welljock Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 1 hour ago, can1983 said: not sure most people I know (of course that's not the whole of society) every generation has had more than the previous until gen x. I'm gen X (just about, nearly Y). I can categorically state that I will only reach the wealth of my parents when they die and of course that's something id rather not happen! In all eventuality they might spend it all by then and if they do that's fine its not mine! You're missing my point currently Baby Boomers ie people aged 55-70 own 25% or the wealth, in 15 years when Gen X are 55-70 they will own 25% of the wealth (Deloitte actual predict 31%), then 15 years later when the millennials are 55-70 they will own 25% of the wealth. It's really age groups that have the most accumulated share of the wealth rather than particular generations. Every generation has their trials and advantages. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starlight7 Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 Have to say most of us babyboomers grew up when there were very few expensive gadgets around. Not even microwave ovens and no colour tvs. People spent money on food and rent/mortgage . We didn't have washing machines, dryers or even, in our case , phones or fridges. When you moved into a house you had no furniture and no wardrobes etc. We survived. Funny that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ramot Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 (edited) I now realise I am too old to be a baby boomer, so I don’t have to apologise to can 1983 for making a success of my life. I will leave that to you youngsters . Edited October 17, 2018 by ramot 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gbye grey sky Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 2 minutes ago, starlight7 said: Have to say most of us babyboomers grew up when there were very few expensive gadgets around. Not even microwave ovens and no colour tvs. People spent money on food and rent/mortgage . We didn't have washing machines, dryers or even, in our case , phones or fridges. When you moved into a house you had no furniture and no wardrobes etc. We survived. Funny that. I am amazed how much people spend on cable tv and phone contracts. Neither of which I have. Our 3 cheap mobiles cost us a total of $45 in top ups per month. And Fox/Sky is expensive too. A lot of people do not consider the latest phone, cable tv, big screen tvs throughout the house etc as luxury items. So many if not all of our daughter’s friends have the latest iPhone. Obviously their siblings and parents have them too. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skani Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 2 hours ago, starlight7 said: no colour tvs. No TV of any sort arrived in our neck of the woods until my early teens. I'm really glad though - we read such a lot and it gave us a great appreciation of books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon the Hat Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 2 hours ago, Skani said: No TV of any sort arrived in our neck of the woods until my early teens. I'm really glad though - we read such a lot and it gave us a great appreciation of books. 4 hours ago, Gbye grey sky said: I am amazed how much people spend on cable tv and phone contracts. Neither of which I have. Our 3 cheap mobiles cost us a total of $45 in top ups per month. And Fox/Sky is expensive too. A lot of people do not consider the latest phone, cable tv, big screen tvs throughout the house etc as luxury items. So many if not all of our daughter’s friends have the latest iPhone. Obviously their siblings and parents have them too. Its easy for the older generation to say the kids are wasting their time and money and that's why they can't afford houses, but when pretty much the whole generation is doing the same, you have to ask whether it is their fault /decision or whether they have been convinced by manipulative marketing and so on which frankly the older generation didn't have exposure to. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skani Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 (edited) 8 hours ago, Jon the Hat said: you have to ask whether it is their fault /decision or whether they have been convinced by manipulative marketing and so on which frankly the older generation didn't have exposure to. It's true that everyone is bombarded by choices and manipulative marketing in every area of life these days. Life is simpler when you have fewer choices. But learning to discriminate between needs and wants and learning to see through the hype and make intelligent choices for oneself is an essential skill for survival these days. It's one you hope every parent is teaching their child. Accepting the consequences of your choices - good and bad - is a necessary part of becoming an adult. Edited October 17, 2018 by Skani 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gbye grey sky Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 8 hours ago, Jon the Hat said: Its easy for the older generation to say the kids are wasting their time and money and that's why they can't afford houses, but when pretty much the whole generation is doing the same, you have to ask whether it is their fault /decision or whether they have been convinced by manipulative marketing and so on which frankly the older generation didn't have exposure to. Hmmm. Undoubtedly marketing has become more sophisticated but ‘keeping up with the Jones’s’ was a phrase from the 1950s as was buying on ‘the never never’ (Hire Purchase) I believe so there has always been a pressure to spend more than you should. However there is much more ‘stuff’ these days and, since the 1980s credit has been much easier to obtain. However consumers of goods have also become more sophisticated now and have learned to see past the hype - or they certainly should have done. I feel that there is a major tendency to dodge personal responsibility for everything too these days. It is always someone elses fault that I spent this money, had that accident etc etc. Not all young people are spending more than they can afford any more than all older people are/were frugal. People made individual choices then and have the ability to make individual choices now. Parents have a lot to answer for too. Our 14 year old daughter is about the only one of her peers without the latest iPhone yet we fully engaged her with the options on costs, features etc and she freely concluded that the costly option did not provide best value. She is actually proud of the fact that she is involved in assessing ‘value-for-money’. An important life lesson that I hope she takes with her. I know the school recently reinforced this with her class too. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
can1983 Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 why does everyone always reach for the gadget and smashed avocado line when people complain about high cost of housing. Its been proven how silly blaming avocado toast on the world problems is....... the cost of these items, say $5000 per annum is irrelevant compared to the cost of housing Lets imagine someone wanted to live in Sydney or Melbourne. a modest 3 bed family home would cost at least 1.5 million for one nowhere near the centre they have a $500k deposit which is, by current standards huge. if two adults earn $200k as per the original article and we all agree a huge income they are nowhere close to being able to afford the modest 3 bed house. The same 3 bed house that used to be owned by a taxi driver and a cleaner 30 years ago. so what do they do? how many iphones and smashed avocado brunches to they have to skip to make the maths work here? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marisawright Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 8 hours ago, Jon the Hat said: Its easy for the older generation to say the kids are wasting their time and money and that's why they can't afford houses, but when pretty much the whole generation is doing the same, you have to ask whether it is their fault /decision or whether they have been convinced by manipulative marketing and so on which frankly the older generation didn't have exposure to. Absolutely right, IMO. That's why our "resentful" poster has no idea what we're talking about - marketing has convinced the younger generation that luxuries are necessities. As you say, we didn't even think about the gadgets, the excessive amount of clothes or the balayage in our hair because we weren't being bombarded with advertising for them. We didn't feel hard-done-by with our second-hand furniture and our snowy TV because all our friends were the same and we all had a laugh about it. Whereas I think it would be a brave millenial who would have any old stuff in their flat (unless it's "vintage") because their friends would scoff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
can1983 Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 11 minutes ago, Marisawright said: Absolutely right, IMO. That's why our "resentful" poster has no idea what we're talking about - marketing has convinced the younger generation that luxuries are necessities. As you say, we didn't even think about the gadgets, the excessive amount of clothes or the balayage in our hair because we weren't being bombarded with advertising for them. We didn't feel hard-done-by with our second-hand furniture and our snowy TV because all our friends were the same and we all had a laugh about it. Whereas I think it would be a brave millenial who would have any old stuff in their flat (unless it's "vintage") because their friends would scoff. I have few gadgets, buy minimal clothes love to upcycle furniture. Are you really saying everyone had secondhand in the 1980s? someone had to buy new surely!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marisawright Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 4 minutes ago, can1983 said: I have few gadgets, buy minimal clothes love to upcycle furniture. Are you really saying everyone had secondhand in the 1980s? someone had to buy new surely!! Everyone under the age of 30 probably did. The ones who didn't were the ones who lived on tick and are struggling in their old age. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marisawright Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 22 minutes ago, can1983 said: why does everyone always reach for the gadget and smashed avocado line when people complain about high cost of housing. Its been proven how silly blaming avocado toast on the world problems is....... the cost of these items, say $5000 per annum is irrelevant compared to the cost of housing No one is blaming smashed avocado, surely you realise that. It's symbolic of the problem, that's all. People are now thoughtlessly spending twenty times as much on breakfast (a few pennies for home-made toast vs $15 for smashed avo), and the same thing applies to many aspects of life. $5,000 is a gross underestimate. When I was working in the eighties, I would eat at home and bring my lunch to work. By the noughties, I was like everyone else, buying a takeaway breakfast and eating it at work, then lunch from a food court. Not to mention the odd coffee during the day. I stopped work ten years ago, but even then, I would've spent $5,000 a year just on that. And like I said, don't forget compound interest. The couple in your example SHOULD have been avoiding takeaway food since they started work. If they're now 30, their $5,000 a year would be $40,000, plus I'd hope they would have invested it wisely, so it would be more. And that's just takeaway. There's lots of other , far more expensive things they could save on. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gbye grey sky Posted October 18, 2018 Share Posted October 18, 2018 (edited) I am amazed how much many spend solely on coffee. I know people who think nothing of buying 3 cups a day which alone is going to add up to $5000 per year ($10,000 for a couple). And they own home expressos. People sneer at me for drinking instant coffee which I buy in 400g jars on ‘specials’ for $15 which lasts me a couple of months at least. At the end of the day though what people make their priority is their business. Edited October 18, 2018 by Gbye grey sky 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marisawright Posted October 18, 2018 Share Posted October 18, 2018 53 minutes ago, Gbye grey sky said: At the end of the day though what people make their priority is their business. Yes, provided they don’t cry poor when more frugal people have more money 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
s713 Posted October 18, 2018 Share Posted October 18, 2018 The recorder is the worst invention ever, worse than chemical weapons or asbestos or something. It's more a device of torture than a musical instrument, should be banned under the Geneva Convention. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skani Posted October 18, 2018 Share Posted October 18, 2018 6 hours ago, can1983 said: Are you really saying everyone had secondhand in the 1980s? someone had to buy new surely!! The default was to start out with secondhand then gradually replace some with new as you could afford it. But having no access to credit meant saving beforehand. So replacing with new took years - or decades. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rammygirl Posted October 18, 2018 Share Posted October 18, 2018 My youngest is very frugal. He has saved hard from a casual restaurant job for 4 years and is now at uni living independently and managing on three shifts a week. He has a scooter for transport cooks for himself, often making batches of meals and freezing them. He still manages to socialise and enjoy life. The lad he lives with never has any spare cash despite earning at least as much and having most of his rent paid for him. He rarely cooks, orders Uber eats or buys convenience food, buys gadgets, gambles........money just seems to slip through his fingers. He cannot understand how my son manages to save anything at all............... 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LouDYorkie Posted October 18, 2018 Share Posted October 18, 2018 We have less disposable income in Australia than we did in the U.K., but that is entirely our choice. Our home loan repayments were just 22% of my monthly salary in the U.K., here they are double that but we have a lovely home and enjoy spending time in the pool and garden. We recently made other small spending changes though so we can divert the money to more holidays and things that matter to us, fewer takeaways being one such change and it has made a huge difference not only to our overall spending, but to our waistlines...[emoji15][emoji4] 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johndoe Posted October 18, 2018 Share Posted October 18, 2018 9 hours ago, can1983 said: why does everyone always reach for the gadget and smashed avocado line when people complain about high cost of housing. Its been proven how silly blaming avocado toast on the world problems is....... the cost of these items, say $5000 per annum is irrelevant compared to the cost of housing Lets imagine someone wanted to live in Sydney or Melbourne. a modest 3 bed family home would cost at least 1.5 million for one nowhere near the centre they have a $500k deposit which is, by current standards huge. if two adults earn $200k as per the original article and we all agree a huge income they are nowhere close to being able to afford the modest 3 bed house. The same 3 bed house that used to be owned by a taxi driver and a cleaner 30 years ago. so what do they do? how many iphones and smashed avocado brunches to they have to skip to make the maths work here? All of them. Your imaginary someone wants to live in Melbourne or Sydney.....................Wants..................then it's their problem. Baby boomers didn't aspire to live in places where they knew they couldn't afford, and they certainly wouldn't whinge about not being able to do so. Could I for example (a baby boomer) want and then choose to live in London when I was saving for my first home? No! Because I knew that I couldn't afford it and so chose to simply get on with my life with what I knew I could afford without whinging and whining about those in London or previous generations having it better. Likewise, 24yrs ago when I came to Oz, I tempered my expectations. I would have loved to buy a house on the shore at Currumbin or the riverbank in Brisbane but knew that it was beyond my reach so I opted for the outer suburbs. It's all about expectations and the reality of situations and cutting your cloth to that, something that a great deal of the future generations simply refuse to, or don't know how to do because they somehow think that the world owes it to them to meet their expectations. A generalisation but I know that some do "hack it" like so many baby boomers had to in order to get to where they want to be. My boys aged 24 and 22 have worked continuously since leaving school, the younger one being laid off twice but finding a job each time within 2 weeks of that and they both studied at Uni at the same time. The oldest already has enough saved for a deposit on a modest home, and the younger isn't far behind. They both have cash bought cars android phones, and no debt. They have the odd night, don't eat out, and don't "go silly" on those or consumer goodies. They enjoy life but are in touch with reality where finance and expectations are concerned which is why I can see them as having few problems in the future. As the youngest once said, " I can relax and enjoy myself, once I'm established.................and that................is the crux. Many just want instant gratification and that is fueled by the media and capitalism amd also in part (controversial so go ahead and flame me) to the breakdown of family and community values...................it's become a world of "self first" The person in the OP's post. School fees...............not necessary.............$866 Piano..............not necessary ........................$140 Recorder...............not necessary..................$180 Tennis...............not necessary.......................$108 Dancing...............not necessary.....................$60 Swimming...............not necessary.................$90 Entertainment...............not necessary.........$1083 Cars................not necessary (new)............$1100 $270 a week on entertainment!WTF! I'll allow half his loan for the cars @ $550 stating he should have bought cheaper new models or used. Bin the rest and he saves $3077 a month that's $36, 924 spent on items that can be classed as not necessary for a "normal" standard of living and could be saved. But no doubt he wanted his Forrester, she wanted he i30 and they agreed that state schools weren't good enough, despite thousands in the area thinking that they are. I'm guessing the music lessons are either foisted onto the kids by the parents or foisted onto the parents by the school...........a matter of keeping up with the other kids (Jones's) Near $37,000 a year on "I want it now" as opposed to $37000 a year off their mortgage or in 12 yrs time, purchase an investment property outright and use negative gearing to helppay off the mortgage. Get the idea? short term pain for long term gain...............Investment advisor my arse! The couple are indicative of what is so wrong with that generation and what bad life skills they are handing down to their kids. Here endeth the lesson, followed no doubt by more whinging 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johndoe Posted October 18, 2018 Share Posted October 18, 2018 20 minutes ago, LouDYorkie said: We have less disposable income in Australia than we did in the U.K., but that is entirely our choice. Our home loan repayments were just 22% of my monthly salary in the U.K., here they are double that but we have a lovely home and enjoy spending time in the pool and garden. We recently made other small spending changes though so we can divert the money to more holidays and things that matter to us, fewer takeaways being one such change and it has made a huge difference not only to our overall spending, but to our waistlines... Good on yer Yorkie........Yorkies are tight arses anyway A Lancy 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johndoe Posted October 18, 2018 Share Posted October 18, 2018 3 hours ago, Skani said: The default was to start out with secondhand then gradually replace some with new as you could afford it. But having no access to credit meant saving beforehand. So replacing with new took years - or decades. Nah it didn't. We had it easy dontcha know 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LouDYorkie Posted October 18, 2018 Share Posted October 18, 2018 Good on yer Yorkie........Yorkies are tight arses anyway [emoji6] A LancyHaha, so true....my OH is the true Yorkshireman. I’m actually a Lancashire Lass but lived the ‘wrong’ side of the Pennines most of my U.K. life [emoji23] 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulya Posted October 18, 2018 Share Posted October 18, 2018 15 minutes ago, LouDYorkie said: Haha, so true....my OH is the true Yorkshireman. I’m actually a Lancashire Lass but lived the ‘wrong’ side of the Pennines most of my U.K. life Don’t understand anything in this comment. Not sure if that’s good or bad.... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaptainR Posted October 18, 2018 Share Posted October 18, 2018 Perhaps its simply that the guy has unrealistic expectations of what his $200k buys him. We have a comfortable household income and live well, but we certainly can't afford 2 boats, a caravan a million dollar house and dinner at the ritz every night... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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