MSE Poll: Are you financially better off than your parents at your age?
Former_MSE_Karl
Posts: 175 Forumite
Poll started 16 April 2019
The world is richer than it used to be, but do you feel it? Taking into account financial wealth and income (and factoring in inflation), overall how do you think you stand compared with your parents?Did you vote? Are you surprised at the results so far? Have your say below.
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Comments
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The older groups seem to think they are substantially better off, is it a generational thing?
It would be interesting to see the reasons why.
Is it because people today are more likely to have inherited their parents wealth, whilst their parents inherited little or nothing?
Or because both partners are more likely to work, on more equal pay in recent years?0 -
No option for "I don't know as my parents never discussed their finances with me"0
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duncanthedog wrote: »No option for "I don't know as my parents never discussed their finances with me"
What about "I never knew my parents"?0 -
The older groups seem to think they are substantially better off, is it a generational thing?
It would be interesting to see the reasons why.
Is it because people today are more likely to have inherited their parents wealth, whilst their parents inherited little or nothing?
Or because both partners are more likely to work, on more equal pay in recent years?
As a 64 year old my reasons for feeling "substantially better off" are a combination of things.
My wife and I worked from the ages of 17 and 18 respectively and bought a house relatively early. We have both had pensions throughout our working lives. When the children (why don't we have a proper word for grown up offspring? ) left home we downsized. Unfortunately both my parents are now dead and I benefited from them being house owners.0 -
At 37, I feel as if I have more disposable income than my parents did at my age, but this is mostly because I don't have three children eating up my cash! (could more people delaying parenthood, having fewer children, or choosing to be childfree more often be a factor?)
Because of the disposable income, I tentatively picked "better off", but it did occur to me that I was a good ten years older than my parents were before I was in a position to buy my own home. I'm also not sure my pension is going to be anything like theirs were.0 -
In in my 40s and have ticked better off, although that's mainly down the to fact we have no kids whereas my parents had 3.0
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We are substantially better off than our parents.
Our son is better off than we were at his age.
Our daughter is worse off.0 -
Early 30's and put better off.
This is going to be hugely circumstantial. In my instance income is considerably lower but net wealth is much higher. The reason is i bought my house some 10 years earlier in my life than they did. They had very little wealth before their 40's from then it rocketed.0 -
This poll really interested me, as it's something I've thought about and discussed a lot over the years.
I'm 39 and my parents are in their early 70s. Although I have more disposable income than my parents did at my age, overall I believe I am substantially worse off. My parents owned a four-bed semi in a nice suburb in London, my mum worked part-time in a low-paid job, my dad earned an average full-time salary, they had two children, one of whom attended a private primary school. To get a mortgage on that same house now, my annual household income would need to be around £250,000. That isn't factoring in children or anything else.
Currently, both my partner and I have to work full-time and we both earn above-average salaries (though nowhere near to that £250,000 level). We do not believe we could afford to have children and we certainly do not live in a house worth anything like as much as my childhood home. But we do travel more and go out for dinner much more than my parents could afford to at my age.
So they were property rich, though I know disposable income was little to none for most of my childhood. These may be very London-centric circumstances and would be different if we had lived and grown up elsewhere in the UK.0 -
My parents have lived in the same house for 50 years & extended it twice.
They both worked, mum part time as a GP when we were young & got the traditional much lower pay of the part time woman then, but she bought into the practice she worked for & so got a healthy chunk when she left. Both have professional pensions as well at state pensions & even private health care.
We've three sons on one income. My parents are in a much better financial position than I am, but we made different choices & had different opportunities.0
This discussion has been closed.
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