By Ross Martin, Accountancy Director at Hive Business.
Do we live in better or worse times than our parents? You never used to hear that asked, but now you do. People in their 20s and 30s feel a bit ripped off. They didn’t win in quite the same spectacular fashion as their parents: didn’t get the free university degree, the insatiable job market and the £15,000 house that is now worth £800,000. It jars a bit.
Perhaps the parents of these ‘dispossessed’ under-40s – who are living in unparalleled luxury compared to 99.9% of people who have ever lived – will remain the high watermark of passive economic wellbeing in this country for a long time to come. The end of an era.
For a very long time it was understood that things got better with each generation. Unless you ruined your life by doing something silly or were unlucky, the idea was you could expect to earn more money than your parents and enjoy more comfort than them. You’d receive a better education and a longer life in a fairer society.
We can trace an unbroken upward line of gains in wellbeing for the past 100 years on measures like diet, housing, disposable income, social security, healthcare, transport and education.
Yet a recent poll by the Times found a third of middle class people wouldn’t be able to pay an unexpected £500 bill without borrowing. Some people would point to the looming diabetes crisis as evidence of a reversal in public health. I don’t know anyone who would deny that trains have got worse. And schools. Teachers are leaving in their droves aren’t they? Something seems to have gone wrong there. And what about the NHS?
At least the 80% tax rate has come down a bit since the Rolling Stones moved away to avoid it. And we now have cheap flights, smartphones and the internet. The internet, in fact, has democratised all sorts of things including business. The consumer seems to get more choice and have more clout thanks to the internet.
Another good thing is that the straitjacket of social respectability has gone out the window. If you have a baby out of wedlock these days you no longer are expected to either marry the father or give the baby away. And it’s OK not to do the God thing and to be gay. We can also work from home without losing status.
If the diabetes epidemic doesn’t put a stop to it soon, we can celebrate the fact that each generation is still living increasingly longer – three months longer for every year that passes. The caveat with that one, of course, is who pays for it? By the look of things, it’s not going to be much fun relying on the state for your pension, and you might want to think hard about the state of palliative care provision on the NHS in a decade or two. I know a lot of charities do great work, but the writing seems to be on the wall for relying on other people for your economic and physical wellbeing in this country.
That’s not to say you can’t enjoy far better health and wealth than your parents, you can. It’s just that now if you do nothing to look after yourself things are pretty much guaranteed to end badly for you. To avoid being part of that flattening line it’s probably a good idea to be savvy about your health and your finances. You have the freedom to take control of your lifestyle, or neglect things and work all your life.
It starts with a conversation about what you want. Get touch for a chat on 01872 300232 or email us at hello@hivebusiness.co.uk.
