AIBU to think the older generation is deluded to think this is greed and recklessness?

[Datinggal]

Early thirties and have a 6k credit card debt (interest free) after buying a car, as do two of my other colleagues my age.

Recently a few colleagues over a lunch said to me and the two others my age that they were ‘astonished’ at how easily younger people get into debt and that it was never their mentality. They said we have good jobs and it is just greed of our generation, wanting things now, that we should save before we spend.

AIBU to feel cross about this? I had to save 25% deposit for my house and have student loans of 240 a month to pay back. If that wasn’t the case then of course I would have had the money to buy a car outright! And yes I need a car for work.

I know it’s a case of getting over it and everyone is entitled to their opinion. But I sometimes get the feeling the older generation just does not get it?! AIBU?

What sort of workplaces insist on a nice car? Genuinely curious.

Some people can turn anything into a moral failing that demonstrates poor character qualities.

Why are you paying back £280 a month student loan? Mine is nowhere near that much.

I'm in my late late 50s and just paid off my car loan and cars are far more expensive here in lreland. Anyone would pay 6000 even for a small older car.
It was my first brand new car as l always took my dhs old ones before that. This one will see me into retirement, hopefully.
My dps never borrowed, even to buy a house as they built one and saved the money to pay cash at each stage.
But no one working with you is that age or a post war person as they would be retired.
I don't think it's a big deal having a car loan if you can happily meet the repayments.
So don't make generalisations about older people as we are all different.
And my kids wont have any college loans because here in lreland us old people pay for our kids to go to college. .some with loans.

Because there’s no choice about what you pay back, they take a set amount according to what you earn and how much you owe.

What are you earning, if your student debt repayment is £250/month?
Also, how much was the car?

I'm 50, and had it easier than you.

However, I would go without a tv package and a mobile contract now rather than take out a loan for a car.
My phone cost me about £200 and I have a £5/month sim.
My car was £18k and I'll drive it until it dies, so maybe ten-fifteen years.

I don’t have a tv package and never intend to.

My phone is 22 pounds per month. It’s a smart phone because I need emails on it for work.

You should have gone down the pit at 14 instead of running up that student loan OP. Then you would be able to afford this lovely 10 year old Skoda that only breaks down if it's humid or you drive fast over a pothole.

I'm 52 and have brought my dc up to save rather than have credit. You can be in a big mess if you lose your job, or get ill, or both.
Obviously, if you have a mortgage you can't be expected to save the full whack for a house, but besides this, who needs debt?
Just save and keep a buffer, no need to owe companies money then.
I hate owing money, having to use stuff that doesn't belong to me, but a credit company. fuck that.
We are all different, some like credit, and it's fine. Others like me would rather own everything they have. I'd rather chew my own foot off than beholden.

@TinklyLittleLaugh - jobs where you need to transport clients or customers, or are visiting somewhere as a representative of your employer. Showing up in an ancient car with dents and dings or driving an important client out to lunch on a hot day in an old car with no air con or a scruffy interior etc doesn’t represent your company very well any more than going to an important meeting in a 20-year-old suit with an unfashionable cut and patched holes would - it would be fully serviceable and functioning but how many of us would think it appropriate?

I think OP is getting a bit of a hard time here. Last year when my 12 yr old hatchback failed its MOT (cost of repairs would’ve been £800+ with more work to be done in the next year), I decided to scrap it and get a new car. I didn’t have enough savings to buy a new car as we had recently had some unexpected costs and have been saving to have a baby and doing some work on the house we bought 3 years ago. So got a low interest loan to get a second hand 4 yr old (unfashionable) hatchback with low mileage. It was £5250; I don’t know what cars people are driving that £6k means the OP is driving something extravagant! Ideally I’d have been in a position where I had savings so I could’ve bought it with cash, but I didn’t. We don’t go on holidays, we watch freeview, we don’t eat out other than special occasions like birthdays, I don’t get my eyebrows or nails done, we don’t drink much (monthly trip to the pub for a quiz and single pint)... we make good decisions and earn the “average UK salary” each... but that doesn’t stretch as far as always having savings in the bank. For those who said hire purchase would’ve been a better choice, well in December we will have paid off my car loan so I’ll own it outright and my income will be reduced due to maternity leave but I won’t have any HP costs and will get to keep my car.

My phone is 22 pounds per month. It’s a smart phone because I need emails on it for work.

You can get a smart phone for less than that, buy one outright then get a PAYG deal, it's much cheaper. I pay £10 a month but that's mainly because of my data habit, DD1 has no mobile data so has only spent £10 this year and her phone is nicer than mine.

But I'm assuming you are on a high salary based on your student loan repayments. 9% on any earnings above £25,725, so £240 means you earn ~£60k. So the phone isn't much relative to your earnings and neither is the car loan. My first car was £5K 20 years ago for a 3 year old micra, I paid for that with a loan that was a far bigger percent of my salary (my first postdoc paid £16k) but every car since has been paid for with savings. You're not exactly on the road to ruin with that debt.

Mumsnet always seems to me an unusual mix of the extremely frugal and ones with skiing holidays and nannies. OP, you are perfectly normal, I’ve heard lots of comments from people in the past about ‘saving up’ and then discovered their 3 houses are mainly due to inheritance or a cracking divorce settlement and quite rarely through being just amazingly efficient with average earnings

Almost everyone I know buys their car on credit. Perfectly normal. My parents are baby boomers and also always bought their cars on credit and still do. They don't have any other debt and neither do my DH and I, we are in our 40's. My car is the only thing I have on credit. I don't own a credit card.

Your old colleagues have 3 to 4 homes each???? I'm old and have a car and a terraced house - what sort of work are you in that they can afford to have that many homes!

@Datinggal - I wonder if some of your older colleagues, who are making these comments, grew up in an era when it was considered far less acceptable to go into debt for anything apart from a mortgage.

I am in my mid-50s and when I was a teenager and in my 20s saving up for things was the norm, and I remember disapproving comments about buying things on the ‘never never’ (buying things on credit - as in you never, never finish paying for them I think).

I have seen these attitudes change a lot, over the years - but I can understand how people of my generation and older can have these entrenched, anti-credit attitudes. We are all a product of our time and our upbringing - but that doesn’t make snippy comments acceptable, of course.

I think that most of them don’t realise that even ‘good’ jobs pay tuppence. When you factor in the costs of working (clothing, either commuting or living close enough, childcare, cost of training and education required to get the job in the first place) there is very little left. You are pretty much obliged to move in with (an ideally older) boyfriend, get assistance from parents or go into debt.

I don't think £6k is an unreasonable price for a car, especially if you can pay it back with 0% HP but take care that the 0% deal is not only for 1 year if it is and you are not going to pay it back in full switch at the end of the year. I would say that most people take loans out for cars they are a big outlay and the majority of folk dont have the cash to pay in a lump sum.

buying a very cheap car (and 6k these days is not cheap, it’s what a 3-4 year old little hatchback would cost) can be throwing good money after bad if you end up spending hundreds of pounds on various repairs. An interest free loan sounds very sensible if you can afford the repayments easily and it means you can get a newer car which will be more reliable and ensure you pay less in repairs.

It just makes financial sense. It’s no different from putting aside the same amount of money each month to save up and buy outright. THe issue wirh doing that (and we have done it) is that you save save save for a few years, and when you come to buy another car, the cost of second hand cars has gone up and inflation has maybe eroded your savings slightly so you end up struggling to buy the standard of car you need with your savings.

Comments from anyone else I would just ignore, OP. Some people are just so scared of the idea of debt of any kind that they have not looked into the feasibility and sense behind some types of loan set ups. I think PCPs are a terrible idea overall but clearly work for some people who like a nice shiny new car every few years and never want to actually own a car and who are happy to pay a monthly amount for years on end to achieve that.

I prefer a reliable car which I own and will last me over 10 years until repairs make it uneconomical.

Can I just say that anyone unluckyenough yo have someone crash into their car and get it written off is in for a shock when it comes to trying to find a like for like replacement at the cost that an insurer will give you. If you have a reliable 10 year old car you have invested money in to keep in good condition and get barely anything back from an insurer cos it’s so old, then good luck trying to find one as decent at the same age. Sometimes people have no choice but to take loans. It’s the type and affordability of loans that’s the main issue. Absolutely nothing else matters.

Sorry I meant 6k these days is not an expensive car!!!!

Yes I am of the generation that did not take out debt except for mortgages or essentials. You only took out debts for things like cookers, beds if you were poor, or mortgages if not. Apart from a small amount of people who did and were seen as spendthrifts.

I suspect OP you don't understand how much debt used to be disapproved of. Debt was seen as amoral failing. I even remember in Home Economics in school getting a lecture from the teacher about the evils of debt.

So this is actually nothing to do with Millenials. It is more about older cultural attitudes. If you want to understand it it was viewed as some people now view people being on benefits. Of course the poor did have debts in the past because they often had no choice.

I'm 39 and would never get a loan or credit for anything except a mortgage. Even a slight overdraft causes me sleepless nights. DH is 42 and has a car loan. I don't think it's about generations, some people are more anxious about debt than others.

Those poo—pooing the op for such a frippery as a needlessly expensive car.

I used to work with car accident statistics. One thing I am evangelical about is ‘buy the newest, the highest ncap rated car you can afford, and go into debt to do it‘.

I’ve seen too many instances of collisions where someone in an older vehicle ended up with lifechanging injuries. The person in the newer car walked away.

We don’t all mindlessly buy new cars or pose in. Sometimes it is a considered decision.

*to pose in

Some people here have very dogmatic and unreasonable attitudes about debt.
A car can be a necessary work expense just like a rail season ticket which can cost hundreds of pounds a month as I said before. If you have a long commute a car can potentially be cheaper.
I've used 0% credit cards to manage cash flow, perfectly sensible thing to do.