approaching family for help..

Sheila_Risk

I work in the development department of an independent television company called Radar.

We are currently researching an idea about how to help those of us priced out (including myself) get priced in - so to speak. As 80% of the country's wealth is held in the hands of the over 50s, as student debt spirals and pensions disappear, we think its time the older generation give today's young a helping hand.

I am looking for anyone who would consider - or has already done so - approaching older, wealthier relatives for help. Not just for help on the property ladder, it could be a business venture or even money for travelling. Have you had to convince family your idea is worth investing in? Were you successful? Or are you currently developing a plan to do so?

If so I would love to talk to you. Please email me on [EMAIL="sheila.risk@radartv.co.uk"]sheila.risk@radartv.co.uk[/EMAIL] and I'll be in touch.

Sheila Risk

development
RadarTV

moanymoany

When we were young and bought our first house it was so easy, we had lots of money left over to enjoy ourselves, everyone knows that houses only cost pennies in the 60's and 70's and we were earning shedloads of cash. Why, we could buy all of our furniture in one go............. spot the irony here?

When my DH and I started off married life in 1968, our rent was 3/4 of our joint income. It was two rooms. Our first morgage was 10% interest and never went lower than that, and in 1989 our mortgage was 14%. We have spent a lot of time living through redundancies and very hard economic times. We have worked hard to pay our mortgage, to stay out of debt. I suppose we now have a lot of money at our disposal, though most of it is in the house, but you know what, we are going to use it to support us in our retirement.

nollag2006

Sheesh... you could at least wait until your elderly relatives are dead before trying to take their house off them ...

pickles110564

Yet again the student generation expects everything for nothing, do what we had to do, get off your @rse, make do with nothing until you can afford to buy it yourself

floyd

pickles110564 wrote: »

Yet again the student generation expects everything for nothing, do what we had to do, get off your @rse, make do with nothing until you can afford to buy it yourself

C'mon we aren't all like that

I did a degree and PhD. I am paying back my student loans like a good girl with no complaints, have a good job but rubbish pay and saved up for 4 years to afford a deposit on a house. It never even occured to us to ask our parents for money, they worked hard for it for 40+ years so what right do we have to go sponging off them :eek:

Both my partner and I work 60 hour weeks and still 4 years after moving in, 70% of the house looks like something off the Waltons

I do agree with you though, I know people who got everything handed to them on a plate by their parents, cars, credit cards where the balance was cleared every month (not by them!), house to live in rent-free and a nice sum in their back pocket every month. They will never know what its like to live on £300 a month before your rent is paid or the feeling you get when you can finally afford to buy something you have wanted for months.

Pobby

Well in my family i have a teenager woefully in debt(brand new whizzy car at 18)!!!!!!!!!!!!Other youngsters in my family think,no demand that they should have the latest everything.When we got our first house in the 70`s I had 2 jobs,my wife worked full time and our furniture was hand me downs.

Now in our 50`s we have 10s upon 10s of thousands of pounds in pension funds,pretty much worth diddly squat.Even more in savings that make us very little in returns and both still working full time.

It never occurred to us to go cap in hand to older,richer relatives!

So quit moaning,get real and do something about it!

olly300

I'm sorry

Money for travelling.

When did travelling become essential? I'm missing something......Nearly everyone I know who has gone travelling over the age of 21 has paid for it themselves by working.

The OP has mixed up her categories.

Getting someone to invest in a business venture is different from getting help with owning a property which are in turn different to getting someone to give you the money to go travelling.

Alan_M_2

My parents invested in my business, they didn't really need convincing, they wanted a slice of the pie, it helped me at the same time, everybody wins.

As already noted, you (the OP) have more than one topic here and really you're coming across as a moaning slacker that should spend more time and energy on devising the means of earning enough money to get you into the position you want to be, rather than angling for a hand out.

chugalug

My mum was a widow supporting 5 children in a council house. When I had my first home I had nothing - I went searching charity shops for things to start me off. I'm lucky cos I ended up with a council house myself - not an option for my kids. BUT they all work hard in what they choose to do - my son's at university and cannot get over how many of his peers have everthing now and feel deprived if they don't. Their parents pay the bills so they keep spending - if you want something, work for it - save your money and don't get into debt. We can't all have everything new, holidays, clothes, cars etc. My kids can ask all they like - I have no money but will always give them advice and practical help .... surely that's worth more than a handout?

HelzBelz

OP: Maybe if as a researcher for a TV production company you did research instead of asking questions on internet forums and expecting other people to do your job for you, you might get a promotion and more money.

Everyone else: this might sound harsh, but most of the forums you ever sign up to at some point will have a TV researcher fishing for information or people to take part in programs and expecting them to supply all the information they need to put a program together, all they're really looking for is somebody to do their job for them.

harryhound

In this little overcrowded island, young people have a problem.

They earn good money.
They cannot remember the hardship when Margaret Thatcher broke the unions, before north sea oil rescued the economy.

Cheap flights mean they can afford to work a bit and travel a bit. A jet set lifestyle BUT

There are some huge Elephants in the Room.

Encouraging half the population to go to college, means the quality of debate amongst the debt ridden trainee intake in the canteen has improved BUT global capitalism can buy 10 Indian graduates for every one British one.

The population is ballooning, here in the UK due to migration, legal and illegal.

Family breakdown, means the number of households is growing faster than the population increase. These two effects, compounded by the rush to buy to let, has made house ownership near impossible for many 20 somethings.

The oil and gas is running out.

Looking to the global scene:

The world population is increasing at 1,000,000 every 5 days (A jumbo jet full every 2 minutes) A very large number of these will have no worthwhile job and will fight to try and join a society that can offer them the lifestyle they see on the TV and internet. (The world population has more than doubled since the WWII). They really want to get to USA but the UK makes an English speaking substitute.

Now the scientists are telling us that we have exceeded the earth's carrying capacity, not because of a shortage of food, but because our rapidly expanding global economy is playing fast and loose with the environment.

So young adults are credit rich but capital poor, it is not surprising that adolescence or growing up as we used to call it, takes until about 30 these days.

It feels a bit like the end of the Roman Empire. The rich 25% of the world is living well, but it is impossible for the huge, poorly educated masses to achieve the same standard, the world just cannot take it.
When the Roman Empire collapsed it took 1,500 years for Europe to recover, and it only did so by scientific progress and colonising much of the rest of the globe.

Perhaps as a world, we can all pull together at this 11th hour, but I very much doubt it.

So get educated, stay fit, pay off your debts, learn some practical skills, possibly emigrate to somewhere with space and a high level of training (or a small tax haven, to which the world's ownership of capital is gravitating). Don't fritter away money on credit, Don't "churn" your investments or relationships and stay flexible. Rent while yields to the B2L brigade are negative, after allowing for increasing interest rates and watch the economy in the short term.
We are on the cusp of inflation or deflation or worse still stagflation as China & India bid up the cost of scarce resources. Expansion is coming to a standstill under the weight of debt and rising interest rates.

On a personal level. I helped my children onto the property ladder but that was at the end of the last century. But I just helped push up prices against the rest of the 20 somethings. I could not afford to do it now.

Harry