I am also on Mumsnet and it is increasingly common for people to post about how lucky the Boomer generation has been, with university grants, being able to buy a house for very little money and watching its value increase to extortionate levels, gold-plated pensions etc. Their solution is for people rattling around in big houses to downsize so that younger people with children can buy their houses - but not too expensively, of course, because these fortunate people should be benevolent towards others struggling to make their way in life. Inheritance - perhaps they might like to share their wealth.
In vain, do l and others point out the flaws in their arguments and opinions. When we say that there is a very big difference between the earlier members of the boomers who were born into a world of rationing and a bankrupt Britain trying to rebuild itself after the war and the later boomers, born in the sixties when things were generally better and with an air of optimism (although certainly not for all) it falls on deaf ears. I was born in December 1964, so on the cusp of the boomers and generation X. Over a million of us were born in that year - more than any other year since the end of the Second World War. This meant huge classes at school and, the high levels of unemployment in the late seventies/early eighties were perfectly timed for when many people were leaving school and looking for work. As there were so many people in this position, it was very difficult for many to find their first job. Only 10% of the population had access to higher education - most people left school and went to work at fifteen or sixteen, depending on when they were born.
There are many more things, l know, but the point l am making (and I have and in general have had) a very good life, is that there seems to be an assumption that we were born with silver spoons in our mouths and have had gilded lives throughout. I think the straw that has broken the camel’s back was the post today that suggested that, as people in the 65-74 age group are, apparently, the wealthiest group in the country, they don’t need their free bus passes until they are 75+!?! Why hit on bus passes of all things? I think l had had enough of the rampant and overt ageism and envy displayed by some on MN. The OP was challenged to put the same post on GN, but, strangely enough, has not appeared to have done so. I thought l would do it for her and ask for your views on the the topic of the bus pass and the sneering remarks on boomers in general because, of course, the vast majority of people here are exactly that demographic.
The other day I checked how much my late husband's salary in 1963 would be today. We were able to buy our home for £250,00 that year, under no circumstances could one buy a home today on the conversion to today's sum.
I’m a boomer born 1957 and I think although we had our challenges we also had some amazing chances with education, world of work and getting on the housing ladder that are just not available to our children or grandchildren. What I’m so sad about is that the generations are pitted against each other instead of supporting each other, I wish that didn’t happen 😊
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...... and most of those ungrateful tykes have inherited, or will inheri, the homes their parents obtained so easily - from no sacrifices and easy money of course!!
Maybe if they didn't spent money on unnecessary things ' i.e. multiple cups of take-away coffees, bottles of wine, dining out, multiple holidays, massive tv's, expensive mobile phones - they might be able to save a deposit on a property.
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I would remind the younger people who are criticising us " boomers" that they, one day, will be pensioners and whatever is taken from us today will not be reinstated for them in the future so they need to be careful of what they wish for
I was born in 1946. I wonder how many of the younger generation who criticise us would liked to have lived as we did.
We had one coal fire in the living room which heated the boiler above. The fire had to be laid with paper, wood and coal every morning and the ashes cleared out in the eveing. No central heating!
If the bedroom was cold we used an old earthenware pop bottle to warm the bed.
We used a dolly tub and posser (remember those?) and clothes wringer for washing our clothes untill we bought a twin tub washer.
If we wanted the loo it was a trip down the back yard come rain, shine or snow. Oh it was luxury when we had an inside bath and toilet installed.
NO freezers. No television. Not for a long time.
I wonder if they could forgo their cars these days and catch a bus everywhere as we did.
Our holiday was a week in Blackpool at a B&B every year.
Oh happy days. I did have a good childhood.
Despite everything I think we were happier then. We didn't have a lot and neither did we expect a lot, unlike some of today's generation.
I was born in 1949 and lived with my widowed grandmother and my single mother. Money was very tight. No heating beyond a coal fire in the living room, no running water apart from a temperamental geyser [scary] over the bath. Tin baths in front of the fire. No fridge, no TV, just the radio, no car, no holidays, no large presents for Christmas or birthdays...biggest one was a pair of skates!
My first holiday was when I was 14, just a few days in a boarding house, before then only coach day trips. I had to leave school and forego an Art School place, we needed my pay.
Mum [always working full time, didn't see her much] had put some money away for me so by the time I met my husband it went towards the deposit for our first house and in no way did we think it was cheap then! Basic house, just what we could afford, needed work. Money was very tight. We had no washing machine, no carpets just old lino, no central heating, no takeaways, no telephone, an awful rented tv, any holiday was in a tent or grotty caravan, no credit [we saved]. Husband had a scooter, then moved up to a Reliant Robin! Eventually a series of old bangers.
When sons came along I always had to work part time in the evenings, no childcare available in the day and wouldn't have afforded it anyway. So I wasn't able to put them to bed, I really missed that.
Life/money has always been difficult with struggles at different times for different reasons...no foreign holidays or cruises here, no fancy cars, no pampering weekends at a spa, no amazing clothes. Now on the old pension [much lower than the new one] which never gets a mention. I wouldn't survive if I hadn't had an inheritance which I couldn't touch and I've had to invest to get an income from.
However I feel happy that I played in the street/parks and had lots of freedom, that I ate good fresh cooked food, and that I was happy with what I had that I didn't and don't need 'stuff' to make me happy. I watch people spend god knows how much on cars, furniture, holidays, clothes, hen and stag do's, smart phones, tattoos, nail, hair and body treatments, hours in coffee shops, expensive weddings/honeymoons, £100's on their children's Christmas and Birthday presents, gadgets etc. etc. and know that I could never have what I have now if I'd lived like that.
So I'm lucky my early years taught me to save and to appreciate what I have and no need to impress anyone with 'things'. I had a happy childhood, lovely friends and was brought up properly, to show respect and to have manners...those are the main things. Now I have a modest home with a garden, I enjoy a simple life and have enough to eat. I think I've earned it, so why should anyone begrudge me that.
Those of us born in 1945 and just prior to that are not Boomers.
We're either The Silent Generation so should put up and shut up 🤐 or War Babies.
I'm not sure where I belong in this new order as I wasn't born in the war or in the post-war boom.
This rather uninformed Mumsnetters perhaps thinks that Boomer refers to those who were born in boom years of bounty and plenty but doesn't understand Baby Boomers means the years after WW2 when there was a sudden boom of babies when the men returned home from war.
On the question of the travel pass , I use mine every week to volunteer at a local authority run tourist venue . The work is really enjoyable and it helps to generate ticket sales While there I shop in the local town . I like to think everyone’s a winner !
We were happier in the 50s and 60s for sure, simple pleasures, we were just kids being kids, we had very few pressures and very little money.
What bothers me is that those of us with homes and a decent pension will, when we die, fuel the divide between those who have and those will struggle all of their lives. Actually, I'm with those young people who feel angry that they struggle to leave home to rent let alone buy their own home whilst those with the bank of mum and dad get a leg up on the housing ladder and aren't spending most of their salary on rent or having to live with parents.
I don't know how any young person with university debts and reliant purely on what they earn can afford to live in some parts of the country. Our daughters are fortunate enough to have been left money by grandparents and been able to raid the bank of mum and dad (with our blessing) and although single have their own homes. They certainly recognise how fortunate they are but they have friends who are just as bright and hard working who frankly struggle. This is not a healthy way for a society to be.
Yes, life wasn't as comfortable for me as a child as it's been for my children and I'm glad of that. We had tough times as a country but at least I felt most of us had the same struggles, that's just not true these days. In the 60's we started to see opportunities opening up for people regardless of who their parents were and I was one of those who benefited but over the past few decades I've seen that opportunity diminish and we are poorer in many ways as a country for it.
mabon, we bought our first home in 1963 for £2950 ; only DH’s £1000 PA teacher’s salary counted and we could borrow 3x that amount. The £18 a month mortgage didn’t leave much but we were so pleased to have our own home that nothing else mattered. As it was a new build house we only had to put down 5% as deposit, otherwise 10% was required and would have taken longer to save up. It was hard but much harder now for the young, especially as rents are so much higher as a proportion of earnings,
...also on Mumsnet they complain about being called into work for a meeting after having got used to working from home in their pyjamas and being poor on salaries well into 6 figures. So unfair!
My GD recently moved back home to save money. On £30,000
she hated paying £800 pm for a flat share. Fair enough.
What slightly shocked me is that she objected to her Father asking for £200 pm for her keep. Didn't he know 'all her friends live at home for free'. So unfair, Nanny, so unfair!!!
As he subs her generously - her car for eg. - I suggested she sucked it up and thought about the generous bounty she receives from all her family.
You think you had it hard? I had to get up half an hour before I went to bed, eat a piece of hot coal before working 29 hours a day down t’pit for tuppence a month. When we got home our dad would hit us round the head with a broken bottle ….. if we were lucky!
(Loosely by courtesy of Mr Monty Python 🤣)
I was born in 1947 ,had a lovely childhood,free, playing outside ,in the woods,.Food was plain but nourishing ,much excitement when we could get spaghetti in a tin.I did nurse training but from then on it was either a grotty bedsit to live in ,no hope of earning enough to buy a house.Single women were doomed to live with parents or a horrible bedsit.Life for a single woman was financially poor.
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I have noticed a difference in the chat of young hairdressers to the extent I now watch what I say.
Talk about cars, holiday's abroad, designer clothes, £100 squandered on a night out or a week-end away is fading away.
A few years ago I listened to a young hairdresser and another customer complaining about the cost of housing.
Then the hairdresser said her boyfriend was having a full day session at the tattoo parlour.
Cost? £350.
"Ahh, but that's an investment" they both agreed...
A 50-ish professor of history whom I know, he says we're the luckiest generation. (In fact, I'm a war baby.)
I think it's true. We reached adulthood after a tough childhood so we knew, and still know, how to make the best of what we have.
Our first home after we were married in the mid-60s was a flat at the top of a house belonging to an elderly widow. We had a crummy kitchen and a bed-sitter and we shared a bathroom with another young couple who lived downstairs.
It was cheap and were able to save the deposit for a house. We got a council mortgage on an old house and did lots of DIY, as did our friends. My point is that it was possible, and that's the big difference between then and now.
DS and DD were able to get their own places with minimal help from us around the millennium. But we've made financial arrangements for the benefit of the GC
I don't see how else they are going to be able to do it. Unfair on some, I know.
I hope this government will be able to provide more properly subsidised housing.
V3ra
^I have noticed a difference in the chat of young hairdressers to the extent I now watch what I say.^
Talk about cars, holiday's abroad, designer clothes, £100 squandered on a night out or a week-end away is fading away.
A few years ago I listened to a young hairdresser and another customer complaining about the cost of housing.
Then the hairdresser said her boyfriend was having a full day session at the tattoo parlour.
Cost? £350.
"Ahh, but that's an investment" they both agreed...
I saw the ultimate in tattoos on the news the other day.
A man has had the barcode from his Tesco loyalty card tattooed on his wrist so he need never worry about forgetting his card. 
I was born in 1952 and was very fortunate that we were wealthy, so had plenty of everything including big cars and holidays overseas.
However, my Dad wouldn't contribute to my 3rd level education. I had to make a paltry grant intended for 27 weeks last for 52 weeks a year, paying rent, buying books, clothing, existing. Of course I had part time jobs, where I was paid a half or two thirds what the boys were getting for doing exactly the same.
I was sometimes hungry, I walked everywhere day-to-day and hitch-hiked longer distances. I couldn't attend my graduation because I hadn't the requisite smart black clothes and shoes.
I know my problems were those of the "privileged middle class", but it was tough enough. I couldn't go on to be a barrister, as I wished, because I couldn't afford to.
My husband and I paid 16% on our first mortgage, whilst paying 65 % income tax and had, literally, zero disposable income.
Our first holiday together was a few days in a tent in Northumberland 😀.
Romola
A 50-ish professor of history whom I know, he says we're the luckiest generation. (In fact, I'm a war baby.)
I think it's true. We reached adulthood after a tough childhood so we knew, and still know, how to make the best of what we have.
Our first home after we were married in the mid-60s was a flat at the top of a house belonging to an elderly widow. We had a crummy kitchen and a bed-sitter and we shared a bathroom with another young couple who lived downstairs.
It was cheap and were able to save the deposit for a house. We got a council mortgage on an old house and did lots of DIY, as did our friends. My point is that it was possible, and that's the big difference between then and now.
DS and DD were able to get their own places with minimal help from us around the millennium. But we've made financial arrangements for the benefit of the GC
It was only possible by going without, though, even with two salaries.
Very interesting life stories. I realise that I have been fortunate throughout my life, but even my sixties-born generation, who were born in a time of optimism knew exactly what could be afforded and what could not. We still played out in groups of friends with minimal supervision and used our imaginations. Most of us went to comprehensive schools, but corporal punishment was still the ultimate deterrent (not for girls, as far as I am aware) and l well remember blackboard rubbers being thrown by teachers. I was fortunate enough to go to musk college and gain a degree. This was the mid-eighties and I had a marvellous time. I shared a house and there was no central heating. The mid-eighties had several very cold, snowy winters and it was a case of quickly getting dressed next to a less than adequate fan heater then running downstairs to put on the two dated and probably very dangerous gas fires. We bought a black and white sixties TV and a single tub and spin dryer, to save the astronomical costs of the launderette, of equal vintage from an auction. The spin dryer would dance all over the kitchen floor unless we sat on it. In my first year, I swapped from violin to viola as my second instrument. I was able to borrow one from the college to start with, but soon needed one of my own. I bought one for £300 from a fellow student - a fortune in 1984 - and it was the first time I had a bank loan, which I methodically paid back. In 1989, l got married. The ceremony was at my church and the reception was in a nearby village hall with outside caterers. There was dancing in the evening and our honeymoon was in Scotland. My husband had a house and, until we got married, had lodgers. Much of the furniture was second hand (as it is to this day, but now more coordinated and better quality). We had two TVs - one of which was my portable TV - and a washing machine and we both had hi-fi, but that was it. Our three children were born in the nineties. We had friends who were in negative equity and the number of house repossessions was frightening. We bought a second hand tumble dryer as we had very little indoor space for drying clothes. DH’s parents were abroad and sent us a cheque for all of us for Christmas the year our oldest child was born. We spent it on a microwave as we knew we would get a lot of use out of it and they were expensive at the time. We had very little money at that time and I can remember losing a £5 note and bursting into tears because that was all the money I had. As time progressed, we earned more money and life gradually became more secure. We are certainly comfortably off now and have benefited from an inheritance, but we have worked hard as well and our oldest child is disabled so has needed extra help. I think l was incensed by the pettiness of the idea of the bus pass being revoked for older people. The title actually referred to old people aged sixty and older, which is very insulting. We were also referred to as “these people,” which many of us found insulting. Of course, the next generation has its own struggles, but quibbling over the bus pass seems ageist, envious and extremely petty to me.
MaiBea
I’m a boomer born 1957 and I think although we had our challenges we also had some amazing chances with education, world of work and getting on the housing ladder that are just not available to our children or grandchildren. What I’m so sad about is that the generations are pitted against each other instead of supporting each other, I wish that didn’t happen 😊
What I’m so sad about is that the generations are pitted against each other instead of supporting each other, I wish that didn’t happen 😊
I agree. That Intergenerational Foundation has a lot to answer for.
Every generation has its challenges.
LadyGaGa
You think you had it hard? I had to get up half an hour before I went to bed, eat a piece of hot coal before working 29 hours a day down t’pit for tuppence a month. When we got home our dad would hit us round the head with a broken bottle ….. if we were lucky!
(Loosely by courtesy of Mr Monty Python 🤣)
I wondered if anyone else was thinking that!
Jaxjacky
LadyGaGa
You think you had it hard? I had to get up half an hour before I went to bed, eat a piece of hot coal before working 29 hours a day down t’pit for tuppence a month. When we got home our dad would hit us round the head with a broken bottle ….. if we were lucky!
(Loosely by courtesy of Mr Monty Python 🤣)I wondered if anyone else was thinking that!
😂
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