[guzzis3]

Originally Posted by b0son

How are you going to save 20% of 600k? At the peak of the recent booms, prices were rising faster than people could save.

They would have to rise 5X the savings rate, but anyway..

(I edited that sentence. I don't know why but sometimes what appears when I post is different to what I intended to type. Could be my wireless keyboard, or something else)

I think you misunderstood the intent of my post. I hear young people complaining how easy the boomers had it and conversely older people complaining how easy young people have it today. I was trying to illustrate that overall, while the situation is different, it's not that much harder or easier.

Some friends have a daughter who must be 30 this year. She has an extensive property portfolio on sydney. I watched in amazement as she built it through her 20's. She works in jewelery, assessing stones I think. I don't really understand it, but I don't think it's ridiculously well paid. I know another young lady, daughter of other friends, who likewise built a portfolio in brisbane, worked in china for years, built herself quite a career. Smart girls who know how to work.

I agree, there are plenty of entitled twats in that age group. We had a salesperson who was living with her fiance with her parents to save for a home. Yet they were still doing trips to Bali and buying overpriced full breed dogs for thousands. Many are their own worst enemies. But I am annoyed at the idea that the stereotype is at all representative of the majority.

And there are plenty of boomers who have had a dream run. Full employment in the 60's, massive property increases in the 80's, but remember they also had conscription and Vietnam, the Hawke government stole all the money in the retirement fund, it was virtually impossible for a woman to get a job after she married until the early 70's, and don't even start on welfare. Not everyone is the same.

I'm genX. I left my parents home at 18 with a bag of clothes and the change in my pocket. I starved, I slept on the street. I spent my 20's getting up at 5 am then studying engineering till 7 and 9 pm every night after work. My life was not easy. Not complaining, just pointing out...

If you spend $600k+ for your first home how many people are going to have the spare cash to do any work on it? Nowadays, a lot of the work people did themselves would simply be illegal now, or you'd have no hope of getting it 'certified' so you could get an occupancy certificate (if needed).

You can do everything yourself apart from electrical and plumbing. Nothing else requires a licence. If the value of the renos is above a certain amount (I think it's $10k) you need an owner builder's licence. You renovate precisely because 2/3 of building costs are labour, and that's before you go shopping for bargains. I can do every job building a house, except maybe painting, I've always been rubbish with a brush. So you buy a house for land value, renovate and sell it on after 3 - 5 years for a tax free profit and climb the ladder. That's how people used to do it. Maybe half the new houses in the 60's and early 70's were self build. Even into the 80's it was still common as muck. Get a block of land, build the house yourself. That's how people did it.

Every generation has people that delude themselves. How many boomers think they've paid enough taxes and its the young folk's turn to support them? That too is a laughable assertion. You dont stop paying your way til you die.

The problem is there are about 3000000 voters in each generation so the government do what they must to appease each age group, and every other voting block in society and because people squeal when they put up taxes they take the easy option and kick it down the road by borrowing to fund pork barreling. The boomers will get their welfare and tax cuts, you will get your child minding and your children will be left with the debt and the interest payments.

I was complaining to anyone who would listen in the 80's as Hawke systematically dismantled our society. The most radical right wing government in our history came from the labor party, but no one since has moved to correct those atrocities. I hate so much of what Australia has become and some of the issues you raise are among them, but I'm old sick and powerless. You young people need to figure out how to fix it. Truth is no one cares. People just want to yell at each other on internet forums and wave their fists at the TV.