Have baby boomers stolen the family silver

I am thoroughly sick of the blame game thats being played by the media,its the folk on benefits no its the immigrants ,the disabled..or the pensioners.I was told I had no idea how hard life is for people nowadays because I have a nice house etc.Woud they listen when I explained it was JUST as difficult when we were young to get on the property ladder ,,that WE didn't have two foreign holidays a year( or even a decade) or exppensive gadgets or meals out two or three times a week .Its getting to the stage where they'll want to have us all shot when we turn 60 or younger .Oh and my generation also get the blame for the NO vote in the Scottish referendum...I've been a supporter of independence since I was 13 ....long before these young eegits were born!It really boils my blood

I disagree that it was just as difficult to get on the property ladder, certainly in the South East. In fact, I'd go so far as to say it's nonsense. Sorry!

It's a stereotype that young people all have two holidays a year, expensive gadgets or meals out two or three times a week. If you object to being stereotyped, maybe you shouldn't do it yourself.

Yes paddyann I agree, we baby boomers especially come in for more than our share of criticism. We did have jobs available most of the time but not big salaries. We scrimped and saved for our houses, no foreign holidays and no credit cards. A lot of us now care for grandchildren and elderly parents, I get really cross about it too.

A lot of our children will end up caring for children and elderly parents. What 's the difference?

Sorry! I really disagree that it wasn't easier for people to buy homes.

My first teaching salary in 1982 was £6000. I got a mortgage for £18,000 to buy a flat, which was the maximum three times my salary.

Today that same flat is worth about £180,000. A teacher in his/her first year earns about £22,000. There is no way he/she would get a mortgage.

Agree Daphnedill. x

Agree entirely Christinefrance a week in a caravan when our children were little definitely no holidays abroad! I thought I was lucky to have a washer. No dishwasher , dryer or freezer. Certainly no meals out or even evenings out together, just couldn't afford it. Making up for it now though! But we've worked b****y hard for it, it's not been given on a plate ?

I guess we're both going to need tin hats, nina.

Don't you think our children will work b****y hard too? Both my children will have student loans, which I didn't have. Both will have to pay more in pension contributions and National Insurance and receive less.

Even my parents had a freezer. We also had a dryer, but my mother didn't use it that much, because she preferred to hang laundry out.

Housing was easier to come by, but high interest rates so we certainly had to scrimp to afford it. I didn't have a fridge, washing machine or car and we had a hand down black n white telly. We went to the grandparents for holidays on the train. So anything we've got now we worked hard for. We didn't get anything from our parents apart from the old telly.

Not saying kids today don't work hard, just saying we didn't have the complete life of Riley critics are saying.

A freezer? I've never had one (separate from the fridge).

Ex and I used to take our washing to the launderette every Saturday morning and go to the pub next door while we waited... we didn't get a washing machine until DD was born.

Just been doing some calculations too.
Bought in London as a couple in 1975. Purchase price 14000. Mortgage 10,500 deposit 3,500. I make that 25% of purchase price. Similar house now selling at 325,000. 25% of that would be 82,000.
Annual salary for mortgage then 3,500 husband x3 + one third of mine (not 3x one third of mine) so a salary that would get £243,000 in today's market, 75,000 + one third of woman's salary to make it equivalent terms. Or a joint salary of around 85,000 now we are all equal.
Depends on your job. Harder for those whose salaries haven't kept pace eg teachers, nurses, shop workers. Easier for others.
Repayments then a whooping 11% rising to 15%. Much much easier now once you can that deposit.

I must be a different generation to you daphne my children had student loans too. My grandchildren are at university age now and they'll be wanting loans too. When I was younger I didn't know anyone who went to university it was never even discussed perhaps it was my background. I'm immensely proud of my children's achievements.
I do think it will be a struggle for my grandchildren to get on the housing ladder but I don't see how I have created the problem

Yes I remember the 15% mortgage rate !!

It was easier to buy your own home when we bought ours in 1972 . Husband had just qualified to be a teacher and I was a student nurse on very low pay . We bought our first house and in 1976 bought the house I live in now. My son and his partner both have reasonably well paid jobs and at 31 have just scraped , borrowed and saved for years to buy their first little house, . My other three have no chance and are renting , I have nothing against renting but owning your own home is something most can only dream of . We didn`t have expensive holidays , but had a good lifestyle on our meagre wages . Life is harder for the younger generation in many ways , society seems so much more ` I`m alright Jack` than it used to be. Especially the last few years .

What family silver?

oh no, not him again .....

What family silver?
Ours is only silver plate and not worth much, inherited from my DP and the DGC don't want it because it will need cleaning! I keep trying to give it to them.

They can have our house when we pop off provided we haven't had to spend it all on care.
Which will be more than DH and I ever inherited!!

I think when we first bought our two up two down, outside loo, no bathroom cottage in 1968, we as a generation were content with much less. We spent a lot of time (with two very young children in tow)frequenting the local second hand shops for everything we needed. I did have a twin tub washer, and an ancient fridge that had belonged to my parents. My best friends were my sewing machine and pressure cooker, both of which were second hand. We did our own renovations, knitted and sewed for us all. No question of a holiday abroad or at home. We did later progress to a weeks camping! We had very little money but I do remember being very happy. My grandchildren will certainly have problems getting on the property ladder, but I really don't think that either of us can be blamed for that, and actually, neither do they!

From the article:
anyone born in the 1980s or 1990s - could become the first generation to earn less than their parents
DD, the only one born in the 80s, earns more than I ever did pro rata and probably more than DH did.
But - it slips through her fingers like water.

and that's her choice so I will say nothing!

my first wage was under £5 A WEEK our first flat cost £11,000 and needed gutted as the walls came off with the wallpaper and yes the interest rates were high .If you base all your calculations on the South East then yes there are difficulties in getting a home BUT I've just seen a 6 bedroom house for sale on a lochside for £145,000 25 miles from me .Here you can buy a lovely 2 bed flat for £55-60 k.Even a couple both on minimum wage can affoord to buy here .Maybe all you southerners should look further north to live if its so hard where you are

Another bit from the report:
And are those parents, mostly baby boomers who benefited from economic good times, tax cuts and free higher education to blame?
The figures
Baby boomers, people born between 1946 and 1965, will on average earn £740,000 during their lives, according to the Resolution Foundation.
Generation X, those now aged between 35 and 50, are projected to earn 13% more than that - £835,000 on average.
But the figure for millennials, the under-35s, is lower than that - they are forecast to earn £825,000 over their working lives.

Economic good times - did that include the 15% mortgage?
Tax is lower now than then
Early 'baby boomers' (I am not one, I am too old) had far less chance of a university education than those born in the 1980s and 1990s. About 5% went to university compared to the aim of Tony Blair for 50% (ten times as many) to have a university education.
Generation X - still a sensible generation according to my Gen X DD will earn £10,000 over a lifetime than Generation Y (according to DD1 they are the 'frivolous generation'.).

But we know only too well how wrong forecasts and predictions can be - in fact they are rarely right!

[sigh]

So baby boomers are hogging housing, and why?
"Partly," he says, "because they are living longer and partly because there aren't suitable places to downsize to, but they are taking more than their share."

So rather than complain that government has failed to plan for all these annoying old people, let's just moan at them for existing.

Maybe we should just do the world a favour and off ourselves, en masse.