We bought our house in 2012. I was 31, my now wife was 37.
It is possible, but agreed, saving a deposit whilst paying rent is hard. But the bottom line is that it can be done.
I left home at 24 and rented a 1 bedroom place with an open plan lounge/kitchen. I was bringing home around £1,100 a month, and my rent alone was £480 a month with council tax and electricity on top. I had very little money for anything and had a very basic lifestyle. No holidays, no drinking in the pub, no new clothes. Nothing. But at least I was on my own two feet and making my own way in life. That meant more to me than worrying if I was paying someone elses mortgage
(bit of a lame excuse Foxeye if you ask me, sorry).
I feel the priorities and outlook of younger people today are a little mixed up. I once got made redundant on 23rd December. Instead of moping I hit the agencies - every one I could think of and on the 27th I was back in work as a temp. Less money than I wanted but it was a job and at least I could pay the bills.
Folk still living at home don't have that pressure, and with all due respect, don't know they are born. Younger people today like to bum around. Their mental attitude is weak, in my opinion. It is all "I can't this, I won't that" then they complain that they have to live at home
Perhaps instead they should be cracking on, and making things happen in their life instead of pretending the world owes them a living?
My brother was around the same age as me when he left home in 2000. Well actually he bought the family home off my parents for £50,000 and we moved out. He was earning a little bit more than I was, but got a mortgage easily for less than I was paying in rent just 4 years later. Five years later his house was worth £125,000! He sold it and walked away with a nice little nest egg. He squandered it.
He also had a 'granted' university education whereas I had to take out loans.
I never had that chance. I never had a nice mature home dropped in my lap for a cheap price and I never had a lump sum nest egg either. Yes, I believe he did have it easier than me. I worked no less hard but his opportunities were greater (or should I say luckier?). But, that is life. Life is not fair so get over it.
I just cracked on and got on with it. Next time you think you are hard done to, go and buy a plane ticket to Somalia, or Syria, or Pakistan, or any numbers of places in the world where what you take for granted is a distant dream for people living there.
My parents didn't have a lot. They bought a house because they had saved their backsides off whilst living at home when they were courting. No holidays, no social life. Graft and thrift was their life for years and years and they were the first in both sides of the family to ever get a mortgage. During the 80's when interest rates went to 16% it almost broke them and we came very close to losing our home. My dad used to go to work in plastic shoes that cost £3 from the market, with cardboard inside to cover the holes in the soles. We lived on beans on toast and jam sandwiches. My mother did all of the housework, got us all to school and still did a full time job. My father worked two jobs and only used to get about 4hrs sleep a night. But yeah, their generation had it easy compared to us!
I didn't have any clothes of my own for the first 10 years of my life, only hand-me-downs from my brother and elder cousins. We never went on holiday except the odd trip to a caravan in Rhyl, and our first VCR was one my dad found in a skip that someone had thrown away. We didnt get the internet till 1999, and the only PC we had was a 2nd hand 386 someone in the family donated to my brother. I didnt have a mobile phone till I was 18.
But we had our own home, so of course we were 'well off'. I really don't agree - the sacrifices my parents made to keep our home were phenomenal and I am forever grateful because it really taught me the value of things, which is something I think todays young people have lost sight of in a big way. Not just that, but the work ethos instilled in me seems to be lacking too.
Fast forward to 2014 and I earn more than my parents ever did put together. We have a detached house in a nice area, and we both have cars and both have a good social life and go on holidays when we can. Yet getting here was not easy. My wife has been working 2 jobs and I have been working 6-7 days a week for at least 10hrs a day, all over the country for the last god knows how many years. But when I look at it in real terms it was far easier than what my parents had to go through.
I have just had to plan my life and instead of moaning about it not being fair, I sit down and think "right, how can I make things better?". The opportunities are there, they are just different and require a different approach. I still firmly beleive that anyone with a positive mental attitude and a healthy amount of drive can achieve good things for their life, but you have to take the knock downs and the hassle and the disappointment on the way.
@FoxEye:
Do you go on holiday?
Do you have a social life?
Do you drive a car that is more expensive than you need?
Do you tend to have nice clothes?
Do you tend to spend money at Christmas?
Do you have a nice smart phone?
Do you have a fast internet connection?
Do you have Sky TV?
Do you have takeaways at the weekend?
Do you live at home for 'free'?
Do you drink/smoke?
If you can
genuinely say no to all of the above and still cannot afford to at least rent your own place, or save for a deposit then I agree, you are a rare individual who is genuinely priced out of the market. My guess, though, is your case is similar to most people with a "can't/won't" attitude, in that you
probably have all of the above and you prioritise them over saving for a deposit, or renting your own place.
In effect you want your cake and eat it, and unfortunately life does not work that way. Sorry.
My advice, for what it is worth: Stop playing the blame game. The only person who is responsible for your life and your future is you. If you are not getting what you want, go and make it happen. Take the risks, make the sacrifices, and crack on. If you need to move away, then do so. If you need to rent a crappy 1 room bedsit with mold on the walls, buy some bleach and anti-mold paint. Then look about progressing your career till you can afford a 2 room room bedsit with mold on the walls. The normal working person does not just go out and buy a 3 bed house on a nice estate. You have to get knee deep in the
**** first and do your time at the crap jobs, living in the crap flats and if you have anything about you, it will be a big incentive to do better and see yourself proceed onto better things in life. Whilst you are living at home under the wing of mom and dad, you have 0 incentive because lets face it, life for you is good.
/life lesson
).