The survey, the largest tracking survey on consumers and finance in the UK, threw up a number of idiosyncracies. For example, those people who did not go to university are financially happier than those who did.

“People with no formal qualifications are more satisfied with their financial situation on average than people with qualifications. For example, 31% of those with no qualifications are highly satisfied, compared with 23% of those with a graduate or postgraduate degree,” said the report.

It also tried to quantify the age-old question about whether having more money really makes you that much happier. The figures suggest it does – but not by much.

The survey found that 19% of households with an income of under £15,000 were “highly satisfied” with their financial circumstances. But this only rose to 25% for people with a household income of £50,000 or more.

Some interesting factoids in this survey…

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/oct/18/uk-adults-financially-vulnerable-fca-interest-rate-rise

But among 25- to 34-year-olds, 19% have no savings, and a further 30% have less than £1,000 saved. The survey found 36% had been overdrawn in the last 12 months, and 37% had taken out payday loans.

37% 😯

Some very scary stats in there.

For ‘supposedly’* the 5th richest country we have some truly scary inequality out there.

* pre-Brexit, post Brexit we’ll be something like 20th after a few years…

It also tried to quantify the age-old question about whether having more money really makes you that much happier. The figures suggest it does – but not by much.

The survey found that 19% of households with an income of under £15,000 were “highly satisfied” with their financial circumstances.

Not the same thing is it? You could be highly satisfied with your financial circumstances and still be deeply unhappy. Or vice versa. Same with the first bit.

Easy to blame Brexit payday loans, easy credit and the like but they wouldn’t exist without a market….not everyone is using them because they’re on the breadline, a huge clientele use them for the latest phones, some never ending PCP car deal or the ‘need’ for a new bike, tv, tablet etc etc…. People aren’t prepared to wait and save for 6 months, the fashion would’ve prolly passed by then anyway and they’d be laughed out for being out of date.
It’s easy to blame bankers, MPs etc but it’s weak willed individuals obsessed with ‘shiny’ who are as much to blame.

Doesn’t exactly paint a picture of a strong economy. Wouldn’t take much of a shock to cause serious pain to millions of people.

not everyone is using them because they’re on the breadline, a huge clientele use them for the latest phones, some never ending PCP car deal or the ‘need’ for a new bike, tv, tablet etc etc..

I’d go as far as to say that’s the most common use for them.

Doesn’t exactly paint a picture of a strong economy. Wouldn’t take much of a shock to cause serious pain to millions of people.

Not really news that, is it?

The average cash savings held by the over-65s is £45,000

I’m off to see my parents tonight, better ask them where they’re hiding it 🙂

But among 25- to 34-year-olds, 19% have no savings, and a further 30% have less than £1,000 saved. The survey found 36% had been overdrawn in the last 12 months, and 37% had taken out payday loans.

I see facts like this fairly regulary and help but think this is written by baby-boomers who just don’t get it.

To get our education we took out huge loans which we are now paying back, in addition to our greatly inflated mortgages – which are taken over 35 year terms just to mean we can actually payback the huge amounts we’ve had to borrow. What are we supposed to save?

The situation is so different from our parents/ grandparents generations.

EDIT: I thought i’d add that school led me to believe that a degree would get me an amazing job/ lifestyle and i’d have a new porsche at 30. Well i’m 33 and i’ve got a 15 YO BMW – i guess thats close. 🙄 The point being i’ve been given unrealistic expectations of what a degree will lead to.

Personally earn a lot more now than I did when I worked pre-uni. My financial situation allows me a lot of luxuries that I didn’t have before, however, does this constantly cause me to question what else I could have and what more I could have, probably.

My wife has just returned to work after a semi-career break for 3 years that would not have been possible had I not been on my post-uni salary.

Overall I’m doing ok considering, I could utilise more money, but I don’t necessarily need more.

I’m in the 24-34 year old bracket, I have a degree, I have less than £1000 savings and have been overdrawn a few times in the last 12 months.

However, I would consider myself to be reasonably financially secure. Student debt is a barely noticable monthly payment and thanks to my degree I have a salary that allows me to have an expensive bike etc.

I’m not saying that I am a representative of every graduate out there but these numbers make it look worse than it is!

I’m not sure what any of that has to do with going to uni.

Never went. Afrer all, when you’re working the money markets, what good are the novels of Wordsworth going to do you? 😉

Of course those who didn’t go to Uni are financially happier – they didn’t development the same sense of entitlement.

EDIT: I thought i’d add that school led me to believe that a degree would get me an amazing job/ lifestyle and i’d have a new porsche at 30. Well i’m 33 and i’ve got a 15 YO BMW – i guess thats close. The point being i’ve been given unrealistic expectations of what a degree will lead to.

Of course those who didn’t go to Uni are financially happier – they didn’t development the same sense of entitlement.

I agree with some of this, well apart from the ‘sense of entitlement’ line, that’s usually sneered out by some bitter old so and so.

There was a gigantic shift 10/15 years ago, when I left school it was about a 50/50 split between those who left at 16 and those who stayed on till 18 and another 50/50ish split with those who went onto Uni, 25% of my nice middle class school went to uni – not quite the brightest and best, but better than average – more recently though everyone has to stay on till 18% and it seems the majority of kids get to go to Uni – which is great, education is great and I wish I had the financial backing to go when I was 18, but…

the job market, is like any other market, it’s in a constant state of competition – there are now so many graduates entering the job market at 21 that they’re not longer ‘special’ – even way back when I was a lad people coming into the Bank I worked with at 18 as admin bods could easily find themselves earning more money 3 years later than their mates who joined as a Grad and once they were in, there’s no special promotions for Grads, the best you could hope for was one of those really old school managers who used to introduce people by their name and what they ‘read’ at which Uni – and they were dinosaurs 20 years ago.

We’ve been talking to our eldest about it, he’s only just started High School, if he wants to go to Uni, he not only has to get the grades, but he has to want to do a course which is relevant to work or ideally be a requirement for it or it’s not worth it and we won’t fund it.

there are now so many graduates entering the job market at 21 that they’re not longer ‘special’

Yup now masters seems to be the equivalent of a degree in the past. The problem was number of people getting a degree was increased (not just Blair’s fault since pattern was well established before he made it official) but then they got charged stupid amounts for it as well.
It was just about viable when I was at uni. My little sis, minus 5 years, didnt find it so.

Just reading the actual report, the Guardian summary is wrong (shock), the stat is actually:

– 9% (of 25-34 year olds) have at least one high cost (eg payday) loan or have taken one in the last year
– 37% of all adults with a payday loan are 25-34 year olds

Somewhat different to the doom and gloom above.

Of course those who didn’t go to Uni are financially happier – they didn’t development the same sense of entitlement.

One mans sense of entitlement is another broadened horizons…

Easy to blame Brexit payday loans, easy credit and the like but they wouldn’t exist without a market….not everyone is using them because they’re on the breadline, a huge clientele use them for the latest phones, some never ending PCP car deal or the ‘need’ for a new bike, tv, tablet etc etc…. People aren’t prepared to wait and save for 6 months, the fashion would’ve prolly passed by then anyway and they’d be laughed out for being out of date.
It’s easy to blame bankers, MPs etc but it’s weak willed individuals obsessed with ‘shiny’ who are as much to blame.

Genuinely curious – do you really think the moral fibre of the population has decreased? Or could availability of cheap money be driving demand?

I was buying a car at the weekend. It was fascinating as I sat there basically the desks all around me were people PCPing new Audis, and not cheap ones either. I was the odd man out not taking finance but I overheard one of them saying that basically as its a small amount monthly they pretend it’s just like a night out so can justify that way. That gave me some insight into how some minds work.

I’m 40 and have less than £1k in savings and a bog standard pension. I don’t own anything fancy other than a second hand bike and the missus has an old Vauxhall. We wouldn’t have that if her father wasn’t a retired mechanic. No money gets spent on trinkets etc. My biggest financial splurge recently was a new pair of shoes.

I think the majority of posters on here are pretty well off, which doesn’t really make them the best judges of how / why people might take out crazy loans.

Edit – that reads a bit harsh. What I mean is that most in here appear to be older and relatively financially stable. I don’t think the majority of young people are taking out loans at 99998.99% apr just to buy shiny shiny. I work with two twenty odd year olds. They work hard and one of them has just bought a house under the shared ownership scheme as it’s their only viable option.

I’ll put myself in the both category.
Went did 2 years and left with no degree.

deviant – Member
Easy to blame Brexit payday loans, easy credit and the like but they wouldn’t exist without a market.

or to misread.

footflaps – Member
Some very scary stats in there.

For ‘supposedly’* the 5th richest country we have some truly scary inequality out there.

* pre-Brexit, post Brexit we’ll be something like 20th after a few years…

I found the stats previously something like a 6000% rise in house prices since 1960, if I had been at uni now rather than in 97 it would have cost me 10-18k, as it was I left and started work at a time of incredible growth in many of the key resources.
People were promised so much and left with debt, fees, bills and ever decreasing incomes.

Brexit will hurt the economy, pound losses have pushed up inflation, any Tariff will do the same and make people effectively poorer, the people who are struggling will struggle more, those who are just above the line will find it harder and become strugglers.

Unsecured debt is a massive issue, defaults will cause huge problems.

Perhaps the unhappiness is due to the attacks on experts….

Of course those who didn’t go to Uni are financially happier – they didn’t development the same sense of entitlement.

Agree, although I would replace entitlement with expectation and the fact that going to university didn’t bring the expected benefits financially.

Entitlement is a funny word isn’t it…
Would somebody be considered entitled if they expected
A job for life
Final Salary Pension
Generous sick pay
Free education
cheap shares in utility companies (or even cheaper if you worked for one)
Tax breaks to become a property investor
unparalleled growth in property

^^i think naive would be the word I’d use

Or born in the 60’s?

Went to uni as did the missus (in different countries admittedly) and pretty content financially although definitely feel it’s time to finally get on the property ladder. No debts at all, although some of that’s because having moved countries a few times in the last 10 years it’s a lot harder to persuade people to lend me money!
I would say my degree definitely contributed to this though. It’s not been totally plain sailing but the money / opportunities always been there if you are willing to jump through the hoops (Africa and moving Oz). Would be a very different story if I had stuck around here I think.

I also have amazing friends I met through university who have abs still do bring a lot of happiness.

Entitlement is a funny word isn’t it…
Would somebody be considered entitled if they expected
A job for life
Final Salary Pension
Generous sick pay
Free education
cheap shares in utility companies (or even cheaper if you worked for one)
Tax breaks to become a property investor
unparalleled growth in property

This, it’s almost come to a point now where a think Brexit could be a good thing, because it’s so bad – I genuinely cannot see how this trend could be reversed without a cataclysmic event. When ‘we’ chose a ‘Great Recession’ instead of a Depression in 2009 it seemed a good idea at the time – but we effectively went from borrowing too much as individual to keep the bubble up, to borrowing too much as a country to allow it to carry on.

As it ever was, it wasn’t the ‘haves’ who paid the price – those who were sitting on hundreds of thousands of equity they didn’t earn, with triple locked state pensions their kids without one would have to pay for to go with the final salary pensions they got from work hardly felt a bump in the road – they were, as ever, protected from upon high at every cost, because even the thought of losing all they money they magically ‘earned’ by being born at the right time was unthinkable, so we slashed interest rates and threw up ‘green belts around where people would like to live and build huge grey concrete blocks where the factories used to be so the haves could buy them and rent them to the have nots, the only difference between them and the tower blocks of the 60s was they cost more for their tenants and offered little or no security.

This, it’s almost come to a point now where a think Brexit could be a good thing, because it’s so bad – I genuinely cannot see how this trend could be reversed without a cataclysmic event.

Brexit / a cataclysmic event won’t make things better, just much much worse! And they can get a hell of lot worse yet….

No one ever said “I wish we had another recession”!

As it ever was, it wasn’t the ‘haves’ who paid the price – those who were sitting on hundreds of thousands of equity they didn’t earn, with triple locked state pensions their kids without one would have to pay for to go with the final salary pensions they got from work hardly felt a bump in the road – they were, as ever, protected from upon high at every cost

Another way of looking at it is that Political Parties look after those who vote for them. Until the young wake up and start voting for their best interests, pensioners etc will do disproportionally well out of budgets etc. Not voting is basically saying ‘I don’t care’ which is noted and acted upon….

thomthumb – Member
I see facts like this fairly regulary and help but think this is written by baby-boomers who just don’t get it.

Quite, they don’t get it at all.
I was talking to somebody the other week who said “When I was young I just saved up until I could afford the deposit, no iphones, fancy holidays or cars on the never never”.

Okay mate, so now look at time required to save up for a deposit for a house, it’s gone from 3 years to 24 years(!).

So apparently all you have to do is go without a holiday or a phone for 24 years and you too could buy a 2 bedroom rabbit hutch with no garden and no parking 😆

I see the point I took my first job in there….

anyway entitled generations…

Another way of looking at it is that Political Parties look after those who vote for them. Until the young wake up and start voting for their best interests, pensioners etc will do disproportionally well out of budgets etc. Not voting is basically saying ‘I don’t care’ which is noted and acted upon….

I hear this a lot but the UK system is so useless and a false dichotomy placed in front of you people in general don’t want for who they want in power but against who they don’t. Plus the entrenched blind party alegence means people are stuck voting for one of 2. You may say people can vote for who they want but they feel the vote is a waste unless it’s for lab or con so don’t.

Entitlement is a funny word isn’t it…
Would somebody be considered entitled if they expected
A job for life
Final Salary Pension
Generous sick pay
Free education
cheap shares in utility companies (or even cheaper if you worked for one)
Tax breaks to become a property investor
unparalleled growth in property

Yup, we tick all those boxes, retired early, and bloomin’ brilliant it is too. That said we both worked hard and saved hard rather than feeling “entitled”. As did most of our generation.

And we both voted to remain too. Can’t help feeling annoyed with those of the younger generation who couldn’t drag themselves away from their Play Stations for a few minutes to bother voting in the referendum. Entitlement comes with responsibility!

You may say people can vote for who they want but they feel the vote is a waste unless it’s for lab or con so don’t.

Agree to some extent, but if everyone voted Lib Dem then one of their policies is to change to a PR rather than fist past the post voting system. That would be my own personal preference.

For ‘supposedly’* the 5th richest country

if you look at GDP per capita we are down in the 20s. Oh and where is that wealth?

I was lucky enough to be on the housing ladder in the 80s. I don’t understand how anyone is supposed to get their first house these days.

Yup, we tick all those boxes, retired early, and bloomin’ brilliant it is too. That said we both worked hard and saved hard rather than feeling “entitled”. As did most of our generation.

So you were lucky and didn’t realise it, see that graph above – tell us how you would have saved there?

So you were lucky and didn’t realise it, see that graph above – tell us how you would have saved there?

We put away a lot more than 5% of our incomes, that’s how. Bought a cheap, crappy little flat in a cheap, crappy area and gradually worked our way up. Did without a lot of things now taken as granted, and now we’re getting the benefits.

Same with pretty much all our friends of a similar age. That was just how you lived in those days. Pretty basic but don’t recall anyone moaning about it.

Nothing to do with luck.

Oh, and before anyone else says it in a Yorkshire accent……”house? well when I say house it were little more than shoebox in’t middle of road”.

We put away a lot more than 5% of our incomes, that’s how. Bought a cheap, crappy little flat in a cheap, crappy area and gradually worked our way up. Did without a lot of things now taken as granted, and now we’re getting the benefits.

Always good to do, considering most people have been taking a year on year pay cut in real times do you think that might not be achievable now? (that and housing is still going ahead of inflation)

No one ever said “I wish we had another recession”!

Only because everyone in the UK, until very recently at least, all drank the same “massively rising house prices is a good thing” coolaid.

We put away a lot more than 5% of our incomes, that’s how.

somehwat missing the point i feel.

It would take you 8 times longer today than it took you then.