I wouldn't like to be 18 again...

wotsthat

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Key difference.....

We acknowledge it.

...who's we?

Isn't it more likely that young people just like to make out everything's harder for them rather than it actually being true?

Things are tough no doubt for young people today but it's a massive over-simplification to say that the previous generation always had it easier. For a start apart from the last few years everyone has been getting richer. Wealth is built slowly - you have to start with nothing and take it from there.

kabayiri

If we didn't have all these whiplash claims just think how many solicitors, legals, and claims support teams would be out of work ?

Just see it as job creation!

Out,_Vile_Jelly

When I was 18 my boyfriend and two best friends had cars which worked out nicely for me.

Some things were better at that age, but certainly not everything. A Levels were massively stressful. I prefer being an adult and earning decent money, and not having to wait til my parents go out in order to have sex.

chewmylegoff

Graham_Devon wrote: »

No in a financial sense anyway!

We had the unemployment statistics yesterday, we know about housing costs, we know about tuition costs, but today, a report from the AA states that car insurance is still shooting up because the rest of greedy society won't stop making whiplash claims.

Some insurers have simply changed policies and won't insure up to 21 year olds at all. For others that will, for a £1,000 car, it can cost £3,000 a year to insure it.

How on earth are younger people getting by!?

i recall car insurance costing an absolute bomb when i was 17/18 which was 15 years ago now, and no-one i knew had their own car insurance, everyone drove their parents cars everywhere. to some extent it doesn't really matter if it is £1,000 or £3,000, you probably still can't afford it when you're 18. (as an aside, my renewal the other day was about £550. I had three quotes close to that (all from the admiral group's various companies) and the next one was £900, then I had several in the £2,000+ range, so it's not just the 18 year olds market that some companies have decided to deliberately price themselves out of).

but i agree with your general point, i would not want to be going through university and on into the job market these days. i think uni would have been fine although i would have had to get a part time job which i didn't need 15 years ago, but i don't think my career would have gone anything like as well.

lostinrates

chewmylegoff wrote: »

i recall car insurance costing an absolute bomb when i was 17/18 which was 15 years ago now, and no-one i knew had their own car insurance, everyone drove their parents cars everywhere. to some extent it doesn't really matter if it is £1,000 or £3,000, you probably still can't afford it when you're 18. (as an aside, my renewal the other day was about £550. I had three quotes close to that (all from the admiral group's various companies) and the next one was £900, then I had several in the £2,000+ range, so it's not just the 18 year olds market that some companies have decided to deliberately price themselves out of).

but i agree with your general point, i would not want to be going through university and on into the job market these days. i think uni would have been fine although i would have had to get a part time job which i didn't need 15 years ago, but i don't think my career would have gone anything like as well.

We are about the same age. My car insurance was not that dreadful, i was insured on my own car. Car cost...um, oh, its gone right out of my head now, either £500 or £950. In surance was significantly less than both value of car and what we pay now! I did however work.

I would want to be 18 again, and don't think my dh would mind. But i don't think things would be the same at all. I paid the new one grand fees, but now i would certainly have picked a different course in a pure or straight to employment subject, or stayed out pf university for longer and continued to earn money with the aim of doing uni a few years later.

Kennyboy66

isn't this the the last cohort of first year undergraduates who don't have to pay the increased fees ?

Not too bad - better off being in education for 3 years than an 18 year old trying to find work at the moment. Graduate in 2014 and probably a reasonable jobs market then.

yertiz_2

Some youngsters rely on the bank of mum and dad (who could afford it when times were good) to pay for their car / insurance, then they don't have to taxi them around all the time. When I was 18 I could'nt afford driving lessons and my first car, at 22 was an old banger, bought from my Dad for £50!

Percy1983

wotsthat wrote: »

So an eighteen year old now would be looking at you thinking it's so unfair that you had it so easy - cheap insurance, easy house purchase, low interest rates and easy employment.

Yet at the same time you think someone ten years older than you has been lucky being born ten years earlier when petrol was cheaper, mortgages were easier to get etc.

Could it just be that younger people always think they've been hard done to by the generation before?

Well it would seem car insurance would be £600 more (£1500-£2100) but ther is 10 years of wage inflation to consider. House purchase far from easy and I am seeing no benefit form interest rates (only higher bank profits).

On the flipside I would probably still get where I am now, there is points along the way where I was above the crowd.

To be honest I don't think its a case of each generation thinking they have it worse, the reality is they are.

There is to ways I can view it really, unlucky to be born 10 years to late or lucky to be born to at least get setup in the decline rather than rock bottom.

With that I will say I do agree with some of the above, in respects you make your own luck.

The_White_Horse

if i was 18 again i would [EMAIL="sh@g"]sh@g[/EMAIL] more birds. the end. that, and invest in Apple.

chucknorris

wotsthat wrote: »

I want to be 18 not 44 - that's better than winning the lottery.

Well at 54 that makes the it the Euro millions lottery for me!

If I was 18 I think it would be a very hard decision between doing a degree and seeking a professional career again or becoming an electrician or plumber/gas fitter and starting my own business.