Born in 1948 I shared a bedroom with 3 sisters and younger brother, no tv or car we shared a toilet with 2 other families renting in the house, baths were a tin bath in the living room. I started work as I was barely 15. I don’t think those who think we had it easy have no clue how tough our early lives were my ow GC have no clue. I’m now comfortable in my own little house and by golly I’ve earned it.
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Boomers - The Luckiest Generation?
(112 Posts)My reaction is to tell them that there is a simple way of reducing house prices and that is to increase the interest rate on mortgages to 10%, which is what many of us paid. In addition mortgages should only be granted on one income, not 2 as at present
However houses would be no more affordable than they are now, because what decides the price of houses is what proportion of your income lenders think it is safe for you to pay out on mortgage each month and the higher the interest rate, the higher the proportion of each months money is going out in interest the less capital is being repaid, so prices will fall.
As i said, all this will bring house prices right down, pleasing house hunters. Those just above them - the generation who still have mortgages and bought in the last 25 years may be less happy when they suddenly find themselves in negative equity, paying out on mortgage that exceeds the vaalue of their house.
Also why do we not hear cries for all those under retirement age with 'over bedroomed' houses to move? There are well over a million such households, and while some may have bought their house anticipating having children, many haven't.
Our large 4 bedroomed house is for sale at the moment and most of those viewing, do not have children. They are mainly empty nesters, or couples with one child who clearly do not plan more.
Our 50 year old daughter will, today, exchange contracts on a 5 bedroomed house. She is single and has never been anything else. She started in a 2 bedroomed flat, moved to a 3 bedroomed house and is now moving up to 5 bedrooms. To be fair, it is a 3 storey house and the 2 bedrooms at living room level will ebcome an office, for working from home and a craft room.
I think the generation complaining about our 'under occupied' houses should look to their own first - and perhaps some of them might like to come along and buy our house!
Correction - the car we piled into was my dad’s old car, he’d died years before and it had been sitting in my mum’s garage. In case any pedants spot the flaw. 🙄
I am 67, my parents were working class and we lived in a small mill town in Lancashire. In the late seventies/early eighties the mill like most manufacturing industry in our country closed and like many parts of the country we suffered mass unemployment. Dole queues that wound their way out of the dole office right down the street. We had four kids and no income, we got clothes at jumble sales and stood with countless others behind shops at closing time to get any food handouts. We couldn’t afford a car and were renting our house. Many days I didn’t eat so the kids could. Those were desperate times. Eventually we piled into a car and came down South where jobs were more plentiful. My OH and I trained as teachers whilst working two jobs. We didn’t go on holiday for ten years, didn’t buy new clothes for almost as long.
Now we have our own home and a car and can go on holiday but the journey to this point is not one many young people today would ever want to take in order to have these things.
And back in the early eighties we were not alone, 3 million others shared our fate and countless others were just managing.
We consider ourselves lucky, today there are countless older people who cannot afford to heat and eat. They are boomers as we are, but just as there are poor and wealthy younger people there are poor and wealthy older people. We are not all the same.
I was born 1945 we lived in a wonderful prefab I d love to see the mumsnetters say that was luxurious (It was to us)
I first owned a house when I was nearly 40 and only because I was left half in my Nans will
I didn’t get an opportunity to go to Uni or collage we didn’t have a house phone or a washing machine or a Tv No car either, We didn’t go on holidays my first real holiday was when I was18 we had a big garden and dad grew all our vegies Mum cooked after she finished work at 6 pm my Nan had already fed me at her house after school
I wasn’t poor I was just average
Sorry todays generation don’t know they are born
I was born in 1953. My parents had a mortgage but little money for anything else. We grew our own veg and our grandparents had an orchard so we always had fruit. Our annual holiday was one week in Hayling Island. If we were hungry we were offered bread and butter. Thirsty - there’s water in the tap. Others have mentioned being caned at school and big classes. When I started my first job in 1970, men were paid more for the exact same job. ‘Young people today’ could stop buying coffee to take to work, cut down on eating out and maybe learn to cook, celebrate weddings a little more modestly. And learn to love second hand furniture.
Sad isn't it that some younger people think like this.
I actually wish all of us had bus passes and that it would reduce the number of polluting cars clogging up the roads.
We Boomers didn't have foreign holidays or big weddings. Our expectations were lower and I think we were really grateful for what we had.
Our parents had survived the war (in my case 2 wars) and we were told how lucky we were to have a washing machine.
My generation has a lot of community minded people who look out for eachother and for the sick and lonely without expecting payment.
I hope not everyone of that MN's age is as resentful as her. I'm mid 70s now. My pension isn't getting bigger but all my outgoings are.
Nothing was given to us, we worked for everything and saved hard. We didn't have two or three holidays a year, a car each, multiple hen and stag do's lasting days. We didn't spend a fortune on take out coffee or take aways or eating out. Our children only got toys at Christmas and Birthdays and if they were really good as a treat, they didn't eat at Macdonalds etc, they ate good home cooked food at home, no ready meals, crisps biscuits etc, we couldn't afford them. We had no expectations of an inheritance our retirement is funded by savings. I could go on forever about how money is wasted now. Our generation coined the phrase "negative equity", many having to sell their home at a loss and losing everything. Remember 14% or even 16% interest mortgages? I do we had one. No free childcare for us either, that's why more women didn't work, often nursery cost more than a women could earn. We also didn't have "Boomer" parents or grandparents who could help us out with house deposits or our first car, my parents could have flown easier than give us the money for that. All of the younger ones remember that when you start moaning how well off us boomers are. Don't tell me we had it easy. Maybe if the younger generations took a leaf out of our generation's books they could look forward to a comfortable future. Not one penny has ever been given to us, we have worked then saved for everything.
I was born in 1943, and I am another who had it so good being belted at school. I was in a class of 43, and my first salary was £2 a week. A decent pair of leather shoes cost a fiver.
My first salary after 3 years of qualifying was under £30 a month, and the rent was £6 per month. Luckily I could walk to work.
In 1979, we bought our first three-bedroom house in London. The mortgage was £250 a month, but I was earning £110 a month. I cannot remember what my H was earning, but times were difficult.
I saw that post, she is one bitter individual, she begrudges boomers the bus pass and she is ageist in my opinion.
Some people in the age group stated benefit from the pass, they do not drive and the pass gives them freedom to get out, shop or attend hospital appointments.
I was born just post war in London and all I can say is, we did it tough. We deserve and earned everything we have. How many of today’s generation went hungry, had no phones, washing machines or floor coverings? Classes of 45 kids and severe punishment for just about anything, including thrashings and belittling. Nah- they don’t know they’re born, do they ?
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.
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