General life is different to years ago

[kmr24]

Hello,

I'm just thinking of how everything thing has changed over the past 5 years . No one has a lot of disposable income , rent and food is higher and just general things are not the same... I've heard taxes are going up now also! I feel low with it all and I need to find a new house I've been in for 10 years as the landlord wants to sell and I can't find anywhere to rent. And the council have a very long waiting list. There's a lot of people in this boat it's sad how we have to live like this.will the climate ever change or is this how it is now?

For me things have improved over the last 5 years. We turned a corner.

DCs are leaving home, setting up their own homes, getting married. I was able to secure a much better job at age 55, increasing my salary by 50% (I hadnt realised quite how underpaid I was) and more importantly much better pension contributions.

Retirement is round the next corner (shortly after the mortgage is finally paid off). We are getting ready for it. As an experiment we went down from 2 cars to one. So far so good. We have hobbies which reward time and patience rather than expenditure.

We go on holiday less frequently than we did when DCs were small. Less inclination to escape the day to day as we enjoy the day to day.

We arent boomer generation. Just missed that. It looked like it was fun. We started work as the economy started to take a dive. What we have got is contentment with our lot.

I definitely agree with some of these points. There are issues that aren’t necessarily of our making though - for example the bus service to my village (15 min from a city) has recently been cut. The nearest public transport is a ten minute drive away, so we need to commute by car again (we had managed with one car for years). There’s no industry locally any more so the only jobs are in the big Tesco, or towards the city. Our doctors surgery is closing. Elderly parent moans that we shouldn’t have two cars as they managed to walk everywhere but expects to be ferried to appointments.

Many of us don’t have a bank locally - we are pushed to do our banking through apps.

You can’t get a job interview in many places now without submitting your CV online - need a smartphone or laptop. Yes our aspirations to own these things may have increased but the world has changed to make sure we need them in our daily lives. (My car and sofa are second hand btw!)

But .... In my experience, the rich (or financially comfortable) are that way because they're usually very frugal with money.

To put it crudely they're usually "tight" . Two people could be given the same amount of money and end up in very different outcomes.

My DH always says if he won 100,000 he'd invest it in a house to rent, that would mean zero "fun" off the money and you'd notice zero difference to your income for a few years, but then you'd have a steady stream coming in for life if you rented it out. (I won't get into the ethics of second home owning or buying to rent) Just as an example of how the more shrewd think or do with money.

Someone I know fairly well got an inheritance from two relatives (a fairly hefty amount) they used it for house renovations (top of the range new kitchen, bathroom plus an abroad holiday) at the time they were heavily in debt (well into the tens of thousands) and still had a mortgage. The decision to use that money to not pay off existing debt baffled me. If you pay off the debt, you stand more chance of legitimately saving up for the holiday and kitchen! It's once again all the short term pain long term gain issue. Ironically this person is one that states "oh it's ok for you, you haven't got debt" etc to people. Yet two cars are on finance, mortgage sky high and lots of holidays on a credit card. The hard truth is, it's self made.

I don't think we can always blame the wealthier, they've usually (barring inheritance) worked hard to earn their wealth and make sure they spend it frugally and wisely to retain it.

I beg to differ! I'm a fan.of the jersey knee length dresses and I have a couple from 5 years ago which have lasted, the material is thicker than the one I bought last year which already looks mire worn. Disappointingly I bought another dress in the Jan sale which has gone bobbly... they never did that before.

So the 2 old ones look and feel better than the more recent purchases.

We didn’t get a fridge until the 70s when I was around 10….neither did we have a colour to or a phone or a car.

So many of these comments are fairly irrelevant though because of their relative scale. Mortgage plus childcare for me is well over £5000 per month, as a lone parent. This simply wasn't the case for people even a couple of decades ago. And no, we most definitely do not live in a mansion. I am also taxed to death, far more than a couple with the same income.

Saving £10 monthly on a phone bill or not having a takeaway pizza once a month as a treat won't make the slightest difference to the enormity of these two huge and essential costs.

Neither will buying a new fridge every 10-15 years, or buying cheaper meals etc.

The inescapable fact - well documented in multiple economic studies - is that taxes are much higher than they were in previous generations and the most essential living costs that dwarf all others (housing and childcare) are many times higher compared to salaries for comparable jobs/ careers in previous decades. The availability of good pension provision is also far more restricted. And public services are far worse.

Therefore, overall standard of living and financial security that can be expected for the same level of work and achievement is lower, despite advances in technology obviously having brought more modern comforts and technology into homes and daily life.

I think the lack of affordability housing has had the biggest impact. There aren’t enough houses for the number of people we have. Since the council houses were sold off, they haven’t built anywhere near enough to replace them and years later, here we are. Rents and mortgages are both sky high due to supply (or lack of) and demand.

Ten families fighting for one rental property and having to use a guarantor despite being on £50k salary! (Happened to my friend absolutely crackers)

What is it that you think Labour will do differently that will magically fix society?

@Halloumiheaven

The hard truth is, it's self made

You really can't make a sweeping generalisation like that. Especially these days when basic costs of living are so high. If people can barely afford the essentials/necessities, they aren't in a position to buy a house to rent out, are they?

My son has just finished his first year in a professional job with on of the UK's biggest insurers. On a pretty good wage for a graduate job. He has literally nothing left after paying his rent, utilities, transport, food, etc. His "discretionary" fun spending is about £100 per month, so he has to choose whether to go to the pub quiz or whether to go to five a side football, he can't afford to do both.

None of that is down to a lavish lifestyle or overspending. His flat is a tiny one bedroomed with kitchen area in a corner of the living area. Right on the edge of town, the furthest away possible from the town centre on anything remotely like a decent bus route. It takes over a third of his wage on rent alone. Utilities come to something like £500 per month being £100 on electricity despite him barely having the heating on (it's a hugely expensive electric water heating system, no gas, and of course, it's rented so he has to put up with it), council tax something like £200 per month (utterly crazy for a tiny flat, but it's an expensive city), £150 or so for water rates (not metered, so he's paying for 2/3 people- again outside his control as he's renting), £50 for internet as he needs speed and reliability due to having to work from home 2 days per week and study from home, plus insurance, mobile phone sim card at a tenner per month, etc. He can't cut down his food bill - he already gets everything from Tesco using clubcard discounts, takes his own packed lunch to work, never buys coffees or other items during the working day, a cheap takeaway only once per week. It's a ridiculously frugal lifestyle for a graduate professional.

Heaven only knows how single people on minimum wage can afford to exist unless they're still living at home, which is impossible for lots of professional graduates as the decent jobs are centralised in a hand full of major cities, so they have to move away for decent jobs, or have to stay living at home and end up working in retail, hospitality or care at minimum wage. What an awful choice for people whose home towns are in the run down regions!

I agree. It’s like when I bought my first house I had lots of older people at work reminisce about what a state their first house was and said mine in a much better state and not a “typical first house” . But they bought their first house at 19/20 and I was buying in my 30’s. Someone told me they walked 6 miles a day rather than got the bus for a year when saving up for a deposit for their house. Me doing the same wouldn’t have even covered the legal fees!

Yep, after six months of struggling to even get viewings for one bed flats, my son made an offer on the first one he got to view, he had to offer 10% over the asking rental price AND pay a years' rent in advance. It was the only way he'd get it. He couldn't risk not even getting viewings for more months as time was ticking and he was getting very close to his work start date. He'd have ended up living in a hotel or holiday home at extortionate cost had he not secured that flat.

I don't think "comfortable" people who have their own homes or are in relatively safe long term rentals really appreciate just how bad things have got.

We certainly didn't. We never expected our son to have trouble even getting viewings due to the ridiculously high demand.

Houses converted to student flats (due to Blairs stupid 50%) and lots of "richer" people buying up homes to rent out as holiday lets/Air BNBs) has caused massive problems in university towns and tourist areas - and if you want to live in a tourist university town - forget it! You've no hope of finding anywhere to rent.

Flats that our son was looking at (though not getting viewings for) last year for say £800-£1000 per month range are now up for £1200-£1500 (similar flats in same blocks etc). It's absolutely insane!

My son was petrified that his current landlady would either put the rent up or force him out this Summer when his first year lease came up for renewal as he knew he'd have to move away and commute by train from another city. Luckily, as he's caused no trouble at all, nor has been needy in any way (never even contacted the landlady all year for anything - we've done minor repairs and improvements that were needed at our cost), she seems to be happy with him continuing, even though she could easily get more rent as other flats in the same block have seen whopping rental price increases. The one next door to him on his floor was rented out to new tenants a couple of months ago for £300 more than my son is paying!

As I say, absolutely insane. People who are "comfortable" need to stop knocking younger people struggling and start to realise just how bad things are.

Well the bus fare alone would not have added up to a house deposit even then .

Well the bus fare alone would not have added up to a house deposit even then .

I don't agree either. Lots of younger people still have no choice but to have "hand me downs" or buy second hand furniture from charity shops.

My son ended up with an unfurnished flat, so had to fully kit it out. We took three car loads of stuff for him from home, including his bed, chest of drawers, (luckily we had an estate car and trailer!) and all his "kitchen" stuff from his university flat, including kettle, cutlery & crockery, plus things like the iron, clothes airer, linen basket, and his bedroom TV etc. His bedroom at home is now basically empty and when he comes home, he has to sleep on a sofa bed in the lounge!

We scoured the charity shop warehouses in his new city for a desk, office chair (he has to work from home 2 days and study at home), a second hand clothes rail, second hand sofa, and second hand coffee table. Got the cheapest microwave from Argos, cheapest vacuum from Amazon, etc.

It's a very frugal lifestyle with just the basics.

I think people are really out of touch when they generalise that all young people are living the "high life", with everything new, expensive subscriptions, top of the range electronics, etc. Of course, some do, but lots don't!

Absolutely agree. It’s strange how they cant understand from their own DC or DGC perspective. We own our own home but I’ve not had an easy life and I can remember all too well having to rent and the uncertainty. It’s far worse now. It’s only because my DH has a good wage that I feel secure now. I worry about my kids who are the ones going to suffer unless something drastically happens. I feel very fortunate to be in the position I’m now in and appreciate most of it was luck. If we bought our house now, it would cost about £100k more than what we paid for it and it’s the younger generation that will have to find that extra money, plus the uni fees they have to pay.

Yep, I agree. I'm to blame just the same. Until a year or two ago, I had the same "comfortable" mindset and lazily blamed younger people struggling due to expensive phone contracts, top Sky packages, takeaways every day, etc. - You know, the lazy stereotyping. It was only going through it with my son last year that it all hit home just how bad things are these days. Too many people living in their own comfortable bubbles and generalising sadly!

@taxguru Your DSs water bill cannot be right. A flat isn't going to have high rates which is the only way he's going to be paying that much for unmetered.

But if it is, and he can't have a meter, he can pay an assessed charge, which should take account of his lower usage due to living alone and bring it down more in line with what it would be if he was metered.

His broadband doesn't need to be anywhere near £50 pm either. Ours is under half that for high speed full fibre and it's more than sufficient for WFH.

Does he get the single person council tax discount?

@taxguru i pay under £70 for water in a three bedroom house with three adults. Are you sure that’s right?

The car thing yes I am always saying this! You had a shitty old car that had its quirks and you nursed it to get it going in the winter . I routinely have the cheapest car on the car park and I am 52 with a decent salary and I'd say 90% of the clientele are a couple of decades younger than me.

It does depend where you live though …..I’m in the NW and relatively easy to get a council house or social housing if you aren’t too fussy about the area…..my DD got one with her baby in 5 months back in 2016….my DS got one in 2018 2 months after his baby was born …..2 of my neices and my DSs ex got new 2 bed new builds last year….with landscaped garden, car charging points, lovely kitchens …….I think they have built over 200 over the past 2 to 3 years ……I appreciate it’s harder if you are single though…..not so many one bed flats around here either

I have three children all in their thirties renting. No prospect of buying even if we help them with deposits. They are all struggling. One of them with a child has been moved on twice by landlords selling up. Another has been told to leave in a month for the same reason. Often landlords will say this to get tenants out and start afresh with much higher rents. The landlords are greedy and unprincipled. It’s really hard for all of them.

Broadband and smart phones pretty much are essentials for everyday life these days. Whether you can do without a car depends on your location.

@Halloumiheaven I agree that the rich can be ahem, fruga (obviously that's a generalisation) but I think people do by necessity become tighter the more they earn even if they were a bit spendthrift previously .

If you don't have very much coming in the reality is you can easily be couple of hundred a month in debt buying a crappy car, servicing it and paying for a new oven. So another £100 on Christmas, a summer holiday or some new clothes isn't a big deal.

Once your disposable income is all yours - house and cars paid off, you suddenly realise it's all yours and you shoukd be careful of it.

Housing is obviously a big issue but I do feel that people have very high expectations of what they should be able to have or buy even on average or low salaries. I purchased a flat around 1992 and didn't even have furniture other than beds and a hand me down table for ages. I stuck with the awful carpet for years too. It does seem that people want those newer cars and showroom homes immediately now and feel like hard done by paupers if they can't afford to eat out.