How much to live on

Ordinary_Yet_Unique

@uralmaid I think your statement about the culture today regarding buying things is unfair and inaccurate. Most people who use credit do pay it back. As has always been the case it is a minority of people who do not.

Just to add when people say modest backgrounds are they saying they lived in rented accommodation  or perhaps owner occupied with or without mortgages. To me modest is non owned.

I certainly had modest beginnings. My parents married as teenagers and we lived in very poor accommodation for years until things improved income wise. In those days there was very little protection from unscrupulous landlords. I remember on one occasion my parents spent time and money decorating and improving our flat with the permission of the landlord. They were then told to leave when it was finished. She had her intended outcome of improved accommodation at no expense to herself. There was no recourse in those days.

helensbiggestfan

Albermarle said:

uralmaid said:

I came from a modest background too - my parents never had much money and had to save hard for everything they gave me. The same can be said for most of my relatives but they all seemed to be far better off once retired.  I was lucky enough to have received some inheritances in the past few years which has made life very comfortable for us, but I would- if given the choice - have my relatives back with me and no money. I was always taught that if you want something, then you save for it but these days the culture seems to be "if you want it, buy it by any means and don't worry about paying it back"  I have cared for my Grandmother, my Mum and Dad and my In-Laws to the end and it is very hard. Everyone deals with it in different ways - but I don't see why someone elses good fortune or good planning should be unsettling.  Maybe it would be better to step away from MSE Ordinary_yet_unique  and return  when  things have settled down and you can get back to doing the things you enjoy.

Assuming that most of us posters on here are of a certain age range, I think it should be remembered that the 1950's and 1960's, and maybe the 1970's, was a time of great social mobility. Working class people going to Uni, more and more ordinary people owning houses and cars. Pensions more widely available with some jobs etc
So there are lots and lots of people today comfortably retired/ part of the prosperous middles classes/ the mass affluent who come from modest backgrounds ( me included - I showed my own teenage kids once were I used to live and they were not very complimentary !) 
Social mobility in the UK before WW2 was almost non existent, and has almost ground to a halt again in the last 25 years or so ( not completely but less than before) so from that point of view at least we were brought up in a golden age. I suppose it is part of being the Boomer generation, although that is more of a US based expression.

Fantastic post.  The post war years were probably the best time for social change, and upward mobility. For some their escape from poverty was university or apprenticeships, but for others it was a case of just slogging away and grasping every opportunity that came our way.  There was a window of opportunity of around 30 years where the working class were able to finally pull ahead.  

My chance came with second wave feminism.  The Equal Pay Act of 1970 and the Sex Discrimination Act of 1975 paved the way for women to finally have some autonomy and start gaining financial independence.  I took full advantage of the 1975 Act which finally gave women the right to sign credit agreements, and take out mortgages.  

I bought my first house in 1976, a dilapidated cottage, in need of some serious TLC.  I was a secretary at the time so not exactly earning a fortune and it was all I could afford. But it was mine.   I couldn't afford to pay the trades so I rolled up my sleeves and renovated it myself. Took me three years and every last penny I had, even had to sell my car.  Three years of hard graft and penny pinching.  I was just 25 when I bought It.  Everyone thought I was crazy.  But I had the last laugh.  Sold it for more than double what I had paid for it.  I was on my way.  Within a few years many of my female friends had followed suit. They said I had inspired them to take the plunge.  😂

A few years later I had a very interesting chat with a plumber.  He told me that he had noticed a huge upsurge in women only homeowners, so obviously those two Acts had helped a great many women to achieve home ownership and financial independence.  

It is certainly true that social mobility has declined.  The ability to "change our stars" is certainly a lot more difficult for the Millennials and Gen Z than it was for my generation.  That is why so many parents are becoming the Bank of Mum and Dad.  Both my sons have freely admitted that they would not now be owning their own homes if I had not gifted them their deposits, despite them both having degrees and good jobs.  They tell me that most of their friends are the same.  

Yes I showed my kids where I was brought up and I told them stories about ice on the inside of windows.  They were gobsmacked....😂🤣

Jimbobdibob

Ordinary_Yet_Unique said:

It is shameful that for many young people today getting on the housing ladder ,for example, is extremely difficult 

So true, many things better now but this is most certainly not. 

Jimbobdibob

"ice on inside of windows"

Perhaps going out for a meal on your birthday. 

Those were the days.

Ordinary_Yet_Unique

Jimbobdibob said:

Ordinary_Yet_Unique said:

It is shameful that for many young people today getting on the housing ladder ,for example, is extremely difficult 

So true, many things better now but this is most certainly not. 

Agreed I have 8 nephews and nieces. So far 4 of them have managed to buy their first house, 3 of them have partners, one was 30, one was 31, one was 32 and the other 26. All of them worked hard to scape together a sufficient deposit. They now have large mortgages, but are at least on their way. The others have some way to go. One of my nieces who is married is trying very hard to get the deposit together but paying a rent of £2000 a month for their house makes it challenging!

helensbiggestfan

Jimbobdibob said:

"ice on inside of windows"

Perhaps going out for a meal on your birthday. 

Those were the days.

The good old days......you can keep them. 

However, we did have good music and better fashions.  Ha ha.  

Robert Redford, my generations answer to Brad Pitt, died this week.  

All  my old crushes, are leaving us. Lol. 

Organgrinder

And you try and tell the young people of today that, and they won't believe you!

;-)

helensbiggestfan

Gotta love the Four Yorkshire Men, although my favourite is Loretta. 

uralmaid

@Ordinary yet unique - very sanctimonious.  I said I came from a modest home and it was.  My parents lived in a council house. They couldn't afford to buy as my Father spent 5 years in hospital after contracting TB whilst in the RAF towards the end of the war.  He had 2 thirds of a lung removed with no anaesthetic and fought to recover. He was a qualified engineer but had to leave that profession and retrain in a much less taxing job. I myself was a single parent - having my daughter when I was 18 and was lucky enough to get a full time job to support us and even scrimped and saved to pay for her to attend the local fee paying Girls High School with no monetary help.  She and her husband both have their own businesses and have always instilled the work ethic into both my Grandchildren. My Granddaughter  who is single , has just purchased her own flat at the age of 23 for the sum of £375k and currently works 2 jobs to help fund this after gaining her degree and subesquent Masters  and saving every penny she could from a very early age.  It can be done. And no - I am not boasting about what we have or don't have - merely stating facts.

Ordinary_Yet_Unique

However, you have to admit that very few people however hard they work could afford a £375000 flat at 23. She would been at university until she was at least 22 if she has gained a first degree and a masters degree. That is 4 years of fees and student loans for support. So after just one year of working she has saved a deposit and managed to obtain a very large mortgage. I am sorry but that has not happened without some outside financial support.

@uralmaid I am also unsure why you say what I said earlier was 'sanctimonious'. I was just suggesting that what one person considers modest is not necessarily so. I certainly wasn't referring to anyone in particular, but was making a general point.