This has potential to bring out the grumpy old man in those of us Baby Boomers (BB`s) who shared similar lifestyles as young married couples, my first married home was in a 100 year old tenement bought with a mortgage for £1200 and just like others, initially furnished with hand me downs from family.... I did a lot of upgrades on that old house, sold it three years later for £3250, and bought a three bedroom early 70`s semi bought for £9k with a £7k a 25 year mortgage... I did a fair bit of work on that house and sold it circa three years later for £14 k, to buy the house I currently live in and modernised and enlarged over a period of more than forty years doubling it`s size in time... Quite how smart that was...???
Yeah when it comes to criticising the young.... It was our generation that "spoiled" them by providing access to excess and raising their expectations to exceed that which they and the country could afford, all paid for by the easy moneygoround imported from the US in the 70`s, as seems to be backed up with the growth in debt both private and country in terms of GDP to the extent that we are in the situation we find ourselves today... it seems the warnings of the last banking crisis were not enough..?
Back to the point... It seems the sons and daughters of the baby boomers expected their first car to be a new one, their weddings to be the equivalent of that of movie stars, their first flat or house to come fully furnished... OK so such was the earnings to house price ratio that those kind folks in the financial services industry adjusted things to ALLOW kids to self asses their incomes on their mortgage applications and arrange for up to 50 year mortgage terms, in order that the kids could buy the houses they thought they deserved..? Paying mortgage interest rates for 50 years and for a dishwasher, tumble dryer, washing machine, cookers and microwaves that would have been scrapped decades previously... seems less than smart..?
Baby boomers have helped the kids by using their home`s increase in value to remortgage it for new cars over the years, two, three or more holidays a year, and to buy the kids cars, assist with the kids mortgage down payment. etc.etc.etc. all of which equates to the the dept to GDP ratio here and elsewhere in the West. All of which seems to ammount to a long expected slow down of the moneygoround....?
I would really hope to think I have got that all so very wrong, now that I am pension and savings dependant and less able to earn a coin through the hard work that provided for me up till now... As for dependance on those in parliament regardless of the colour of their politics.... was it not them who lead us here over all those decades... Hmm..?
As for the image Morgan might have for their product.... That sure ain`t me..
