facing reality

[tambourineman]

$7.50 pw for movies (your only entertainment), $20 pw for designer clothes (must be designer from the OP shop), $20 pw aside for travel, $10 pw for phone and no other luxuries, entertainment or eating out expenses, IS living like a TA!

That is not how many of those complaining of housing being expensive are living. That is the point many of us are making.

A single person or couple only needs to live in a small place or share a room (does not have to be a dump - lots of upmarket homes offer to let a room) too.

On your budget there is a lot of spare cash floating around.

Moozes list of luxury expenses is more realistic and the reason why some don't have any savings.

i was responding to the photo that lizzie posted, but these are the typical examples offered by our baby boomer friends.

you don't buy clothes every week, $20 per week isn't accurate because nobody buys clothes in this way.

sure, a single person or a couple can live comfortably in a unit - but what about a family with school aged children? on the one hand, older generations are critical that kids spend too much time inside etc, on the other hand, they're critical that younger generations want a house with a backyard - just like.....er...they did!

 

[tambourineman]

Hmmm ok Gen Y/X here - basing the above on what I've seen of assisting friends with budgeting (all younger X/older Y)
- Iphone plan - $95 a month minimum unless you're supplied one by work with unlimited personal use
- Trip to thailand - $1900 (based on an average of three friends who did SE Asia trips this past year)
- Designer clothes - most pieces are minimum $200 - 4 pieces a month (one per week on average, more during sales/less during non sales). That's on top of what they've bought in thailand/SE Asia.

A few more big ones
- Car loan/lease - average across four friends - $652 per month
- Rent - average of $320 per week per person (ie one couple over $600 per week, others in share house) - cause you need to live in a specific spot.
- Movies - $30 per person a movie standard class by the time you included the extras (drink, snacks, pre movie drinkie etc), double that for Gold class
- Breakfast/brunch out once a week - $35 per person
- Buying lunch at work three times a week - $53 per person
- Friday night drinks or a weekend of drinks at home/friends - $80per person plus taxi home

It all adds up. Yet Hubby and I must be rolling in it with our fully owned car (about to have to get a new second hand one unfortunately), constant travel (for work not for leisure), and two IP's. We did do one trip last year to South east asia - Thailand/Singapore funnily enough - but came in at under $1200 per person for eight days due to staying with friends, cheap flights, and being guinea pig for a travel agent friend's new active itinerary. Our friends who did similar insisted on staying in "good" hotels, paying retail for tours and activities, and flying full service airlines.

I suggest you change carriers if you are paying $95 per month for an iphone on a plan - you can get a 5 on a fifty dollar plan with a 500 cap through telsra.

i don't disagree with the other examples - infact it only supports my argument.

 

[tambourineman]

gen x/y staying home longer and living it up because their parents and grandparents are rich and they know eventually all that capital will be passed to them simple lol

Partying it up hard while we can yippykaiyay!

i don't agree with this, people should grow up and leave home at 18. i think you will find those that have invested in property from geny have only done so by living at home and mooching off their parents.

 

[Sidney]

gen x/y staying home longer and living it up because their parents and grandparents are rich and they know eventually all that capital will be passed to them simple lol

Partying it up hard while we can yippykaiyay!

But, you know, if they are in that position, they are of the privileged few, because a majority of baby boomers, despite all the bashing, are reaching retirement age with barely enough savings to retire on. And what wealth they have amassed, assuming they have more than one child, will be divided up in the will, so if the kids saved nothing themselves, then their retirement will have to be on half what their parent's retirement was on. Unless they marry into money.

It's kind of a big FU to their own kids too, isn't it? Sitting there eating up the family wealth without bothering to contribute.

 

[tambourineman]

are reaching retirement age with barely enough savings to retire on. QUOTE]

but I thought they were the wealth creation experts!

 

[natedog]

"Facing Reality"

Some will fantasize about what they want and not get it

Some will talk about what they want and not get

Some will whinge about how hard it is to get what they want and not get it

Some will take action to get what they want and get it

I dont think this is any different now or in any other generation

 

[Aaron_C]

I suggest you change carriers if you are paying $95 per month for an iphone on a plan - you can get a 5 on a fifty dollar plan with a 500 cap through telsra.

Well he was talking about an unlimited cap - which seems to be necessary these days. I am on Telstra unlimited with iPhone and I pay $149 per month. Go figure.

 

[weg]

i was responding to the photo that lizzie posted, but these are the typical examples offered by our baby boomer friends.

And I was responding to you .

you don't buy clothes every week, $20 per week isn't accurate because nobody buys clothes in this way.

But this and the other things are the breakdown of costs to show you how much of the weekly income is spent - and what can be saved.

sure, a single person or a couple can live comfortably in a unit - but what about a family with school aged children? on the one hand, older generations are critical that kids spend too much time inside etc, on the other hand, they're critical that younger generations want a house with a backyard - just like.....er...they did!

Oh please. If they live in a unit it means they save quicker. It's not forever. Or they can live in a modest house or a large unit/town house near a park, or where housing is a bit cheaper.

Again the point I'm trying to make is you have to make some sacrifices. If someone is not prepared budge a bit on this then it's them that's the problem not housing, and I'll be happy to keep collecting their rent.

2 income earners can easily work opposite each other (plenty do that if that's what it takes for the period you're trying to get ahead - eliminates childcare costs too and they can often get by with one car- or get a second job), you send children to public schools, buy from Gumtree instead of payment plans from HN, buy a 10K car instead of a 25K car like some of my tenants, get rid of Foxtel, skip the holidays/takeaways/ for a couple of years, etc.

If people don't make excuses and are prepared for their first home to be modest like their BB parents 3/1/1 and are prepared to make a few changes in curbing expenses associated with non essentials then it's easy.

 

[Aaron_C]

but I thought they were the wealth creation experts!

I understand you are angry tambourineman but blaming the previous generations is not helpful. There is a lot to learn from the baby boomers, especially those who are successful. Let go of your anger and learn.

 

[tambourineman]

I understand you are angry tambourineman but blaming the previous generations is not helpful. There is a lot to learn from the baby boomers, especially those who are successful. Let go of your anger and learn.

I'm not angry - and I'm not blaming anyone , but I do take offence to the sometimes patronising commentary they run on current generations.

 

[Aaron_C]

I'm not angry - and I'm not blaming anyone , but I do take offence to the sometimes patronising commentary they run on current generations.

Well I'm your generation too so I know it isn't easy as money just seems to go out the door even though you haven't actually spent that much money on things. The only thing that I could do was earn more money.

 

[Sidney]

but I thought they were the wealth creation experts!

Well many of BBs on this forum are, but that in no way implies all BBs were successful.

What is remarkable is that there are successful BBs here sharing their wealth building strategies for free. Years of experience at your disposal. Take it or leave it.

Many of my generation didn't listen to those before them. They face the prospect of collecting pension checks now and eating out once a fortnight down the local club, putting what little money they can spare into the pokies in the hope of getting rich.

 

[weg]

I'm not angry - and I'm not blaming anyone , but I do take offence to the sometimes patronising commentary they run on current generations.

It might seem that way because you assume we are generalising about a generation whereas we are referring to the whingers of that generation who say they can't afford anything - that often being a 4/2/2 in a good area or something within walking distance to the CBD.

There are a heap of young ones buying all the time. I know because I know a few of them. Many have heeded the advice of their parents or have worked the financial stuff out for themselves.

2 are my sons friends, around 22 - 23yo, both single guys on slightly below to average incomes, one bought a house on a large block, 6 km from the CBD for high 300's (according to son and who said the other day he pays $1640pm towards his mortgage) the other one for low 300's in Port Adelaide.

Both have a boarder and tend to have friends around rather than go to clubs or pubs.

Both houses were run down and needed doing up. Son has helped one landscape and pave a courtyard but will probably get favours back as he's a good friend and plumber.

Then there's wylies boy. I think she mentioned him here.

 

[hobo-jo]

I don't buy the straw man arguments about generation y and its penchant for gadgets being entirely to blame.

Kind of ironic that almost 1/3 of Somersoft traffic is from mobile gadgets, while they list this being one of the reasons younger generations can't afford to buy

http://somersoft.com/forums/showthread.php?t=85406

.

 

[Mooze]

i don't agree with this, people should grow up and leave home at 18. i think you will find those that have invested in property from geny have only done so by living at home and mooching off their parents.

Hate to burst your bubble - but Gen Y here who moved countries at 17 (family have lived in the US for the last 15 + years, I moved with them at 12 and back to Australia at 17), supported myself through uni (could get centrelink for all of about 2 weeks right at the end - not worth the paperwork) as despite earning good incomes in the US my family didn't believe I needed financial help (also being in a different country meant I couldn't even raid the pantry once a fortnight like many of my friends/housemates), and have two IP's (admittedly no PPOR but took a career/location change which has delayed that).

Pinkboy is another very good example - hasn't lived at home in many years, is Gen Y and runs a very successful business with multiple IP's.

Sometimes it's just a case of harden up, make a choice, make the sacrifices, and go for your goal. If it's not property but having a whizz bang social life going out multiple nights a week of course a property is going to seem expensive.

And $20 a week on clothing is nothing to a lot of my friends - even if they only go out once or twice a month shopping they'll still blow a few hundred.

 

[tambourineman]

Hate to burst your bubble - but Gen Y here who moved countries at 17 (family have lived in the US for the last 15 + years, I moved with them at 12 and back to Australia at 17), supported myself through uni (could get centrelink for all of about 2 weeks right at the end - not worth the paperwork) as despite earning good incomes in the US my family didn't believe I needed financial help (also being in a different country meant I couldn't even raid the pantry once a fortnight like many of my friends/housemates), and have two IP's (admittedly no PPOR but took a career/location change which has delayed that).

Pinkboy is another very good example - hasn't lived at home in many years, is Gen Y and runs a very successful business with multiple IP's.

Sometimes it's just a case of harden up, make a choice, make the sacrifices, and go for your goal. If it's not property but having a whizz bang social life going out multiple nights a week of course a property is going to seem expensive.

And $20 a week on clothing is nothing to a lot of my friends - even if they only go out once or twice a month shopping they'll still blow a few hundred.

FWIW this isn't about me - I am doing just fine financially, without an investment property, but I am looking to buy. I put myself through Uni too, infact, I worked almost every hour I wasn't at Uni and managed to have kids from third year onwards.

you see - people work just as hard these days as they did before. this is the point I am trying to make.

 

[Mooze]

FWIW this isn't about me - I am doing just fine financially, without an investment property, but I am looking to buy. I put myself through Uni too, infact, I worked almost every hour I wasn't at Uni and managed to have kids from third year onwards.

you see - people work just as hard these days as they did before. this is the point I am trying to make.

No but you were saying that Gen Y with property would have mooched at home off their parents.

I'd say some people work hard, some don't - probably been the case for a very long time. Although the ones I know who have done well (property, career wise or in any other area of life have come out above average) are the ones who are willing to do long hours, sacrifice a bit more, and basically do what others aren't willing to. Looking at my parents generation, and even their parents generation it looks to have been about the same - for want of an example those willing to get up at 4:30am, work their rears off, and do the extra at night, are the ones more likely to be further ahead at a younger age. (further ahead could be cycling world champ, property investor, career driven, or any other area of life they choose to excel in). "I choose to do the things today that others do not, so I achieve the things tomorrow others can not"

 

[lizzie]

When I posted that picture I had in mind a couple of young 20-something ladies I know.

$700 iphones - photos on fb out partying a couple of times a week, always in new outfits - trips to Thailand and all around Australia - buying brand new cars - and then one unable to make the rent payments on her Glebe unit and the other saying she can't afford to move out of home.

One I suggested she buy a unit that she could afford 2 years ago - now worth $150k more - but she passed up and instead bought a new car. The other said she couldn't afford anything she wanted and wasn't prepared to do any reno work (paint and carpet).

Granted, a few things have come into place that makes housing more expensive - like $50k government charges on a block of land in Newcastle area - but there are also bonuses, low interest and high lvr lending on the gen Y positive side.

As others have pointed out - no one here is targeting ALL gen Y, but rather those who whinge about affordability but live a personal life that most BBers can only dream about ... haven't been overseas for a "holiday" holiday for near 12 years now and last "designer" purchase was a funky dress from the markets for $40 last weekend

 

[chilliblue]

I am not yet 40 but I have an early memory that one of my first childhood properties had an outside toilet, 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom and no garage.

 

[TingTong]

When I posted that picture I had in mind a couple of young 20-something ladies I know.

One of them sounds like your step daughter.

... haven't been overseas for a "holiday" holiday for near 12 years now and last "designer" purchase was a funky dress from the markets for $40 last weekend

If you've been busy accumulating wealth for awhile then you should treat yourself to a nice overseas holiday while the AU$ is still strong. Sometimes it's important to remind yourself why you're building wealth so take some time to smell the roses and eat strawberries along the way. Life is short and can end at any time.