Only the middle class can’t afford babies
Discussion
I'm 22, earn a decent amount of money for someone my age and there is a snowmans chance in hell I would be able to afford somewhere to live. I really haven't got a chance til I'm about 28 I reckon (
God I hope not my mam will have drove me mad by then) when I actually could afford to live by myself, buy a house/flat yup could probably do it, but actually living there after forking out for a mortgage every month not a chance.
God I hope not my mam will have drove me mad by then) when I actually could afford to live by myself, buy a house/flat yup could probably do it, but actually living there after forking out for a mortgage every month not a chance.I still dont and probably never will understand the British obsession to own your own home.
Yes I've lost out on a rising market etc etc.
But on the flip side, I'll not have the worry of negative equity when the fall eventually happens, which it of course will at some point.
The people who got an affordable mortgage and then remortgaged in a rising market to have that holiday/conservatory/Porsche are the ones who are going to act as a catalyst of the misery and will lose their shirts.
I may also have to stop enduring conversations along the lines of 'Of course, Caroline and I are now over £200K better off as we bought at the right time' at dull dinner parties.
Yes I've lost out on a rising market etc etc.
But on the flip side, I'll not have the worry of negative equity when the fall eventually happens, which it of course will at some point.
The people who got an affordable mortgage and then remortgaged in a rising market to have that holiday/conservatory/Porsche are the ones who are going to act as a catalyst of the misery and will lose their shirts.
I may also have to stop enduring conversations along the lines of 'Of course, Caroline and I are now over £200K better off as we bought at the right time' at dull dinner parties.
Plotloss said:
I still dont and probably never will understand the British obsession to own your own home.
Yes I've lost out on a rising market etc etc.
But on the flip side, I'll not have the worry of negative equity when the fall eventually happens, which it of course will at some point.
The people who got an affordable mortgage and then remortgaged in a rising market to have that holiday/conservatory/Porsche are the ones who are going to act as a catalyst of the misery and will lose their shirts.
I may also have to stop enduring conversations along the lines of 'Of course, Caroline and I are now over £200K better off as we bought at the right time' at dull dinner parties.
Well I'd like to own my own home so that when I retire the house will be paid off and I won't be paying rent out of my pension payments.
It's not a case of affording it, its merely finding it within budget... 
The reason I'm renting now is because I did the stuff like travelling, remaining able to move at a moments notice etc that most people look forward to in retirement when I should have been buying houses.
Its a lifestyle choice buying a house, I just dont particularly like this 'you must buy a house, otherwise you're a second class citizen' attitude that tends to prevail at times.
Besides, property market speculation at the current time takes an professional or certaintly an enthusiastic amateur and when it comes to property I am neither.
The reason I'm renting now is because I did the stuff like travelling, remaining able to move at a moments notice etc that most people look forward to in retirement when I should have been buying houses.
Its a lifestyle choice buying a house, I just dont particularly like this 'you must buy a house, otherwise you're a second class citizen' attitude that tends to prevail at times.
Besides, property market speculation at the current time takes an professional or certaintly an enthusiastic amateur and when it comes to property I am neither.
anonymous said:
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S2art (and the other posters that made this point) are correct. Many people do not seem to realise that interest paid back on loans is simply compensation to the lender for the amount that the value of the money has changed with time. Today's low interest rates only make it easier to borrow large amounts of money on day 1. They do not make it easier to pay back the whole sum. People today who combine 2 wages to borrow a large sum for a one bed flat are really going to struggle to get up the property ladder. I'm not knocking them - it's not their fault - but after a few years, when their wages have only gone up 3% per year, how are they going to afford a bigger place? It's the amount you borrow that matters, not the interest rate. Interest rates aren't low to do people a favour, they are low because inflation and wage rises are low.
GingerNinja said:
And you would replace it with? A country full of bitter old spinsters and pissed up old codgers. Very positive.
So no kids automatically equals bitterness and alcholism? I think my comments about social programming have just been supported - thanks.
Yeah right, so what do we aspire to be then? Other, that is, than what we are supposed to be? To quit breeding is species suicide go ask a giant panda, it's just a bugger to find just the right amount of bamboo thicket to snare that panda babe these days y'know?
You wouldn't happen to work for Greenpeace would you? You know how the argument goes, "The earth would be such a paradise if it weren't for all the human beings f
king it up, apart from us of course, [NeilMode]we're the guardians of the planet, the earth mother, she like, neeeeds us[/NeilMode]."
At what point did I suggest we all stop breeding?
I was simply pointing out that NOT having kids is seen as a failure as if that's the pinnacle of our existence. Judging by the quality of your arguments and responses, managing to get someone pregnant will indeed be the height of your achievements on this planet.
Sheesh! Whether you like it or not, this is your primary reason for existence. To breed. So when you're bleating about how we are unable to break our "sociological and biological programming" you neglect to actually say what it is that it should be replaced with. What do you want to do? And since you do not know me at all I suggest you keep your wild guesses about my contribution to this planet to yourself. If you want to post then post something relevent, preferably backed up with some real world alternatives, otherwise you're just noise.
anonymous said:
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I didnt engineer it that way to be honest, it was circumstance more than anything. I had the ability to live a life when I was younger that was attractive at the time. I probably should have been sensible but that doesnt often factor into these decisions at the time...
I dont think I've lost anything as such other than the idea of percieved wealth. Yes if I turned a load of money into speculative investing on secondary or tertiary property but I cant see how I would have gained that much out of gain on a primary residence, without being willing to lose a comfort factor.
TeamD said:
And you would replace it with? A country full of bitter old spinsters and pissed up old codgers. Very positive.
So no kids automatically equals bitterness and alcholism? I think my comments about social programming have just been supported - thanks.
At what point did I suggest we all stop breeding?
I was simply pointing out that NOT having kids is seen as a failure as if that's the pinnacle of our existence. Judging by the quality of your arguments and responses, managing to get someone pregnant will indeed be the height of your achievements on this planet.
Sheesh! Whether you like it or not, this is your primary reason for existence. To breed. So when you're bleating about how we are unable to break our "sociological and biological programming" you neglect to actually say what it is that it should be replaced with. What do you want to do? And since you do not know me at all I suggest you keep your wild guesses about my contribution to this planet to yourself. If you want to post then post something relevent, preferably backed up with some real world alternatives, otherwise you're just noise.
Thankyou for continually adding support to my previous posts - much appreciated. However, I do request you actually read what I've written, rather than getting yourself in a blather over finding alternatives to breeding.
This is what GingerNinja said:
As an anecdote a female friend was telling me the other day that she knows literally tens of thirty something, middle class women who are either becoming resolved to or simply accpeting the fact that they will never have children.
And that's a bad thing?
It amazes me that the default option for nearly everyone I know is: get job, get married, have kids.
Why are you amazed that people should consider this a default option? Surely it is better than have kids, get job, get married, than have kids, get married, get job, or have kids, sit on fat ass collecting cash off of the state forever. So what is your point? Quite clearly, if a woman would like to have children, but has to accept that she could never do so due to the financial pressures of being forced to pay for others children then, Yes, it is a bad thing.
This is what GingerNinja said:
It seems that most people still struggle to escape their social and biological programming.
Here you seem to imply that people who take this approach are "programmed" to do so, does this make them sheep?, do they have no choice? Once again, have you any alternative suggestions that are "better" than the behaviour you seem to express such obvious disdain for? (Because that's the way your posts come across)
Come on, don't get hung up about actually tying yourself down to meaning something.
anonymous said:
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Ah, thats nothing soon I'll be in the situation of 5% deposit down and 6x multiple.
Lickily my other half is paying for half of it so that reduces it to a more manageable 3x multiplier, but we could not afford to have kids (besides the fact we'd have no where to put them in a one bed house)
Andy
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