Different times, different expectations. It certainly seems harder to get a house these days and not many could survive on one wage whereas we could mostly take time out to see our children off to school before going back to work. We didn’t bother with the gadgets they have these days and certainly didn’t have expensive floor coverings and tvs and washing machines but then there aren’t that many laundromats around now,either .
Gransnet forums
Chat
Boomers - The Luckiest Generation?
(113 Posts)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.
When I look back in what my house looked like when my children were little, I think todays young parents would be in shock. If I remember right I had a couple of threadbare carpets because we couldn’t affixed new ones. Ran old cars which my husband welded to keep them on the road. A meal out was a once a year treat paid for by a family friend who had no children and wanted our kids to know what it was like to eat out. Wouldn’t dream of buying a coffee when out and about; far too extravagant.Didn’t have a holiday abroad till the kids were in their teens and then it was Eurocamp. Continued to live as frugally as possible so we could get the kids through university debt free. I do feel sorry about people having to leave university in so much debt, though. I was shocked when an American friend told me how much debt he was in because of going to university.
Granny Somerset, where abouts are you? I’m also in Somerset - born 1940
It’s the cost of housing - whether rent or mortgage - that’s the killer now, at least anywhere around here. The monthly rent for a certainly-nothing-special 2 bed flat will typically be more than the monthly mortgage payment for the same property, and the cost of rent means it’s that much harder for people on average salaries to save enough for a deposit.
Add on the cost of childcare, and it’s no wonder younger people struggle.
I was a boomer, born in 1947. Eldest of three in a two up two down with a toilet in the yard and tin bath every Saturday night in the kitchen. Everyone helped each other out and we played in the street after school until bedtime. Married with two children at 24, rented for a year then bought our first house on my husbands wage alone. And here is the difference. Then your house, if new build came with nothing. No fitted kitchen, no central heating, no double glazing, carpet, wood flooring. Garden was as builders left it and no fences. We saved for the things as we went along. Fast forward to now. Dishwashers, washing machines, manicured gardens, fitted wardrobes. I could go on. If young people accepted houses as we did they would be cheaper, available to all but things that we thought of as luxuries are now classed as essentials.
MayBee70
When I look back in what my house looked like when my children were little, I think todays young parents would be in shock. If I remember right I had a couple of threadbare carpets because we couldn’t affixed new ones. Ran old cars which my husband welded to keep them on the road. A meal out was a once a year treat paid for by a family friend who had no children and wanted our kids to know what it was like to eat out. Wouldn’t dream of buying a coffee when out and about; far too extravagant.Didn’t have a holiday abroad till the kids were in their teens and then it was Eurocamp. Continued to live as frugally as possible so we could get the kids through university debt free. I do feel sorry about people having to leave university in so much debt, though. I was shocked when an American friend told me how much debt he was in because of going to university.
We went abroad once when our children were very young - taking our old tent and lots of food in a trailer which DH had made himself, with wheels donated by someone he knew and a tarpaulin over the top!
We went to Britanny on the ferry, (probably not much more expensive than going down the road to Cornwall apart from the cost of the ferry) but the weather was so much better.
It was a wonderful holiday.
I certainly don’t feel unlucky.
I was born before the war and everyone we knew were going through the same thing as we were .
I was lucky enough to pass the 11 plus in 1948 and went to Grammar school which was certainly one of the best things that happened to me.
My H and I certainly worked hard and saved hard for what we wanted but it seemed that all our peers did the same.
I will say that we benefited greatly from house price inflation so that again was lucky.
I, now widowed , am in the house we bought in 1976, so that has increased in value but it is my AC who will benefit from that unless I suddenly lose my mind, sell it and blow the lot!!
I was born in 1942 …..my dad was still in the army in Italy but my older brother, me and mum lived in our semi detached house outside London which my dad must have bought before I was born and before he was called up for service. He was 10 years older than my mum.
Looking back now I had a pretty privileged childhood …..can’t honestly remember feeling unloved or experiencing too many hardships except having to go down to the air raid shelter at the bottom of the garden when the air raid warning sounded off! Bombs did fall all around us but not close enough to wreck our house!
After the war and when dad returned home childhood summers were spent playing outside with neighbours kids or hanging out all around the tennis club that my mum and dad played at.
Dad also had a car…..a Ford Prefect …….and we went on summer holidays to Warners holiday camps around Devon and Cornwall and later to Majorca and Ibiza when I was about 14 or 15.
I lived in the same semi detached house until I left to get married at 21, and just a few months before we had found and bought our first house - a new build 2 bed bungalow that cost us $4,500. We funded the deposit ourselves out of our savings and got a mortgage.
I guess, looking back I am one of the lucky ones …..and after a lifetime of living responsibly, both of us always holding down
full time jobs (except when raising our children), always saving, appreciating and enjoying cooking and gardening and the value of friendships, family, and a lifelong marriage I can say now that I’m in my 80’s I know I’m one of the fortunate ones - and I am quite guilt free about the life I lead and the benefits I have.
Absolutely spot on, thank you for posting this
I am not a baby boomer, I am a war baby.
Whether we are a lucky generation or not. We have done very little ourselves to put us in that position.
To begin with every generation starts off poor and cash strapped in their 20s and gradually, as a whole, not every individual, builds up their capital through savings, buying assets like houses and etc. over the years until they retire.
When DH and I got married, we looked at the nice 4 bedroomed house my parents lived in and said we will never be able to afford a house like that - but we did - and all from our own earnings. No gifts of money from parents or grandparents.
I think the same will happen in this generation, especially as many of them may well have their house purchases subsidised by their parents and when all these big expensive houses come back on the market - some one is going to buy them.
We are selling quite an expensive house at the moment and the majoirty of those viewing it and in a position to pay for it are under 40. We have three people under 40 trying to sell their existing property so that they buy ours at the moment.
In the last 10 years two neighbouring houses, bigger and better than ours, valued at over £1 million have been bought by families where the adults are under 40.
Our whole area is awash with new build houses, most of them 4 bedroomed detached houses. Average price around £500k-600k. They are being bought by young people. They are not being bought by baby boomers.
I think in all our concenrs, quite rightly about those struggling to get on the housing ladder we are failing to notice the large numbers of current mid-aged young people who are doing very well and live in expensive (mortgaged) houses.
I was born in 1941 and lived in buildings. I have memories of the air raid communal shelters built within the buildings.If you have ever read Alan Johnson’s book which described his grandmother’s flat in Sutton Buildings well that was us. I shared a bedroom with my younger brother, our bath was under the long kitchen table, we didn’t have electricity until I was about 8. Before that we had gas mantles which broke easily. Gas stove which heated saucepan after saucepan of hot water for the once a week bath. Toilet paper was often cut up newspaper. Washing was by hand and wooden dolly board to scrub things etc etc. I married at almost 19 and my dh was 20. We had a semi basement flat which we thought we were so lucky to rent. It had one cold tap. An outside toilet. If you wanted a bath you had to go out of our front door and up to the front door of the rest of the house. We never did so we washed ourselves down and I had a bowl to crouch down into to wash my nether regions. We were fortunate to have one of the first launderettes nearby. .We rented in two other places for the next five years as we saved up for a deposit for our first small house. We lived their for eight years and then moved into the house we still live in. It was a 1940s house with the original little cupboards one of which folded down for ironing. Money had been tight from the beginning and life had stresses just as people have today but they were different stresses. Holidays were always in the U.K. No one had special 40th, 50th or 60th birthdays. I wouldn’t like to return to those early times and am thankful for the conveniences of modern life such as the iPad I am using now, online grocery shopping, the 45 inch screen tv and yes the bus pass (paid for by our council tax). I saw that post on Mumsnet and responded fully!!!
there - instead of their.
Join the conversation
Registering is free, easy, and means you can join the discussion, watch threads and lots more.
Register now »Already registered? Log in with:
Gransnet »