Under 35's - What Is Your Work & Housing Status?

[Si1]

Chartered Accountant in Big 4, wife is in PR for a blue chip ad agency.

fair enough. good luck to you.

don't knock ikea furniture tho

[guitarman001]

Tell that to ken_ichawa!!

PR! I'm sure the job's tough... but I can't believe the pay I get for the stuff I do. Electronic design engineering and engineering in general SUCKS for pay (unless you're in oil).

Bugger

[Si1]

Tell that to ken_ichawa!!

PR! I'm sure the job's tough... but I can't believe the pay I get for the stuff I do. Electronic design engineering and engineering in general SUCKS for pay (unless you're in oil).

Bugger

I moved to scientific programming in the environment sector - terribly interesting, but doesn't pay well

one of those things, I DID work in financial IT but was bored sh*tless!

[N1AK]

So you would have your rent paid and get 320 quid left for everything else- this would not even cover your non-discretionary spend!

Travel, Student Loan would be work incurred costs.

Pension payment would ofc cease, obviously this is a loss to him in the long term.

So he has £400 remaining costs and the ability £250 remaining. On benefits he'd have £320.50. I'd expect you could get utilities and food to under £320.50 without any real hardship at all.

His starting point is that his lifestyle isn't much better than it would be on benefits. Based on the figures he has given that assertion isn't false. He's working ~160 hours a month to have ~£350 more than if he didn't work at all.

[Inca]

Travel, Student Loan would be work incurred costs.

Pension payment would ofc cease, obviously this is a loss to him in the long term.

So he has £400 remaining costs and the ability £250 remaining. On benefits he'd have £320.50. I'd expect you could get utilities and food to under £320.50 without any real hardship at all.

His starting point is that his lifestyle isn't much better than it would be on benefits. Based on the figures he has given that assertion isn't false. He's working ~160 hours a month to have ~£350 more than if he didn't work at all.

The point is on the rock and roll he would have no disposable income, no pension, no savings etc etc.

The dole is just not comparable with earning £30k p/a

[Number79]

The dole is just not comparable with earning £30k p/a

.......in the SE, it clearly is.

[sponge]

just 35, been saving hard for the past 3 years working and living all over the uk, i keep a room at my folks house

for when i do get work local or the weekends but mostly i just sofa surf at mates girlfriends it feels right to just carry on saving

at the moment my target of 40k deposit 2 years mortgage in the bank and 10k to furnish will be well and truelly met by next summer i will be buying at this time

i have a daughter of 5 and want a nice place for her to call her home and nice garden for her to play in i will be buying to stay in

my budget is aimed at a house of 150k within my multiple of 3.5x and with the money set aside for payments i hope this will show im worthy of a good rate

a friend will be renting a room which will pay the mortgage leaving me to just pay the bills, its been a hard hard slog im wearing the same clothes i had 2 years ago

but it does feel nice that i can now see the finishing line, my next goal is set i want to build my own house in future my friends say im crazy for looking that far ahead but a man without a plan is a man without purpose its my drive

[guitarman001]

I moved to scientific programming in the environment sector - terribly interesting, but doesn't pay well

one of those things, I DID work in financial IT but was bored sh*tless!

yeah... I can't complain my job's not interesting, I guess..

[200p]

The <35 and >35 threads have been fantastic, keep up the great posts.

[Si1]

The point is on the rock and roll he would have no disposable income, no pension, no savings etc etc.

with means-adjusted state pension and benefits it has been debatable whether it is wise to save or have a pension

Edited November 13, 2010 by Si1

[Pete95]

30, almost £40k salary, £100k savings with no debt but could increase to around £120k by downgrading car. West Yorks.

Currently living in a house share which I actually enjoy, but have recently started thinking of buying somewhere. Don't really take huge notice of my finances really - no idea how much I save each month, and don't mind spending on holidays etc but willing for this to change when I do finally get a mortgage!

Currently have been getting increasingly worried about the longer term outlook for the UK however. Inflaction is already eating my savings, but feel houses will fall in value for some years yet, and owning a property will 'tie me down' to an extent.

[pl1]

just 35, been saving hard for the past 3 years working and living all over the uk, i keep a room at my folks house

for when i do get work local or the weekends but mostly i just sofa surf at mates girlfriends it feels right to just carry on saving

at the moment my target of 40k deposit 2 years mortgage in the bank and 10k to furnish will be well and truelly met by next summer i will be buying at this time

i have a daughter of 5 and want a nice place for her to call her home and nice garden for her to play in i will be buying to stay in

my budget is aimed at a house of 150k within my multiple of 3.5x and with the money set aside for payments i hope this will show im worthy of a good rate

a friend will be renting a room which will pay the mortgage leaving me to just pay the bills, its been a hard hard slog im wearing the same clothes i had 2 years ago

but it does feel nice that i can now see the finishing line, my next goal is set i want to build my own house in future my friends say im crazy for looking that far ahead but a man without a plan is a man without purpose its my drive

Doesn't this mess up your credit rating, if you ever did want a mortgage say? What about Council tax I guess you're exempt, do you not have an official abode or do you just live with a fwding address for bank letters etc.?

Anyway, keep on truckin'!

[Young Fellow]

last 3 posters on really good salaries, recent promotions etc - what on earth do you do, since most others seems to be mired in recession???

I previously said:

> 31 years - was sharing with friends and now back with a sibling -- you really do have to in London

> on 55k - though do worry about my job -- no more or less threat than most but can't help but worry!!!

> Saved up nearly 200k - some gained by getting out of £s before QE1 -- saving >= 2k a month

> Similar to some others on this thread, I guess like many I will be out of the market for years to come

> Sad, because I really did try to be sensible

I'm a analyst - good mathematics helps you get promted at regular intervals but that said my salary is not all that great in London

I live frugally and save like mad, but as you can see it does not help me much.

[Kingmaker]

Some great posts - and it's good to see sound opinions, allied to financial positioning - albeit of course, acknowledging the part that luck plays. So my story...

Me- I'm 29, on 60k a year in a middle office role in the city, and have saved a little over 90k.

I had a tough time growing up, and was homeless for periods of it, which probably goes some way to explain my mini obsession with the price of housing.

I managed to put myself through an economics degree from LSE, where most things I 'learnt' made no sense since all the economic models were based on bull assumptions. I was amazed so few people questioned this. It seemed the professors in economic history were infinitely more clued up than those espousing the vogue in macro/micro economic theory, yet theirs were the superstar names with citings in journals and dedicated shelves in bookshops.

I remember the housing bust of the early 90s, because my grandad tried selling his 3 bed semi detached in West London (Southall), and reduced the price to 70k, with still no takers. I remember sitting at the kitchen table while he tried to explain to me why renting the house out would make more sense than selling it for a lowered price. He was right of course - I can't remember the figure, but I suspect the council were offering him 12%-15% yield. This will sound weird, but I wondered why more people weren't doing it, even at that young age. I'm proud and surprised I was able to make that deduction.

Meanwhile, my parents got divorced in 97. The house (another 3 bed, this time in Greenford) sold for 80k (bought it for 84k in 1989). I always kept an eye on that house, and by 2000 it sold on for 160k, and now that house is going for circa 350k. It seemed mad to me that a house could have doubled in price between 1997 and 2000 - so I was looking for a massive crash from 2000. I hadn't factored in that prices had been flat for a decade, but the doubling still made no sense. Nonetheless, I went on to uni - amongst the first couple of years that uni fees were introduced.

Of my fellow graduates, there are the expectant smattering of finance pofessionals, many of whom still live at home with their parents. Some have bought, and some rent, like myself. I don't know of any that have anything approaching my level of savings, which makes me feel strangely abnormal until I read this site!

I could have bought many years ago, but every time I look at Rightmove, watch the news, speak to Joe Public, every bone in my body screams 'crash' and I'm happy to wait. I'm lucky also, since I don't have anything/anyone forcing my hand, except my dad who wants the best for me and thinks I'm shooting myself in the foot for waiting - his working life saw the era of 70s inflation. I'm not saying I'm right, but I know what I'm doing is right for me. Housing decisions are strange in that there's the clash between the objectivity of investment goggles, and the subjectivity of a home that's yours. The societal pressure for ownership never fails to amaze me. I had a dinner party round mine a few months ago and my friend asked whether the place was all mine, I said yes - unthinking. Later I said I was renting the place and he looked shocked. That's not to mention the countless conversations where people say they're 'just' renting, and look down. It's a situation that makes me sick, and I'm one of the lucky ones. I look forward to the day when I buy a place that'll hopefully be mine till I die and I don't have to worry about this at all.

The way I see it, the housing stock will have to pass down to my generation and of course, beyond. A humungous proportion of my generation cannot afford said housing stock. Not only can they not afford it, they're a long long way from affordability. Price is the transmission mechanism for the transfer. Price is the shock absorber which will have to temper the relationship between supply and demand. Prices will have to come down to the point where affordability is re-established. That's a big drop.

I figure the best I can do is to be at the vanguard of my generation in terms of financial capability. Somethings you cannot control, but some things you can - or at least try to. Anwyay, I shan't preach to the converted any longer - good luck to all of you.

[theonlywayisdown]

I've had enough. I'm buying a house next year and getting on with living my life, rather than waiting for a crash.

[cica]

I'm currently renting a Manchester city centre flat £825PCM (quite nice and big but still a touch too much £). 2 bed. 1 bedroom is my school friend. The other is me and my girlfriend. So 3 in a 2 bed is not too extravagant but this thread has absolutely convinced me I need to slash my "living standards". Up for moving in December and I'm starting my £40k job on Monday. I've saved reasonably well in my 5 years of working but some of the figures on here have stunned me even if they are mostly London. Thanks I guess!

[N1AK]

The point is on the rock and roll he would have no disposable income, no pension, no savings etc etc.

The dole is just not comparable with earning £30k p/a

You're arguing a point that was never in contention. He said he is not much better off than he would be on benefits, you've ignored or misunderstood and instead chosen to point out that he's better off. Given that he's said that from the start it's a pretty pointless observation.

[a.v.s]

This is probably the sadest post I've read in a long time. Broken dreams, broken promises and broken society. Its amazing how many people are forcing themselves financially to get on the property ladder. It seems we live in a country where measured value is the sole ambition to people. The majority of posters now have no possibility of achieving this and are having to live with failures and resentment that goes hand in hand. Look how many posters are defering from having a family, probably one of the greatest achievemnts you could give yourself, in order to climb a social ladder that becomes more materialistic and shallow the higher you get. People's greed is driving cycles througth the ecomony whilst creating lost generations who care little about society, nor their role within it.

and for that reason I'm out!!!!!

The Spirit Level (Richard Wilkinson) could never be more true.....

[Sibley's Love Child]

You're arguing a point that was never in contention. He said he is not much better off than he would be on benefits, you've ignored or misunderstood and instead chosen to point out that he's better off. Given that he's said that from the start it's a pretty pointless observation.

Thank you for the summary.

I presume his 'solution' would be either 'earn more' or 'move further out'; which would, of course, confirm his ignorance and miss the very validity of this thread....

[Inca]

You're arguing a point that was never in contention. He said he is not much better off than he would be on benefits, you've ignored or misunderstood and instead chosen to point out that he's better off. Given that he's said that from the start it's a pretty pointless observation.

The point is that he is much, much better off than he would be on benefits - all this 'I am almost no better off than I would be on benefits' is Daily Mail-esk ********

I presume his 'solution' would be either 'earn more' or 'move further out'; which would, of course, confirm his ignorance and miss the very validity of this thread....

And these solutions can't work because? You want something for nothing.

Edited November 13, 2010 by Inca

[Sibley's Love Child]

The point is that he is much, much better off than he would be on benefits - all this 'I am almost no better off than I would be on benefits' is Daily Mail-esk ********

And these solutions can't work because? You want something for nothing.

I think you mean 'Daily Mail-esque. Nonetheless, can you quantify 'much, much better off'?

Regarding your second paragraph, Cells has already tackled this:

"Assuming your idea of earning more was a simple want. You double everyone's wage. What happens to rents?

Well they too will likely double and your back to square one".

I'd prefer to think of you as a troll though I genuinely think you are too stupid to grasp the concept that the cost of housing has been artificially inflated whilst the average wage has long since lagged behind. This is why (bar anomolies such as yourself) a generation has found their net wages have been devalued to the point that only personal integrity prevents them from taking the easier option of subsisting off the State.

[Inca]

I'd prefer to think of you as a troll though I genuinely think you are too stupid to grasp the concept that the cost of housing has been artificially inflated whilst the average wage has long since lagged behind. This is why (bar anomolies such as yourself) a generation has found their net wages have been devalued to the point that only personal integrity prevents them from taking the easier option of subsisting off the State.

My only point, thus far, has been that it is ridiculous to claim that someone earning £30k is in the same position as someone on the dole. That is exactly the sort of nonsense that the Express and Daily Mail peddle and is simply not true.

In terms of the cost of housing - I agree that it has increased massively and that has not been good for people on below average incomes. Reading this thread though it appears that the population of HPC are not in that camp - some here have 100's of thousands in the bank!

The population of HPC, therefore, has not been priced out - they are holding off in the hopes of a bargain.

[sponge]

hi p1, i know i havnt got any credit at the moment but in the past i did i rented for 5 years had numerous credit cards, i had a life changeing event near fatal motorbike accident, i couldnt walk or work for 5 years my credit went red but eventually was all paid off, never got to (ccj stage) would my rateing really be that bad, with monies in the bank at 60k a p60 for 45k for this year and two previous p60,s for 40k?

thanks in advance im a beginner in the financial goings on of our messy country

[ccc]

My only point, thus far, has been that it is ridiculous to claim that someone earning £30k is in the same position as someone on the dole. That is exactly the sort of nonsense that the Express and Daily Mail peddle and is simply not true.

In terms of the cost of housing - I agree that it has increased massively and that has not been good for people on below average incomes. Reading this thread though it appears that the population of HPC are not in that camp - some here have 100's of thousands in the bank!

The population of HPC, therefore, has not been priced out - they are holding off in the hopes of a bargain.

[Inca]

You believe that the people in this thread that have hundreds of thousands of pounds in the bank are priced out of the housing market?