Have we got our sums right?? Appraise our plan.

cfw1994

atush wrote: »

But we have 2 at home still, who will move out in the next year so not really sure what our spend will be like then.

DairyQueen wrote: »

Vastly reduced! (don't forget to change the locks ).

Not so sure about that....
....suddenly you find you have free time, there are shows to see, pubs to visit, friends to spend time (& money!) with, places to go......

At least the food shop and the clothes washing falls dramatically, for sure!

Great advice re: locks....haven't yet resorted to that here ;-)

& of course, when they come to visit, it is a chance to send them back with lots of food, maybe a tank of fuel....ah yes, the expense never ends!

Suffolk_lass

Our biggest saving was the metered water bill. It dropped by over half when long tall Son left home. Food bill only halved. Electricity down by 25% (just from turning lights and switches off). Love him to bits, he refused to turn the heating on in his new place until the room temperature dropped below 18c

DairyQueen

On completion of post grad (phew) the bank of (step) mum & dad had a brief opportunity to consolidate before it was called upon to fund house deposit (willingly given - smack me upside the head). Younger stepd has recently announced her engagement. I am hoping that they will take at least 5 years to produce grandchildren.

Love her to bits but, Lord almighty, I was financially independent from the age of 19. What is wrong with our generation that we feel compelled to support offspring into their 30s and beyond?

Discuss?

shinytop

What is wrong with our generation that we feel compelled to support offspring into their 30s and beyond?

I think it's a combination of (1) because we (well some of us) can and (2) housing is more difficult to obtain more and expensive than it was. I had 2 kids and was mortgaged up to the ears by the time I was 26 but that's much harder to do now without help (which I never had).

DairyQueen

shinytop wrote: »

I think it's a combination of (1) because we (well some of us) can and (2) housing is more difficult to obtain more and expensive than it was. I had 2 kids and was mortgaged up to the ears by the time I was 26 but that's much harder to do now without help (which I never had).

Agreed that buying a home is more difficult to achieve but we can't help but notice that they have much higher expectations than we did. Both OH and I went without luxuries to buy first homes and then to pay mortgages at a much higher interest rate. The youngies have managed a couple of overseas holidays a year (inc the USA and Japan) plus an active social life, whilst saving for their deposit. They were also determined to buy in the UK's most expensive housing market (London). We estimate that they could have saved around double if they had cut their cloth for a couple of years.

The purchase in London will stand them in good stead for the future but they couldn't have achieved it without our help.

We didn't receive any help from parents who could, by then, have afforded it. Our parents' generation expected us to stand on our own feet and cut our cloth accordingly. We, on the other hand, don't have the same expectations of our children.

I have yet to work-out why our generation is willing to subsidise our childrens' lifestyle choices rather than just their necessities. I appreciate that this doesn't apply to all but, if parents can, then they often they do. This is a very different attitude to that of previous generations.

justme111

I can see your point. Could it be because their parents' standards of living at the time when they are teenagers are higher then they were with previous generation? Those parents in their late 40s with established careers and corresponding standard of living set expectations for their teens. I have recently thought about a drop in a standard of living for young people who start to live independently and how weird it must feel for them. If their starting salaries are good then they just continue the same standard of living they had with their parent's because that is what they used to. May be your parents went without luxuries while you lived with them so you did to and now you had those luxuries while being a parent setting tone for the children ?

kidmugsy

DairyQueen wrote: »

I have yet to work-out why our generation is willing to subsidise our children's lifestyle choices rather than just their necessities.

Perhaps because house price inflation means that many parents wonder whether their estates will eventually be whacked for Inheritance Tax. If that's the case you might as well gift heaps of money to the children and then hope to survive seven years. That way the family gets a 40% rebate.

If that's the logic it seems terribly risky behaviour to me. Our Bank of M & D has moved from gifting to lending interest-free. At some point it will move again to lending at interest.

cfw1994

justme111 wrote: »

May be your parents went without luxuries while you lived with them so you did to and now you had those luxuries while being a parent setting tone for the children ?

I remember when I went to Uni my then retired parents bought a new car, a Bang & Olufsen tv, a microwave.....oh, I must have saved them a fortune!
Of course back then I got a full grant; no tuition fees; worked in holidays to fund my motorbike......
But I think people generally nowadays have higher expectations. It’s our job as parents to temper those with a kind dose of reality from time to time!

shinytop

full grant; no tuition fees; worked in holidays to fund my motorbike.

you sound just like me

Sea_Shell

I've been playing around with Excel this afternoon, and devised a "prediction" spreadsheet, where I can input, current pot values, growth (or loss) forecast, annual spend, plus inflation forecast, and it spits out the numbers over 30+ years. DH will love it!!!! - I manage the money, but he's always asking me for the latest analysis of where we are.

It's a bit crude, and I'm sure some of you will have it split down further into asset classes, interest rates etc. but it's a starting point. (and saves having to go to on-line calculators each time I want to "test" figures)