gee-this generational comparision is interesting,as i was born in 1955 i wish to contribute some perspective,on our supposedly blessed lives.
firstly,it is only in the last 10years that consumables have been extremely affordable compared to average wages,eg a reasonable quality business shirt in 1980 was around $35-00 a reasonable income $300-pw.
some additional insight to think about,my grandparents were born between 1883-1905,parents between 1928-1931,these generations founded australia endured wars and the great depression,their lives were founded on hard work,some of my great uncles whom i met in their old age drove bullock teams, the bank manager was a god in their working lives,housing and associated finance after the second world war was subjected to rigourous financial control which is one of the reasons we still have old suburbs of fibro,you should read a history of banking to further your education.
now shares ,property were never cheap,things are only ever cheap in hindsight,at the start of my working life in 1973, life was affordable on a weekly wage,no airconditioning,in 1979 my chosen partner and i bought our first property for 21500 our combined incomes were approx 21000pa,by 1981 in a landmark court case won by non other than bob hawke a champion of the working class our combined incomes had risen to 26500pa,we sold our unit which we now owned outright,purchased our home in a good suburb, we owned that outright in 3.5 years while partying hard,and generally enjoying life.by now it was 1983 i was 28yrs old
some say housing is unaffordable,however if you are young professionals on around 70000+ pa two people with 140000pa, with lower lifestyle expectations starting out,you can replicate the acheivements of my wife and i in our early life
the point of this contribution is to highlight the real driver of our early success, it was not so much hard work or visionary perceptions no, it was the explosion of available credit combined with a broadening or reduction in credit control within an ever expanding economy,driven by technology and population growth.
somethings dont change and i believe we are headed toward a world economy similar to the one experienced in the late 60-70s.
over the past 25years i have not had the lifestyle i enjoyed prior,and irrespective of ones financial position i dont know anyone in my baby boom group that could afford the lifestyle of free time and affordable entertainment that existed in our early lives.
we are no longer a nation filled with weekend bbq,s if i could have a wealthy lifestyle i would go back to the 70s and early 80s.
since the 1980s the growth in financial products has been astonishing ,the growth of available credit amazing,the expansion of financial engineering to extract more value from the distribution of currency and goods to the fifth decil place unprecedented.
the development of highway one the internet around our globe the removal of territorial financial boundarys, combined with a decline in regulatory oversight a first in the overall history of finance,have also brought exotic exploitive practice at every level within our financial markets,combined with extreme un regulated predatory practice in a world without boundarys.
now here we sit,in a world paying the price of credit driven expansion combined with a new regime of open access, the internet,without appropriate controls the next 25years could easily culminate in the visionary costner movie "waterworld".
so for those of you under 30,expect life to be tough just like it was once before,we have had "the daffodil boom" now comes the rebuilding after the destruction forget p/es of 50 and ever expanding credit,the clock is being turned back.
life will be hard,lower your expectations,accept a smaller home and develop a financial plan for life,not the moment.
life has never been easy,but the last 25years have been very easy compared to the previous 100.
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