As someone who was around back then I think the biggest thing that made it easier to achieve financial security was that housing was cheaper for a number of rea

As someone who was around back then I think the biggest thing that made it easier to achieve financial security was that housing was cheaper for a number of reasons, a big one being the government building a lot of council housing, that you couldn't buy, only rent. Also buy to let wasn't really a big thing due to it being very hard to evict anyone. Not really due to tax.