Accommodation v Disposable income dilemma

marksoton

Kim_kim wrote: »

They will own it when they've made the final finance payment.

I find that a form of snobbery. Looking down on finance bought cars, does it really matter? Not many people have the cash to buy a car outright.

Most lease and finance deals don't end with the customer owning the car.

On the second point, behave.

Pixie5740

Equally impressed by neither

I don't think anyone is denying that you may have more or less opportunities in life than your parents (graduating from university for example) or that your children might have more or less opportunities than you. We're all saying that we couldn't care less if someone lives in a 1-bedroom flat or a 12-bedroom house with indoor swimming pool. I think it's you who need to be educated. It doesn't matter what you have if you're an !!!!!! then you're an !!!!!!.

I was at a friend's home (who also happens to be a colleague) and do you know what impressed me about her home....the fact that although she has a cat her Christmas tree is still intact. We also played the cereal packet game and I was seriously impressed about how low some people could go.

marksoton

PlanLife wrote: »

Gone from me wanting a simple opinion on a simple question to me educating the 'money saving expert housing forum' that social mobility exists. Honestly embarrassing...


Simple, as I said, if you can't see the glass ceiling because you've been in your situation so long and are unaware of social mobility then that is your issue and I am not interested in your opinion about the merits of the question, only opinions about what someone would be more socially impressed with.

The question does not have any merit.

It's a ridiculous and childish concept.

tlc678910

I vote the three bed detached with little money as housing floats my boat more than spending. But if the roof was leaking and the bills mounting having no spare cash could cause it to unravel.

How about a compromise on a two bed terrace/semi and a reasonable quality of life?
Tlc

moneyistooshorttomention

More impressed by nice detached house and average other things

I think what I notice most - if we are speaking at just a material level - is how good or bad people are at money management.

So - I tend to resonate with people who plan their lives (which obviously includes planning their finances). Plans can - and do - go awry (my own did due to outside circumstances:mad:).

But, far better to plan imo - than just bumble through life keeping fingers crossed. The planner can take the exact same set of circumstances and make more of them than the bumbler will.

But then I have been a horrified onlooker at just how much of a mess of their lives (and finances) bumblers can make. Whereas a planner has decided what they intend to have/puts in reasonable to high amount of work to get it/keeps their eyes open for opportunities for a bit of a "helping hand" from any direction (the Government, the Universe, whatever....).

Same start point and the planner can have a detached mortgage free house/no unaffordable commitments of any kind and the bumbler can still be sitting there at retirement age living in a rented home (or I've seen them with no home or a "mobile" home) and/or subsidising other adults/etc/etc.

So it's not down to what you've got. It's how you play the "pack of cards" you've been handed - with skill or by throwing them on the ground and trampling on them.

So what impressed me one time was a schoolkid coming up to A levels that responded to my questions about his plans by saying "I'm going to do these A levels, then go to that university and do that course, then I'll have a career for that organisation doing that sort of job". He probably has done all that too:rotfl::T. Now that's what I call being "A Planner".

boliston

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

.......

Same start point and the planner can have a detached mortgage free house/no unaffordable commitments of any kind and the bumbler can still be sitting there at retirement age living in a rented home ........

When I get to retirement age I'd rather have money to spend and enjoy my retirement than have it all tied up in bricks and mortar.

moneyistooshorttomention

More impressed by nice detached house and average other things

boliston wrote: »

When I get to retirement age I'd rather have money to spend and enjoy my retirement than have it all tied up in bricks and mortar.

It's each to their own on that one.

But if you've got the "bricks and mortar" - then you're not spending some of that money you want yourself on paying rent. All that money that would be lost to rent is yours and you can "spend and enjoy":).

Also - security is important to many people and I think that the older one becomes then the more important that security becomes. One could "play the Age Card" and go to local Council and say "I qualify for OAP council housing because of my age" - but, in this day and age, I don't rate the chances that highly of the Council saying "Yes, of course, and here's the key to a little OAP bungalow". If you've bought your own home - then, hopefully, the mortgage is paid off (or worst case analysis is minimal) and you have the peace of mind of knowing that whatever illness might hit/whatever contemporaries might die at least you've safely "got your own 4 walls".

PlanLife

More impressed by average apartment and nice other things

tlc678910 wrote: »

I vote the three bed detached with little money as housing floats my boat more than spending. But if the roof was leaking and the bills mounting having no spare cash could cause it to unravel.

How about a compromise on a two bed terrace/semi and a reasonable quality of life?
Tlc

I couldn't find any modern looking two bedroom terrace/semi houses

AnotherJoe

boliston wrote: »

When I get to retirement age I'd rather have money to spend and enjoy my retirement than have it all tied up in bricks and mortar.

False choice.
If you need that level of money to survive on, either sell your house (and start paying rent) or use equity release.
Before you do that, you dont have any rent to pay throughout your retirement, you aren't at the mercy of rent rises, useless landlords, or being being evicted.

PlanLife

More impressed by average apartment and nice other things

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

I think what I notice most - if we are speaking at just a material level - is how good or bad people are at money management.

So - I tend to resonate with people who plan their lives (which obviously includes planning their finances). Plans can - and do - go awry (my own did due to outside circumstances:mad:).

But, far better to plan imo - than just bumble through life keeping fingers crossed. The planner can take the exact same set of circumstances and make more of them than the bumbler will.

But then I have been a horrified onlooker at just how much of a mess of their lives (and finances) bumblers can make. Whereas a planner has decided what they intend to have/puts in reasonable to high amount of work to get it/keeps their eyes open for opportunities for a bit of a "helping hand" from any direction (the Government, the Universe, whatever....).

Same start point and the planner can have a detached mortgage free house/no unaffordable commitments of any kind and the bumbler can still be sitting there at retirement age living in a rented home (or I've seen them with no home or a "mobile" home) and/or subsidising other adults/etc/etc.

So it's not down to what you've got. It's how you play the "pack of cards" you've been handed - with skill or by throwing them on the ground and trampling on them.

So what impressed me one time was a schoolkid coming up to A levels that responded to my questions about his plans by saying "I'm going to do these A levels, then go to that university and do that course, then I'll have a career for that organisation doing that sort of job". He probably has done all that too:rotfl::T. Now that's what I call being "A Planner".

I agree, I'd say the difference between the classes is:

upper class - lavish and luxuriate
middle class - save and maintain
working class - spend and enjoy

I'm very frugal, so my lifestyle suits middle class anyway.