Which generation had it hardest? Part 1 Baby boomers

[revolution saint]

2nd homes....was that the norm in the 60's..?

 

There's quite a few people in their 60's who have been or are in a better position to purchase a 2nd home than people of my generation being able to afford a first one. Remember this is about a generation and not an era.

[Saintandy666]

I guess then it depends on what you define as easy. I think there is a lot more pressure on children of today. Although, I guess it could be argued either way for this argument.

[Whitey Grandad]

There's quite a few people in their 60's who have been or are in a better position to purchase a 2nd home than people of my generation being able to afford a first one. Remember this is about a generation and not an era.

 

That would be because they are older?

[bridge too far]

Timely piece in today's Guardian:

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jul/03/bananas-spanish-children-rationing

 

Rationing was over when I was little (apart from sweets - I remember trotting round to the sweetshop in South East Road with my ration book!) but it must have been tough.

[Jones91]

How much was a pint in the 60s? (not in old money)

[ecuk268]

At the end of the 60's, about 9p.

 

I suppose the average wage then was about £12-15 per week.

[Lord Duckhunter]

Mortgages were pretty tough to get for my Fathers generation. You had to have an account with the Building Society and had to go cap in hand to be interviewed by the Manager.People genuinely went without stuff to save a deposit, which was still high even in those days. There was also issues around remortgaging, you had to provide estimates and receipts to prove it was for house improvements. There was not the easy credit around that there has been the past 25 years.

 

However there was an upside once you got on the ladder.House prices exploded, inflation and some massive % pay increases through the 70's meant that when my father came to pay off his mortgage, it was not a great deal of money in real terms.They also had many years of MIRAS,and theere used to be tax relief on endowments as well. There was also the extra money a lot of them got from their endowments. Also when he reached the age that he had some money to invest or save, along came Thatcher's privatisations. All in all he is now better off than I will be in 26 years time, when I reach his age.

 

Therefore in purely ecomonic terms I would say that the BB's, did have the best times, provided they owned their own house, had an endowment mortgage and a company pension.

[Trader]

At the end of the 60's, about 9p.

 

I suppose the average wage then was about £12-15 per week.

 

Well - more like 11p I'd say, but that still works out at about 150 pints per week if you like, which is not far off what it is today.

 

I think that a general formula most things are about 31!! times more expensive now than in the late sixties, but average wages have kept pace.

 

Interestingly applying that formula to lowest price football tickets (top flight) the price today should be £7.

 

I did say most things - including house prices.

[Lord Duckhunter]

I read once that in the 70's it cost the same to go to football as visit the cinema. Now it costs £8 for cinema and god knows what for football.

[ecuk268]

I was speaking to a girl at work who has just got married. She's lived with her bloke for a few years in a rented flat. I asked if she was looking to buy a house but she said they couldn't afford the deposit. Their honeymoon was 3 weeks in Thailand staying at a number of plush hotels. Last year they went to Bali.

 

We didn't have a honeymoon. Much of our furniture was second-hand and it took about a year to get the carpets. But we did mange to buy our house.

 

It's a question of priorities.

[Whitey Grandad]

How much was a pint in the 60s? (not in old money)

 

20 fluid ounces.

 

HTH

[suewhistle]

I reckon it probably was easier to buy a house, which I did, on my own when I was 28 back in the 80s. A graduate with no loan to pay but no car, mobile, posh clothes or eating out, small B&W tv and my main luxury was a late booked skiing holiday every year where I was always surrounded by people with more money than me! I lived in digs, with parents and shared houses (moving for my job) until I bought. But as ecuk268 points out, some people don't help themselves in their saving for a deposit. That has never been easy.

[Lord Duckhunter]

My old man knew a builder who took out a £17,000 mortgage in 1970. My old man always tells the story, that all his mates thought he was mad, all shook their head wondering how on earth he was going to pay it all back. 25 years later in 1995, £17,000 was peanuts in terms of mortgage repayments.

[Channon's Sideburns]

Mortgages were pretty tough to get for my Fathers generation. You had to have an account with the Building Society and had to go cap in hand to be interviewed by the Manager.People genuinely went without stuff to save a deposit, which was still high even in those days. There was also issues around remortgaging, you had to provide estimates and receipts to prove it was for house improvements. There was not the easy credit around that there has been the past 25 years.

 

 

Things are going full circle...I've been in financial advice for over 15yrs and lenders are back to asking for evidence of why people want to remortgage - not a bad thing. There's a mortgage ticking time bomb that's about to go off in 2012...thousands who are sitting on their lender SVR think that it'll be easy to remortgage when rates rise - they're in for a shock.