"Most only have £500 of savings ",says Lloyds boss ,really ?

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Hotwired said:
If you think about the large number of people around minimum wage, they're going to rent forever
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That depends upon where you live. Two people living together on a minimum wage can easily afford a 1 bedroom flat here in Aberdeen. It's even affordable for a single person. There are 44 properties currently listed on ASPC for under £50,000. Minimum wage is £9.50 an hour, or £19k for a 2000-hour year, so you're well under 3x salary.

If you insist on living in London or the SE or anywhere with high property prices, well, that's on you.
 
Quartz said:
That depends upon where you live. Two people living together on a minimum wage can easily afford a 1 bedroom flat here in Aberdeen. It's even affordable for a single person. There are 44 properties currently listed on ASPC for under £50,000. Minimum wage is £9.50 an hour, or £19k for a 2000-hour year, so you're well under 3x salary.

If you insist on living in London or the SE or anywhere with high property prices, well, that's on you.
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But London and the SE still needs people to fill low-paid roles, so the cycle continues.
 
Quartz said:
That depends upon where you live. Two people living together on a minimum wage can easily afford a 1 bedroom flat here in Aberdeen. It's even affordable for a single person. There are 44 properties currently listed on ASPC for under £50,000. Minimum wage is £9.50 an hour, or £19k for a 2000-hour year, so you're well under 3x salary.

If you insist on living in London or the SE or anywhere with high property prices, well, that's on you.
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Isn't that tantamount to .... economic migration? :D

ETA I was always under the impression that Aberdeen was expensive due to the oil industry.
 
Not for me. I’m the opposite, as when I was younger, having no buffer if I lost my job was a major anxiety trigger.


If I lost my job today, I would be comfortable for 6-7 months.
 
Martini1991 said:
I fully agree there will be some people who have shocking money management, but given the facts about where peoples wages are based on the level of support they're getting, I think it's wrong to say it's one of the main issues.

I mean, one could be pedantic to say it's entirely money management because people who are struggling aren't just going home and looking at the walls until the go to sleep etc, but surviving isn't living.
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Very few people (myself included) are fantastic at money management. That being said, depending on your income that is either something which is fine or really bad.

This is the ultimate question though. What are you entitled to simply for existing. What constitutes a good life. We know that material goods are not fundamental to happiness but when society pushes that lifestyle so hard and people buy into it, it genuinely does affect their happiness even though it shouldn't.

A lot of people are awful with money. Its as simple as that. Quite often the worst people are those that can least afford to be bad with it as well as this is part of the reason they cannot afford to fritter away money. Its a complex and multi-faceted problem but as @Pigeon_Killer says, people are willing to go on the news without a hint or irony and complain about not being able to buy food when they are massively overweight.

You see people complaining about not having enough money and yet their kids have expensive trainers and new iPhones. Its very hard to empathise with some people and easy with others but yes, a lot of people are really bad with money and think its someone elses fault when they pay little attention to their outgoings and then have no money half way through the month.
 
moon man said:
Tbf as pointed out as I only work 30 hrs at low wages I would be shafted if I had rent or a mortgage but it's not by accident I am in this position (on a rock in Polzeath)
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But it's not 100% from your hard work and crafty decision making either. What you did over your 10-20 years is not really achievable for someone in a similar position now. Plus, the contentious issue of saying people should move hundreds of miles to achieve their goals. Some have local family or similar where it's much less of an option to just up and move where it's cheaper/nicer.
 
Martini1991 said:
We have 70% of people on incomes that they will gain from the NI increase but with a higher allowance. That kind of goes to show you the level of wages
And we have 30% of households on that low of an income they're getting a full £1,200 in support.

It's entirely low income and high living costs.
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It's not entirely. Those on lower income can get the help they deservedly need (£1,200 in support as you mentioned) but those on higher incomes that have stretched themselves so thinly on massive mortgages, expensive PCP cars etc won't get the support if they need it, they'll have to bail themselves out. If they don't manage their money accordingly they could be in for a greater fall and lose a lot more than those lesser off.

413x said:
So many individual situations. It's not fair to taint everyone with the same 'poor financial decisions' brush
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I was very careful in what I wrote to not tar everyone with the same brush (just lazily quantified it as many :)) as I agree with what you say, so many individual situations.
 
Quartz said:
That depends upon where you live. Two people living together on a minimum wage can easily afford a 1 bedroom flat here in Aberdeen. It's even affordable for a single person. There are 44 properties currently listed on ASPC for under £50,000.
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And how druggy / stabby / ASB-y are those areas?
 
krooton said:
But London and the SE still needs people to fill low-paid roles, so the cycle continues.
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Then London and the SE should pay them more. The law of supply and demand & all that. Certain industries are crying out for employees up here.

CapitalOne said:
Isn't that tantamount to .... economic migration? :D
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Heaven forfend! :) But the migrants have citizenship. Actually, it's what I did, and it was thanks to the Travel to Interview scheme that I was able to get the interview which got me a job up here. Speaking from personal experience it's very hard to leave the safety net of friends and family.

CapitalOne said:
ETA I was always under the impression that Aberdeen was expensive due to the oil industry.
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Yes, Aberdeen house prices used to be quite high, and the really expensive part of Aberdeen is just up the road from me, but oil's a declining industry, and house prices have declined significantly. My flat has gone down 25%, maybe more.
 
arknor said:
why would you keep money in a bank or savings account when they pay so little interest ? there's no incentive to any more
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Shows what you know, plenty of good paying savings accounts. Except this year the last two I made on average 15% on my ISA.
 
throwaway4372 said:
Got to have an emergency fund of at least 6 months living expenses. I was unemployed for 6 months recently, would have been in trouble if caught unprepared.
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Yes when I lost my job it took them 12 months to pay out the 2 weeks I was off ,non income based not sure if it's still the same but treat you like crap and make you jump through hoops for peanuts
 
Quartz said:
On first glance, only one looked to be in a very dodgy area (the docks). A couple are not far from me.
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Looking on Rightmove a lot of flats there are dropping in value and going unsold for months. The bubble certainly seems to have burst.
 
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