Have baby boomers stolen the family silver

Paddyann, we are also being blamed for the Brexit vote. Yes, we did vote to leave. We made darned sure we had a vote, planned holiday, possible hospital admission, so we got a postal vote. 'You have stolen our future' I've been told. 'You'll be dead and it won't matter to you'. And so on.

We are not baby-boomers, but the generation before, the people who were children in WWII, whose first days at school were interrupted by bombings or evacuations. Who at that time were expected to leave school at 14 and find a job, any job, didn't matter what so long as you brought money home to the family. In my country school boys went into farm work, girls into domestic service. It was like the law of the Medes and Persians, couldn't be altered!

The 1944 Education Act (Rab Butler) was good for us. And all the changes in subsequent years. But was life without effort, was there any inherited 'family silver'? No, there was not. Buying your own place was difficult. For example, I bought this 2-bed bungalow in Essex in 1990, interest rate was 15%, and my husband died 18 months later coincidental with my redundancy. The NHS Trust I worked for thought they'd save a lot of money by getting rid of an intermediate layer of junior management. So, 5 senior people were redundant. I was left with a mortgage to pay and no income.

Don't tell me how hard they have it now. Tell me how hard I had it between 1992 and 1997 when I met my - now - second husband. No one wanted to know.

Nor is it my fault that house prices have shot up to the unrealistic level they are now. A bungalow bought at £56K is now worth well over £200K. Not my fault - the bricks and mortar haven't changed! We've just kept it up to modern standards but we haven't gold-plated it!

I think everyone, in talking about the 'baby-boom' generation, forgets that there's still another generation before that who still have a life to live and who are relaxing a bit after all the efforts of the previous decades.

I long ago decided to ignore anything put out by the Intergenerational Foundation, as everything they say makes my blood boil. A set up designed to make the young feel hard done by and that we are the cause of it all. NO! We have benefitted from the property price boom but who are going to be the ultimate beneficiaries of that? Our children and grandchildren when we die. We have to live somewhere - although the IG would like to see us put out to grass.

I had to move 40 miles out of London because I couldn't afford to buy anything in London. No holidays, made my own and my children's clothes as they were expensive, much cheaper now. Never had a coffee out, if they gave up coffee and sandwich buying now they'd save a huge amount. Our parents didn't give us any money to help us and when we were evicted from our first rented flat they said you're married now it's up to you.No going back and living with parents.
No money left to us by parents as they rented.
Done reasonably well but all down to me and being careful.

Iam64 says it all for me. I avoided this thread because I am tired by inter-generational blame and of having to justify my existence.
I absolutely agree about the extortionate price of property especially in the SE and remember how 3x one salary would buy a grotty flat in a grotty "rising" part of London in 1974, nevertheless even with smaller mortgages we often quaked at the monthly rises in the mortgage interest rates.
Comfortable old age? Well only because we have managed to pay off our mortgage and no longer plan major expenditure. Thinking about it, I realise we could not afford to buy any of the houses our 3 children own!
Yes, we had less, and perhaps young couples today expect more but I imagine our parents' generation thought that about us and our grandparents before them.
That is the way of the world . Oh and for any younger people reading this, my pension is not "gold-plated," not is it a State Benefit, but something I paid into throughout my working life.

Yes, 'Iam64' Not only did our parents have no savings to share I remember giving one of them a small monthly allowance even though we were also struggling. This came about because my husband did so before marriage and he asked me if possible that we try to continue this. Of course......we did. Sure wasn't easy.

What makes me laugh, is that young people will be old one day, they forget that, and when they are old their younger generation will blame them for everything. It probably was easier to get on housing ladder as there weren't hundreds of immigrants taking up the places and to compete with and there were more council houses being built .
I choose not to go on holidays for various reasons, but no one went abroad for holidays all the time when I was young, no one had dishwashers/washing machines, sky television. And no one had two cars that's for sure! Of course there are loads of people in dire situations but there are loads who are not.
Dont forget there is no euthanasia , and so desperately ill unhappy older people are actually forced to stay alive....quite strange actually people aren't allowed to die if they want to on one hand and complained about being alive on the other

Given that nobody has a choice as to when they are born or the economic circumstances in place as they grow up, I deeply resent the suggestion that I am somehow disadvantaging the younger generation. Most people expect a far more cushioned and lavish lifestyle than young couples did when we married; if you put a couple into a small home with no central heating or hot water system, no colour TV, freezer, car, washing machine - and they both had full time jobs to pay the mortgage, and didn't have a holiday in ten years, then they would be held up as an example of true suffering in 'Broken Britain', but this is how we, and most of our friends, were living in the seventies. We also coped with, at different times, 25% inflation,high interest rates, a three day week and endless inconvenience with strikes. Like most decent parents, mine included, we have done what we can to help our children get on the housing ladder, but is it our fault that house prices are so ridiculous? There are probably a dozen reasons why this is the case and I don't see that you can lay the blame on people who worked hard to help themselves without reliance on benefits.

I often wonder what would happen to those who vilify the older generation if all the volunteers who are over 60 went on strike?

And I'm damn well going to enjoy the results of my hard work as long as possible so there!

I don't think the 20s and 30s kids could hack living how we did to make ends meet in the 70s. They want it all new and now. Everything that kitted our first home cost a total of of £50 from an auction, and we had to have lodgers till the kids were born. If they made the same sacrifices and economies they could probably get on the ladder too. We were more practical and innovative with our money that's all.

No one has given me anything either michellehargreaves. Born into a working class family who all lived in council houses, although my mum and dad eventually bought theirs. Not that they benefited from it in any way as they eventually sold when my mum couldn't get up the stairs and have paid out almost the entire sale price (just over £65k) in astronomical rent on an adapted bungalow.

I was born just after the war, there was no family silver, or sweets or clothes, or houses, plenty of jobs of course because so many were dead. We re-built this country and other countries and we helped shape the anti racial /sexual/disability discrimination laws, equal pay and more workers rights.

The NHS and Welfare state all courtesy of our or our parent's efforts.

The house price thing is the fault of the banks, they inflate prices to make more money on lending, it used to be 3 x income, now it is 11 x income to buy a house. Same houses, bigger mortgages.

We do seem to have a lot of younger people who think that a phone is more important than food, holidays more important than savings etc and live in the expectation of having everything they want just because they, 'really, really, really want it'.....like the people on talent shows, who can't sing but really wanted to be a singer all their lives.

My kids all hard working cannot afford to buy ........same houses I could have afforded 40 years ago, costing far more, but the banks creaming off more and more money each time they are sold. The rents are higher than mortgages !!!! Buying a house for someone else is routine now.

You can only swap your house for another house when you sell and if you downsize, then you can pay for your care, given the high costs of insuring and managing a house, I am not sure which is the best option now.

I am tired of being told that as an 'old, white, woman' I ought to consider dying now. Being an old woman is not such a great gig i can tell you.

I had no choice but to go back to work after having my son at 18 NfkDumpling. I had no husband or partner to support us. I have worked all my life since then and will work until 67 (that's until they move the goal posts again) with only a state pension to look forward to if they are still around by then There is no way that I (born in 1962) could be called a baby boomer (or any other kind of boomer) more like a buster !

Nobody gave us anything when it came to housing. We have worked, paid our dues and supported ourselves and our family, we have asked the state for nothing. What we have is what we have earned ourselves, I refuse to feel guilty about that.

When my parents died I inherited quite a lot of silver (my stepfather collected it!) Most was sold, My children don't want what's left, and grandchildren's reaction was ' God no!'
I think the fact that we all now live so long, well, some of us, thus tying up any family funds, is probably another black mark for baby boomers!! Not in our family thank goodness, but certainly in some. Depressing or what?!!!

Yes cornergran, that's the view in our family/friendship circle as well.

Asked our lot if they thought we, as In our generation (one baby boomer the other too old to be counted as one), had stolen the family silver. The answer was if there is any silver then we are welcome to it, we worked for it. Good to hear.

I'm truly bored with these articles that blame baby boomers for all society's ills. It's tedious and nasty, like so many other articles in the press that set out to put one group against another.
Stating the obvious and generalising, our generation had it good in comparison to our parents, who had it good in comparison to theirs. I agree with daphnedill that it's more difficult for young people, especially in the south, to buy their own home. Those of us who saved for deposits in the 60's and 70's had lived more frugally than our own adult children ever have. We were also saving much smaller amounts than are needed currently.
In defence of boomers, almost all the young people I know have had financial help from parents or grandparents towards getting a home. I didn't know anyone when I was their age who had parents , much less grandparents, with cash reserves.

I dislike this inter generation blaming intensely. it's miserable and what good does it do?

I really like the idea of prefabs to solve the shortage of homes . I would not mind living in one either ! They can be put up in a matter of days and generally have a small garden , outside space for children to play . Surely this is better than high rise flats or renting at an extortionate amount ?

Who thought up the idea that three storey town houses can be family homes? No outside space and nowhere to park when the kids get driving licences. No wonder bungalows with gardens are at such a premium and cost so much more.

There's a small supported housing development near us. Flats with landscaped communal gardens. Beautifully designed and run. Two were for sale recently. The ground floor one with a small patio was snapped up instantly but the first (top)floor is still on the market. No outside space. And they say developers listen to what people want? They don't listen to the Babyboomers.

"What about lobbying the Government, the house-builders, the planning authorities and get them to build bungalows (you know, those homes on one level that some, but not all, old people prefer?). Not tiny flats although some would prefer those; decent bungalows, flats, houses and not on those rip-you-off developments for oldies that take 20% of what you want to leave to your DC when they come to sell; decent, suitable housing suitable for decent older people."

I don't think there will ever be much building of bungalows again, because the footprint is too great in relation to the size of the property.

Likewise have you noticed the increase in three storey town houses being built? This way you can get quite a big family house on a tiny footprint. Higher density means more homes on the site, more people housed and higher profits for the developers, local authorities happy, developers happy.

Our pensions are benefits
Make sure you get your money's worth djen
although what we paid in over the years was not saved for us in a pension fund as I once naively thought when I was young and innocent.

So glad I am not the only one who gets incensed at the constant bitching about the baby boomers. And, I wish they would stop saying we are part of the benefits system! At 64 I have just taken up going for long walks and losing weight because I feel I should not be putting the health service under more strain than it is already, but I do not see the young ones reining in their drinking habits. I know the young work hard, but goodness, can they spend!!!

After you, FarNorth. Can I live a bit longer, as my husband died at 65 so is no longer a burden on the state?

FarNorth yes, that way we won't be a burden will we, and release that valuable housing stock!
I don't know who this Angus bloke is, but he needs a good slap around the chops with a large wet cod.