3 ms·

I'm on the edge of this group (1980/1982-wife); living in the UK house prices were rising twice as fast as my wage. If I was just 2-3 years older I could have b

I'm on the edge of this group (1980/1982-wife); living in the UK house prices were rising twice as fast as my wage. If I was just 2-3 years older I could have bought a house for 80k instead of the 250k I had to pay years later (two double-median incomes). This has given my drive I didn't have before: I actively manage my career (next step being starting for myself) and have feeling for investments/planning that I wouldn't have otherwise had.

forgetsusername 11y ago
>I'm on the edge of this group (1980/1982-wife) Hey, you're me. >If I was just 2-3 years older I could have bought a house for 80k instead of Yeah, this stuff is frustrating in hindsight. But the economic tide ebbs and flows. It's important to be ready for the next opportunity; it's not always obvious in advance. Personally, I believe ours will come as the Baby Boomers (who haven't saved enough) try to liquidate their McMansions to fund retirement and find no worthy buyers. We just have to stop them from voting themselves legislation to compensate.
- EliRivers 11y ago
  "We just have to stop them from voting themselves legislation to compensate." It's become clear that the UK government (no matter which of the two parties are in power) will do whatever it takes to allow the young to take on enough debt to fund ever-increasing house prices. I genuinely expect to see some kind of scheme that either explicitly gives these people the money their house "should" be worth, or in some way tilts the field so that they make it up in other ways. On the plus side, my shares in house builders have done really well, and some of them have got so much money they don't know what to do with it; big dividends and occasional special dividend payments ahoy.
- efaref 11y ago
  > We just have to stop them from voting themselves legislation to compensate. Too late. In the UK at least, the state pension is being increased from ~£110pw to ~£150pw, despite the fact that pension payments are among the government's biggest liability and we're apparently in a time of austerity so severe that we're required to starve disabled people by removing their living allowance unless they submit to humiliating tests. Meanwhile, the chancellor is planning some more pension "reforms" later this month, which is most likely going to involve removing the deferral of tax on pension contributions, i.e. moving all the tax payments that were due to happen in fifty years' time to today. That means the current pensioners will benefit from tax paid on current pension payments as well as tax paid on current pension contribuitions. By the time millennials retire, the deferred payments will have expired, and only the current contributions will remain. Add on to that the massive blackhole that will be the forgiving of student loan debt (which even by the government's own optimisitic predictions, 40% of which will be unpaid over its lifetime - many experts predict this will be higher), and you begin to see exactly how fucked millennials will be come retirement.
- SaintGhurka 11y ago
  That is a remarkable amount of wisdom packed into 2 brief sentences. If you want some insight into what's going to happen politically and economically, remember this one fundamental fact: Baby boomers will never willingly pay for their stuff. They use their political might to ensure that future generations will pay the bills. Social Security, Medicare, public pensions, infrastructure, college...
iolothebard 11y ago
They key is to save madly and prepare for the downturns. One of my friends in SF bought his house in 2011 for 500k. The comps in the area 5 years later are 1.2-1.4m He was prepared (waited 10 years). You can do it, you just have to look at the past as a guide and when opportunities arise, strike. Also don't be afraid of leverage. Good luck :-)
- tostitos1979 11y ago
  I fear 2011 was a perfect-storm and a once in a lifetime fluke. Not only was there a lot of fear from the collapse of 2008, interest rates were lowered to a level that was never seen before. Like many people on HN, this has hit us hard. I had just finished grad school in 2008 and was single - it was unclear if buying a house/condo made sense then. Fast forward 5 years ... married, jobs, ready to settle ... except now, everything seems pretty expensive. Okay .. lets wait it out. 2013-2016 ... prices keep increasing. Everyone and their uncle is investing in real-estate. REIT are scooping up properties and collatorizing the rent payment. If we had taken a mortgage, our monthly payment would have been fixed but with rents, it keeps going up. I also did the math ... I paid about 180K in rent (averaging between 2500 and 3K a month in places where I lived). I have nothing to show for that. Of course, we all make our own decisions. We have decided to buy (at what may well be the top of the market). We had a need to buy in 2013 and I wish we had not let "expensive prices" deter us. The monthly payment argument was as valid then as it is today. If/when the market turns, we'll buy a bigger place. Right now, we're buying a small starter place and at take a stab at the American dream. That's the logic I'm using. I really wish real estate wasn't causing so much misery but it is... I can't outsmart the market :(
  - iolothebard 11y ago
    Lol, I've seen this once in a lifetime fluke 5 times now and I was only born in 1973. In financial planning it's called vulture money.

forgetsusername 11y ago

>I'm on the edge of this group (1980/1982-wife) Hey, you're me. >If I was just 2-3 years older I could have bought a house for 80k instead of Yeah, this stuff is frustrating in hindsight. But the economic tide ebbs and flows. It's important to be ready for the next opportunity; it's not always obvious in advance. Personally, I believe ours will come as the Baby Boomers (who haven't saved enough) try to liquidate their McMansions to fund retirement and find no worthy buyers. We just have to stop them from voting themselves legislation to compensate.

EliRivers 11y ago
"We just have to stop them from voting themselves legislation to compensate." It's become clear that the UK government (no matter which of the two parties are in power) will do whatever it takes to allow the young to take on enough debt to fund ever-increasing house prices. I genuinely expect to see some kind of scheme that either explicitly gives these people the money their house "should" be worth, or in some way tilts the field so that they make it up in other ways. On the plus side, my shares in house builders have done really well, and some of them have got so much money they don't know what to do with it; big dividends and occasional special dividend payments ahoy.
efaref 11y ago
> We just have to stop them from voting themselves legislation to compensate. Too late. In the UK at least, the state pension is being increased from ~£110pw to ~£150pw, despite the fact that pension payments are among the government's biggest liability and we're apparently in a time of austerity so severe that we're required to starve disabled people by removing their living allowance unless they submit to humiliating tests. Meanwhile, the chancellor is planning some more pension "reforms" later this month, which is most likely going to involve removing the deferral of tax on pension contributions, i.e. moving all the tax payments that were due to happen in fifty years' time to today. That means the current pensioners will benefit from tax paid on current pension payments as well as tax paid on current pension contribuitions. By the time millennials retire, the deferred payments will have expired, and only the current contributions will remain. Add on to that the massive blackhole that will be the forgiving of student loan debt (which even by the government's own optimisitic predictions, 40% of which will be unpaid over its lifetime - many experts predict this will be higher), and you begin to see exactly how fucked millennials will be come retirement.
SaintGhurka 11y ago
That is a remarkable amount of wisdom packed into 2 brief sentences. If you want some insight into what's going to happen politically and economically, remember this one fundamental fact: Baby boomers will never willingly pay for their stuff. They use their political might to ensure that future generations will pay the bills. Social Security, Medicare, public pensions, infrastructure, college...

iolothebard 11y ago

They key is to save madly and prepare for the downturns. One of my friends in SF bought his house in 2011 for 500k. The comps in the area 5 years later are 1.2-1.4m He was prepared (waited 10 years). You can do it, you just have to look at the past as a guide and when opportunities arise, strike. Also don't be afraid of leverage. Good luck :-)

tostitos1979 11y ago
I fear 2011 was a perfect-storm and a once in a lifetime fluke. Not only was there a lot of fear from the collapse of 2008, interest rates were lowered to a level that was never seen before. Like many people on HN, this has hit us hard. I had just finished grad school in 2008 and was single - it was unclear if buying a house/condo made sense then. Fast forward 5 years ... married, jobs, ready to settle ... except now, everything seems pretty expensive. Okay .. lets wait it out. 2013-2016 ... prices keep increasing. Everyone and their uncle is investing in real-estate. REIT are scooping up properties and collatorizing the rent payment. If we had taken a mortgage, our monthly payment would have been fixed but with rents, it keeps going up. I also did the math ... I paid about 180K in rent (averaging between 2500 and 3K a month in places where I lived). I have nothing to show for that. Of course, we all make our own decisions. We have decided to buy (at what may well be the top of the market). We had a need to buy in 2013 and I wish we had not let "expensive prices" deter us. The monthly payment argument was as valid then as it is today. If/when the market turns, we'll buy a bigger place. Right now, we're buying a small starter place and at take a stab at the American dream. That's the logic I'm using. I really wish real estate wasn't causing so much misery but it is... I can't outsmart the market :(
- iolothebard 11y ago
  Lol, I've seen this once in a lifetime fluke 5 times now and I was only born in 1973. In financial planning it's called vulture money.