Nobody is priced out..

ruggedtoast

No one who actually wants rising house prices gives a toss about other peoples children, or about anyone else other than themselves as far as I can see.

To be honest although I like to riff on the selfish boomer meme, this isnt really a sentiment that is shared by many of the boomers I have met. If the subject of house prices comes up most people just express concern that they are too high and worry about what will happen to their children.

But thats the real world, not the closed circle of righteous indignation and self satisfaction that is this forum.

PasturesNew

ILW wrote: »

I would suggest that any average couple (salaries around £25k) should be able to save £10k per year without too much hardship.

I have only ever known ONE couple who both earnt more than that.... a married couple of teachers. No more, just one. I don't socialise with people with high incomes because I don't have a high income so can't afford to socialise with them.... I can't keep up, so they'd hang out with people with similar lifes/lifestyles/incomes.

Nobody's going to want to socialise with me as I think "sitting in one spot for 6 hours just looking" is an activity (it's free) ... and people with money want to go for coffee, eat out, get something to eat.... and not expect to get a packet of tin-foil covered tomato sandwiches out of their pocket for lunch.

wotsthat

Lagoon wrote: »

What can I do about it? I could sell my soul to the devil, but I'd rather not.

Again, I'm prioritising. Kudos to people that can put in 60-80 hour weeks, giving their heart and soul to working in high-paying careers and sacrificing all of their free time, but even if those jobs were out there and readily available for every young person (and I don't believe they are), if that's what's needed to own a house of your own then again I think I'll pass.

I'm not asking what you need to do to be a city high flyer.

What could you do to improve your income such that you earn an average wage? There must be something that's less onerous than selling your soul to the devil.

Lagoon

wotsthat wrote: »

I'm not asking what you need to do to be a city high flyer.

What could you do to improve your income such that you earn an average wage? There must be something that's less onerous than selling your soul to the devil.

Yes, but around here and in my circle of friends at least, £25k is a salary that's difficult to achieve.

Picking three jobs from a recruitment agency, you can get a £25k salary for being a management accountant, a mortgage consultant (oh, the irony) or a senior web developer. Not necessarily jobs that people can just walk into.

In a majority of cases, the people that put in standard hours are the low-level workers. If you want to climb to the top of a company, you have to be willing to do unpaid overtime and to be on call whenever they want you.

If £25k is average, it's a UK average taking into account London salaries.

ETA:

Take this one, for example. Salary £22-25k:

We have an excellent opportunity available for an experienced geotechnical engineer to join a leading geotechnical and ground investigation contractor based in North West England. Suitable applicants will have expertise designing intrusive ground investigations and writing interpretive reports.

An excellent academic background is required with preferable degree qualifications including Geology, Geoscience or Geochemistry, ideally with MSc Environmental Engineering, Contaminated Land or Engineering Geology.

The successful candidate will manage the design, organisation and monitoring of site investigations. In addition to preparing geotechnical and interpretive desk studies and designing remediation strategy's.

Candidates should be familiar with in situ testing methods and have up to date knowledge of British standards and Eurocode.

The position offers a competitive salary together with an excellent personal development scheme in addition to an attractive company benefits package.

[Deleted User]

PasturesNew wrote: »

I have only ever known ONE couple who both earnt more than that.... a married couple of teachers. No more, just one. I don't socialise with people with high incomes because I don't have a high income so can't afford to socialise with them.... I can't keep up, so they'd hang out with people with similar lifes/lifestyles/incomes.

Nobody's going to want to socialise with me as I think "sitting in one spot for 6 hours just looking" is an activity (it's free) ... and people with money want to go for coffee, eat out, get something to eat.... and not expect to get a packet of tin-foil covered tomato sandwiches out of their pocket for lunch.

It's the problem with this site sometimes. People expect everyone to be 'just like them' - sure, earn £30k, no problem!

I only know one couple who earn under £50k between them; I know quite a few earning over £150k individually (and they do sell their souls). BUT .. that's because I'm also a higher earner (thank goodness not a hard working one who has to sacrifice a lot though) and the people I mix with (it's not a snobby thing, it just happened) also have decent jobs.

My wife's best friend's husband can't find higher paying work. He's a factory worker. He's just not able to get roles paying more. They're lucky that the 'friend' earns a lot through overtime and nightshifts so they could buy a home

Cheer up, it's picnic season soon!

RichardD1970

If the OP didn't have so many posts, I would think this was a Troll thread.

Light the blue touch paper and retreat to watch the fireworks!

ILW

Lagoon wrote: »

Yes, but around here and in my circle of friends at least, £25k is a salary that's difficult to achieve.

Picking three jobs from a recruitment agency, you can get a £25k salary for being a management accountant, a mortgage consultant (oh, the irony) or a senior web developer. Not necessarily jobs that people can just walk into.

In a majority of cases, the people that put in standard hours are the low-level workers. If you want to climb to the top of a company, you have to be willing to do unpaid overtime and to be on call whenever they want you.

If £25k is average, it's a UK average taking into account London salaries.

ETA:

Take this one, for example. Salary £22-25k:

We have an excellent opportunity available for an experienced geotechnical engineer to join a leading geotechnical and ground investigation contractor based in North West England. Suitable applicants will have expertise designing intrusive ground investigations and writing interpretive reports.

An excellent academic background is required with preferable degree qualifications including Geology, Geoscience or Geochemistry, ideally with MSc Environmental Engineering, Contaminated Land or Engineering Geology.

The successful candidate will manage the design, organisation and monitoring of site investigations. In addition to preparing geotechnical and interpretive desk studies and designing remediation strategy's.

Candidates should be familiar with in situ testing methods and have up to date knowledge of British standards and Eurocode.

The position offers a competitive salary together with an excellent personal development scheme in addition to an attractive company benefits package.

If that is the situation where you live, I would expect house prices to be quite low, so all the numbers can be adjusted downwards.

It is in many cases a matter of priorities.

I believe that you stated earlier that a relatively expensive wedding was more important to you than a house deposit. I personally would consider a stable home more important when contemplating having children.

wotsthat

Lagoon wrote: »

Yes, but around here and in my circle of friends at least, £25k is a salary that's difficult to achieve.

Picking three jobs from a recruitment agency, you can get a £25k salary for being a management accountant, a mortgage consultant (oh, the irony) or a senior web developer. Not necessarily jobs that people can just walk into.

In a majority of cases, the people that put in standard hours are the low-level workers. If you want to climb to the top of a company, you have to be willing to do unpaid overtime and to be on call whenever they want you.

So 'round your way it's difficult to achieve. So you could move?

Some jobs you can't just walk into and need qualifications. So you could improve your skills and qualifications?

People that work standard hours tend to find it difficult to achieve average wages. So you could work some unpaid overtime and actually earn more?

Again we're not talking about getting to the top, working all hours or being on permanent call - just making more money than now.

the_flying_pig

RichardD1970 wrote: »

If the OP didn't have so many posts, I would think this was a Troll thread.

Light the blue touch paper and retreat to watch the fireworks!

I'm afraid that the OP quite likely considered this to be a valuable contribution to the debate, possibly even a eureka moment of sorts .

Lagoon

wotsthat wrote: »

So 'round your way it's difficult to achieve. So you could move?

Some jobs you can't just walk into and need qualifications. So you could improve your skills and qualifications?

People that work standard hours tend to find it difficult to achieve average wages. So you could work some unpaid overtime and actually earn more?

Again we're not talking about getting to the top, working all hours or being on permanent call - just making more money than now.

As I said, to me home ownership isn't worth all that. I was merely pointing out that this notion that people can 'easily save £20,000 in two years' is very short-sighted.

If that means putting in lots of unpaid overtime, paying to go and study for further qualifications and moving across the country to somewhere you might not be happy living but where salaries are higher, that can't necessarily be considered 'easy'. That's a lot to expect of a lot of people. It's not entirely impossible, but why is home ownership so important that people are EXPECTED to do that much for it?