Financial future

You need two average salaries coming from two stable jobs to even think about buying your own home these days.

I'm at a point in my life where I'm starting to wonder about my future. I'm 25, I've got a decently paid job (not well paid, mind) and I currently rent a place. I've managed to save almost £15k in the last 3 years but this is mainly due to A) Not owning a car and B) Not having started a pension yet. However, I'm currently looking at learning to drive and will be starting a pension in the next couple of months.

£15k deposit won't get me much of a mortgage so realistically, I'll be waiting for a time when I can buy with a gf/wife. It's too crippling to save for a decent deposit while renting and the banks would probably rather not give me a mortgage on my own anyway. I don't have a good credit rating because I don't use a credit card, as I was brought up being told they were evil. Now I know that people who don't use credit are apparently as bad as those that use too much.

Then even if I could afford a mortgage right now, would I want one? The UK jobs market (and my industry) is so unstable right now that maybe tying yourself down isn't such a great idea?

The future looks bleak, even for someone in an above average financial position like me. For now I'm just plugging on trying to save as much as possible for the future, because I know I'll need it.
 
Yes. Capitalism relies on competition. Competition is inefficient. The poorer nations will continue to balance with the wealthier, until we're all even. Then we'll end up undercutting each other until the corporations have all the wealth. A new means of production could produce prosperity, and peace. But the Americans have so deeply ingrained our minds with capitalist ideology that no one on this forum will listen to me. :)
 
its getting properly insane where I live

used to live in winchester and rented a nice three bedroom terrace for £900 a month (shared between 3 people) moved out 4 years ago to southampton to live with the misses

since then prices have gone even more insane, a similar property is now £1,475 pcm minimum

buying wise a 1 bedroom box studio flats go for £100,000! minimum

looking into buying a place back in winchester (to be near work) average house price is £379,922!!!

my pay is reasonable but id be looking at a £155,000 maximum really :( to keep it all affordible (and thats with a £25000 deposit)

the biggest problem is that no one is building houses, and those that are are making tiny mega cheap to build flats that they sell for massive profit :(

people keep talking about economic downturn but in reality the housing market hasnt suffered at all (certainly not round here anyway)
 
I believe the system has been setup by accident or design in such a way as to keep the majority down at a certain level, only a few lucky or hard working enough can reach a point of not having to worry about money, why is it the most important things in life like a home cost so much, sure there is a certain cost to living but i think it can and should be much lower, it's like theres parasites everywhere sucking away at peoples wealth, can't we do better?

You can't have constant growth and nor should you, we should be moving towards a sustainable cheaper way of living while still keeping a decent quality of life, theres no reason we can't with current resources and technology, it will just take the will to change the system from greed based scarcity and supply and demand thinking to one of sustainability and health of society in general.
 
All that's needed is a shift from an incentive based system, to a collaborative utilitarian system. Sounds harder than it is as we came into this world chasing carrots. People need to stop grasping at the idea of feeling superior, and having security. Both are delusions.
 
Raymond Lin said:
The divide for the haves and have nots will get greater.
Children will live at home for longer.
Renting will become more of the norm, like in mainland Europe.
Click to expand...

Can't argue with that. Those fortunate enough to milk the property market will just get stronger and stonger.


However,I still believe that there has to come a point where afordability (or the lack of it) will drive house prices down. When? no idea. All i know is tht I'm making allowances now in the prediection that my kids will be at home in to the very late maybe early 30s.

Correct me if I'm wrong , but the monthly inflation figures, as far I know, haven't for some while reflected house prices when it should have done. Maybe they could have prevented the market spiralling sooner but at the time, after the last recession, they wanted growth in the house market.


It's quite frightening really.
 
estebanrey said:
I disagree. When you look at some of the 'rights' in the Human Rights Act it amazes me that affordable housing isn't one of them yet it allows terrorists a 'right to a family life' and other such rubbish.

I'm not saying people should expect to be given a house like in a communist state but I do think something is wrong when people's wages are totally out of whack with house prices.

There are plenty of things market forces and a totally free market should apply to, mobile phones, cars etc but having a roof over your head shouldn't be one of them in my opinion.
Click to expand...
sadly what people forget the state is supposed to work for the people not the people work for the state. 40 years ago people would pay in less but get out more, were as now you pay more and get nothing, yet companies get a lot.
 
Admiral Huddy said:
Can't argue with that. Those fortunate enough to milk the property market will just get stronger and stonger.


However,I still believe that there has to come a point where afordability (or the lack of it) will drive house prices down. When? no idea. All i know is tht I'm making allowances now in the prediection that my kids will be at home in to the very late maybe early 30s.

Correct me if I'm wrong , but the monthly inflation figures, as far I know, haven't for some while reflected house prices when it should have done. Maybe they could have prevented the market spiralling sooner but at the time, after the last recession, they wanted growth in the house market.


It's quite frightening really.
Click to expand...
The economy will tank by then, high house rent/price means less spending. The problem in this country has to do with the NIMBYs.
 
Raymond Lin said:
The divide for the haves and have nots will get greater.
Children will live at home for longer.
Renting will become more of the norm, like in mainland Europe.
Click to expand...

Pretty much this, the UK will slowly become more like the rest of Europe, which is probably a good thing. Hopefully the UK's drinking culture will also shift in that direction.

The true have nots living on the poverty line wont really change much, they relied heavily on social hand outs and social housing before and will do in the future. Most other people will try to save money by staying at home longer to save for a deposit, sharing rental costs (and this may mean actually sharing a bedroom with a stranger, as is commonly done by students in the US and the rest of Europe) car ownerships will drop as the costs of owning and operating will only increase. People will be more likely to share a car cost as well, so e.g. 3 people share an apartment together and they might also share the cost of running a car. Car pooling will increase in popularity, as will the use of public transport.



Less living on credit so people can buy mindless things they don't actually need, more living within ones means and preparing for financial security.



It shocks me the way people spend all of their free income on buying new cars, computers, cameras and assorted play toys yet don't put a penny into any kind of savings account, ISA, pension scheme and relying on social secutyy to look after them if thy loose a job or retire.


I feel very guilty this year for spending so much money (buying a car and furnishing an apartment from scratch isn't cheap), but I still shoved away some money for emergencies and next year it will be my primary goal to increase my secure assets.
 
Tazzfalcon said:
I suspect this is somewhat misleading. It's probably not entirely residential even though it says "the data above is of standard family residences". We're probably talking about purchase of the freehold and land usage rights of big developments rather than the nationalities of lessee's and ultimate inhabitants.
Click to expand...

Malaysian EPF (the country's pension fund) have invested quite a lot in property in UK, which I think is mostly commercial. But there's a lot of adverts here too for new developments in London for end user investors.

I've saved a decent amount since starting work, but buying a nice place in UK where I grew up in London is near to impossible - parents bought our place for £200k in 1992, now worth close to a million :eek:
 
DAvE18 said:
Sounds fine but what if you are in that exact situation with no family to rent from then its back to live with the parents time and then get belittled in the media and by allot of others for it for not having your own place at nearly 30 :o
Click to expand...


My brother is 28, these are the times we are living in, whining about it won't fix any thing and won't make you feel any better.

You don't "need" your own house, as part of a family its your place to look after the other members of it if they need help.
If living with your parents is the only option then, just do it.
 
I watched a very very good documentary on this the other day, I will have to find the youtube link as I think the guy being interview hit the nail on the head.

Basically his points was that society at the moment doesn't look at the bigger picture, and that if you look at the links between the systems we can see what's in store.

The 3 mains problems we will see are these
Fuel
Temperature
Food.

Here it is... It's definitely not a scare mongering load of crap with people saying the government is against us, anyway take a look for yourself.
 
The problem with our current state of affairs is it's no ones fault. Everyone is constantly looking for someone to blame when all that has happened is a natural evolution of our means of production. But the time has come, or will be forced upon us, to change the system. The sooner we do it, the easier it will be in my opinion.

This means eliminating competition altogether, and that must include nations, hard as that idea may be to stomach. We need to look at the planet as a finite natural resource. Instead of large corporations acting in short term interests spending X millions drilling for oil, why not join together and spend 3X millions making solar panels for the Sahara to power the globe. Everything is too short term, as someone said earlier in the thread.

If we all work together we can get twice as much done, with half the work per person. Yeah we might need to not bother about iphone case factories for a while but who gives a toss anyway.

What do we need? Phones, computers, healthcare, education, food, beds, shelter.

What about research? I've never met a PHD student that cares about the profit their work generates.
 
Last edited:
Currently there are 2 of us (wife and me) and currently I am the only one earning (a reasonable above average salary (50s) and with all the bills paid (including train travel, daily parking costs) there isn't much room to move. I find I get caned on tax, as though i were on 100k (why does someone on 100k pay the same tax rate as me, btw) and thinking of kids, it's almost impossible and what kind of life would they have? You need 2 people working minimum to be able to meet living costs, be able to save and have kids, but then, child care is expensive and how would that affect the kid, barely seeing their parents?

Then the kids grow up, want to go to Uni in order to stand a chance of earning well later on in life, come out with circa 40k debt (Uni costs, living costs) and then will have to find a decent job to tackle rent/mortgage/living costs. What future is there?
 
Last edited:
It's basically slavery where you think you're free. And end up beating yourself up for not doing better. I'm not sure which is worse, getting beaten up, or beating yourself up. At least the former is not your fault.

Time for some Vinnie Paz
 
MeatSack said:
The problem with our current state of affairs is it's no ones fault. Everyone is constantly looking for someone to blame when all that has happened is a natural evolution of our means of production. But the time has come, or will be forced upon us, to change the system. The sooner we do it, the easier it will be in my opinion.

This means eliminating competition altogether, and that must include nations, hard as that idea may be to stomach. We need to look at the planet as a finite natural resource. Instead of large corporations acting in short term interests spending X millions drilling for oil, why not join together and spend 3X millions making solar panels for the Sahara to power the globe. Everything is too short term, as someone said earlier in the thread.

If we all work together we can get twice as much done, with half the work per person. Yeah we might need to not bother about iphone case factories for a while but who gives a toss anyway.

What do we need? Phones, computers, healthcare, education, food, beds, shelter.

What about research? I've never met a PHD student that cares about the profit their work generates.
Click to expand...

This.

Power such as this, too - http://www.nss.org/settlement/ssp/

Moon colonization and other stuff (depending on population - what's with all the chat of population control anyway - when we can expand in to space?)

Big fat ideologies get in the way. After a change in collective thinking, we could see some actually awesome progress with living standards and happy, fruitful living for a lot more people.

It's quite annoying in this time and age I think, despite all the progress humans have made technically, it hasn't really filled a large proportion of humans with positive future prospects such as housing/food or not lying in your own crap when you are 85 years old.

What's the care like for someone in a state funded elderly home, out of curiosity?
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom