Are Parents Really To Blame

My friend's DD and SIL lived in Cambridge and were able to buy a nice flat because they had paid off their mortgage in a cheaper area of the country.

No problem Neversaydie

Sorry ankersthe thread got complicated ..

Interesting article Jalima
Certainly my DD's London flat cost exactly 10.5x her salary a year ago She was paying £960 a month for a one bed flat in Zone 2.She has bought in Zone 3. I know she has friends in Cambridge who got on the housing ladder only because they were living in University accommodation for two years on a peppercorn rent and saved like mad.

I did not make the comment Neversaydie.
Not sure why so many comments are attributed to me!

In 1963 I started work full of hopes and found as the newest recruit I had to make the tea until the next new recruit joined.
Would today's young people whinge about how demeaning that is?

So what happens if all the teachers,health workers and the like leave London*ankers*? (Its already a problem recruiting nurses)

'We don't have a fraction of the opportunities they had.'

I do not agree with that statement. My generation, girls anyway, had the choice of hairdressing, office work, shop work, or if you went to the better schools, nursing. No big salary either, I was earning £7 per week! Most girls were steered to those jobs. Boys could choose, but not many children went to Grammar school so started low and had to work their way up. We have earned what we have got and we had to knuckle down and put in the time to get ahead in the world.

However, I agree with these youngsters when it comes to University fees, and the up and coming generation will have it even harder being left with a £50+ debt, which imo no-one should be saddled with. That comes just when they want to settle down, buy a house, have a family, just like anyone else did. I think this Government is the body they should be complaining to especially as this debt only applies to ENGLISH students. They have been betrayed imo. Thanks to Mr Smarmy Cameron and his buddy slippery Osborn. It doesn't affect them after all did it? They are using Universities as businesses and filling them with foreigners who can afford to pay high fees. Children from rich backgrounds just sail through life because Daddy pays for everything. When they can pay £thousands for a handbag without flinching it demonstrates how far removed from normal people these hooray Henries are.

If any of my generation made a success of their lives they had to work damned hard for it. My family included in that. We sometimes did two jobs, as my dil is now, to pay the bills. I remember I had to sell my bike to pay the bills at one time. We didn't have a smooth ride. Some people have seen their pensions stolen by Government after Government so they are now finding it hard to cope as well.

I know it is hard for the youngsters and after all that work they put in I do not doubt that they are bitter because they cannot find work. I do sympathise, and I do everything I can do to help mine, as I am sure others do too.

Blame the Governments, not the pensioners. Who has a gold pension these days? Don't make me laugh!

M0nica and, as far as I remember, there was not generally equal pay for women until 1970 (and even then I don't think the Act was adhered to).
My salary was disregarded for a mortgage in 1969 but DH was earning above average so we were offered one after saving with the building society for two years to prove that we were reliable customers.

Can you see any qualifications? It looks helpful on the surface. I don't think the name is helpful but that's normal for today's language.

Azie09, shock horror. Therapists sometimes cause more problems than anyone.
Better have coffee before I take a look. x

Well my last word is to say don't anyone look at the Guardian this morning which is running in its Family section an article about horrid parents and how to 'deal' with them! Ways of filling column inches? The article is about two therapists who have set up a website www.myhorridparent.com. I saw it online and decided there were better ways to spend my Saturday morning!

Fairydoll I have only just read the article in detail and, like you, immediately noticed that the salary figure was way out. I have since checked it online and according to Financial Times statistics, the average salary in 1960 was £948.43 and in 1969 was £1607.16. The author of the article has got average salaries out by a factor of 10.

Probably got the right figure, found it didn't agree with her preconceptions so decided it was wrong and moved the decimal point. A bit of thought should have told her that salaries have more than doubled in the last 50 years

DH and I are both that rare 1960s commodity, graduates, with degrees in good solid subjects like engineering and economics. We bought our first house in 1969, having been working for 5 years, so had risen above starter salary level. I was earning £1,500, DH £1,750.

Apologies. It was 1963 and that was gross pay.

I got £365 per annum in 1962 - £7 per week, £1 per day but no extra in leap years.

I got 17.50 a week in 1976.

£7 a week was in 1962, Anya so £42 a month in 1968 is in proportion.

About the media slanting things - well, ya, they often do. That's why, imo, we often have to take these things with a grain of salt.

Elegran my first year teaching my take home pay was £42 a month in 1968, and that included payment for supervising after school activities for an extra hour after school every day.

My treat after a days Saturday work in the local hairdressers was a Vesta Curry. I worked from 8am till 6.30 pm for £1.00. Tips were an extra if I was lucky!
I think we expected less when we were young although I do wonder how some youngsters will ever afford to leave home.

Sorry, that £700 was wrong - it worked out at about £7 a week so it must have been about £360!

A physics honours graduate of 24 started at £950 and a teacher started at £700.

The Daily Mail wants to get its facts right.

The average annual income in the 1960's was most definitely NOT £11,000, it was more like £1000.

When I was firts married, we lived with my in laws, when our first child arrived we lived in a caravan!
Expectations change!

Deeda I agree re the mortgage rules ...but the fact those rules were relaxed can hardly be blamed on the whole of the "Baby boomer" generation and I can see no reason why because we had a better deal when we were young, we should now be responsible for solving things for the next generation. That is what the article in the DM seems to be saying...personally I think it is a nasty article setting one generation against another in a horrible way, ..pointless. I am grateful for the benefits I enjoyed when starting out although as I said previously , life didn't feel that easy at the time ...different generations, different problems