Financial crisis of the 18-40s (as in people aged 18 to 40)

ReportInvestor

MiserlyMartin wrote:

Yes people forget MIRAS. What was the first thing Gordon Brown did? Get rid of MIRAS.

The Conservatives had been cutting it back year on year.

Speaking of benefits for us relative oldies, does anyone remember Life Assurance tax relief (a bung for the insurers as well)?

mary

cloud_dog wrote:

Secondly, I work for a FTSE250 company and know that a Graduates starting salary (for a similar job) is at least £6k more than if the company were to employ a similar aged non-graduate person.
cloud_dog

This may be the case for a FTSE 250 company, but by logic there are just 250 companies involved here, there are many, many more companies outside this "Club". Many other companies do not pay £6K more simply because you are a graduate, they will pay as little as they think the applicant would be "happy" to accept. My son working in IT got his first job in a company of 20 staff with a salary of £14K! Not really an incentive to pile up a load of student debt. Luckily since then by jumping jobs quickly, he has now more than doubled his salary in 2 years.

Andy_L

mary wrote:

My son working in IT got his first job in a company of 20 staff with a salary of £14K! Not really an incentive to pile up a load of student debt. Luckily since then by jumping jobs quickly, he has now more than doubled his salary in 2 years.

Is he a graduate?

mary

Yes, see my earlier Post 6 on this thread, which says:

mary wrote:

2. Age 25. Graduate. Ended up with student loan of £14K, despite working throughout Uni and in holidays. Did run a car whilst at uni. Getting married in summer, paying for own wedding and trying to save for a house whilst living in rented accommodation. Earning reasonable money.
No pension as more immediate concerns, wedding + house.

al_yrpal

Its great to hear these stories from successful youngsters who obviously had their 'lightbulb moment' early on and avoided the debt trap.

Reading through the Debt Free Wanabee forum and hearing about the various ways that people got themselves into deep debt it occurred to me that as well as Martin's 'Money Diet' there is room for a different sort of publication focussing on how people get themselves into debt and how to avoid it, which could be valuable reading for youngsters. There is a lot of waffle from politicians at the moment on the subject of making personal finance a school subject. That sounds like a big turn off to me. I'm sure the participants of that forum could put something together that would really connect with young people and help many potential wayward souls avoid the debt trap.

What about it Tom - you have been helping a lot of people over there?

EdInvestor

al_yrpal wrote:

Reading through the Debt Free Wanabee forum and hearing about the various ways that people got themselves into deep debt it occurred to me that as well as Martin's 'Money Diet' there is room for a different sort of publication focussing on how people get themselves into debt and how to avoid it.

It's interesting to see things like "mortgage pigs" and saving 2-pound coins in jars cropping up on MSE. This is the sort of thing that was done in my family when I was a young child.

Am I right in thinking the reason it's attractive to adults here is because they have never learnt to save, but now want to do so, as they have had a bad experience with debt?

Andy_L

mary wrote:

Yes, see my earlier Post 6 on this thread, which says:

So as a graduate he doubled his salary in 2 years. Would he have achieved that as a non-graduate?

cloud_dog

mary wrote:

This may be the case for a FTSE 250 company, but by logic there are just 250 companies involved here, there are many, many more companies outside this "Club". Many other companies do not pay £6K more simply because you are a graduate, they will pay as little as they think the applicant would be "happy" to accept. My son working in IT got his first job in a company of 20 staff with a salary of £14K! Not really an incentive to pile up a load of student debt. Luckily since then by jumping jobs quickly, he has now more than doubled his salary in 2 years.

Mary, I can't disagree with your position, and I can only talk wrt my own experiences. I have attended a number of University 'Job Fairs' where companies are 'touting' for Graduates with 2.1 (possibly 2.2) grades.

I think the difference from my own company and the company your son found employment with is that (and I assume) he is not on a Graduate Training Program with that company and was taken on as an employee.

I would advise all graduates to specifically look for companies who run / offer Graduate Training Programs, as this *should* offer them a clear short-term (12 - 24 months) investment program and plenty of different opportunities.

cloud_dog

mary

Andy_L wrote:

So as a graduate he doubled his salary in 2 years. Would he have achieved that as a non-graduate?

Who knows! You only get one take at these things. You either take Route A or Route B, you can't take them both simultaneously!

mary

cloud_dog wrote:

I think the difference from my own company and the company your son found employment with is that (and I assume) he is not on a Graduate Training Program with that company and was taken on as an employee.
cloud_dog

Correct. Whereas son no. 1 joined such a Graduate Training Programme with a large company, he was moved around getting a taster of each department, marketing, designing, research, production, etc. However I suspect if you are in the IT part of a company, you clearly cannot move around as IT support is fairly specific to one area of a company. Bit out of my depth here, but that's how I imagine it.