Baby boomers struggle to pay off debts

IveSeenTheLight

StevieJ wrote: »

Rather judgmental

Maybe, maybe not.
I don't say anything to them, it's their choice.

They are extremely generous, far too generous really.
I'd far rather they were spending it on themselves than others to be honest

IveSeenTheLight

mbga9pgf wrote: »

If I had 8k, no wife (widowed say) I would use a 30p shotgun shell, after spending 7999.70p on high class young ladies of ill repute.

Not very MSE of you.
You could sell the shotgun (amongst other things) boost your £8k, enjoy life even more / longer (ladies of ill repute for yourself) and then use an even cheaper means than the shotgun

IveSeenTheLight

treliac wrote: »

DD is always telling me about friends whose parents buy them cars, pay off their debts, buy them clothes, refuse to take rent contributions from them, etc, etc.
.....

I plan to be putting away a lot of money for my kids.
The plan is not to give it to them when their 18 / 21 etc, but to wait until after they have bought a place, settled down, married etc.
Then when they have children, I hope the pot of money put away for them will be hugely significant to make a real difference to their mortgage / life.
By making them wait, they will understand / know how to stand on their own merits

I also plan to make sure they cnntribute to it as well.
They'll learn the harsh reality of life by being taxed on any pocket money they receive.
If they start work either full time or part time, I aim to tax them and make them pay rent (if over 16).
It may sound scrooge like, but hopefully it will help them understand more about money and boost their future returns.

All of this funds that have been stashed away, they will know nothing of until the get the cheque / bank transfer

treliac wrote: »

ETA: And I have heard that some of them are prepared to MEW so that they can continue to spoil their children. So it's hardly surprising that people are going into retirement still with considerable debts..... but not necessarily the time left or the income to service those debts.

.....

It's not such a bad thing really.
It should be an option to MEW / sell of property you own to fund your retirement lifestyle.
They cannot take it with them, so why not benefit from the previous investment

RenovationMan

IveSeenTheLight wrote: »

Expenses doesn't need to go up when you retire.
MEmbership of a golf club now will be cheaper in retirement and still be able to get me out of the house and away from daytime TV.

I'll probably do some other active stuff such as my father in law is doing.
He picked up an old childrens jeep for nothing and is doing it up.
Apart from a new battery and charger, most of the refurb is simply stripping it down, giving it a good clean . maintenance, reterminating wires etc at very little cost.
Very little cost but the rewards will be fantastic when he see's his grandson getting the benefits of his hard work.

I aim to do other similar things, take the grand children kite flying, to the beach, park. hill walking / camping etc, all free (currently )

I cant imagine that the golf membership would be free to pensioners? Rather more likely that it would be reduced by, say 25%. The point I am making is that it would take more of your disposible income to pay 75% golf fees in retirement than it would to pay 100% golf fees while your working.

If you live near a beach, then it would be free to visit it, otherwise it would be the cost of owning a car with tax and petrol or train/coach/bus fairs for the kids. Usually, if you live close to something, it loses its appeal so the visit to the local beach might not be as appealing to kids living in Brighton and it would be to kids living in Brixton.

Camping requires equipment and site fees and usually, trasport costs unless you are going local (then see comment above about Brighton/Brixton).

People seem to have this strange halcion idea that once you retire, its much cheaper to do the things you currently enjoy doing. It really, really isnt.

Davesnave

RenovationMan wrote: »

People seem to have this strange halcion idea that once you retire, its much cheaper to do the things you currently enjoy doing. It really, really isnt.

As it's the Panto season, I'll say "Oh yes it is!":p

But really, it depends on what you enjoy.

I make my hobby pay for itself, and always did. There's loads of things to do locally that cost very little. Of course, if your choice is for expensive golf clubs, or something that is long distance travel or technology dependent, then that's another matter.

I'm retired, but I work every day, to some extent. I think this is the way many of us will go, rather than the sudden break, the gold watch & carpet slippers. Best way to an early grave, that is!

RenovationMan

Davesnave wrote: »

I'm retired, but I work every day, to some extent. I think this is the way many of us will go, rather than the sudden break, the gold watch & carpet slippers. Best way to an early grave, that is!

I totally agree, especially if the retirement involves trying to eek out a living on a small pension and having a hum-drum lifestyle in your 'golden years' much better to keep working and keep your mind active. The alternative is to put enough by so that you have an interesting lifstyle outside of the workplace. I'm not talking cruises or round the world trips here, simply a train ride to a UK tourist spot, Dinner and a bed for the night before returning home. All stuff that is quite modest on our current incomes, but out of reach of many on basic state pensions.

As I said early in my contributions to this thread, its all about maintaining your current lifestyle. As PasturesNew pointed out, her current income is £12k and her retirement income from state pensions would be around £8k, which would be sufficient to maintain her current lifestyle (which I presume doesnt include too many cruises) and fits in with my 2/3rd theory.

LilacPixie

I think alot from my dads generation are stubborn if my dad is anything to go on. Trying to get him to accept a penny from me is like trying to part the red sea... fing impossible. It is a source of regular battles in my family. They don't have debt but they look after my kids for a few hours while I start work but before OH gets home an they have accosiated costs with that and point blank refuse to take anything for it. At one poit i though I had it sussed and was borrowing his car to fill with diesel but now the pig headed man has removed my access to it and offers to drive me someplace rather than just hand over the keys.

My parents gave all of us a car at 17, paid for lessons test plus first years insurance after tha we were on our own. They also never took any board money from us and its only been in the last 6 ish months that they have £60 a month from my 25 year old sister. We all has half savings half spends drummed into us and all had PT jobs as teenagers and right through. My sister lives at home at 25 but i bought 1st home at 22 and let parental home.

They seem to have their own ideas on what they want to provide for their children and in their eyes that hasn't stopped now the kids are adults and earning more than the are. Drives me nuts

dopester

IveSeenTheLight wrote: »

I plan to be putting away a lot of money for my kids.
The plan is not to give it to them when their 18 / 21 etc, but to wait until after they have bought a place, settled down, married etc.
Then when they have children, I hope the pot of money put away for them will be hugely significant to make a real difference to their mortgage / life.

Sounds like you're putting your ideals of generosity ever further in to the future. Not when they're 18, or 21, but after they've mortgaged up to buy a house, settled down, married.... when exactly?

My bet is you'll still be 'planning' to part with some money to help your kids when you're in your striped Scrooge night-robe and hat, with your 11's are up (on the back of your neck - reference to a Mel Brooks film.. old guy about to kick it, in Life Stinks).

I've given away a lot of money already, during the last 6 years, to loved ones. (It's not a real issue for why I'm not a home owner but for overall financial planning reasons, and my own peace of mind). And occasional generosity in other ways. Recently someone sold the £500 21st present I bought them a few years back, with my help on ebay, for £850 (after fees). It sold within 3 hours of my listing it on a Buy-It-Now because I wasn't greedy but set the price very attractively compared to similar in the market place. I trust them to use the proceeds wisely, but I admit I'm getting taken out for a meal by them as well in near future.

dopester

IveSeenTheLight wrote: »

I aim to do other similar things, take the grand children kite flying, to the beach, park. hill walking / camping etc, all free (currently )

There you go again. You admire the other guy buying, restoring and planning to give a really hip restored Jeep of value to his grandchildren to use, but you're readying yourself to choose all the free options.

Nothing wrong with the free options at all... but again it's not some massive out of your way act of financial generosity.

dopester

silvercar wrote: »

My two most expensive outlays are the kids and housing. With both those paid off by retirement (and the kids would be 34 and 30 by the time I'm 60 so I hope so!) I should be able to live on a much smaller income.

How about that fund, with which you've recently been looking to buy a foreign holiday home with? If you proceed... will any personal debt obligation still exist by the time your 60? Even if it's wrapped in some limited company?

I know part of the money you plan to buy with is wrapped in some fund which avoids higher rates of taxes (but when I looked in to it I think there are some disturbing tax pitfalls in the new regime for holiday home investment + the general outlook for values and demand).

People are bailing out everywhere, in my opinion Silvercar, and the tax advantages.. I don't see them unless your fund you want to rollover is "special" in a way I can't currently envisage. I wasn't going to raise this, because I know you're strong minded and might not like my concerns.