Friend upset because of a comment I made about renting

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Last week, I caught up with a close friend and we started talking about pensions. This topic came up because I recently started a new job and chose to opt out of the private pension scheme. I've always made this choice for various reasons that I won't bore you with, it’s a personal decision that suits me. However, I completely understand why others would choose to have one. Of course, I might live until I'm 90 and end up eating beans on toast every day, who knows? But that's my issue, not anyone else's.

Anyway, I told my friend that I wasn't worried and was hopeful that my mortgage would be paid off in the next 20-30 years, so I wouldn't have to worry about that monthly expense. I mentioned that it's harder for people who rent, as that bill will always be there. This comment upset her because she rents, and she felt I was looking down on her. That was not my intention (I actually rented for 7 years before buying my house). I was only stating a fact: rent is a constant expense, whereas a mortgage eventually ends.

Was I wrong? Should I apologise?

Well yes - a change of circumstances causes their period of renting to end

There’s no guarantee that the state pension will be available by then anyway. If OP still has 20-30 years until her mortgage is paid off she obviously has a considerable time until retirement. We have an aging population and birth rates are actually coming down. There won’t be enough younger working people to fund everything that older people feel they are entitled to such as free care, heating allowances and a state pension. If that happens OP won’t even be able to afford her beans on toast. Paying off a mortgage doesn’t solve all your problems. You don’t have that bill but what about all the others … how is she going to afford them with no income?!?!

I wouldn’t count on being subsidised in your old age. We have an aging population and decreasing birth rates, by the time you retire you’ll be lucky if the state pension even exists.
You need to look at paying into something especially if your employer adds a contribution.
Paying off a mortgage is one bill, what about all the others? And your friend may have the rent to pay but she won’t have the expense of paying to upkeep a house or replacing a boiler for example.

There will have to be something, or they’re going to have to bring back debtor’s prison or the workhouse. The very elderly won’t be able to continue working; there will always come a point when they can’t continue to work. If there is no pension or support then they’ll have to do something. Or we’ll have homeless pensioners dying in the street.

It needs a proper conversation, and for the Government to actually sit down and plan decades ahead to ensure something stands. If they’re going to remove pensions, it needs to be done for people being born at the time of the announcement, so they know about it from that’s start and plan their life around it.

The upkeep of a house doesn't come close to £1,200 a month. And that is cheap rent around my way.

Who knows what will happen. That’s why I have a pension.

There will always be a safety net for some pensioners. I expect the state pension will eventually be means-tested.

I don’t think OP said anything harmful.

Ultimately, the decision to rent or buy depends on personal preferences and financial circumstances. The same principle applies to private pensions.

Not unreasonable at all. People renting need to understand that it's essentially lighting money on fire at a much higher rate than a mortgage where you're just burning the interest.

@RealOliveTraybake We're long-term renters. I'd love to hear your advice regarding getting on the property ladder 😀

I'm 25, bought my first home last year in Scotland. Average job with average salary, saved £40k deposit in the first 3 years of real work with £15k saved from previous work while at uni. Bought well within my budget with only a pretty long 14 year mortgage.

You have to be willing to buy in a slightly cheaper area than you probably want, and live slightly further away from work, but it's doable for people with normal jobs who aren't on minimum wage.

@RealOliveTraybake But surely you can accept for some people, in different circumstances to yourself, getting a mortgage simply isn't possible for many different reasons? Life isn't always linear.

Absolutely, but their choices got them to where they are in the present day

@RealOliveTraybake Not necessarily their choices though? Just one example... a woman becomes a single parent through absolutely no fault of her own (say her husband cheats), she has to start over again. Or are you suggesting she stays in order to avoid ever having to rent? Just one scenario of many.