew knew he wouldn't be able to afford anything in London so bought a BTL in his home town to get on the property ladder. Both seem to have regular holidays abroad and seem to be careful with money.
So I don't agree that all people of that age have the attitude that they might as well live for the now and spend spend spend.

Why don't you think you'll see the pension you've paid into?

(As an older person) Fight back. Educate yourselves. Don't play the games they want you to play. Learn how to exploit the systems. Vote to change the systems. Don't feel powerless.

@Badbadbunny
@IpsyUpsyDaisyDoos
So were you living at home before you got onto a partnership? That's luck, not good management. That allows savings and car ownership. Having family that can pass on used furniture etc is luck. Not everyone is capable of earning enough to get a deposit and afford the house prices in their area. Finding a partner, that you can set up home with, is partly luck.
It's a bit messed up that we are starting to rely on people who live in dire circumstances,to repopulate our society and look at British people, who just aren't ticking x-y-z boxes, especially those who don't stand a chance of ticking those boxes, as failing.

This is the pattern for all the 30 ish yr olds my DD knows. Absolutely no hope of putting a deposit on anywhere without serious family help, usually an inheritance. For a wide variety of reasons, some have moved back with parents (relationship break-up, lease on rental ending, saving for deposit).
A mortgage on something very small would be 6 x most of their earnings. Might as well eat the avocado.

and yes one avacado won’t buy a house but if you want to save 50k in 10 years ( once you reach 30) to get a home when you get married ( wanting to buy on your own is a new concept ) ( ie if wasn’t a common expectation ) up that’s 5k a year or less than 100 a week- lose the expensive food shop, lunch with coffee out every day , no fancy nails and a simple dry cut at the hairdressers once every 2 months , and drop the short flights for weekend breaks - all things previous generations didn’t do - and you have probably saved nearer 100k

Young people have always spent money though, today it's nails & manicures but yesterday it was perms & pubs. Paying high rent & large deposits makes it harder to get on the ladder.

It's a but unfair to assume people who don't use finance are all well off and had financial support from their parents.

I don’t think anyone has called having an inheritance lucky, but it’s definitely not something a lot of people can offer to their children.

I said having parents that can financially assist you (as in allow children to live at home and save or parents who have saved on behalf of their children) and having parents who are happy to offer childcare is partly luck, as our parents choices are out of our control.

I think the point is that lots of people lose their parents and on top of that also don’t inherit much wealth.

My circle of 34/35yo friends are all homeowners with children and outwardly sensible spending. I have a car on finance but the monthly payments are much less than my car allowance, and for me its much more tax effective than a company car.

I have a credit card solely for the credit score as my husband and I own without a mortgage. It is paid off every month by DD so again, not concerned about it.

I think it was the lack of education on the subject. My parents were people who would never ever talk about money and schools didn’t teach financial literacy so I figured it out for myself. Not everyone has parents that teach them about this stuff. I believe now it is taught in schools which is a huge step forward but I don’t know how in depth they go

I was at university (which my parents did not pay for) when I met my now DH. We rented for years while saving to afford to buy our house. I worked part time around college and uni to buy my tiny, 2k first car that I then drove for many years before having enough to change it.

We bought a second hand air mattress off eBay which we slept on and used as a sofa in a tiny, 1 bed flat we were renting til we could afford a bed and a sofa.

I had some luck in that an uncle moved in with his fiancée and let us have some of his furniture, which helped us out. But mostly, it was choices we made so we could live together and build the life we wanted.

actually this isnt new
people were buying from catalogues in the 1970s
credit cards
cars on credit

i blame the credit cards
you can have it all