Conversation in the late 20’s/early 30’s age bracket revolves a lot around ‘settling down’.
Some are, some aren’t. Some will. Some would rather squirt a searing hot bottle of breastmilk into their eye rather than sign a mortgage. (I like those ones.)
Either way, our preoccupation with the directionally confusing act of Growing Up and Settling Down is probably because it’s more difficult to master than ever before. Why?
We just can’t afford it.
In this weekend’s Saturday Paper, Clem Bastow wrote about the ‘Argument of broken dreams’.
An argument, in short, played out between the stalwart Baby Boomers and their selfish Gen Y offspring about their propensity to live The Great Australian Dream – that is, find a partner, buy a house, and settle down.
(Or was it buy a partner, find a house, and refuse to settle for anything less than perfect?)
Bastow struck a chord when she systematically unpacked exactly WHY this Great Australian Dream of homeownership is now the Great Australian Anxiety. In one part, she points out that Sydney and Melbourne are the 2nd and 4th least affordable housing markets, globally.
Globally.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Pops.
As Bastow laments the ‘death rattle’ of the home owners dream, she touched on a more pervasive and long term issue: if ‘settling down’ means buying a home, and buying a home is too expensive…how are we expected to settle?
Top Comments
And most people in their 20's and 30's will have more designer labels in their wardrobe than their parents will ever own, eat out at least once a week, often every other day, will travel overseas annually and have no idea about saving. And when its time to get married they will splurge multiple thousands on a diamond that would embarress their parents and spend more on their wedding dress, wedding and honeymoon than their parents paid for their first home. And of course then they will complain they cant afford to buy one themselves.
I never liked anecdotes or generalisations.
As a Millennial who is recently married, I buy clothes from garage sales and the Salvation Army, I purchase very inexpensive food out when I must at about $5/day at worst (as my wife doesn't really cook...), and I've never traveled overseas once in my life. In fact, I haven't even had a vacation within the US once in my life (yes I'm American).
Finally, my wedding ring was a $225 silver ring with a blue topaz stone and her wedding dress was a bridesmaid's dress. We spent less than $2000 on our wedding (including the reception), and after gifts, we made a considerable profit.
I also can never afford a house.
Just like in every generation, there's an enormous amount of variety within ours. Every single parental generation has lamented on the 'sorry state' of their offspring, just like your parents were convinced that your generation would become long-haired stoners living in a commune and bring America to an economic grinding halt. See how right they were!
My parents taught my sister and I from a young age the importance of being able to buy your own home (i.e. not have to wait until we're married/with a partner). They drilled the need for security into us (migrant background, we came here with literally nothing, so they wanted to make the most of our second chance in this amazing country). As soon as I started working at approx age 14, I saved 70% of every pay (in a high interest account), and was able to spend the remaining 30%. I kept doing this right until I turned 21, and at age 22 had enough for a deposit on a modest unit, albeit, 30 mins out of CBD in a bit of a 'rough' area. However, it was a foot in the door, and slowly over time, as I had more money, I self-renovated it (watching 'how to grout tile' videos on youtube!), and 6 years later was able to sell it for a great profit, and invest in buying a property that was closer to what I actually wanted to live in.
My point is, people need to be educated early on about savings, financial security etc, as well as being willing to SELF SACRIFICE - that means no, you can't live inner city straight away if you can't afford it, and maybe you need to get your hands dirty with renovations instead of hiring, as well as the obvious needing to go without expensive clothes, dinners out etc.
The principle of short term pain and sacrifice for long term gain really is dying in our society!
Exactly! I am 36, 4 kids, and gave two houses, one paid off. About 30mins away from city - Melbourne. How hard can it be? It's called hard work peeps.
Bit harsh to say 'how hard can it be.'
Agreed hard work will deliver results, but there are many other factors involved too.